Come to think of it, this was already the second victory celebration.
They didn’t specifically choose an especially luxurious restaurant. As long as the atmosphere was good, the restaurant’s grade wasn’t that important.
So… but with the experience from last time, they didn’t pick an overly high-end place for this celebration either.
They ended up finding a small tavern.
The tavern’s environment wasn’t bad, but compared to the upscale restaurant from last time that made poor people feel uncomfortable, this simple tavern decorated with mahogany furnishings was much more acceptable for Clara and Lucia.
After all, it was a tavern selected by Qiexiya, and the prices here weren’t exactly cheap either. In her perception, the lowest-grade affordable tavern… was about like this.
The five of them entered a reserved private room.
Saying it was a private room, it was actually still a semi-open partition. Although there was a sliding door, the wall was only half-height, so they could hear the conversations and noise from the neighboring customers.
But this didn’t feel irritating. A crowd meant liveliness, and it was exactly this kind of atmosphere that felt more like a victory celebration.
“Everyone, drink freely tonight! I’m paying!”
“Senior Clara and the president still can’t drink, right?”
When Lucia asked this, Qiexiya immediately felt a bit displeased.
“Are you saying I look very young? Oh, Clara definitely can’t drink. Lucia, you asked this question last time too, didn’t you!? I’m much older than you, you small fry~!”
‘I can drink too!’
Clara retorted in her heart but didn’t dare to say it out loud.
“From, from an age perspective, Fran can’t drink either.”
Fran was seventeen, a minor doctor.
While Mossima and Lucia’s ages were fine, the former didn’t have a habit of drinking—alcohol had no effect on fungi anyway—and the latter’s tongue was only fit for rough beer; she couldn’t tell good from bad with any higher-end liquor.
Clara had further solidified her popularity through the variety show damaged by the Fourth Calamity. Last time was celebrating the successful debut at the Expo Center; this time was celebrating the great success of the variety show.
The five of them ordered a large pot of beef sukiyaki, specifically asking the shop to remove the large shiitake and enoki mushrooms and add some extra fresh beef.
The food and drinks arrived. Qiexiya stood up generously, raising her glass.
“Magical Girl Clara once again thwarted the schemes of the Fourth Calamity, our dream witch has also made a name for herself, and the variety show was a great success… Hmph, not bad for a small fry, hope there’s a next time~!”
Clara, however, waved her hand.
“Dealing with the Fourth Calamity is one thing, but there absolutely won’t be a next time for the variety show.”
Although the process wasn’t smooth and they were once on the verge of a total party wipe, the Fourth Calamity’s actions actually salvaged Clara’s declining reputation in the variety show.
The four members of the Sigma Series were all somewhat lacking in common sense. From a distance, it was fine, but in daily interactions, you could see varying degrees of being unhinged, especially the “youngest” Sista.
Coupled with Miss Dharma’s ratings-first philosophy, recording a variety show with them meant that no matter the activity, you might have to risk half your life for the sake of the show’s effect.
Simply put, the people at the Sigma Hero Corporation weren’t quite normal.
Lucia spoke up at this point. “Oh right, Miss Anya said she’d help me with my graduation project. I might need to stay overnight at her place recently…”
“Huh?! Isn’t that a bit inappropriate?”
Clara, who was shoveling meat into her bowl, abruptly looked up.
Even though the other party was also female, the thought of her sister staying out overnight made Clara wary. For example, the other party might take the opportunity to poach her or something…
“What’s inappropriate about it? Go ahead~”
Fran, however, nodded in agreement.
“Although we got their armored exoskeleton blueprints, I’m not a mechanical engineering major after all. There are some parts I still don’t understand just by looking at the drawings. It’s not bad for you to go learn from her. Consider it a technical exchange between friendly companies.”
While they were eating, the partition between the rooms suddenly went thud.
“Ugh—!”
Clara was startled and choked.
Then, a head with a middle-parted chicken hairstyle peeked over from next door, politely saying, “Sorry, sorry, we’re a bit crowded here, bumped into it when sitting down.”
Chicken Bro?!
She almost blurted it out.
Fortunately, Clara covered her mouth in time and ducked under the table pretending to pick something up. Thanks to her quick movements, Chicken Bro didn’t see her.
Chicken Bro had seen her face when she resigned. If she wasn’t transformed into Magical Girl Clara, she might be recognized.
Nyx also quickly scanned the situation in the neighboring room.
[There are five mutants next door… Seen them before at the Execution Department, probably out for a team-building event.
But mutants have larger builds, so they bumped the partition when sitting down… Looks like they just came back from playing basketball, still wearing their basketball jerseys.]
Looks like these guys were off-duty today?
“No problem, we don’t mind.” Fran waved her hand.
Seeing the chicken head retract, Clara crawled out from under the table and quickly slid the private room’s door shut.
“Senior Clara, what’s wrong?” Lucia was somewhat puzzled.
“Uh, just thought it was a bit noisy.”
Clara vaguely found a reason for her behavior.
Those guys were, after all, Naitemel mutants. They had no reaction to Mossima’s presence, clearly not recognizing this Prison Minister.
Her existence was really as inconspicuous as moss in a corner.
It was still lively outside, but their private room fell quiet. Fran swirled the ice ball in her wine glass, propping her cheek, smiling as she sighed. “Seems we should keep our voices down too.”
Lucia sat leaning against the wall, her ears perking up slightly, eavesdropping on the conversation next door. Qiexiya didn’t care, still holding her glass and clinking it with Clara’s.
“Whatever, the main point of a victory celebration is eating~ Come on, drink!”
“…They seem to be talking about my brother?”
“Huh?”
Hearing this, Clara also pressed her ear against the wall. Although everyone was speaking quite loudly, the soundproofing of the partition was decent, making it not easy to clearly hear the conversation next door.
“Without Senior Squill, our team can’t win easily.”
“Senior isn’t good at fighting, but he’s quite useful in basketball.”
Looks like they lost today.
Back when they were still at the Execution Department, they often called Squill to play ball.
Although Squill wasn’t tall and his basketball skills weren’t great, those freely extending tentacles were outrageously useful for grabbing rebounds, often making opponents grit their teeth and leading to heated debates over whether “tentacles count as hands.”
In short, he was a very useful tool.
So even if Squill refused, trying to go home and work on his comic manuscript, the juniors would drag him to the court to help, the price being just treating him to a meal afterward.
Squill was an easy man to deal with.
By the way, the other teams playing were also basketball teams from evil organizations.
Hearing her former juniors complaining about losing, Clara actually felt a bit happy.
‘See, those guys can’t manage without me!’
But then, Clara heard the conversation next door continue—
“Speaking of which, what has Senior Squill been doing since he resigned? Did any of you ask?”
“Don’t know. With his strength, it’s probably hard for him to get hired at other organizations, right? Thirty-five years old and still at the bottom of the barrel, too weak as a mutant.”
‘It’s over.’
Hey fungus do react to alchohol, especially yeast which make it.