Chapter 350: The Grand Hall Dinner (4)

Calyra slowly lowered her hand.

"I’m fine," she replied calmly. "I was just a little surprised by how many choices there are."

Her eyes returned to the pastry display.

"That’s all."

Silvena continued looking at her for another second, seemingly unconvinced. However, Calyra herself could not explain anything more even if she wanted to.

What was she supposed to say? That she had suddenly felt sad over something she could no longer remember?

Even the reason behind that strange grief had already slipped away from her. So Calyra simply reached toward the display and finally placed a slice of mille-feuille onto her plate.

Silvena’s eyes immediately brightened.

"Aha. There it is."

Calyra glanced sideways at her.

"What?"

"Your usual," Silvena pointed toward the mille-feuille with an amused smile. "I was beginning to think you’d somehow lost your love for sweets."

"...That would never happen. I like sweets."

"Good."

Silvena nodded solemnly.

Calyra ignored her.

She moved farther along the buffet instead, leaving the pastry section behind as Silvena and Irene followed.

The next table held several varieties of warm dishes, with servants continuously replacing emptied trays before they could remain vacant for long.

Calyra took a small serving of buttered vegetables before adding roasted potatoes beside them.

Silvena, meanwhile, seemed considerably less restrained.

She added another piece of lamb to her already occupied plate before stopping beside a tray of glazed duck.

Irene watched her silently.

Silvena noticed and raised a brow.

"What?"

"My lady..." Irene glanced at her plate. "You already have quite a lot."

Silvena looked down at her food, then slowly back at Irene.

"And? Is that a problem?"

"Yes. You’re going to get fat," Irene replied flatly. "In fact, I think you already are."

Silvena’s lips parted in disbelief.

"Excuse me? I am not fat," she shot back, then pointed at Irene’s plate. "If anything, you’re the one who should be worried. How many pastries have you eaten already?"

Calyra almost smiled. For a while, she simply listened to Silvena and Irene bicker quietly beside her.

The three continued moving with the slow stream of scholars circulating around the buffet tables.

Around them, conversations overlapped continuously as scholars wandered between stations, some already carrying plates piled high enough that Calyra wondered how they intended to finish everything.

Yet as they reached another station, another thought suddenly occurred to her.

This one, fortunately, did not disappear.

Calyra slowed slightly.

"Anyway..."

Silvena glanced toward her while reaching for a serving spoon for the pasta.

"Hm? You said something?"

Calyra nodded then lowered her voice.

"Is it just me, or have we barely seen Ruvian lately?"

Calyra continued before she could answer.

"I tried contacting him through [Fascribe] earlier too," she picked up a small portion of grilled fish and placed it onto her plate. "But he hasn’t replied."

That had been bothering her for some time now.

Ever since everything that happened during the test, Ruvian seemed to have almost completely disappeared.

She had expected to see him somewhere inside the hall tonight, especially considering Squad 69 was already present.

Yet even now, there was still no sign of him.

Silvena gave a small shrug.

"I don’t know either."

She finally scooped some pasta onto her plate.

"I noticed he wasn’t sitting with his squad when we arrived."

"So you haven’t seen him?"

"Nope. Not all. Not even during the test."

Silvena shook her head.

Calyra frowned faintly.

’How strange...’

Silvena stepped aside to allow another scholar through before continuing toward the next buffet table.

"But knowing Ruvian, he’s probably gotten himself dragged into something again."

Calyra followed beside her.

’That... actually makes sense.’

As her gaze wandered across the hall once more, she suddenly realized that she had not seen Loden anywhere either.

That realization only deepened her curiosity.

’What happened to Loden?’

Could Ruvian’s disappearance somehow be connected to Loden’s absence as well?

Still, unlike Ruvian, Calyra could at least make a reasonable guess as to why Loden was nowhere to be seen. He was most likely being questioned or placed under investigation by the academy, especially after everything that had happened during the test.

After all, someone with such a suspicious connection to a demon was hardly going to be allowed to simply walk around freely.

Calyra remained caught in her thoughts as she continued walking beside Silvena. She was no longer paying much attention to where she was going.

Before she realized it, her shoulder struck against someone standing in front of her.

The impact was not hard, but it was enough to pull her back to reality.

"Sorry, I wasn’t looking," Calyra muttered softly, taking half a step back.

She then lifted her gaze toward the person she had bumped into.

The first thing she noticed was how tall the woman was. Even standing this close, Calyra had to tilt her head slightly to meet her eyes.

Unlike most of the noblewomen attending the banquet, the woman was not wearing a dress. Instead, she wore a fitted black formal coat over a high-collared waistcoat, paired with neatly pressed black trousers and polished leather boots.

The entire outfit was simple, sharp, and almost knightly in appearance. There was hardly any decoration beyond the silver fastenings along her coat.

