“Hao, do you have a moment?”
“Yes? What is it, president?”
The next morning, the members of the cooking club gathered on time, and Hao was nervous when Precia suddenly spoke to him.
She usually had a soft demeanor that leaned just a little towards the serious side, but she looked at him with a serious expression.
“Yuugo asked if we could search for the runaway boy while collecting ingredients. I’m also concerned about him, so I want to do that if I can, but…”
“E-eh, really? Well, it’s fine, isn’t it?”
Hao did not believe that scum could be worried about a child, but kept that to himself.
He listened, never letting go of the suspicion that he might be tricking his kind president to gain her favorability, when someone interjected.
“I see! That’s a good attitude! It makes sense that the eldest son of a noted noble family hasn’t forgotten his pride even after being disowned!”
“Then we can let him focus on finding the child! That will work!”
“S-Shian and Egos?”
Hao was surprised by the level of excitement of Shian and egos, as they suddenly joined the conversation.
He listened as he wondered where they were getting at, and as the conversation went in an unexpected direction, he felt a sense of danger.
“You think so too? Then Yuugo and I will search for him.”
“Eh!? Y-you’re going around the forest with that guy!?”
“Yes, that’s the idea. Yuugo could be in danger if he was out there alone and something happened, so I should be with him, because I know this forest to a certain extent… I was actually going to ask you to look after the cooking club, Hao.”
“N-no! You can’t go with Yuugo!!”
“I see I see! You can leave that to us! We’ll do our best to support Hao and look after everyone in the cooking club!”
“Oh my~! That’s reassuring~! Shian, I’m leaving Hao and the others in your care~!”
Hao tried to tell Precia how dangerous it was to go into a deserted forest with a philanderer scum, but was unable to thanks to Shian forcing himself into the conversation.
He was surprised by how Shian just went ahead and let Precia go with Yuugo, and after moving away with Egos, complained to him.
“Egos, this isn’t what we talked about! If you’re going to let Yuugo and the president be alone, why did I even call you here!?”
“It’s okay, trust us! There’s nothing to be worried about!”
“How can I not be worried…”
Hao was going to continue to complain about Egos’ irresponsible attitude, but he gulped a little after seeing his face up close.
His excited attitude and grin made it hard to notice, but… Egos seemed exhausted.
“Don’t worry, we’ll propose that Yuugo take his little brother Phi with him. That way they won’t be alone, and even that scum wouldn’t make moves on a girl in front of his little brother, right?”
“Y-yes…”
Egos was not aware, but his skin looked rough, and he had bags under his eyes.
Hao looked at his red inflamed eyes and overall pale face, and then noticed that Shian was the same.
Was it exhaustion from the previous day… It seemed too severe for that.
They seemed normal when Hao talked to them the previous night, and Hao was not feeling that tired despite walking the same distance.
And what was even stranger, was that they did not seem to be aware of any abnormalities. But Hao figured he was overthinking it, and that despite them looking a little unwell, it was probably not a big deal.
He saw the fact that they were talking to them full of energy as proof of that… Still, he was not entirely convinced, and hesitantly asked Egos a question.
“Hum, Egos? You’re okay, right…?”
“You sure like to worry, Hao. Everything is okay, just trust us!”
Egos failed to notice that Hao was not talking about Precia, but Egos and Shian’s well-being.
Hao told himself that if they had not noticed anything wrong at all, that should mean there was nothing to worry about. But then he remembered that it was just decided that Yuugo and Precia would be going away from them, and his expression turned to shock.
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