We went back to the ground floor and headed towards a small restroom for the teachers. There were three teachers currently resting there; one of them was resting belly-side down on a small bed in the corner of the room, and the others had fallen asleep on their chairs.
"Why are we here?" I whispered to Leo.
"To grab some snacks, they are usually the only ones allowed to bring in non-healthy snacks, so if you want something truly good, you have to take it from here." He whispered back as he walked on the tips of his toes towards a door on the other side of the room.
I slid my foot across the floor tiles to what appeared to be a small kitchen; Leo, in the meantime, had already opened their fridge and freezer and taken out a bunch of desserts.
"How did you know about this?" I asked him.
"Father is the one bringing food a lot of the time, especially because sometimes these teachers don't want to eat the super fancy stuff usually sold up here, and I get why." He commented as he took out a bunch of pizzas from the freezer.
He loaded the pizza with oil and spices before putting it in the oven, then he headed towards a machine to order something else.
"I mean, you too can probably understand; these people care a lot about their health to the point they're not willing to compromise easily, at least most of them do, or did at some point, but since that side hustle is booming, I guess there aren't as many as there were three years ago, or maybe some have really huge appetites." He continued as he typed something in the machine, only for the product to magically appear over it.
He had ordered some chocolate-glazed donuts, some creamy chocolate-filled cake, and some other small chocolate cookies for me.
"Here you go; since you can't taste much else, I got you something you can eat." He mumbled as he slid the plates of chocolate desserts on the table in front of him.
"Wait, do we eat here?" I was surprised by his boldness; certainly disturbing the teachers was not a good idea. If they discovered that we snuck into their small quarters to steal some of their food, that might've gotten us in trouble with the school's principal.
Ah… right.
After that display of strength, I doubt anyone, much less the principal, would've wanted to square up in front of my mother, but if… just if some of them told them what happened, then the one in trouble would've probably been me.
Do they have the guts to go tell her? Probably not.
"What about them? They don't mind; we pay them enough as is to let them suddenly tell us what we can and can't do. Don't worry about silly things, and just enjoy the moment. Oh, we can do this; maybe that way you can taste a focaccia!" He explained while still browsing through the weird cubic device installed next to the fridge.
He summoned a weird piece of bread along with a jar of chocolate spread.
"Oh, you don't have to…" I sheepishly uttered in return as I took the slice of cake with my bare hands.
"No, no, don't worry, I'm more than happy to test out a theory of mine." He answered without turning around; he was too focused.
Huh? What am I to you? Some sort of test subject?
After serving me yet another chocolate-based meal, he took out the pizza from the oven.
Ugh…
There was simply too much food on the table, enough to satiate a whole family, split for just the two of us, and I was starting to grow tired of the flavor of chocolate and all of its variations.
Mhhh, nothing beats the creamy consistency of a cake…
I thought to myself after a couple bites while I began eating in silence.
"What a fucking asshole that guy was. Do you have in mind a way to get revenge?" He asked with his mouth full of a mouthful of pizza. As toppings he had chosen my favorite: sausage, potatoes, and cheese.
"Revenge? Why would I want that? Haven't you seen just how far he flung me with one arm?" I protested.
"Yeah, I didn't expect a noble to have that kind of strength in him, but that doesn't mean he can get away with what he did scot-free; we must immediately inform the aunt, and we also need to think of a way to humiliate him. If we let things go, people will start thinking they can walk over us!" He replied with his mouth full. He then began gasping for air, either because the food hadn't cooled down or because of the spices he added.
I didn't care much about ramblings; even if others were to get weird ideas, it would probably be only limited to people with dark uniforms.
The first image I had was of us standing outside, during a rainy day, with a guy dressed in one of those dark uniforms, forcing me to lick clean the puddles forming on the floor.
As if I could ever allow for that to happen!
"Do you have any idea?" I asked him.
"The weapon you made! We could start with that, like bringing it at school and letting everyone try it, maybe even giving it away to everyone except for him." His plan sounded incredibly childish and petty, but I myself couldn't come up with something better, so I just kept nodding along to his ideas.
"Next up is harassing; if he finds our presence distasteful, we should probably stick to him. Next up is training ourselves; maybe tomorrow you skip on the pill to beat him using the transformation!" He then said out loud, almost shouting as he slammed his hand against the table.
In the meantime a teacher half asleep entered the room; he ignored the two of us, checked the empty oven, then took out a slice of the chocolate cake Leo left on the kitchen sink.
Wait, why is the cake in the sink? What's wrong with you?
We both stayed quiet; Leo stood still, as if he was frozen in time. I don't know what he was thinking, but if he had the same idea as me, he probably hoped that staying as still as a statue would've made the half-asleep teacher not notice him.
And that's exactly what happened; the teacher took a slice big enough to be half the size of the massive cake, took a large metal spoon, and headed back to his room. As soon as he closed the door, we let out sighs of relief.
"I don't think skipping the pill is going to be a great idea." I commented as I kept eating the cake.
It was so soft and spongy I barely even needed to chew on it; the chocolate cream melted along with the rest of the cake in my mouth, and that's when I noticed a weird taste in the chocolate.
Cherries? I think it has a bit of alcohol in it; I kind of remember this weird burn in the chocolate my father always hid from me.
"You've got to; how else are you going to make up for that difference in strength?" He answered almost immediately.
"Ugh!" I hated how right he was, but at the same time, I couldn't guarantee that the illusions wouldn't get out of hand.
"By the way, I think I know why your corruption got worse all of a sudden; it's because of that weapon. It's too powerful to be stored in just a pinky; you were probably supposed to die when you did that… that's what usually happens in those cases, but you didn't. Isn't it amazing?" He commented before stealing one of the chocolate cream-filled croissants from me.
"Why is it amazing? It's bothersome. I can't even use my ability to study anymore." I answered.
"You're not looking at the bright side; you can essentially store any kind of weapon wherever you want! Think about it, usually explorers have to limit themselves; whenever they absorb a weapon, they must give it just enough space so that it won't kill them!" He explained.
"You, on the other hand, can just ignore it because at worst, you might suffer some hallucination; once your body has finished adapting to it, you'll be back as new. Meaning you can absorb as many high-grade demons as you want!" he added.
"Yeah, the next problem is finding those high-grade demons." I said to refute his argument.
"Well, that is a nonissue; surely as we keep exploring the Fracture, more demons are inevitably going to appear." He dismissed my answer immediately.
His eyes were twinkling with that obsession of his, so I simply sighed and let him ramble on and on about all the possible things he could see me do.