“What are you grinning about?”
I blinked, startled out of my reverie by the sound of a voice to my right. I turned to see Alice, who was watching me with an unpleasant look. I quickly brought up a hand to rub at the corner of my mouth as I protested, “Er, I was just…thinking about some stuff ahead…”
“Based on the slack-jawed smile I was seeing, you’re either a tremendous optimist or a tremendous idiot. At a time when our escape from this stone ledge is far from guaranteed.”
The respite of our perch had not dulled her tongue. I wasn’t familiar with the Alice from Rulid, who was the original basis for Alice the knight, but if her personality was like this after being restored, I could easily foresee a situation back in the real world, post-escape with Eugeo, where she’d clash with some of the more stubborn members of our group, like Sinon and Lisbeth.
On the other hand, there was still a veritable mountain of problems to solve before I even got close to that ultimate good ending. Our first order of business was to escape this terrace with its creepy minion statues, but not only was I still waiting for the spatial resources needed to generate more climbing hooks; my own mental and physical resources—such as my gurgling empty stomach—were also rapidly reaching their limit.
I nonchalantly rubbed my belly with a hand as I composed the most serious expression I could. “I think we’ll be able to resume climbing when the moon is up. It’s not too hard of a process as long as I can make those wedges. It doesn’t seem like there are more minions up above…The biggest problem, as I see it, is that I’m so hungry, even the thought of climbing this sheer wall another few dozen mels is making me dizzy…”
“…It’s that side of you that displays your lack of discipline. So you missed a meal or two. Are you really such a child that you cannot function at all without it?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m just a kid, blah-blah-blah. I happen to be smack in the middle of my growth period. And unlike you fancy Integrity Knights, I actually lose life if I don’t eat regularly.”
“Just so you’re aware, Integrity Knights feel hunger, and we lose life if we do not eat, too!” Alice snapped back.
At that moment, a cute, high-pitched squeak emitted from her midsection, and I couldn’t stop myself from chuckling. Instantly, her face went red and her hand snapped over to the hilt of her sword.
I scrambled backward about fifty cens and stammered, “W-wait, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! You’re right—you’re just as alive as anyone else. Of course you get hungry, too.”
I hunched myself smaller, and in the process noticed the sensation of something moving in my left pocket. When I touched it, I instantly recognized the texture and thanked my past preparation and stubborn greediness.
“Ooh! Manna from Heaven. Look what I’ve got here.”
I pulled out two steamed buns. I’d stuck them in my pocket before we left Cardinal’s library. Eugeo and I ate half of them earlier in the day, but I’d completely forgotten about the other two. They were a bit impacted by all the fierce combat earlier, but I wasn’t going to complain.
“…Why did you have those in your pocket?” Alice asked, looking utterly annoyed by this sudden revelation.
“Tap your pocket, and you get two buns,” I said cryptically, referencing a children’s song that I was certain Alice wouldn’t understand, then displayed the buns’ window to ensure they had enough life to guarantee safety. They looked shabby now, but Cardinal had crafted them from some very high-value tomes in her library, and their durability rating was astonishingly high as a result.
Still, a cold, hard steamed bun wasn’t going to be tasty the way it was. After a bit of thought, I spread my fingers and chanted, “System Call. Generate Thermal Element.”
There wasn’t enough magical power in the air for a full climbing hook, but there was for one little bit of heat. A flickering bit of light appeared over my palm. I moved it closer to the buns in my other hand and said, “Bur…”
But before I could finish the word burst, the knight’s hand shot over my mouth, as quick as lightning.
“—Mmph?!”
“Are you utterly stupid?! You’ll be charred to a crisp!” she snapped, eyes full of fury and annoyance and disdain. She snatched the food from my hand. I moaned in disappointment, right as the tiny heat element evaporated.
The knight didn’t even look at me as she zipped her hand and recited, in singsong fashion, “Generate Aerial Element…Thermal Element…Aqueous Element.”
Between her thumb, index, and middle fingers appeared lights of orange, blue, and green. To my befuddlement, Alice then continued the command and manipulated the three elements in complex ways. First the wind element formed a spherical vortex, inside of which she floated the two buns. Next she added the heat and water elements, and when all three were mixed, she unleashed them.
With a little fssh! the wind barrier soon turned pure white. It looked quaint and peaceful, but I knew that inside, it was a swirl of heat and steam. In other words, she had constructed an impromptu steaming device.
Thirty seconds later, the trio of elements had concluded its duty, and it expanded until disappearing. The buns fell into Alice’s outstretched hand, as puffed and round as if they were brand-new, and wafting steam.
“H-h-here, give it— Wha…Whaaaa—?!” I wailed as Alice made to devour both of the steamed buns before I could so much as reach out to them. She stopped just before they reached her mouth and said, in a tone that suggested dead seriousness, “I’m joking.” Then she handed me one, which I took with great relief and blew on before taking a hefty bite.