Chapter 46: Saber's Craving
"Thirty balls per set, and you've been hitting since nine o'clock—you're way too obsessed with winning and losing," Shirou said.
"Clearly the technique isn't there, yet Saber gets angry if I go easy on her. If I don't go easy, she sulks because the score gap gets too wide and she's about to lose. This is too hard for me."
"I..." Saber blushed, unable to find words.
"I... I wasn't angry! It's just because Shirou is too strong that I got fired up. Besides, it's clearly just a game; the one who finds it 'hard' is in the wrong!"
Saber retorted while her face turned red, though her performance lacked conviction.
"Yeah, Saber is the type who gets angry when she loses, even if it's just a game," Rin analyzed, leaning back in her chair and holding a cup of coffee.
"I... I am not!"
Saber offered a weak protest before eventually falling into total silence, unable to say another word. Even the ahoge on her head, which usually swayed in the wind, couldn't help but droop down.
However, immediately after Shirou said, "Since we've played for so long, let's get something to eat next," the previously wilted ahoge stood up proudly once again.
From Saber's eyes, a profound craving for the act of "eating" was revealed, as if she could forget all her troubles as long as there was delicious food.
"Shall we eat over there?" Rin, who was fairly familiar with this area, pointed toward a Chinese restaurant.
It happened to be the same shop Shirou had taken Gilgamesh and Kotomine Kirei to during the last Holy Grail War.
Saber's nerves tightened as she looked at the restaurant Rin pointed to, staring at the storefront, the customers dining inside, and the exquisite dishes laid out on the tables.
Unconsciously, Saber felt saliva constantly secreting in her mouth.
Shirou, walking beside the girl, happened to catch the subtle movement of Saber swallowing her saliva and noticed her ahoge twitching slightly like a radar, pointing toward the dishes that caught her fancy.
As they stepped through the doors of this Chinese restaurant, Saber's small, elegant nose twitched slightly. The unique aroma of the dishes inside immediately wafted into her nostrils, causing a shameful sound to emanate from her stomach.
Grumble grumble grumble...
"I, I... um... I'm sorry...!" Saber lowered her head in shame.
"It's okay, we're a bit hungry too," Shirou said with a smile, patting her head.
"Ah... yes..." The hungry Saber instantly transformed from a lion into a kitten, appearing quite docile. Her cheeks turned bright red, and her eyes seemed to be misted with a watery veil.
"Manager!"
Once everyone was seated, Rin immediately called for a waiter, asked for a menu, and began ordering.
"I'll have this... and this..."
Rin ordered one dish after another, and upon hearing the names of those dishes, Saber's eyes revealed a sense of great satisfaction. They were all Chinese dishes she had never tasted before, filling her with a sense of novelty and anticipation.
"Hmm... what do you think? Shirou, do you want to order?"
"Give it here!" Shirou took the menu from Rin's hand and began flipping through it.
Saber, sitting beside him, tried her absolute best to maintain a serious expression after seeing Shirou take the menu, but her instincts caused her gaze to be involuntarily drawn to the dazzling array of dishes on the pages.
"I want this... and... Saber, do you want to order?"
Shirou looked at Saber beside him.
"Eh? May I?" Saber thought she was just a tag-along for the meal; she hadn't expected to have the chance to order.
"Of course you can. Didn't you say you wanted to be my bodyguard? How can you do that without a full stomach?" Shirou replied with a smile.
Saber was momentarily stunned by these words. Recalling what she had said at the beginning, and combining it with the much greater strength this man had displayed two nights ago, she felt her cheeks burning.
As a dignified Servant, her strength actually couldn't compare to her Master's.
How embarrassing...!
"I... I want this! And this!" Since there was no way to save face, she decided to turn her shame into an appetite.
Only in the matter of eating must she absolutely not lose again!
Seeing Saber enter "ordering mode," a hint of doubt appeared on Medea's face, and she asked somewhat speechlessly:
"Can you really eat that much?"
Hearing this, Saber's mouth—which was about to continue ordering—suddenly paused.
"Um... probably..."
"It's truly unbelievable. You look so small; you don't look like a..."
Medea's mouth moved, but in the end, she didn't say the word "foodie." After all, in terms of actual combat power, she couldn't beat this "foodie" who looked a bit small.
Due to Medea's interruption, Saber hesitated and intended to put down the menu and let the waiter return to the kitchen to inform the chef of the order. However, Shirou spoke up at that moment.
"I think it's fine. Since there are so many of us, it doesn't matter if we have a few extra dishes."
Shirou's follow-up sentence caused Saber's hand, which was about to hand over the menu, to stop. The hand of the waiter, who had likewise reached out to take the menu, also paused in mid-air.
'Are you guys torturing me here?' The waiter, maintaining a polite smile on the surface, was full of complaints internally.
As for Saber, her mindset changed once again.
'Hmm... it's okay. I'm not eating this alone; everyone is going to eat, so it doesn't matter if I order a bit more...'
If Medea knew her thoughts at this moment, she would probably just pout her lips in annoyance. "Well, thank you so much!"
Finally, the menu reached Scathach's hands. After a look over, the Queen of the Land of Shadows set her sights on the shop's signature dish.
Mapo Tofu!
"There are only 'Spicy' and 'Super Spicy' options... it looks impressive. In that case, I'll take the challenge."
Scathach looked at the menu and, under the somewhat wide-eyed gaze of the Chinese restaurant's new manager—a girl with ox-horn hair buns—confidently ordered a portion of Super Spicy Mapo Tofu.
When the dishes were all served, what was presented before the dumbfounded gazes of the other customers was essentially the scene of Saber, with a calm face, opening her lips slightly to quickly and elegantly finish off the food.
Because she was eating with such gusto, Saber didn't even notice the change in the way the people around her were looking at her.
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