CHAPTER 29 - Unstable Nostalgia

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Studentin (Second Lieutenant), Reichel Schwertspinne, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 4, Day 22, Schwertspinne Private Lab, Deutsche Empery

"Uggggghhhhhhhhh, that girl does some really unnecessary things!"

Reichel said so as she rubbed her forehead while thinking one of the different topics of the brief conversation she had with the Head of the Internal Relations Branch of the Blohm Company, Adrian.

She was already busy enough with the constant stream of tasks she had on hand, but her task management was thrown off the grid as multiple problems arose.

Her hands were just too full with things she wanted to do as quickly as possible at the moment, and unexpected issues keep popping up one after another and it just wasn’t an option to get any kind of help in managing her list of tasks due to the numerous risks that the idea posed due to Reichel’s true nature.

‘Sigh ...’ Reichel let out a hearty and exhausted sigh as she drank the remaining beverage of the glass which she thought she emptied during her earlier conversation with Adrian.

‘It’s sour ...’ Rei commented, but then remembered that it would of course be sour ...

“Motherfucker!”

*crash!* (glass breaking.sfx)

It was lemonade that she had prepared after all.

"I'm tired of this too!" Reichel shouted as she pulled her hair with both hands in a frustrated manner,

*grooooooowl* Her stomach growled as if cheering her on and approving her decision to smash the teacup full of lemonade like a man who had just been given fresh pure water after a long walk in the desert.

'Why am I even drinking so much lemonade again?' Reichel asked herself a question like it was being directed at an idiot, while looking at the debris of the cup she just threw on the ground.

But as she stared at its contents once again and then immediately remembered as she sat back on the chair while letting out another large sigh.

*grooooowl*

'That's right ... it's for that ...' Reichel told herself as she squeezed her forehead with her index finger and thumb as she remembered what all her craze was about in inventing the lemonade and drinking it like water everday.

What Reichel drank however couldn't even be called lemonade actually ...

Lemonade was usually made and sold with a few extra ingredients, such as water to dilute the sourness, sugar to sweeten the overall result, and sometimes even milk or honey just for the fun of it.

Pure lemon juice was just too sour to be marketed by itself, unlike apple juice or maybe even grape juice.

You would think that the person who invented lemonade actually invented lemonade with good reasons in mind to provide a new cool beverage to sooth people who do hard work under the sun, but that was just actually an unintended benefit that Reichel dished out for her own complicated circumstances.

The main reason being that Reichel knows that lemons have the property to reduce one's appetite when an enough amount is drunk, which is why she worked at the Sturm army camp's kitchen as a part-time task so she could get lemons which she then used to make lemonade so she could perhaps weaken her appetite.

And it worked too for a while, a specific component within the lemon juice worked as some sort of drug that reduced Reichel's appetite ever so slightly during her time in the Sturm Army Camp while her rank was below Second Lieutenant.

However ...

Until just a few days ago, the normal lemonade's effectiveness dropped drastically for some unknown reason, and it amplified Reichel's urge to binge-eat humans so in order to counter that, she naturally raised the percentage of actual lemon fluids and decreasing the other ingredients such as water and sugar.

But the effectiveness didn't stop dropping as the hours went by, until eventually what came into Reichel's hands was eventually ...

'This isn't even lemonade anymore, it's just juice freshly squeezed from a lemon!' Reichel was forced to come terms with the fact that she had to basically suck on lemons just so she could make sure that she wouldn't go through her food storage and empty it within mere moments ...

But Reichel's LUK stat, which literally said Almost Non-Existent, didn't permit something like achieving a moment of peace with lemonade that had 100% lemon content.

There also arrived the issue that Reichel had taken in so much lemonade since she moved her new private lab that the Essence of Gluttony inside her actually evolved to recognize lemon juice as some sort of poison.

Therefore nullifying all of its appetite-suppressing capabilities.

Reichel felt enraged at this, enraged by the pain that her stomach was forcing her into.

It was a literal hell of a dietary problem considering that she was the Demon Lord of Gluttony.

But that hell also raised another question ...

‘Why?’

Why did Reichel only start to break down after she moved into her new private lab?

Why was the hunger continuously rising, as if her stomach was searching for a more specific type of food?

And what was the cause for her current condition?

There was only one thing Reichel could think of ...

'That food!' Reichel thought as her stare immediately drifted to one of the shelves on the wall, displaying an empty black box with eastern patterns decorating its surface.

The lunch box that Reichel kindly liberated the other day.

The lunch of Yuriko von Sora, who she had just met a couple of days earlier, who she liberatedthe lunch box from.

As soon as she got home while giggling like a maniac with the box in her hands, she couldn’t control herself and immediately ate all of it in a few bites and then became extremely depressed straight after.

She couldn’t help but scarf it down due to her unstable state of mind, and now it backfired as the sense of regret actually yet again starved her more rapidly.

She expected that she might face some charges had Yuriko been perceptive enough to realize that a girl that she ate lunch with was also the girl that stole a freakin’ lunch box straight from her hands, and she was even prepared for any blind accusations she would have dished out if Yuriko had ever suspected her.

But never in Reichel’s wildest dream that the food that looked so oh-so delicious would also be the substance that pushed her state of mind at the edge of what she considered to be the breaking point.

‘I’m still too naïve myself it seems ...’

