Chapter 98: A Market Trip Full of Schemes

“El! Let’s get this too! Come on, open the basket!”

It was Saturday, and my friends and I had come to the market to buy ingredients for Monday’s ecological study.

The streets were packed with city residents, and here and there, I could see other students around our age browsing the shops—most likely fellow Griffin Academy students.

Since this was an outdoor class taking place in the forest surrounding the city, we were required to bring our own lunches.

Of course, it wasn’t mandatory.

Some students might prefer to eat at a nearby restaurant in the city and return to the study area afterward.

But considering that this was basically a picnic disguised as a class, how many people would bother going back to the city just to eat?

Most students would likely bring pre-packed lunches.

And while some—like us—would go out of their way to make their own lunches, I doubted many would.

At most, I figured some of the girls, like the ones we had just passed, would bring homemade meals.

As for the boys?

Nine out of ten would probably just buy something premade from a shop.

---

As we walked through the market, passing by a butcher’s shop, Anne grabbed a huge chunk of meat and shoved it toward me.

Behind her, the worried butcher lady watched nervously, as if afraid Anne might run off with it.

“Anne, how many pieces of meat is that already? You can’t keep picking up more at every shop we pass.”

I was about to take the meat from her, but Celian, who had been watching, intercepted it first.

She shot Anne a sharp look.

At that moment, I quickly lowered my hand, pretending I hadn’t been about to accept it.

Luckily, Celian was too busy lecturing Anne to notice.

“Anne, your eating habits are way too unbalanced. You only ever eat meat or sweets—you really need to fix that.”

And so, Anne’s scolding session began.

Anne, unable to escape, glanced at me, her eyes pleading for help.

…That was definitely a silent SOS.

---

“Eating only meat isn’t healthy. You need to eat vegetables too—”

Sure, Anne’s picky eating habits were a bit extreme, and Celian was right that changing them would be good for her health.

But seeing Anne get scolded like that made me feel a little bad.

So, I decided to step in.

“…Just for today, can’t we let it slide?”

“…Well, people do need meat to stay strong. I suppose it’s fine this time. El, can you put it in the basket?”

Thankfully, my words reminded Celian of the special occasion, and she immediately stopped lecturing Anne.

She placed the meat in our shopping basket.

…It’s not like I intervened because I wanted to eat it.

I just felt bad for Anne.

At least… 60% of it was for her sake.

The rest?

A happy coincidence.

---

“Alright! Now that we’ve got enough meat, let’s buy some vegetables!”

Just as I thought the situation had settled, Yuri grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the produce stalls.

“Uh, Yuri? Don’t you think we have enough vegetables already?”

Dragged along, I carefully voiced my thoughts.

“Huh? But we’ve only bought one cabbage so far.”

Glancing at our bags, I saw one was full of meat, while the other contained only a single cabbage.

Still, isn’t that enough vegetables?

It’s just a side ingredient, after all.

This has nothing to do with me preferring meat, of course.

The ratio was three portions of meat to one portion of vegetables—a reasonable balance for a main dish and side dish.

But while I hesitated to say that out loud, Yuri had already dragged me over to the vegetable stall.

---

“Alright, let’s take this… and this… oh, let’s grab two of these!”

Yuri enthusiastically piled vegetables into the basket—some familiar, some completely unrecognizable.

Even Celian started picking out a few more that Yuri had missed.

Only Anne and I stood a step back, watching them in silence.

“…Hey, Anne? Want to sneak off and grab one more piece of meat?”

“I would, but… Linne is watching us.”

• Hehehe. Personally, I’d love to see you two make a move. I can’t ignore Yuri’s orders, but… I might be able to look away for about a minute. What do you think?

While Yuri and Celian were distracted, Linne had taken on the role of watchdog, keeping an eye on us.

With a sly grin, she tried to tempt us into making a move.

But knowing Linne’s personality, I wasn’t about to fall for it—

“Really?!”

“…?”

Anne, don’t fall for it! It’s a trap!

“Ha! No way! I wasn’t thinking about grabbing more meat! Not at all!”

Anne, who had nearly fallen for Linne’s temptation, quickly blurted out excuses, unable to even distinguish that it was me calling her name.

• Tch. You’re not taking the bait.

I had a feeling from the way Linne had been grinning mischievously while watching Anne get scolded earlier.

Honestly, her personality is the worst sometimes.

Seeing that we weren’t falling for her trap, Linne gave up on watching us and instead floated over behind Yuri, pretending to help her pick out vegetables.

But even if she had abandoned her role, we still couldn’t make a move.

If I disappeared with the shopping basket, Yuri and Celian would immediately notice.

And if Anne took a step toward the butcher’s stall, Yuri would hear it in an instant.

So, all we could do was stand there helplessly, watching as Yuri and Celian piled up armfuls of vegetables.

---

“Please wrap these up.”

Eventually, we reached checkout, and the vegetables completely filled the basket that had previously only contained a single cabbage.

Among the green produce, brightly colored bell peppers peeked through, flaunting their unwanted presence.

“El? You’re not picky about food like Anne, right? Hmm?”

I had been about to quietly put the bell peppers back, but Yuri’s voice stopped me mid-motion.

“Right, El? You eat everything, don’t you?”

Celian, too, was smiling sweetly while watching me.

Meanwhile, Anne—who had been standing right beside me just moments ago—had suddenly stepped away, pretending she wasn’t involved.

“A-Ahaha! No, no! The bell peppers just seemed poorly placed, like they were about to burst out of the basket! I was just rearranging them!”

“Hmm…? Really?”

Yuri narrowed her eyes suspiciously, tilting her head with a playful hum.

Her expression was just as sharp as Erin and Stella, the investigators who had questioned me about the Saintess’s attack.

“O-Of course! I love bell peppers! A-Absolutely love them!”

“Haha. If you love them so much, should we buy a few more?”

Celian’s unexpected suggestion sent me into a silent panic.

I quickly turned to Anne, blinking rapidly in desperate SOS signals.

But Anne…

…looked away.

She ignored me!

Anne! How could you betray me like this?!

This betrayal will be recorded in my diary tonight, no matter what!

Don’t underestimate an assassin’s grudge!

---

Despite my silent protests, the vegetable shopping continued.

By the time we finally finished wandering the market, the golden sunset had darkened into night.

Of course, we had more than enough ingredients, but strolling through the market with my friends was fun in itself.

Plus, we had snacked on various street foods along the way, making the time fly by.

“Alright! Let’s head back.”

By the time we returned to the dorm, each of us carried a basket full of food:

• I held the heavy basket of meat.
• Yuri had the overflowing basket of vegetables.
• Anne carried a basket of fruits, bought as dessert rather than an ingredient.
• Celian held a boxed cake, something we planned to share later.
• Even Linne, who usually just floated around, carried a bag of bread from a bakery.

All of us had something in our hands, and more than that…

We had new memories to carry back as well.

…Of course, none of us could have predicted the disaster that awaited us while preparing our lunch the next day.