Chapter 3

But Noah continued, oblivious or indifferent.

“Hoo… So you unconsciously incited the members. What did you say to them?”

“What could I have said? I didn’t say anything.”

“If you said nothing, they wouldn’t harass me daily.”

Noah’s logical response made Ariel rack her brain, but nothing came to mind.

Recently, all she’d said about Noah to the members was asking if they’d seen him or knew where he was.

Other than that, she’d talked about the time she proposed and he jumped out the window, but she’d explained it was a friend’s story, and no one said anything, so it couldn’t be that.

No matter how far she searched her memory, Ariel couldn’t think of anything, so she shook her head at Noah.

“Yes, I see. It was my mistake to expect an answer from you.”

“What? Hey!”

Noah turned away, as if he was done. Ariel, sensing she might not get another chance to meet him, grabbed his arm.

“What is it? Is there something else you want to say?”

“Of course!”

Ariel had only one thing to say to Noah.

“You promised to be friends with me. So why did you run away then?”

Noah frowned instead of answering. Even Noah couldn’t deny it—everyone in the office had heard.

“I’d rather ask you.”

“What?”

“What do you want to do by being friends with me?”

“Of course, I want to…”

Ariel almost blurted out ‘marry you,’ but stopped herself. She’d learned that suddenly talking about marriage was enough to make Noah jump out a third-story window.

She couldn’t repeat the same mistake.

“…Talk with you?”

The members had said to get close by talking, eating together, and going out. Following their advice step by step, talking was first.

Noah frowned.

“What do you think we’ve been doing all this time?”

“Oh, right.”

Ariel nodded, agreeing without thinking.

Now that she thought about it, she and Noah always talked when they met. Most of it was loud arguments, but it was still conversation. So, the first step—talking—was already done.

Now it was time for step two: eating something delicious together.

“Then let’s go eat something tasty.”

“…Why are you saying that now? How does your mind work?”

“What do you mean? We promised to be friends.”

“…So?”

“It’s the obvious next step! Let’s go. Work hours are over, so we’re free, right?”

“Why are you deciding my schedule…”

Noah began to complain, but Ariel didn’t hear him. Her mind was filled with thoughts of food, busy choosing the tastiest option.

What should she pick? Ariel liked meat. The juicy burst of well-cooked meat made her mouth water just thinking about it.

Would meat be a safe choice for the two of them? But there were many types and cuts of meat, plus endless ways to cook it, so picking a menu wasn’t easy.

Come to think of it, Ariel didn’t even know what food Noah liked.

Some knights would hum with joy when their favorite dish was served, or refuse to eat if they disliked the menu. Others just ate whatever was given. Noah was the latter.

If Ariel had ever paid attention to Noah at mealtime, she’d have useful information, but she’d never bothered. The meals at the Court Knight Order were high quality and tailored for physically active people, so she was always too busy enjoying her own food to notice anyone else.

Considering that, the order’s dining hall was a decent candidate. It wasn’t special since she ate there every day, but the food was definitely good. However, there was a problem: the hours. The regular meal time was over, so it was probably closed now.

“Are you listening?”

“…Huh?”

“If you’re going to just stand there after calling me, let go of my arm. I’m leaving.”

“Where are you going? Don’t go. I…”

As Noah pulled his arm, Ariel suddenly remembered something from the past. Someone trying to leave and someone holding them back. The held arm and the hand grasping it.

Ariel smiled brightly and shouted,

“That’s it!”

Taste was important, but so was the situation and atmosphere while eating. There was no more perfect food than this.

Ariel lifted one corner of her mouth in confidence.

“I’ll give you the tastiest thing I’ve ever eaten!”

⚔

Ariel brought Noah to her room, asking him to wait while she prepared. Noah just sighed and waved her in, signaling her to hurry.

Feeling anxious, Ariel warned him before closing the door.

“You remember we promised to be friends, right? Don’t run away! If you run again, I’ll pay you back double—no, triple!”

Then, inside her room, Ariel moved swiftly and precisely, packing what she needed into a bag as if preparing for battle. She finished all preparations in the time it took to catch her breath.

