Clara’s face twisted as she tried to maintain her smile.
Whether it was steak pasta, porridge, or sandwiches.
There was no doubt that eating any of these so-called “breakfasts” would result in death.
After all, to be strictly classified, these were respectively explosives, chemical products, and metalworks.
Are the Sigma Series brothers cooking with the intent to poison themselves? Are these things even edible? Did they taste it themselves before serving it?
[Obviously not. If they had, they wouldn’t have been able to serve it.]
“Sigh, only Sist… Pure White Storm is left.”
Clara pressed her forehead and shook her head. The activities arranged by Okita Daruma were just too suffocating, making her feel exhausted so early in the morning.
Wait, Miss Daruma is just the manager.
All of this must be the work of that producer S, right?!
Clara kept muttering under her breath.
“Are all variety show recordings this thrilling? Can I even survive this week?”
Okita Daruma comforted her softly.
“Miss Clara, don’t worry, eating it won’t be life-threatening. At most, it’s just food poisoning…”
“Oh, then would you eat it?” Clara asked.
“No.”
The manager answered quite crisply.
[Or perhaps, Sigma Hero just wants to send you to the infirmary and seize this variety show’s spotlight all for himself?]
Uh, could they really be that malicious?
[You never know. The competition among hero companies is extremely fierce. Frankly, every hero company wishes there were fewer competitors. Teaming up with us is just to ride your recent popularity. Once your buzz dies down, you’ll have no value to them.]
Clara couldn’t find any reason to refute Nyx’s hypothesis and only mumbled softly.
“Mm, no need to be so realistic…”
At that moment, Pure White Storm, who was last to finish cooking, brought her deep pot straight to the table.
Even with the lid on, you could feel the heat. The temperature at this site was already high, and Clara’s forehead started to sweat a little.
“May I ask what you made?”
Clara asked like a professional judge, and Sista answered:
“I made Lucia Red Soup.”
Shouldn’t it be Russian borscht instead?!
It sounded as if Lucia herself had been chopped up and tossed in the pot, though the real Lucia was spectating from the sidelines, so she clearly wasn’t in there.
Pure White Storm lifted the lid. Clara, being short, couldn’t see the contents inside, but a surprisingly pleasant sweet and sour aroma wafted out.
T
Unexpectedly, it actually smelled like real food?
“Hmm, did you use tomatoes?”
Pure White Storm nodded.
T
“That’s a necessary ingredient for red soup.”
1
Then she ladled a bowl out and placed it in front of Clara.
It was very red. Besides tomatoes, there was definitely ketchup added. The soup looked a bit murky, making it hard to see what was underneath. On the surface floated flecks of meat scum, a clear sign the meat hadn’t been properly treated before being tossed in.
Such rookie mistakes are understandable for a first-time cook—besides, she’s only a year old, so one must be tolerant…
Still, this pot of soup was much more normal than the Sigma brothers’ breakfasts, and Clara felt a bit relieved.
As expected, when it comes to cooking, girls are just more attentive~
“Did you taste it yourself?” Clara asked.
“I did.”
Sista nodded.
Since the cook had tasted it herself, the risk seemed low. Clara picked up the spoon, deciding to give it a try. This red soup did seem to meet the standard of “edible, won’t kill you.”
“Then I’ll try it.”
She scooped up a spoonful. In the spoon floated murky red matter—it could be tomato, congealed blood, or who knows what else.
Sista hadn’t controlled the heat well; the kitchen’s firepower was too strong, resulting in a less appealing soup color.
“What a waste of ingredients. They shouldn’t do this kind of activity.”
Muttering, Clara summoned lunar pioneering courage and brought the spoon to her mouth.
To her surprise, the result wasn’t bad, and she gave an objective evaluation.
“It’s edible, just a bit astringent and overly sweet.”
For Clara, it wasn’t unpalatable. There were far worse eateries in the Blue Court District.
The ingredients provided by the resort restaurant were top-tier, be it meat or seafood, each had its own flavor. Mixing these together in a big stew, whether it still counted as red soup or not, resulted in a rich layering of taste.
How did that saying go?
High-quality ingredients often require only the simplest cooking.
She even lowered her head and took two more sips.
“Mm?!”
But after drinking only the soup from the surface, Clara’s hand suddenly froze mid-spoon, as if someone had hit pause. Her expression stiffened.
“Miss Clara, what’s wrong?”
Okita Daruma immediately sensed the change in atmosphere. It was as if she’d received a huge shock; even her breath trembled violently.
i ……
Clara’s throat quivered. She pushed away the small bowl in front of her. Okita Daruma looked toward the bottom of the bowl to see what was revealed.
Beef, vegetables, fruit, and… squid tentacles.
All pretty normal ingredients, so why was Clara reacting so strongly?
She looked truly unwell.
“Sorry, I don’t feel well.”
Pure White Storm didn’t understand why Clara felt so sick or what mistake she had made, but seeing Clara’s face turn a Smurf-like shade of blue, an unfamiliar uncomfortable emotion stirred in Pure White Storm’s heart.
Because she was an artificial human, Pure White Storm’s emotions had always been thin. Even if she was hurt herself, she rarely felt sad. She hardly ever felt fear, much less any negative emotion that would affect combat…
But seeing Clara’s ashen face leaving her seat, she couldn’t help but take a step forward.
By then, Clara had already left the restaurant, heading downstairs.
This was an island-themed resort. It was perfectly normal for the kitchen to have squid among the ingredients.
She really should have thought of that sooner.
Seeing Clara’s obvious discomfort, Okita Daruma realized she really was unwell, so she asked the cameraman to film the Sigma quartet and then chased after Clara out of the restaurant.
“Clara, are you feeling very sick? Was it the steak?”
“No, it’s just… there was something in the soup I can’t eat.
… Just seeing it
makes me uncomfortable.”
Okita Daruma thought quickly, recalling what was in the bowl, then glanced at the tentacles in Clara’s hair and suddenly understood.
“I see, so you have the squid factor?”
A hero’s manager was a professional in the field, familiar with the quirks of modified mutants. Unable to eat foods related to one’s own factor—she also remembered Clara mentioning she was a natural-born mutant…
“…Mm.”
Clara had just nodded when a familiar voice sounded from behind.
“Eh? So Clara-senpai is also a squid mutant?!”
Turning her head, Clara saw Lucia following Pure White Storm, who had also come after her.
Clara’s expression instantly soured, afraid Lucia would notice anything else, so she put on her gas mask again.
The first activity was over. Until noon, it was free time with nothing scheduled. As long as you didn’t mind being filmed or live-streamed by the drones, you could do as you pleased.
“Lucia, Pure White Storm, why did you come?”
“Because what I made made you uncomfortable, Pure White Storm-sama felt bad and wanted to apologize to you in person…”
Even though Lucia now knew Pure White Storm’s real gender, she still addressed her as “Pure White Storm-sama.”
It wasn’t out of respect—there was a hint of teasing in it.
As a result, she unintentionally overheard Clara’s secret.
Clara-senpai and her brother really are alike, huh?
Its weird she can’t eat squid seeing that squid eat squid all the time.