When Sharon had first appeared a few weeks ago, one of the first things she had cheerfully volunteered to care of was doing the dishes. Class VII had been unable to argue about that, but they had stubbornly insisted on being the ones to take the cutlery to the kitchen and clean up the table themselves. Or to be more precise, Alisa had stubbornly insisted, and her classmates had obligingly backed her up.
Nevertheless, on evenings when they ate at the dormitory, Sharon would never fail to offer to clean up the table for them, despite how they consistently declined each time. And just as regularly, there would be a glare from Alisa towards the maid.
The weather for the week had been particularly unpredictable, going from hot and humid one minute to torrential rainfall in the next. As a result, quite a number of people in Trista falling ill. Even for those who didn't quite get sick, the daily physical and mental rigors of Thors felt amplified. So when Alisa got sick one day, nobody else really had the energy to argue when Sharon wordlessly helped with cleaning up their table after dinner.
Having one empty chair at the dinner table does put a slight damper on everyone's mood, Rean thought to himself as he wiped the table clean.
"I hope Alisa's alright." Emma said, breaking the silence by voicing what was on everyone's minds.
Elliot nodded. "Yeah, it's not like her to skip dinner. Her cold must be especially bad."
"Must be the weather," Jusis gestured to the window, where the sound of rain on the glass was almost enough to drown out their conversation. "I don't know how it could have been so hot when we sat down to dinner, and yet so freezing by the time we finished."
"Trista is known to get these abrupt weather changes during the summer-" Machias began, ever so eager to one-up the noble, but Fie interrupted with a loud yawn, drawing everyone's attention.
"It makes for a comfortable sleep at least." She blinked drowsily as she started up the stairs. "Surely you all enjoy snuggling under the covers during cold weather?"
Laura's eyes radiated amusement. "It's favorable in the evenings, but in the mornings, having to get up for training in this weather is truly a test of willpower."
"It's a good thing we didn't have this kind of weather in Nord during our field study," Gaius remarked. "Or we would have been stuck in the yurts all day long listening to the wind howling."
"Also, it would have been quite difficult if we got sick while we were there." Rean called from the kitchen, where he had just rinsed the cloth that he had been using.
As they started heading up the stairs in twos and threes, their caretaker emerged from the kitchen.
"Master Rean? Could you wait for a minute longer? If you would be so kind, I have a few apricot jam sandwiches for Lady Alisa. It's a habit of hers back in Roer to eat this on stormy nights."
Several faces quirked in amusement as they pictured the headstrong archer rummaging through a fridge for comfort food.
"Sure, Sharon. I can bring it to her."
Fie, Laura, and Emma were climbing the stairs to the third floor in silence when the shortest member of the trio suddenly spoke up.
"Don't you think it's rather interesting that Sharon asked Rean to bring it? Given how we're the ones who have rooms on the same floor as Alisa?" With a knowing smirk at her two companions, she entered her room and closed the door behind her.
Hearing Rean's footsteps slowly coming up the stairs, Laura and Emma retired into their own rooms. Fie grinned to herself and wondered whether those two were pressing their ears to the door just as she was doing.
Rean knocked twice on Alisa's door. "Sharon asked me to bring up something."
"Give me a minute." It took a few seconds for her to sit up in bed, and a little while longer to panic over whether she was wearing something decent enough, before she finally told him to enter.
He opened the basket, and he suppressed a smile as the smell wafted out and instantly brightened her eyes. One look inside the basket showed her slices of bread cut into immaculate right triangles and slathered with jam right up to but not going over the edge. That precision told her who was responsible (because nobody else in Zemuria could possibly be that exact), and she allowed herself to feel grudging gratitude for her mother's sending Sharon over.
"Thanks, Rean." She said as brightly as she could manage, then added shyly, "Normally I only eat two, but there are three in here. You could have one of them if you want?"
"So, how was dinner?"
"A lot more quiet without you." He said in as deadpan a voice as he could muster, but he couldn't stop his lips from twitching.
"Shush, you!" Alisa mimed punching him. "I am not that noisy!"
Rean allowed his smile to emerge. "Oh, it was just the usual. Laura mentioned something about swords, Fie mentioned something about her boss at Zephyr, and Jusis and Machias-"
"Got into an argument over the nobility." Alisa finished the sentence for him. "You're right, nothing new there." She giggled, then broke off in a fit of coughing.
They ended up spending much more time talking than eating, but neither of them would have complained about it in the slightest.
It was over an hour later when Rean tucked Alisa into bed and returned back down. A written note on the kitchen table instructed him to leave the basket there, and get into bed himself to "accompany Lady Alisa in dreamland". Rolling his eyes, he threw the incriminating note into the wastebasket.
Nevertheless, he did dream of her that night.
