Leon was relieved when he saw that the box wasn't filled with black stew. He was surprised that the food actually looked delicious.
It was a high-quality steak surrounded by cooked vegetables and on the side, there was a slice of chocolate cake. It was night and day compared to the old food she had given him. He immediately made the connection with Maria that was to the side.
The lady seemed to have been stealing glances at him because she immediately snapped her neck back toward her food the moment Leon turned toward her. Maria's cheeks turned red while she awkwardly ate her food in a hurry.
' She is acting like some type of fangirl that finally managed to meet her idol. I don't think I ever talked with her before.'
Leon had no way of knowing Maria's real feelings but it would take an incredibly dense person to not know that she had a crush on him. This meant that this whole team thing was probably Maria's plan.
He knew that deep down Serah wasn't a bad person so it made more sense for her to be helping Maria instead of harassing her.
' I just can't understand why Serah fed me such horrible food until now. Was she really just trying to take a break from the disgusting taste?'
Leon's opinion of the delinquent girl went up drastically but his curiosity got the better of him. He had to know why the food today was so different.
" Why did you trade food with me today? Usually, you only hand me over some inedible meal but this one is delicious."
He quickly realized that he had made a mistake. Serah's expression turned into a scowl, it was as if Leon had just insulted her.
" …ly …it… elf."
Her voice was so low that Leon couldn't understand her answer. He felt like it was too late to pretend he didn't ask so he unwillingly pressed on.
" What did you say?"
The blonde-haired delinquent slammed her hands on the table while staring straight into Leon's eyes.
" I usually make it myself, do you have a problem with that? Maria's the one that made it today!"
Her loud voice attracted the attention of everyone in the cafeteria but she had a pretty bad reputation so no one said anything to her. Leon also quickly realized his mistake, he just insulted her cooking and it seemed like it was a surprise to her.
This meant that from the start she had only been exchanging meals with him without trying to torture him. He didn't think her reaction was fake, this meant that from the beginning he only had the wrong impression of her.
' How do I apologize without insulting her? Oh, sorry, I thought you were trying to torture me during all this time?'
His mind started to work overtime, trying to come up with a good apology. In the end, he couldn't think of anything clever.
" I… sorry Serah. I have no excuse for being rude."
He looked straight into her eyes while telling her the truth, he was truly regretful of both his misunderstanding and his rudeness. Even if he didn't mean to, he had insulted her cooking pretty badly. Serah angrily stared at him for a few moments.
" Arrgh! Why do you have to look so different without your bandages? I can't even look at you straight in the face because of how handsome you are. That's cheating! Fine, I accept the apology and next time I will make something that you can call delicious too."
She calmed down but her eyes were darting all over the place, too agitated to look at him again. Leon scratched his head, his lack of confidence from before had created a pretty big misunderstanding. If only he had told Serah that her meals were bad from the start then things might have been a bit different.
Amid his regret and the awkwardness of the situation, Leon had missed the compliment from Serah, which caused her to be even more disappointed.
" So, what did you mean when you said that Maria was about to buy my sword and why do the two of you want to be in my team? Just so you know, the reserve price of the sword is 700 dollars so I doubt you will even get it."
He decided to try and change the atmosphere a bit by changing the subject and it seemed to work. Maria was the one that talked first.
" The reserve is only at 700 dollars? The auction was already at 2,000 this morning."
Leon was shocked. He had never thought that the sword would go for so much.
" Isn't that too much? It's only a weapon inside of a game, not to mention the fact that I got it on the first day."
Now that Leon was talking business Maria had no trouble looking at him. Her eyes showed a focus that didn't fit with her meek appearance.
" The game has been out for 8 hours which is the equivalent of a full day in the game. There has been plenty of time for people to see some weapons of value. Your sword doesn't have the most base damage but the options it possesses make it a unique weapon that could easily be valuable for a long time.
The fact that it ignores any slashing resistance is incredibly valuable. I would easily spend 8,000 dollars for it, considering the size of the game on its first day. A bigger market means bigger prices."
It seemed like Maria had done a fair bit of research on this subject.
" 8,000? You are ready to spend that much? Aren't you a high-school student?"
Maria became a bit embarrassed now that the question went back to her, it seemed like she had no idea how to answer but luckily Serah took over for her.
" Little miss Maria over there is pretty rich. She doesn't even need her parent's permission to spend that much money. That sword is actually for me, she called it an investment in her team and she wanted to recruit you too. You will get the same treatment if you accept, so what do you say?"
The two of them were looking at him with expectant eyes. It was a tempting offer, if he could get a wand or a magic book that was equivalent to that bone sword it would make his life a lot easier.
" Are you sure you want to invest so much into others? What are you going to do if I just run with whatever you buy me? What would you gain from having me on your team?"
Maria went back into business mode, albeit this time her cheeks were a little red.
" It's not about investing in others, it's about investing in you and Serah. I-I know you aren't the type of person to take advantage of others. You continue to do your best no matter what situation you are in. I am confident that if we work together we can all profit.
I…"
She started looking around, noticing that this wasn't exactly the best place to speak about business.
" I will tell you what I have to gain from all of this after school… So please think about it."
Her last sentence was in a soft, almost pleading voice. Her green eyes were filled with an expectant light, kind of similar to a puppy begging for a treat. Leon was filled with questions, she talked like she knew him for years yet he couldn't remember ever seeing her.
If she always wore clothes like these it would have been extremely hard to miss her. Despite all of his doubts, Leon was weak to people relying on him. He sighed a bit before nodding.
" I will accept for now. I have no one with me on my tale at the moment so you can join me. I just want to make it clear, I will not accept any investment if it seems like you won't benefit from me too."
Serah's bad mood was nowhere to be seen after Leon accepted the offer. She stood up from her place to go and give him a bear hug. She was incredibly strong and her hug was even stronger, Leon could barely breathe even with the two giant cushions in between them lessening the pressure.
He didn't know whether to panic because of the intimate contact or because of the lack of oxygen but Leon quickly pried himself away from Serah's hug.
" Have you been secretly training? Now that I look at you, your body seems more toned. It's only been a week since the last time I saw you but you seem like a completely different person."
Leon had a dry laugh. His parents didn't notice anything but the woman that he had almost considered a bully at one point immediately noticed most of his appearance changes. There had to be some irony somewhere in there.
" It might be a growth spurt, I am still a teenager after all."
This was the excuse that he had prepared for his parents, he thought it would be useless but he ended up having a use for it.