“Alright, it’s almost time.” I glanced up at the old wall-mounted clock on the side of the dorm building. It was 6:15 a.m., right on schedule.
“So it’s time for the morning run,” Koharu murmured quietly beside me.
“Yeah. If we don’t finish the ten kilometers by 7:30, everyone’s breakfast gets halved. And with Arthur and Brian in our group, we don’t want to be the reason they come down on us. That said, ten clicks isn’t exactly hell. If you’ve got average stamina, it’s doable.”
Broken down, it was a seven-and-a-half-minute kilometer pace. Not exactly demanding. Even in a world that undervalued raw physical strength, no sixteen-year-old boy living a normal life should struggle with that. No one here looked grossly overweight or anything. Everyone should be able to manage it.
Sure, by the time we hit the evening run, fatigue would probably start to drag people down. But at that point, a few recovery spells would take care of most issues.
That was when Koharu lowered her lashes, her voice suddenly so small it could vanish into the wind.
“Um… about that…”
“Hm?”
She hesitated, then confessed, “I… I grew up in a household where I was never allowed to lift anything heavier than chopsticks or a teacup.”
What?
I blinked at her, struggling to process the words. “Wait, what?”
“Running, walking long distances, anything like that… I’ve basically never done it.”
No way. My brain just stopped. Froze. Needed a second to buffer.
A few silent seconds ticked by before her statement finally rewired itself into something intelligible.
“You mean to say…”
Looking up at me with a face full of genuine guilt, she whispered, “There’s absolutely no way I can run ten kilometers.”
Even I had to admit defeat on this one. Turned out Koharu Saegusa, our precious little exchange student from the east, was—without exaggeration—completely and utterly useless when it came to physical activity. She was the very definition of a sheltered princess. A porcelain doll.
In the end, she hadn’t even managed to run a single kilometer before giving up.
“Wow…” I muttered.
And it wasn’t just me. The entire class stood frozen in disbelief.
Even the instructor, who typically seemed to have rage on standby, looked dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape, gaze drifting skyward as if he were trying to mentally reboot. Apparently, this level of incompetence was a first even for him.
“Your entire squad’s getting half rations for breakfast,” he said flatly. “As for your own disciplinary review, I’ll have to consult with my superiors. This is just… unprecedented.”
With that, he staggered away like a man questioning all his life choices, vanishing back inside the school building.
And so, we returned to the dorms, rinsed off quickly, and made our way to the main dining hall.
This collective punishment thing… Yeah, it’s brutal.
Getting half a meal didn’t just mean smaller portions; it meant nearly nothing. No bread, just two slices of dried meat and a sad bowl of dehydrated vegetable soup.
It was like some twisted version of a low-carb diabetic meal plan. Instead of managing blood sugar, it was designed to destroy morale and energy.
No carbs means no fuel. If this keeps up, we’ll be running on empty before lunch. I sighed heavily, staring down at my pitiful tray.
“Why is there no bread?”
Seated beside me at the five-person squad table, Lilith furrowed her brow in confusion.
“There was this girl who couldn’t run to save her life. I mean, really next-level stuff.”
“I see. Koharu messed up.” Lilith nodded slowly, accepting the situation with the weary resignation of someone who’d long since expected the worst. “Acknowledged.”
Lilith didn’t say a word. She simply speared a strip of dried meat with her fork and brought it to her lips.
“Huh? You’re not gonna chew Koharu out?” I asked, watching her out of the corner of my eye. “You do realize this might not be a one-time thing, right? There’s a good chance our meals will keep getting halved from here on out.”
She paused briefly, then answered in her usual deadpan tone.
“Whining about what we don’t have won’t change anything. And yelling at Koharu for something she physically can’t do is just pointless. If we’re gonna be hungry, we might as well start thinking about how to fix that ourselves.”
Fair point.
Lilith and I had more than our fair share of experience wandering through untamed wilds and monster-infested ruins. Our survival skills were, not to brag, top-tier. While most students wouldn’t dare set foot in the cursed Forest of Welim, for us, it was about as threatening as a walk through the park.
Hunting, foraging, even setting traps. We could eat like kings if we wanted to.
That said, I glanced across the table at Arthur and Brian. They hadn’t spoken a word since sitting down, but it didn’t take a genius to tell they were both fuming. Their clenched jaws, twitching fingers, and the way they barely touched their food made it obvious.
And right on cue, Koharu made everything worse.
“Um, Arthur-kun?” she ventured timidly, eyes wide and voice laced with guilt.
“What?” Arthur didn’t even look at her.
“I was just wondering, would you maybe like my dried meat? I mean, I know it’s not much, but I feel really bad about this.”
Arthur scoffed. “I don’t want it.”
“But I… If I just sit here and do nothing, I’ll feel terrible…”
She tried to offer her share anyway, reaching across the table with her fork.
And then, disaster struck.
Her oversized miko sleeve snagged the edge of her soup bowl. The thing tipped, spilling its contents all over the table, and worse, a good portion of it sloshed straight onto Arthur’s lap.
Oh crap. I slapped both hands over my face in secondhand embarrassment.
“Ah! Ahh! I-I’m so sorry! I really, really am!” Koharu babbled, pale and flustered as she scrambled to clean up the mess.
Arthur glared down at the soup-soaked fabric of his pants. “You’re lucky,” he muttered coldly. “My father drilled one thing into me as a kid: never hit a woman.”
Then, without warning, he grabbed Koharu by the front of her robes and pulled her close, his voice low and venomous.
“If I hadn’t been taught that… I’d have knocked your useless ass straight across the room. Stupid goddamn girl.”
The words hit like a slap. Koharu froze mid-apology, her face paling as her eyes welled up with tears. She let out a broken, breathless whimper—something between a sob and a gasp—and clamped a hand over her mouth. Without another word, she turned and bolted.
Probably the restroom. Either to cry or to puke.
I scanned the room. Lilith and Brian continued eating in silence, not even sparing Koharu a glance. Arthur, still scowling, furiously dabbed his lap with a napkin.
Yeah, this is turning ugly fast.
I let out a sigh and rolled my shoulders, tension settling heavy across them.