Class Equals Mealtime

Sunlight shone on the blackboard, stretching the math teacher’s shadow long across it.

“Given the ellipse C: x²/4 + y²/3 = 1, the straight line…”

The cicadas outside the window were deafening.

The lecture inside the classroom was loud, yet it still couldn’t stop the students from growing sleepy.

Students in the front rows were barely holding on, their eyes already half-closed.

The resistance in the back rows was even more strenuous.

One by one, they hid their faces behind notebooks, propped their heads with their hands, and nodded like toy drinking birds.

Some even draped their uniform jackets over their heads, letting out soft snores, clearly having their “souls” wander off for a while.

The most blatant of all was Seriana.

She lay sprawled over a U-shaped pillow, completely unconcerned, her serene sleeping face openly displayed in the middle of class.

Her deskmate Kirishima Shiro had long since grown used to it, and even the math teacher turned a blind eye.

There was no other reason.

Seriana’s math grades were good, and the math teacher wasn’t going to make an issue of it.

As for everyone else.

The math teacher erased the old problem on the blackboard, casually flicked a piece of chalk, and accurately hit several students who were nodding off and also happened to have poor grades.

“啪嗒!”

The chalk made intimate contact with their foreheads, jolting them awake instantly.

Several rows of heads trembled at once, like startled birds.

“You, you, and you.

All of you get up and come to the podium to solve these problems.”

Faced with the math teacher’s “warm invitation,” the students’ expressions looked as though they had swallowed poison, as they trudged up to the podium with heavy steps.

At this, Kirishima Shiro noticed that Anna’s eyes opened a narrow slit.

“Had enough sleep?”

“In my dream, eating, interrupted.”

Dreaming about eating.

Shiro looked at Seriana in surprise.

“If you’re hungry, it’s almost mealtime anyway.

Let’s go to the cafeteria together.

Recently, the cafeteria introduced stir-fried bitter melon with carrots.

I think it tastes pretty good, it’s just strange that so few people eat it.”

“Shiro, rabbit…”

“Why do you say I look like a rabbit too.”

Shiro poked Seriana unhappily.

Flona had said the same thing about her last night.

Just then, Seriana glanced at the scale bracelet Shiro was wearing and asked, “Yesterday, sleep well?”

“Yesterday?

I slept quite comfortably, I even woke up early today.”

It was just Flona who was still lazing in bed.

Come to think of it, shouldn’t a nun get up in the morning to do prayers?

Shiro felt a little puzzled.

The view shifted back to the podium.

When people are extremely angry, they can do anything.

Except math problems.

The students at the board racked their brains over the terrifying math questions, yet still couldn’t write a single decent solution.

They walked back to their seats dejectedly.

Carrying the “double math homework today” penalty of defeat, along with their classmates’ schadenfreude.

But not long after they sat down.

The lecture resumed, and the students’ raised heads slowly drooped again.

Even the cicadas outside the window seemed infected by the drowsiness, their cries turning weak and listless.

“Anna-chan, Anna-chan?”

“zzz~”

“Seriously, she’s fallen asleep again.”

What Kirishima Shiro didn’t know was that when Seriana said she was eating in her dreams, she meant it in the literal sense.

At that moment, Seriana was using sleep to travel back and forth through her classmates’ dreams.

Selecting high-quality dreams to feed on.

Earlier, when the math teacher startled a large number of students awake, Seriana had opened her eyes to check what was happening.

Every night, a nightmare had to search for sleeping beings in order to feed on their dreams.

But not all sleeping beings produced dreams.

Some slept like still water.

Others slept soundly, but were merely resting.

Whether a nightmare could eat its fill depended entirely on luck.

For this reason, Seriana had chosen a different path, becoming a sleep specialist.

By helping insomniacs fall asleep, she could obtain dreams, even once serving as the Demon King’s sleep assistant.

Now, however, she had discovered an even better method.

In class, students seemed to be wrapped in an invisible lullaby, one after another falling into sleep.

The effect was far more immediate than any sleep spell she personally cast.

Although daytime dream output wasn’t as high as at night, the sheer concentration of students at school made up for it.

To her, the entire school was a natural dream cafeteria.

“Ding-ling-ling!”

The bell rang, signaling the end of class.

The students who had been slumped over instantly sprang up, as if obeying an instinct etched into their bodies, and streamed out of the classroom.

“Anna-chan, get up.

If we don’t go now, we won’t get any good food at the cafeteria!”

“Shiro, go ahead.

I ate too much, carb coma.”

After consuming too many dreams in one go, Seriana was stuffed and didn’t want to get up.

Shiro said helplessly, “I think you’re just sleep-drunk.

Fine, I’ll pack some food for you later.”

That lazy 모습 somehow reminded Shiro of Flona lazing in bed that morning.

She really wondered if Flona had eaten breakfast properly.

After Shiro left, Seriana comfortably basked in the sunlight.

A shadow suddenly fell over her without warning.

“You even know Shiro?”

“Desk mate, know, normal.”

Speaking in broken phrases, Seriana looked up and saw the culprit blocking her sunlight.

At some point, Flona was standing beside her.

That shadow firmly covered Seriana, cutting away most of the warm light.

Much of Seriana’s sleepiness vanished, and she asked curiously, “How did you get into the school, used divine magic?”

With Flona’s undocumented status, entering the school officially was nearly impossible.

If Flona had used flicker divine magic to get in, Seriana would be extremely happy.

Abusing divine magic meant Flona wasn’t far from falling.

At that point, as a nightmare, Seriana marrying a fallen saint would be perfectly reasonable, even in their original world.

Hehehe.

“What are you thinking about, smiling so stupidly.”

Flona rolled her eyes and tilted her chin toward the school gate, her tone casual.

“The guard saw me with Suzuki Megumi last time.

As soon as I showed up this time, he let me in directly.”

Seriana’s expression visibly drooped.

“Oh.”

“Let’s go.

We’re going to your place to check the scale recordings.”

“But I still have classes this afternoon!”

“You should be full already, just take the afternoon off.”

Kirishima Shiro might not notice it, but Flona could clearly see that Seriana treated class time as mealtime.

“Or do you want me to help you digest?”

Holy energy surged around Flona.

Seriana answered obediently, “We’re leaving now!

I’ll go ask for leave right away.”

Before her words even finished, she had already stuffed the pillow into her desk, grabbed her bag, and slung it over her shoulder, the entire sequence clean and efficient.

…

At the same time, just as Kirishima Shiro reached the cafeteria, she saw a small figure outside the window waving at her, and immediately abandoned the idea of buying food.

“Why is Uru here?”

With that question in mind, Shiro slipped into a temporarily deserted corner.

“Uku-ku.”

A round figure drifted in front of Shiro with a soft cry.

It was a chibi curly-haired goat, its body covered in fluffy, soft wool.

Its short arms and legs were tucked close like rice dumplings, even its curled horns looking round and cute.

This was the magical girl’s contract sprite.

Uru.