The Student Cafeteria's Priority

The clattering stopped.

Zhou Yu's nose woke before his eyes. He sniffed hard twice, sprang up from the cargo crate, and brushed the dust off his clothes.

"We've arrived, ladies. Welcome to the area around Flamebearers' Academy."

He jumped down from the wagon and stretched.

"This morning's air quality: excellent."

Sigelica helped the still groggy Dania down after him. The moment her feet touched solid ground, she froze.

The streets were clean. Students in casual clothes and townspeople came and went along the bluestone sidewalks on either side.

In the distance, the academy's silhouette glowed softly in the morning light.

"Zhou Yu." Dania turned her head from side to side, her lovely eyes greedily taking in every splash of color. "The people here are all smiling."

"Because nothing's chasing them." Zhou Yu didn't look back. "This is what normal looks like. A place like the Lahai-Roi front line is what's abnormal."

"Rumble-"

A clear, long growl from a stomach interrupted the conversation.

Dania's face turned bright red. She covered her belly with both hands and hunched her shoulders.

Dania: (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)

"Hear that?" Zhou Yu glanced back and winked at her. "A symphony. Your body's making a perfectly reasonable request."

"Could you stop making such a big deal of her embarrassment every time?" Sigelica raised a hand to cover her face.

"I'm stating a fact. Facts aren't embarrassing."

"It's the way you say them that's embarrassing!"

Zhou Yu ignored her and followed the strongest aroma in the air into an alley.

At the entrance, white steam billowed from a steamed bun shop. A middle-aged man in an apron deftly lifted the lid of a steamer, sending the aroma of meat and the sweet scent of flour rushing at them, sweeping away the morning chill.

Dania's feet rooted to the ground. She swallowed.

Dania: (﹃)

"Boss, three steamers of pork and scallion buns, and three bowls of sweet soy milk. Extra sugar."

Zhou Yu's voice had already drifted over to the stall.

He glanced back at Sigelica.

"Put it on the tab of Sigelica, Radiant Daykeeper reserve of Flamebearers' Academy."

Sigelica: (＃`Д´)

"What gives you the right to put it on my tab?!"

"Your scholarship paid for the cake. This is a continuation of that honor."

"Honor, my ass! I lived on dirt for three months to save that money!"

"Besides." Zhou Yu jerked his chin toward Dania. "Look at her, then search your conscience. Can you really say no?"

Dania was gazing eagerly at Sigelica, her pupils filled with reflections of the steamers.

Sigelica opened her mouth, but all her bluster collapsed.

"...You've already ordered. You'd better remember this."

"Don't worry. I'll definitely pay you back in my next life."

"You!"

Three steamers of piping-hot buns and three bowls of soy milk were brought to the greasy little wooden table.

Zhou Yu pushed the fullest steamer in front of Dania and handed her a bowl of soy milk.

"Birthday girl gets priority. Careful, they're hot."

Dania stared at the plump white buns nestled together, steam rising from them. She picked one up between two fingers.

It was hot to the touch.

She blew on it, then took a hesitant little bite.

The thin, chewy wrapper split open, flooding her mouth with scalding meat juices.

"Ahh..."

Her eyes went wide, but she couldn't bear to spit it out. She held her mouth open and huffed for air, stamping her feet under the table.

"I told you to be careful!" Sigelica hurriedly held the soy milk up to her mouth.

Dania waved it away, refusing to spit out the mouthful of bun even as the heat reddened her eyes.

Zhou Yu took a sip of soy milk and pushed the vinegar dish toward her.

"Slow down. No one's going to steal it from you."

Dania nodded hurriedly and swallowed the first bite, then immediately took a second and a third, stuffing her cheeks full.

"Xixi," she mumbled.

"Hmm?"

"The can lied."

"What?"

"The can said buns tasted like this, but that's wrong." Dania swallowed hard, her cheeks still bulging, and earnestly corrected it. "They're a hundred times better."

Sigelica looked at the grease on the corners of her mouth, and the ordinary bun in her own hand suddenly tasted better too.

She took a bite without saying anything, the tips of her ears a little red.

They emptied a steamer of buns.

Dania licked her lips, picked up her bowl of soy milk, and gulped down half of it. Warm sweetness slid down her throat and into her stomach.

She put the bowl down and let out a long, satisfied breath.

"Zhou Yu."

"Hmm?"

"Are we having this again for breakfast tomorrow?"

Her voice was very low and cautious, as though she feared this meal would be taken back if she asked too much.

Zhou Yu finished the last bun and wiped his mouth with a napkin. In the breakfast column of the schedule in his head, he placed a firm check mark.

Zhou Yu: (￣▽￣)~*

"Tomorrow's plan is to infiltrate the Flamebearers' Academy student cafeteria."

He stood up and looked toward the academy's magnificent gates beyond the alley.

"Infiltrate?" Sigelica's chopsticks stopped. "I'm a student here. Can't we just walk in openly?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

Zhou Yu smiled at her.

"Besides, can your student card get two unregistered people with no identity records inside and pay for three meals?"

Sigelica opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"...No."

"So." Zhou Yu patted Dania, who had half shut down from eating, on the shoulder. "Let's go, Empress Dowager. We've met our breakfast KPI. Time for the next item on the agenda."

He paused.

"Let's go see which cafeteria at Flamebearers' Academy has the best sweet-and-sour ribs."

Dania nodded, still a little dazed, and her eyes lit up again.

Dania: (o´∀`o)

"Are sweet-and-sour ribs even better than buns?"

"You'll have to eat them to find out."

"Then I want some."

"That's why we need to sneak in first." Zhou Yu looked back at Sigelica. "Stop looking so glum. We'll need you as our inside contact when we scout the place later."

"Who said I'd be your inside contact?!"

Zhou Yu was already walking out of the alley.

Dania hurried after him in little steps, looking back to beckon to Sigelica.

Sigelica stared at the three empty steamers on the table and the bill charged to her name, then covered her face for the four hundredth time.

Her peaceful campus life at Flamebearers' Academy was probably gone for good, starting with this breakfast.