Chapter 375

*Stab—*

Nia’s fork stabbed deeply into the tender sirloin of the wild boar meat Roan had cooked appropriately.

Just from that, the dripping juice stimulated her nose strongly with a sweet and savory aroma.

The colorful fruit pulp placed on top of the meat pleased her eyes.

It was truly the only dish among those made by the freshmen that satisfied the joy of eating, seeing, and smelling!

Nia put the food into her mouth carefully with a tense expression.

‘Even if the smell and appearance are good, the taste is another matter.’

In that moment, as she wrapped the meat with her tongue, thinking strictly and solemnly,

“!!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!”

“Hey, hey, what is that?”

“Is that senior really not a holy beast?”

Nia wore an expression that complexly contained surprise, mystery, ecstasy, and wonder, enough to embarrass even the students.

Without even thinking of chewing the food, Nia spoke as if talking to herself.

“This is not food…”

Upon hearing those words, all the students turned to look at Roan as if they had made a promise.

“What.”

Roan retorted coldly.

If the food was delicious, it was delicious; why were they looking at him as if they suspected him?

“Darc, I didn’t know you would go that far.”

“To say it’s not food, he must have put poison in it.”

“They seemed close, but indeed, you shouldn’t get on Darc’s bad side.”

“What a terrifying guy… they say he acts just like he looks.”

…They were truly doubting him.

Roan took out Mosquito from his lucky bag while holding his staff in his right hand.

*Hum—!*

Mosquito, breathing the outside air after a long time, vibrated vigorously.

“Blood! Red blood! Greed and ruin!”

The False Divinity interpreted that it was gibbering something like this, showing it was indeed a demonic sword.

When Roan behaved just like he looked as expected (?), the students also quietly turned their heads as they usually did.

“Indeed, why would Darc use poison.”

“Right, he could just stab them with a sword if needed.”

“Ahem…”

‘Should I really stab them?’

Roan seriously contemplated it, but exercising truly great patience, he decided he had to hear Nia’s evaluation even if he were to be dragged away.

*Chew, chew—*

Meanwhile, Nia chewed the meat stuffed in her mouth diligently.

*Munch, munch—*

‘She really eats in a way that brings blessings.’

She chewed really hard.

*Munch, munch, munch, munch—*

She chewed far too hard…

Demona watched that sight and said,

“She could dig a well at this rate~”

“What does that mean, Demona?”

“Munch, munch.”

“?”

Hector still had an expression showing he did not understand, but Demona did not bother trying to convince him either.

In any case, seeing how she ate while forgetting to even speak, it seemed extremely delicious.

*Woof, woof—! Growl—!*

Usually, it was the spiritual beasts’ turn after Nia ate, so the other spiritual beasts also began to gather with expectant eyes.

But,

*Chomp, chomp—!*

*Woof…?*

Nia began to inhale the food as if swallowing the bowl whole now.

If that were all, it would be a relief.

“Growwwl──!!!!”

She went as far as baring her molars and making threatening noises at the young spiritual beasts that had come to get a bite of food!

*Whine—! Chirp, chirp—!*

The young spiritual beasts were greatly hurt, trembling as they returned to their respective owners.

It roughly felt like, ‘To think she would say such harsh words!’

Had they lived in the wild, they might not have minded, but since their owners had raised them like precious gold and jade, they were not used to such threats.

*Hiss—*

Unable to watch any longer, Alphard stepped forward.

“Nia. There is a statistical result—showing that eating all by oneself exerts a bad influence on the community.”

Nia made a threatening growl—she had no choice but to describe it as such—even to Alphard.

“Arooo! Roar!”

[Master, what language is that?]

‘Well, hearing it roughly, it seems like the language of the eastern tiger-beastmen.’

While answering Bell’s question, Roan looked with embarrassment at Nia, who could hardly be called a proper senior.

After introducing her as his club senior, she was eating up all the babies’ food!

“However, this place—is not nature.”

When Alphard understood the tiger-beastmen language and replied, the students were shocked.

“He understood that?”

“As expected of an AI? His translation ability is outstanding…”

Then, Demona said proudly,

“Roan can also understand all of that much~”

Roan glared at her and pointed out,

“I never said I understood it.”

“So, did you not understand?”

“…I did understand.”

Roan blamed his own knowledge and personality, which left him with no choice but to understand.

“As expected…!”

Sion looked at Roan, who was proficient in all kinds of foreign languages (?), with a gaze of respect.

In any case, hearing Alphard’s words, Nia finally snapped out of it.

“Ah, that’s right, isn’t it? It was just too delicious.”

Then, looking with regret at Roan’s plate which had only a little left, she evaluated the taste.

“To put it in perspective, it tastes like a feast discovered after starving for about a hundred days, no, about a hundred and fifty days…”

To summarize, it meant a delicacy that could not be yielded to anyone.

“Thank you, Senior.”

“I’m the one who should be thankful. This is not food, it’s art. As expected of a proper junior~”

Nia praised Roan again.

Now it was slowly time to wrap up the test.

“Well, since I didn’t expect much in the first place, I’ll count the dishes I tasted as passing. And perfect scores go to Roan, Jennifer, Sion, and Riel. Riel is borderline, but getting help from your spiritual beast is also a skill.”

An unprecedented situation where far more than half were disqualified.

The students were quite shocked, but they couldn’t complain.

First of all, they had tasted their own food themselves, and

the students whose plates were smashed at first had to practically treat Nia as their life saver.

*Rumble—*

most of all, because Nia herself was emitting a very fierce momentum as if telling them to speak up if they had complaints about the judgment.