It suited her far better than any gown probably would have. More importantly, Calyra had seen that particular style before.

Then her gaze moved higher. Long crimson hair had been pulled into a high ponytail behind her head.

’Ah...’

Recognition immediately settled in. Calyra knew exactly who she had just walked into.

Rosalin Varion.

*****

[Vanessa’s POV]

Vanessa had somehow ended up spending most of her time near the ice cream section. In front of her, several chilled trays were arranged in neat rows, each one filled with a different color and flavor.

There were far more choices than she had expected, from chocolate and vanilla to pistachio, caramel, strawberry, mint, blackberry, and several fruit flavors she could not immediately name. With her sense of smell, however, Vanessa could already pick apart most of them before even taking a bite.

The sweet scent of berries mixed with cream, while traces of roasted nuts, cocoa, honey, and vanilla drifted beneath it. For anyone else, those smells might have blended together, but to Vanessa, every flavor carried its own clear scent.

Naturally, she wanted to try all of them.

Instead of filling an entire bowl with one flavor, Vanessa had taken only a small scoop of each. Her bowl now looked almost ridiculous, filled with little patches of different colors that she had carefully kept apart.

So far, the deep purple blackberry ice cream had become one of her favorites. The other was honey-vanilla, which had surprised her with how well the soft sweetness lingered after every bite.

It had been a long time since Vanessa had eaten ice cream. Because of that, she had been taking her time with every spoonful as though she were making up for all the years she had gone without it.

She scooped up a little of the blackberry and brought it to her lips.

The moment the cold sweetness touched her tongue, Vanessa’s eyes curved into tiny crescents as she gave a small, pleased sway.

"Mhm~ It’s so goood~"

She quickly covered her mouth with one hand, her cheeks puffing slightly as she chewed the tiny bits of berry mixed into the cream. The happy little smile tugging at the corners of her lips was impossible to hide.

’Oh God, it’s a little sour at first, but then the sweetness comes right after. And it doesn’t taste too heavy either. I could probably eat a whole bowl of this! Maybe two!’

For the banquet, Vanessa had chosen a dark purple dress traced with thin pink lines along the edges.

The color matched her long dark hair, whose ends carried a faint purple sheen whenever they caught the light. She had braided most of it neatly and brought the long braid over her right shoulder.

Vanessa was still happily working through her ice cream when movement near the grilled fish and pasta table caught her eye.

She glanced over with her spoon still stuffed in her mouth and immediately spotted Lady Rosalin.

Her hand slowly lowered.

With her tall frame, black formal suit and crimson ponytail, she somehow looked like a handsome young knight who had wandered into the wrong event.

Vanessa blinked several times.

’Whoa...’

She had never imagined Rosalin would actually wear a suit to something like this. Not that there was anything wrong with it, in fact, it somehow suited her well.

’She looks so stunning...’

Vanessa quietly took another spoonful of blackberry ice cream while staring. For one strange second, she almost forgot that Lady Rosalin was a woman.

Then someone walked straight into her.

Vanessa’s spoon stopped halfway to her mouth.

Her eyes widened as she recognized the small figure dressed in white and blue standing directly in front of Rosalin — it was Lady Calyra.

Her face immediately went pale.

’Hikk—!!’

With her pale dress, small frame, and delicate features, Calyra looked like a porcelain doll standing beside Rosalin. Unfortunately, Vanessa was far too familiar with what happened the last time those two had gotten close enough to speak.

Her lips slowly parted.

’Oh no, no, no. no...’

The aftermath of their fight came rushing back into her head all at once. The tension, the anger, the awkward silence afterward, and most importantly, the conversation Vanessa had with Rosalin later.

Vanessa’s grip tightened around her spoon.

Because she had lied to Rosalin!

Well... not a huge lie, technically.

Just a small, harmless, completely necessary lie about how Calyra had supposedly felt after their fight.

But honestly, that was all Ruvian’s fault!

He was the one who told her to say that.

’Please, please don’t talk about it.’

Vanessa swallowed, her eyes darted between them.

’Actually, no, maybe please talk normally. Just don’t talk about that.’

She nervously shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth without even checking the flavor. The cold hit her tongue, but she barely noticed it anymore.

Around the hall, several nearby scholars had begun slowing down as well. They were sneaking glances toward them while pretending to remain interested in their food.

Vanessa’s heart suddenly sank as another dreadful thought crossed her mind.

’Wait... what if Lady Rosalin asks her directly?’

’What if she says, "Vanessa told me you felt this way," and then Lady Calyra says, "I never said that," and then both of them turn around and glare at me?’

Vanessa let out another tiny inward squeak of panic.

’Hikk—!!!’

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[Chapter 350: The Grand Hall Dinner (4)]

Plot Points = 282,000