Kiraware Yūsha ni Tensei Shitanode Aisare Yūsha o Mezashimasu! - Chapter 12

[Uproar in the Cafeteria]

It was late, so I was already starving.

Apparently, the dormitory had a cafeteria attached to it, but… I wondered what the food in this world’s school cafeteria tasted like.

As such, I asked Tayte what items were on the menu, but—

“Huh?!” She was shocked, to say the least.

……For some reason, I kinda saw that coming.

The original Barrett probably had made insulting comments about the food they served in the cafeteria.

If so, things might get a little complicated.

I felt like my coming to the cafeteria would make the other students think: “How dare he came here!” or something along the lines.

However, if I wanted to live peacefully and safely in this world, this was a road I couldn’t circumvent around. I—no, Barrett Albers had committed numerous wrongdoings until now. This was but one of them, without a doubt.

How to solve the misunderstandings that come from them—was the problem I had to face.

“Well… I was just thinking it might not be a bad idea to eat at the cafeteria once in a while.”

“I-I see…”

For the time being, I lied my way out of the topic and then we headed to the cafeteria together.

The cafeteria, which was a small wooden building, was built between the men’s dorm and the women’s dorm. Considering the time, it should be crowded with hungry students at the moment.

Oh, crap.

I should have waited for some time.

While the thought crossed my mind, Tayte and I entered the cafeteria.

As expected, the cafeteria was crowded with students—yet, as soon as one of the students near the entrance caught sight of me, he shouted “B-Barret Albers?!” causing the hustle and bustle to vanish a beat later as if all of it was just an illusion.

“W-what is Barrett Albers doing here…”

“But he complained about the taste of the food the last time he was here…”

I knew it!

I had to apologize to the cooks before ordering a meal.

At every step we took, the students right before us would step away and open the way for us.

S-so awkward…

My arrival must have left the students in a state of panic. Their faces were screaming “What is Barrett doing here?!” as they all stared at me without a word, dazed. It appeared that the information processing function of their brains couldn’t catch up with what was going on.

――However, as if to tear through the tense atmosphere, multiple heavy and noisy footsteps came nearing us.

“Lord Barreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeett!!” Patrick, who had been picking on Raul in the park earlier, bent his hips at a ninety-degree angle and bowed deeply as soon as he arrived in front of us. Following behind him, Charles, Leon, Kyle, Billy—all sons of merchants who were my followers, basically—came and bowed one after another.

“H-hey, you guys…”

Now it was my turn to be surprised.

Why were they bowing their heads?

They hadn’t done anything to ruin my mood. Their picking on Raul was something ordered by (original) Barrett, too.

I couldn’t blame them for being so cautious when dealing with me, though.

I mean, if they incurred Barrett’s displeasure, their fathers, who were doing businesses with the Alberses, would face some issues. In the worst-case scenario, the businesses would get canceled, and they would be forced onto the roadside.

“P-please raise your heads. We can’t have a proper talk this wa—”

“Yessir! Right away!” The five responded before I could finish my words, and stood up straight in a blink.

Looking at their uniformed movements, I could guess that this was how they usually behaved around Barrett.

“P-pardon me, sir…”

As I was staying silent, Patrick called out to me in a terrified manner.

The surrounding students were paying attention to us.

It was the same with Tayte. She was holding her breath, looking at me and Patrick alternately.

“Did you perhaps come here… because you have business with us?”

“Huh?”

Oh, I see.

They thought they had made a mistake without them knowing because I had stopped them from bullying Raul earlier, huh.

“No, I didn’t come here to berate you guys or anything. I just wanted to dine with Tayte.”

“—! I-is that so… wait, huuuh?!?!?!”

“““““Huuh?!?!?!”””””

Patrick, and also everyone in the cafeteria shouted.

……Was Barrett eating at the cafeteria such a big deal?

Well, I could only go about this patiently.

For now, let’s first apologize to the cooks for complaining about their food, dine together with Tayte, Patrick, and the others, apologize to them for my unreasonable behaviors until now and talk in detail about our relationship going forward.

It was a lot of work, but I’d got to make sure the fact that ‘Barret Albers has truly turned over a new leaf’ permeated across the academy.