Of course it wasn’t such a big deal when thinking about it in the short term, only a simple action could be done in order to counteract such hunger.

Simply eat more.

She could simply take more servings of the said meat, and not only would Reichel solve her problem but it would also make her stronger even faster.

‘... is what a simple-minded person would think.’

Sadly however, not all people had the privilege of being so short-sighted, especially Reichel who considered to be in the upper spectrum of the world when it came to intellectual capabilities!

It was more of a matter of modesty, rather than convenience.

If she took even more than what she eats everyday then her stash would quickly evaporate much quicker than scheduled, and if that happened then she would have to go out hunting again.

The Blohm Company was already at their limits considering the current situation, but they also had to do their best from preventing the news of such large organizations disappearing overnight.

Of course there wasn’t any problem with that, instead of crime syndicate members then she’d just have to go with more helpless and less notable targets, like orphans or homeless people without a penny to their name.

But again it wasn’t that simple!

Reichel had other plans for homeless people as well as orphans for her future when she changes the face of the Unterwelt, so making the Red-Hood suddenly start hunting that specific group would prove fatal to her future plans, which is why eating more of the said meat wasn’t an option at all.

And all these issues were the cause of Reichel’s current condition, which she wasn’t proud in any way.

Actually, who would ever, in their right mind, would think that starving is a good idea?

Reichel was literally being nutrionally impoverished because of nostalgia of all things.

Something like such a ridiculous thing should only be met by the unity of unacceptance, and the will to get rid of such a disgrace.

*froom* (cushion forming itself again after you leave the seat.sfx)

Reichel stood up from her chair, and then neared the shelf which held the empty black box, and then picked it it up to look at it closely once again.

‘If only I had more of this, then I wouldn’t have to be in this situation!’

If only if she knew where Yuriko got such food, so she could actually find out where she could get her own.

‘Yup, that settles it ...’ Reichel resolved herself.

She was going to abduct Yuriko and then get the information out of her forcibly, and then dispose of her straight after.

If Reichel continued being like this then it would be her life that was in danger, and Reichel would pick any other life to sacrifice just so hers could stay even a little bit safer any day.

‘I’ll do it tomorrow as soon as I see Yuriko, get her in an isolated place on campus, and then ...’ and while Reichel was thinking about how she’d abduct Reichel her ears suddenly perked up in attention as she observed the box more closely.

“Hmmm?” Reichel couldn’t help but notice a specific silver plating that she had never seen below the box before.

‘Perhaps I’d been too focused on emptying its contents that I haven’t noticed such a thing?’

And as she turned the box upside down to look at the silver plating beneath it, her mouth suddenly was left agape with what she saw.

‘IF LOST PLEASE RETURN TO SORA GENERAL STORE BRANCH#3 ON GNEISENAUSTRASSE STREET.’

...

...

...

‘General store?’ Reichel’s mind blanked out, and she kept thinking about those two words ...

She kept thinking silently, and it was not until a few minutes later that she finally deduced that those words indeed meant exactly what they implied.

And just like that, Reichel immediately grabbed her wallet and dashed out the door of her private lab, not even bothering to second-check if she locked the door.

Well at least for now, Reichel knew where she was going ...

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15 minutes later ...

"T-This is!?" Reichel felt like she wanted to drop there on the sidewalk and cry tears of joy, for she had found the address that she found on the black box.

The roof covered with curved ceramic tiles for decorative use, the dark wood used on the exterior compared to the dull grey concrete used for most of the city, the Amado (storm shutters) just beside the entrance, and even the Noren hung from the roof that said Zakka-ten (general store), Inshoku-ten (restaurant), and even Izakaya (informal bar) in what looked like to be a language that was all too similar to the kanji that belonged to Rei's home country on planet Earth!

‘Though it isn’t quite kanji since this is actually another world, but my god look at the significant similarities!’

It couldn't be anything else other than japanese architecture, the geometrical patterns and designs outside the building just screamed out 'This is a store where you can buy the food to alleviate your hunger!'

Reichel immediately didn’t delay her arrival any longer and went through the entrance and found exactly the things that she expected inside.

'I'm here, after all this time I can't believe that such salvation was literally just a few blocks away from me! I should have damn well started with finding this place ever since I got to this country!' Reichel's mind went into full happiness overdrive for the first time in a while.

“Irrashaimase!” An old woman on the dark-wooden counter in front of her waring a yukata said so while bowing down gently, further confirming that what Reichel was seeing was indeed not a farce.

*grooowl-guurrrrrr!* And as if to join in on Reichel's joy her stomach started to growl yet again except for some reason it sounded more like the tone of a Demon Lord of Gluttony about to taste food for the first time.

'I know! I know! I'll immediately order everything on the menu!' Reichel said to her stomach with her thoughts as she closed in on the counter.

But as she closed in Reichel heard something from behind her, from one of the many tables inside the shop.

"Schwertspinne-san?"

Reichel didn’t really need to turn around, the vibrant cheery and innocent that she encountered a few days ago was literally something she could never forget permanently because the may her brain was made didn’t really permit any kind of memory wipe despite her wishes.

‘... scheiße.’

"It really is you, Schwertspinne-san!"

It was the person who was responsible for putting Reichel in her current state of unstable wanting.

Yuriko von Sora.