After having some money on hand, Jean dialed the restaurant's ordering number again. As luck would have it, the person who answered the phone was still Erina.
"Hello, this is the White Tower Restaurant. How may I assist you?"
"Yo, Erina-chan, it's me again."
"..." After a two or three-second silence, a standard, sweet, yet slightly reluctant, formulaic voice came through the receiver: "Respected customer, hello. How may I assist you?"
The voice was so cloying that it made Jean uncomfortable, so she quickly stopped her. "It's okay, Erina-chan. Just speak normally."
"Fine. What do you want to eat today?"
Although the tone was a bit blunt now, at least it sounded like human speech. "A set meal for five, the kind without special ingredients."
So-called special-effect ingredients are those containing immense energy. Due to the differences in races, the required calories vary wildly, and many humans with specialized physical traits or special needs cannot be satisfied by ordinary ingredients.
Of course, there are also many, many other ingredients with special effects, such as those that increase lifespan, magical energy, strength, or grant special abilities. All of these require special preparation by a chef to be consumed without side effects.
That is why only top-tier restaurants have such menus. It is said that the first time someone successfully cooked a Devil Fruit from One Piece, it caused a city-wide sensation. However, it turned out to be only a Zoan-type, and was even less valuable than transplanting bloodlines, so no one paid it any attention afterward. (Jean saw all this while reading gossip news; the titles were all clickbait-style, so she didn't know if it was true or false.)
Of course, these special-effect ingredients share a common trait: they are expensive. Their prices are not even on the same dimension as ingredients meant for mere culinary enjoyment.
"Even if you wanted special-effect ingredients, we don't have any. Lord Abu came by this morning and ate them all."
"OK, please prepare a dish for us this time, Erina."
"No problem, just watch."
---
Jean didn't linger anywhere else and returned directly home, where she saw FrostNova holding a longsword, engaged in a duel with Sakura in the training grounds.
What was shocking was that FrostNova was no longer an Infected, meaning she could not use the power of Originium to create cold air. Yet, even so, relying on her astonishing swordsmanship, she had been suppressing Sakura the entire time.
Sakura was holding a long spear, and similarly, she wasn't using her shadow magecraft; it looked just like a technical sparring match.
A moment later, with a flash from FrostNova, the long spear in Sakura's hand was knocked away, and Medea, standing on the side, raised a small flag and announced: "It is Lord FrostNova's victory!"
"Looks like you've recovered well. I didn't expect someone who is a spellcaster to have such a level of swordsmanship," Jean remarked after checking FrostNova's physical condition.
"My father taught me this in the past, but after my oripathy became severe, my physical activities were restricted, so I rarely used it."
Sakura, on the other hand, looked bewildered. In her perception, this FrostNova was inferior to her in both strength and technique, yet throughout the entire match, she had almost no power to fight back.
"You are very strong," FrostNova said, walking over to pick up Sakura's spear and returning it to her. "But perhaps it's because you've been out of actual combat for too long; your moves are quite easy to read."
Sakura had originally wanted to retort after hearing FrostNova's words, but in the end, she nodded, took the long spear, and walked silently to Rin's side, whispering: "Sorry, sister."
"Eh?" Rin was completely caught off guard, not understanding why Sakura would apologize to her after losing a sparring match.
Seeing Rin's reaction, Sakura sighed, adopting an attitude of 'forget it, it doesn't matter, let it be,' which left Rin with even more question marks.
---
Next was distributing the small accessories she had bought and officially planning out the rooms. In a few hours, they could head to the welcome banquet.
Everyone was extremely shocked by the ability to manipulate everything in this space at will. Even the knowledgeable Medea was stunned, as this was something even the pathetic gods of Olympus could not easily achieve.
After allocating 30㎡ to each of the three and granting them control over the interior of their rooms, everyone began to decorate their own spaces.
At this moment, Jean had a chance to be alone with FrostNova for a while.
"Thank you for your hard work earlier," Jean said, embracing FrostNova. It was obvious that in the sparring match just now, Sakura had wanted to save face for her silly sister, and perhaps there was also the reason of preventing her sister from being bullied.
"It's nothing. That child, Sakura, is just thinking of her sister. There was a child who came out of the mines who was just like that, so it looks very cute."
Jean noticed that she used the past tense.
But FrostNova didn't dwell on that; instead, she kept looking at her own hands, then clenched them into fists and said to Jean:
"Jean, I want to become stronger. Strong enough to help liberate the fate of the Infected, strong enough to be of help to you, and strong enough to stand by your side."
Looking at FrostNova's determined gaze, Jean replied:
"Of course. I won't let you go, and naturally, I won't let you fall behind. Leave it to me, rest assured."
---
Since she had made a promise, she naturally had to fulfill it. So, Jean prepared to contact 'D' to borrow the machine for learning skills from when she returned from the Akame ga Kill world, and also to get an appraisal for her new traits.
Just at that moment, she received a message from 'D' first: "Come to my office at 8 AM tomorrow morning. There's some good news."
Honestly, if she hadn't added that last part about 'good news,' Jean wouldn't have thought much of it, but after adding it, she actually felt a bit apprehensive.
However, when the boss calls, one has no choice but to go. It would be a good opportunity to bring up the matter she wanted to ask for help with at the same time.
She tidied up her gear a bit, taking everything out of her spatial pouch to organize them.
Among them were the clothes she had brought but hadn't worn, as well as the outfit Rin had bought her that had become tattered. In an exquisite flannel box, there were the shards of the 'Hope Diamond' that Rin had given her, which had performed a great service.
There was also Medea's contract, the completed commission, the 'overture,' and the remaining ammunition.
But as she was rummaging through it, Jean suddenly froze, and then pulled a hand out of the spatial pouch...
"Come to think of it, I used to be an ordinary office worker too."
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