After bringing the person over to Arisu Sakayanagi, Hikaru Naruse turned slightly to the side and gave Arisu Sakayanagi a nod.
“Sakayanagi-san, mission accomplished.
I’ll leave the rest to you.”
Arisu Sakayanagi nodded, a faint smile surfacing at the corner of her lips as she looked toward that upperclassman boy.
“Senpai, thank you for taking the time to come over.
Please, have a seat.”
Hikaru Naruse could already roughly guess what was about to happen next, so he turned around and headed straight toward the meal counter on the other side of the cafeteria.
But before he’d taken more than a few steps, a familiar voice called out from behind him.
“Naruse-kun.”
The voice was awfully familiar.
Naruse slowly turned his head, and sure enough, he saw that pretty face wearing its usual blank expression.
Ai Morishita was standing about two meters behind him, both hands tucked into the pockets of her uniform.
Those pale purple eyes had been trailing after his figure ever since he’d left the table.
“What are you planning to do?”
Hikaru Naruse looked at her, a subtle sense of helplessness rising in his chest.
Just how much free time does this girl have?
Why is she always staring at me?
“I’m going to eat lunch.
Sakayanagi-san doesn’t need me watching over her the whole time, does she?”
As he spoke, he tilted his chin slightly toward the direction behind him where Sakayanagi was.
“It’s lunchtime right now anyway.
Look, everyone else is the same.”
Ai Morishita followed his gaze and glanced back.
Indeed, of the seven or eight Class A students who had come over with Sakayanagi, more than half had already left the table, scattering off in twos and threes toward every corner of the cafeteria.
Only two girls remained by Sakayanagi’s side.
They’d bought some bread and rice balls and sat on the edge of the table, presumably intending to listen in on the conversation between Sakayanagi and that upperclassman senpai.
This kind of division of labor had probably been discussed among them long ago.
Naruse had no interest in Sakayanagi’s strategy—it was nothing more than the art of haggling—and he had no intention of joining the crowd.
It was mealtime now, so naturally the first order of business was to eat.
Ai Morishita seemed to accept this reasoning as well.
The girl withdrew her gaze and gave Naruse a slight nod.
“That’s true.”
Her feet began to move, following unhurriedly behind Hikaru Naruse.
“I’m a little hungry too.”
The two of them arrived at the meal counter one after the other.
The school cafeteria’s lunches were divided into several tiers.
The cheapest was, of course, the free mountain-vegetable set—all you had to do was scan your phone at the counter, and it wouldn’t deduct any of your Private Points.
Then there were the ordinary lunch sets, available in all sorts of varieties, priced anywhere from 500 to 1,500 points.
Above that were some even more lavish deluxe sets, though the prices climbed higher too.
Hikaru Naruse stood at the counter, his eyes quickly sweeping across the menu, before his attention was drawn to the line of text at the very bottom.
Mountain-vegetable set—free of charge.
To be honest, Naruse had always been curious about how this free set tasted.
In the original work, Koudo Ikusei’s free meals were described as downright miserable—basically bad enough to make you question the meaning of life.
But he’d never actually tasted it himself, so he remained a little curious.
“One mountain-vegetable set, please.”
The cafeteria lady serving the food was a middle-aged woman in her forties.
She glanced at Hikaru Naruse, said nothing, and simply turned and silently took a set from the serving counter, placing it on a tray.
Hikaru Naruse took the tray and lowered his head to look at the food on it—a bowl of white rice, a small plate of stir-fried vegetables, and a bowl of miso soup.
The portions were actually pretty generous, but the presentation really left something to be desired.
The white rice looked dry and lifeless, the color of the stir-fried vegetables was rather bland, and as for the miso soup, it didn’t look at all appetizing either.
Hikaru Naruse picked up his chopsticks, took a mouthful of rice, and brought it to his mouth.
“…”
The instant the food entered his mouth, his brows knitted together on reflex.
Awful.
He wasn’t the type to be especially picky about food, but the awfulness of this mountain-vegetable set had already exceeded the bounds of “ordinary”—so much so that it actually made you wonder why it tasted like this.
Could this be…
deliberate on the school’s part?
They intentionally made the free mountain-vegetable set so unbearable to swallow, precisely to establish a stark contrast for all the students: those with points could enjoy delicious meals every day, while those without points were only worthy of eating this outrageously awful mountain-vegetable set.
What is this, Blue Lock?
Hikaru Naruse was pondering whether to keep eating when he noticed the chair across from him being pulled out.
Ai Morishita sat down across from him carrying a tray.
On the girl’s tray was what looked like a rather sumptuous lunch: a plate of golden-hued curry rice, a serving of crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside fried chicken cutlet, and a glass of chilled orange juice.
The presentation was nice—it was the basic chicken cutlet set, 650 points a serving.
After settling into her seat, Ai Morishita glanced at Hikaru Naruse, then looked at the miserable-looking mountain-vegetable set in front of him.
Then, she simply picked up two pieces of chicken cutlet from her own set and placed them into Hikaru Naruse’s bowl.
“?”
Naruse froze for a moment, seemingly a bit surprised by her actions.
“Morishita-san, I didn’t expect you to be so considerate.”
Ai Morishita chewed a couple bites of curry rice, and only after swallowing did she respond unhurriedly.
“Because I just overheard what you said, Naruse-kun.”
“What did I say?”
“When you agreed to help Sakayanagi-san go call over that upperclassman senpai, you said that Sakayanagi-san now owed you a favor, didn’t you?”
“Mm, I did say that.”
Hikaru Naruse nodded, admitting it openly.
Ai Morishita set down the chopsticks in her hand, those pale purple eyes staring straight at Hikaru Naruse.
“I want you to owe me a favor too, Naruse-kun.
After all, a favor from you should be quite valuable, right?”
“What makes you come to that conclusion?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Ai Morishita raised an eyebrow, her tone thoroughly self-assured.
“…”
Hikaru Naruse lowered his head and silently glanced at the two pieces of chicken cutlet in his bowl.
“Interesting.
In that case, I won’t hold back.”
He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed one of the chicken cutlets, and stuffed it into his mouth.
Mm, it tasted good.
Hikaru Naruse finished chewing the chicken cutlet and swallowed, then raised his head, his gaze landing on Ai Morishita’s face across from him.
“Now I owe you a favor too, Morishita-san.
You’d better make me repay it soon, or else the offer expires.”
“Mm, understood.”
Ai Morishita’s tone suddenly grew much softer, as if this matter really was important to her.
Hikaru Naruse immediately activated Emotion Perception again to probe Ai Morishita’s mental state.
Mm…
there was a gentle sort of feeling.
Relaxed…
expectant…
and a little bit happy.
No way—she was actually happy?
Hikaru Naruse found this utterly baffling.
This girl’s emotions really were impossible to read.
“Morishita-san.”
“What is it?”
“You don’t have any friends, do you?”