“All done! Let’s go!”

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Just trust me and follow.”

“……”

“Why that face? Don’t worry. I wouldn’t feed you anything weird.”

“If it’s you, I think you really could do that.”

“What?”

While arguing with Noah, Ariel arrived at the stables. The next thing they needed was a horse.

“Where are we going that we need to borrow horses?”

“It’s far. If we’re too late, it could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous… Am I being kidnapped?”

“Haha, what are you talking about? You’re funny!”

Ariel borrowed two decent horses from the stables and, half-forcing Noah to mount, rode off.

The place they arrived at was a nearby mountain, usually off-limits except for knights’ training.

“I came because you said we’d eat, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s right. We’re here to eat.”

“How does this look like a place to eat?”

“It has to be here.”

“Can you explain why it has to be here… Wait, what are you doing?”

Noah kept asking questions mixed with complaints, but Ariel just grabbed his arm and led him up the mountain.

Before long, they reached halfway up the mountain. Ariel didn’t stop there. She entered a spot with no markings, off the path, and after pushing through the bushes, went even deeper.

When a tiny clearing, the kind wild animals might use for resting, appeared, Ariel started unpacking. Water, a dagger, a dented pot, and a container full of miscellaneous food.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

Noah, seeing what Ariel had prepared, asked a question that was more like a statement.

“What are you thinking?”

Ariel answered his question with another question, starting to gather branches from around. Noah, deciding he’d had enough, spoke in an icy tone.

“Can I go back?”

“Go? Where! We haven’t even started!”

“Then what is this? Is bullying me the new trend in the Court Knight Order? Dragging me out here to feed me pig slop—what kind of new harassment is this?”

“Pig slop? That’s rude! This is our victory feast!”

“Our…?”

“Yeah, victory feast!”

To others, it might look like pig slop made from whatever leftovers were lying around, but this meal meant more than that.

The cooking itself was simple. Just throw in whatever food was available, season it, and boil it. Of course, back then, blood, sweat, and dirt were mixed in, but no matter how much she tried to recreate it, Ariel couldn’t put those things in food.

So, she brought Noah here to at least recreate the atmosphere.

“Here, take this.”

Ariel was so serious about cooking that Noah had ended up sitting across from her. Seeing him, Ariel handed over the food with a confident look.

Noah took the bowl with a dubious expression, sighed almost inaudibly, and took a spoonful. He immediately frowned, as if debating whether to spit it out or swallow.

“How is it?”

“It’s bad.”

Noah’s reaction was expected. Honestly, the food wasn’t good. To be precise, it was impossible to judge the taste. So many ingredients were thrown together that it tasted like nothing in particular.

It wasn’t inedible, but unless someone was starving, they wouldn’t want to eat it.

“But isn’t it tasty?”

“Have you lost your sense of taste, or your intelligence?”

Noah frowned at Ariel’s nonsensical question, then spoke in a thoughtful voice.

“But if you call this a victory feast… It certainly is memorable.”

Saying that, Noah took another spoonful. But the terrible taste was not erased by nostalgia, and his face twisted even more.

“When I grabbed your arm earlier, I suddenly remembered the Telte Mountain incident. Back then, you grabbed my arm and I told you to hold on.”

“You mean when someone, without warning, tried to charge into a deadly situation?”

“Don’t be sarcastic. I had no choice. Our comrades were dying—how could I just stand by and wait? The support you mentioned wasn’t guaranteed to arrive.”

“But how could you think to charge in alone in that situation? I thought your method of s*icide was truly creative.”

“S*icide! I didn’t die, you know? I’m still alive.”

Thanks to that, she was able to save her comrades. Everyone was injured, it took a long time to recover, and some had to retire from swordsmanship, but at least they all survived.

“Just because the result was good doesn’t mean reckless acts are justified.”

“You’re too harsh. Sure, it was a dangerous situation, but it wasn’t crazy.”

“So, if not crazy, are you saying you were just out of your mind?”

“What?”

Ariel bristled at Noah’s sarcasm, and as she moved, the bowl she was holding tipped, spilling its contents onto the ground.