"Glitching?"

I unconsciously touched my eyes.

'Is she serious?'

Racheal wasn't exactly the kind to tell jokes. If she said she saw glitching, then she likely did.

'How odd.'

I'd never used my powers in front of a mirror, nor had I felt anything in my eyes while using the ability.

'I'll check it out later.'

Right now, I still had to give Racheal a reply. I went for the most obvious one.

"I never noticed that, Lady Racheal. Perhaps it is merely a visual effect of using the power."

"Perhaps."

I nodded, eager to move past this topic, looking to the door before looking back at her.

"Do you not plan on leaving, Lady Racheal?"

She shook her head, pointing her longsword at the monster.

"I have business with the beast."

I tilted my head, confused, before wisely deciding not to pry.

"Understood, I'll meet you upstairs then."

She gave a curt nod in reply, after which I headed towards the exit, still using the wall for support.

'I should have requested a bloody cane.'

It was too late to complain about that though, that ship had long since sailed.

I could feel Racheal's gaze burning into my back. I did my best to ignore it, though for some reason I couldn't shake the irrational thought of her suddenly stabbing me in the back with that longsword.

Of course, I knew it'd never happen, yet it latched on to my mind.

Fortunately though, I soon left the room and her line of sight. The sense of paranoia instantly eased.

I let out a sigh of relief before pushing myself towards the stairs.

Luckily, the monster's corpse was only one floor below the camp. I couldn't even imagine climbing multiple sets of stairs in this condition.

Gritting my teeth, I took the first step.

---

Eventually, I found myself in the camp once again. I'd prefer not to go into details about what happened on those stairs, but I certainly learned a valuable life lesson from them.

Never climb stairs while dizzy.

I winced a bit at the memory, and the pains from the actual climb, before collapsing by the flame.

Song sent a smug grin my way, something I very promptly ignored. I also, preemptively, shut down my interface to prevent her from weaponizing my tactics against me.

The sounds of someone shuffling through a bag drew my attention, and I found Lily pulling out a can of rations.

Even after all this time, I couldn't stop myself from grimacing at the sight of it.

'We are almost out of rations now.'

Song just glanced between the can and my grimacing face, before chuckling.

"What's so funny?"

She covered her mouth, before shaking her head.

"Nothing. It's just… have you really been downing that slop all this time?"

I raised my brow in confusion,

"What d-"

I paused mid-sentence when I realized what she was talking about. Racheal could cook, not just cook. The girl was a damned near professional at it.

'Oh come on.'

Racheal, unquestionably the strongest among cadets, could produce her own flames and was a bloody good cook. She was literally a walking source of food, warmth and protection.

In essence, a free pass to the trials. Which was why I found it all the more impressive that a teammate of hers had died.

I glanced at Song before retorting.

"Never heard someone look this proud of being a leech."

"Someone sounds a little jealous."

I rolled my eyes, before looking to Maki for support. The girl left me empty-handed though, having too much fun just watching us go at it.

'Of course.'

Song added victoriously.

"You can keep the can down. There's no need to endure such rubbish here, just wait for Racheal."

"I thought she was a witch?"

The girl nodded fluidly.

"She still is. Turning monster meat into whatever she turns it into is definitely some sort of witchcraft."

Just then, I heard footsteps outside the room. They approached steadily, until Racheal walked in, holding five sizable slabs of almost black, red meat.

A familiar scent of slight rot and blood permeated the room. Luckily, the winds from the blizzard outside didn't let the smell linger too heavily here.

Only Song seemed unbothered by the smell, shifting to create a space around the flame for her.

Racheal wordlessly sat down there, dropping the meat pile on the ground. She scanned us all, before speaking.

"Hand over your ration packs."

Most of us looked at her in suspicion the moment she said that. Not Song though, the girl willingly handed hers.

Trusting Song not to fuck herself over, I handed mine as well. Reluctantly, Maki and Lily handed in theirs as well.

With all packs acquired, Racheal began the busy work of cooking.

She crushed and poured hardtack into all the ration cans first, before moving three towards the flame, while using the other two to marinate two slabs of meat.

I could only look on in awe as she worked. Glancing towards Song, I reactivated my interface before sending her a message.

[Anything we should do to help?]

She gave me a frustrated look.

[Just sit down and let the magic happen.]

Taking her advice, I scuttled a bit closer to the flame, settling in to watch Racheal work.

She was setting up the lightly marinated meat on makeshift skewers, made out of what I could only assume were burned branches.

'Where did she find trees?'

Unfortunately, we had to move a bit further back from the flames as she set the meat to roast above them.

We sat in silence around the fire as the meat slowly cooked. Gradually, the smell of blood was replaced by an almost irresistible smell of roast.

Like proper oily roast, not whatever half-baked thing I made back in the outer rings.

At some point, she pulled the ration cans away from the flames. Using her gloved hands, she shared their contents equally among five cans.

Racheal didn't stop there either, carefully scraping some of the now oil-infused ration liquid off the back of the roasting meat. She then shared and mixed them equally among the cans.

With all that preparation done, it wasn't long before she took the skewers off the flame.

They were done, and for some reason my stomach wouldn't stop growling at the prospect.

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