Chapter 15: Chapter 15 What Do You Like to Eat?_1
Ti flew by, and the four morning classes had co to an end.
Following the crisp ring of the bell, the students welcod their lunch break.
So students took out their homade bento boxes and headed to their sacred lunch spots with friends, while others stayed in the classroom to eat.
Aozawa didn’t bring a bento.
Morimoto Chiyoda had a tight schedule in the morning and had simply given him money to take care of his lunch at the cafeteria or snack bar.
Hojo Tetsuji was different, pulling out his own bento box wrapped in a blue cloth from his desk.
"Can your mom make bento?"
Aozawa was sowhat surprised. In his imagination, Hojo Tetsuji’s mom was likely a burly and fierce woman, not soone who would cook.
"This isn’t made by my mom; my little sister prepared it for breakfast this morning."
"Your little sister?"
Aozawa asked with a look of shock, "Don’t tell
your sister is the kind of dreamy, soft girl who calls you ’Onni-chan’?"
Hojo Tetsuji shook his head. "How could she call
that? Shouko usually just calls
’Brother.’ Is there anything strange about that?"
"Your sister wouldn’t happen to be unrelated to you by blood, would she?"
"She’s my biological sister."
"That’s risky."
"You’re the one being risky," Hojo Tetsuji retorted.
Phoenix Academy Maggie interjected from nearby, none too pleased, "Are we still going to the cafeteria to eat or not?"
"Of course we are," Aozawa replied, and walked out of the classroom.
The cafeteria at Brilliant High School was on the ground floor of the academic building. It was designed like a Western-style restaurant. Large windows facing the courtyard allowed the dining students to enjoy the view.
The cafeteria’s nu had nothing to do with Western food, mostly serving Japanese cuisine with a slight mix of Japanized Chinese dishes.
The students liked it a lot.
Aozawa didn’t like it. He preferred ran to Japanized Chinese cuisine, which he always found strangely textured and far from authentic.
He ordered eel ran and sat down near the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Phoenix Academy Maggie’s lunch was a large plate of sushi.
Within the school’s cafeteria, this plate of sushi was the most expensive.
However, for a young lady of her standing, such a al seed quite ager. Aozawa couldn’t help but feel puzzled. "Why did you choose to attend Brilliant High School?" he asked.
Phoenix Academy Maggie thought for a mont and replied truthfully, "It’s more relaxing here. I can make friends if I want to, and if not, I don’t have to. At a noble school befitting my status, I’d have to pretend to be on good terms with others because of various family connections, even if I didn’t want to associate with them. I’m still a high school student, after all. I should be fully enjoying the campus life that a girl my age deserves, not getting caught up in the adults’ sches and intrigues."
"Even a young miss has her own troubles," Aozawa remarked, bowing his head to slurp up so ran.
Phoenix Academy Maggie picked up a piece of salmon sushi, casually remarking, "Do you really like eating ran that much?"
"It’s alright. When I don’t know what to eat, I often go for ran," he replied.
"Huh, are you the type that can eat anything?"
"Of course not. If it tastes too bad, I can’t eat it, like the cafeteria’s Japanized Chinese dishes. They’re just terrible."
Aozawa vented his frustration. Ever since he had tried the so-called "Chinese dishes" in his first year, he had never wanted to eat the cafeteria’s Japanized versions of Chinese cuisine again.
"You prefer authentic Chinese cuisine, huh? Got any signature dishes to recomnd?"
Phoenix Academy Maggie swallowed her salmon sushi and continued to casually chat, although she was actually probing Aozawa’s preferences. She wanted to make him a homade, love-filled bento box to repay the kindness he had shown in the warehouse. This was the way of repaynt she had co up with after much thought. Using money would be far too vulgar.
Aozawa reflected for a mont and replied, "If we’re talking about the most delicious dish I’ve ever had, it has to be braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens—oily but not greasy, truly a delicacy of the human world."
"That really sounds tempting."
Phoenix Academy Maggie secretly noted that Aozawa liked braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens. Today, she would go back and ask the family chef to teach her this dish so she could repay Aozawa.
「...」
The bright sunshine spread across the campus, and it was ti for school to let out again.
At this ti, Phoenix Academy Maggie felt like a ghost, unnoticed by anyone, aimless, drifting freely around the campus. The vigorous youth on the sports field had nothing to do with her. The literary teas and tea ceremonies in the club building were also of no concern to her.
Phoenix Academy Maggie walked casually along the corridor. She found herself unwittingly standing in front of the Sword Dao club’s door. Loud shouts drifted out from its slightly ajar sliding door.
"N! N! N!"
The roaring shouts ca from Hojo Tetsuji. Phoenix Academy Maggie, bored and with nothing better to do, gently pushed the sliding door open a bit more and peered inside.
On the floor, Hojo Tetsuji, dressed in his Sword Dao practice armor, brandished his bamboo sword from high above, bringing it down with force.
His loud shouts erupted. With each clash of the bamboo swords, the impact made her wonder if he truly intended to kill soone.
Pressed by such a ferocious attack, his opponent still did not lose composure.
Phoenix Academy Maggie was sowhat surprised.
"N!" As Hojo Tetsuji once again raised his bamboo sword to attack, his opponent seized the opportunity, switching from defense to attack. The bamboo sword slashed forward like a streak of lightning. "DO!"
The full-throated shout ca from within the mask, resonant as a tiger’s roar in the mountains.
Phoenix Academy Maggie jumped, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest. Patting her chest lightly, she recognized Aozawa’s voice. No wonder he can withstand Hojo’s fierce onslaught, she thought.
"Hojo, I’ve told you, Sword Dao is not just about strength. Your movents and aura need to be graceful to score points. Sword Dao is not a street brawl."
"I KNOW!" Hojo Tetsuji’s response was always just as loud.
Aozawa wasn’t sure if Hojo had truly taken the advice to heart. "Then let’s continue!" he shouted.
Phoenix Academy Maggie closed the door and turned away. Why am I acting like a voyeur? she mocked herself internally.
「...」
Wandering aimlessly, lost in thought, until around five o’clock.
Phoenix Academy Maggie set off on the journey ho. She didn’t have the butler pick her up by car but instead chose the more common thod of taking the train.
At this ti of day, she didn’t have to worry about the train being crowded.
A little later, during rush hour, the train would beco incredibly frightening, with so many people cramd inside like sardines in a tin.
Stepping out of Setagaya station, she got into the Bentley waiting to pick her up and returned to the Phoenix Academy mansion.
"Welco back, Miss."
The maids stood lined up in the entryway, bowing in unison to her.
"Hmm," Phoenix Academy Maggie nodded in response, then added, "Miwa, have the chef skilled in Chinese cuisine co here."
"Yes."
Butler Miwa nodded and signaled a maid with his eyes to go to the kitchen to call soone.
Phoenix Academy Maggie pondered how to phrase her request. How could she learn to make braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens without raising her mother’s suspicion? She knew all too well that every move she made would be reported to her mother. That woman’s desire for control was very strong. Her only option was to use a ho economics lesson as an excuse to bluff her way through.
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