Protesting to Nia on matters related to divine spiritual beasts was tantamount to suicide.

…Seeing that, as one might guess, Nia actually occasionally became a professor at Acherandir.

Apparently because there weren’t many places where nature was this active.

But at that moment,

*Flash—*

“Excuse me, Senior.”

Demona raised her hand and called Nia.

Nia replied as if telling her to speak if she dared.

“Yes, what.”

Demona was a bit intimidated by Nia’s murderous gaze, but asked as if she had no choice.

“You didn’t taste my food.”

As she spoke, she pointed with her hand to the place where her plate lay.

In that place,

“Glow—— Glow——”

…for some reason, there was a dish emitting a strange light.

Nia tilted her head and asked as if talking to herself,

“Ah, was this food too?”

“Y-You’re too much!”

Demona cried in an aggrieved voice.

Even though it looked like that on the outside, it was the first dish in her life that she had made with all her heart and soul.

Roan also saw such a sight for the first time and asked Demona,

“What on earth did you do to the food?”

“Huh? Ah, since it’s food to feed a spiritual beast, I added my holy power. Both Banjjak and the Black Knight love my holy power very much~”

“…”

So that was why it was in that state.

Strictly speaking, it seemed the principle of the mystic food she had eaten with Yusina and Sion last time had been applied,

but even so, turning out like that was a bit too much.

Nia glared at Demona’s glowing food with a highly displeased expression.

…Her instinct as a wild animal seemed to sound an alarm.

Then, Nia gestured to Demona.

“Yes?”

“Bring Banjjak and the Black Knight over.”

“??”

Demona tilted her head, but for now she approached carrying Banjjak and the Black Knight in both arms according to her instructions.

“Hmm… shall we feed it to Banjjak first?”

“Eeeh?! Senior, you aren’t trying to experiment on my spiritual beasts right now, are you?”

“I am, though.”

“…?”

Demona, who had not expected her to actually admit it, was left speechless.

“You aren’t saying you won’t feed them this after making this excuse for a dish, right?”

“Th-That…”

Demona was caught in a checkmate and couldn’t move either way.

The students were in a state of confusion as well.

“Is… Is Senior Nia only speaking correct words?”

“The problem is that it is the language of a divine spiritual beast…”

And Roan.

*Clap, clap, clap—*

“As expected of a great senior who lives in the vast spirit of nature.”

He was feeling deep admiration to the point of even clapping.

Indeed, one who loves divine spiritual beasts deeply, rather than Sacred Combat, is different in every way!

“Hehe, it’s nothing. But don’t worry too much. It doesn’t look dangerous.”

Nia scratched the back of her head, feeling embarrassed yet pleased by Roan’s praise.

“My dish is not a trap, though…”

In any case, Demona eventually placed Banjjak down in front of her plate.

“T-Try eating it.”

*Flutter—*

Banjjak ate the glowing food without much thought, following its owner’s words.

Then, an amazing thing happened.

*Flash—— Flash——*

????

Banjjak, which already sparkled like a beautiful jewel when receiving sunlight, now began to self-illuminate completely!

Though it sounded like it would be pretty,

‘This place isn’t some club…’

the sight of Banjjak scattering colorful lights like a club mirror ball actually only hurt the eyes and was not very pretty.

“Why, for some reason I want to dance?”

“I think it would look pretty at night.”

The students caught themselves as they were about to unconsciously sway their bodies to the rhythm of Banjjak’s flashing lights.

“Wow~ Banjjak! You’ve become prettier?”

Well, Demona seemed to like the changed appearance of Banjjak too, as she hugged it tightly and rejoiced.

“Black Knight, do you want to eat some too?”

*Thump!*

Then, she was kicked once by the Black Knight, clutching her stomach and collapsing.

“If-If you don’t want to eat, just say so…”

”’How can a spiritual beast speak.”’

[I can do it, though!]

And although it was unknown why, there were some spiritual beasts that approached to try eating Demona’s food, perhaps because the light was intriguing.

But they did not achieve their wish.

“Tungtung-ie, that’s dirty, dirty.”

“If you eat that, you’ll get sick!”

This was because their owners were startled and took them back in their arms.

…Seeing that even the ones who called themselves Demona’s followers did so, it seemed extremely dangerous.

After such a commotion passed,

*Hiss—*

“Today’s pop quiz—ends with this. I hope everyone learned the heart of loving divine spiritual beasts.”

“Of course, Professor!”

“We’ve come to love Sacred Combat even more!”

‘I said love divine spiritual beasts, not Sacred Combat…’

“Then I will conclude the class—by sharing the remaining food.”

Although it was a pop quiz with an evaluation, the conclusion was sharing food amicably among classmates.

It was indeed a heartwarming conclusion typical of Alphard’s class.

“Hey, I’m going to feed Darc’s food to my bird, so move!”

“Whose permission? Why don’t you feed it that excuse of a food you made?”

“What? How can you say such harsh words?!”

…Although the students did not seem to think so.

The crazed students flocked like clouds toward Roan’s pot.

*Rumble—*

However, the students had overlooked a fact.

They had overlooked the fact that in order to obtain Roan’s food, overcoming its owner came before eliminating other competitors.

No, it was questionable whether they could defeat Roan even if they attacked all at once with other competitors.

Roan stood blocking the front of the pot, holding his staff in one hand and Mosquito in the other.

“Ro-Roan, you’re going to talk it out nicely, right?”

“Sure.”

“I-I can’t believe it…”

“Then don’t believe it.”

“Hyaaaah!”