Chapter 70: Checkpoints and Finish Lines

After Aleph's departure, Mobius immediately busied herself in a self-check "mental test". The memories of dozens of psychology tests inside her mind were put into use at this moment.

"Three… Two… Four…"

She easily recalled them to the point she didn't even need to write them. All she had to do was to answer them honestly. The four-point Likert scale would then be used to correlate these answers, thus obtaining the result she wanted to have.

"Three point twenty eight. It's very likely…"

Mobius frowned to herself.

'What's happening to me..?'

She didn't know when it started. She started losing her calm more often. It went beyond a simple annoyance. Tonight, when she received Vill-V's message, she felt… angry?

Its cause was soon pinpointed to a person.

'...It's him.'

Mobius' assistant-slash-partner.

'If someone takes him away…'

She reviewed her thoughts.

The first time was during his ambush. She nearly went crazy when she heard of the news. Not only did it happen within her vicinity, those bastards also planned to disrupt the specimen/co-worker she found after much difficulty.

That was the reason why she called Vill-V despite treating her as an annoyance every time. It was a matter of choosing the lesser evils.

What she didn't expect, however, was that Aleph would destroy them thoroughly before she could further give it further thoughts.

Even Vill-V's budget cut was influenced by her simply because…

'...No. This isn't it.'

The prideful doctor refused to accept a certain outcome.

*****

The sun soon rose up.

"Morning."

"Morning. You—"

Kevin's words were halted once he noticed a girl behind Aleph.

"H-hello."

Unlike last night, the girl was wearing a black jacket too large for her size. She was wearing its hood, though Kevin still recognized her.

What was surprising was her aura. He imagined the intruder last night to have a heaven-defying confidence—enough to get away from Mobius and Mei. However, it seems like she was an introvert..?

'Why did you leave this mess to me?!?!'

Inwardly, the Occult Vill-V complained.

'After all the things you did, you passed the baton to me?!'

Unfortunately, nobody heard her cries. In the first place, they communicated by leaving notes right before they went out. Since the culprit, Magician Vill-V, put the blame on her, she could do nothing.

Vill-V immediately returned to Aleph's reliable back.

"What will happen to her?" Kevin asked curiously.

"Mei already informed me of her decisions." Aleph replied. "She will be coming with the three of you."

"I see…"

No further questions were asked. Kevin trusted Mei's judgement, more so when Aleph didn't have anything to say. It could only mean that Vill-V was trustworthy enough to be their co-worker.

By the time the three arrived in the dining area of this exclusive dormitory, they were greeted by the smell of food.

"Since when did you learn to cook?!"

"That's none of your business."

"Aw… Miss Sakura…"

"The miso soup might spill."

That, and the noisy antics of a pink-haired lady. Unfortunately, both Mobius and Sakura evaded her swift hands. It has been well-known that Elysia likes to tease "beautiful girls". Coupled with her lively personality, nearly everyone played along with her.

That was how likable she was. Only a select few rejected her, such as Mobius.

"Oh~? I sense a cute girl..?"

"Eek!"

Vill-V swiftly hid behind Aleph's back akin to a frightened cat. Introverts have few rules, and keeping their domain (i.e., personal space) safe from external invaders (i.e., extroverts) is their utmost job!

Seeing this, Elysia couldn't help but flash a smile. Her gaze was then directed to Aleph's purple eyes.

"Cute girls always gather around you… and I have a guess as to why."

"Hm?"

Aleph replied with visible question marks all over his face.

Bam.

Their interaction was cut short when Klein placed the plates on the table one-by-one. Their breakfast had several varieties, but they are all commonly found in the Far East—omelet rice, salmon with miso soup, and so on.

"Choose what you'd like. If anyone wants seconds, it's on the rice cooker."

After a simple instruction, Mobius took off her apron.

'...Well.'

After five months of training, Mobius turned out to be a much better cook than Mei. The latter's end point was only the former's checkpoint. 

In the first place, Mei couldn't cook that well. When Aleph saw her homemade lunch for the first time, he wondered whether there was a person who could do such a bad thing to oneself. 

What he didn't expect was that he would soon fall victim to it when Mei brought him lunch for obvious reasons.

Her cooking skills were bad to the point she herself could not pinpoint what's wrong with it!

In the end, Aleph learned to bring an entire bottle of stomach medicine… as well as pills that would temporarily deprive his sense of taste and smell. He once thought he had to taste the dishes to see points of improvement, but that turned out to be his mistake. Later on, he habitually hides a pill or two inside his mouth right after the first bite to save his tongue from all the dangers.

Even so, those once-a-week lunch breaks made him feel chilled. Somehow, there are times when she cooked meals that are potent enough to bypass his loss of taste...

Surprisingly, Mei went from cooking unimaginable horrors into cooking below-average meals as time passed.

"Damn. This is good."

Kevin appreciated its taste before looking at Aleph with a pitiable look.

Back then, Aleph tanked Mei's cooking alone. Though, there were a few times when he tasted it for himself… which raised his respect for Aleph to the highest.

Unexpectedly, although Mobius started on the same level as Mei's current level, she didn't have the latter's cooking curse. That, and the prowess of a prodigy was enough to raise her culinary skills.

"Mn. Miss Sakura's cooking is good."

Sakura briefly froze before returning to normal. 

Aleph's compliment served to steer the direction of their conversation to rating their breakfast together. The only one who didn't participate in it was Vill-V, who then continued to evade their eyes whenever they had eye contact.

Once they were finished, Aleph acted quickly. He took over the work of washing the dishes. 

Seeing this sense of familiarity from him, Kevin was awoken. He looked around the dining area.

'This is… Mei's biggest crisis.'

As the captain of this ship, Kevin felt the urge to report back to Mei.

Unknowingly, Klein saw his dazed look and saw through a portion of his thoughts.

Looking at Aleph's back who was doing the dishes, as well as Mobius' occasional sneaky glances, Klein became more burdened by another workload.

'I need to work more…'

*****

A/N: This small arc should end within three chapters. Honestly, it was established to create more character interaction + their characterization. After this, we'll be delving into serious matters (i.e., the hints planted throughout the earlier chapters).