Know Thyself*
Sōma rushed out of the kitchen to the entrance hall, where he found Erina, pale in the face, trying to wake the unconscious Benjamin. He felt his body-temperature drop by several degrees as he entered the hall. The redhead tried to speak, but to no avail.
"M- Maybe he had too much rice juice yesterday." Nakiri's voice was clearly shaken by the incident.
"No he went to his room when Ryōko returned with the bottles; so it can't be because of that… Let's get him onto one of the couches in the dining room for now."
To say the endeavor was difficult would be an understatement. It was no easy feat to carry the Dane's body in deadweight by his arms, but Sōma barely recognized the labor-intense task. His mind was preoccupied with other thoughts; because Ben hadn't been the only one to retire early, Nakiri had as well… and she was unusually on edge this morning, had something happened between the two of them. The first-seat remembered the shock he had gotten when Benjamin had used the word 'propose'; sure it had only been a second in real time before he continued to explain it, but it had seemed like an eternity to Sōma. Why had it felt so long? Well it's not every day you think someone is asking your friend's hand in marriage. Yeah that must be it, Sōma.
After they had finally managed to lift the newcomer onto an ottoman in the dining room, Nakiri crouched next to his face, a worried look in her eyes. Once again the redhead felt his body freeze to ice and go numb - something had definitely happened between them.
Nearly an hour passed by, with the two of them putting cold presses on his forehead, before Benjamin regained consciousness. It didn't take long for Nakiri to explain the situation; again she was as tense as a board of hardwood - What is up with her today? Sōma thought to himself.
When Ben told them that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, something inside the first-seat pushed him to speak. "I get that. Sometimes I can't sleep for hours on end, until I work myself hard in the kitchen." What was that, you idiot? This isn't a competition. Why would you say such a thing? It's not something to brag about, it's reckless behavior. The redhead mentally slapped himself for that comment, but Benjamin couldn't stop a chuckle. "Really, Yukihira-san? Maybe the two of us aren't that different" Sōma wasn't sure if that meant as a compliment, but he didn't get the time to mold it over. Since Ben hadn't had anything to eat all day, he asked Sōma to make him something.
When the first-seat stepped into the kitchen he could hear Benjamin and Nakiri were talking, but their voices were muffled by the walls and the door. He couldn't help it, but he felt uneasy leaving them alone. Sōma still knew practically nothing about the Dane, was it really okay to let them be? Well, I'll be able to hear Nakiri scream if he tries anything.
The redhead had lost track of time when the congee was finally done. He had scrapped his experiments for another time and focused solely on the porridge, tasting every so often to mimic his mom's perfectly. At one point he heard Nakiri through the wall, but he tried his best not to listen in; it was a private conversation after all. He grabbed two bowls to serve the porridge in; one for himself and one for Benjamin.
After having eaten his share, Sōma returned to the dining room with the other portion. Nakiri was just about to take it, when Ben spoke up "I think I can manage the Congee myself, Nakiri-san. I passed out, but my arms are intact." He gave the redhead an almost unnoticeable glance before taking the bowl himself. The redhead sat down next to the headmistress as the newcomer ate. Was it just him, or did she tense up again when he did so?
"It's really good Yukihira-san" was all Benjamin could say before returning to the rice porridge. The first-seat couldn't help but smile. It was really close to moma's today. He explained to the newcomer that he didn't deserve any credit for the dish. He felt a pang in his heart when he said it out loud. It was ok thinking about her, but talking about it made it real somehow. Sōma had been very young the last time he saw his mom, and even to this day his dad refused to talk about it. So many years had gone by, that he wasn't sure how she died… or even if she actually died - stop hoping, Sōma. Mom is dead.
He looked up and saw something that made Ben seem infinitely more human. Pure, unadulterated sympathy gleamed in the Dane's eyes; but when Sōma blinked, he face was buried in the Congee once more. That man's hiding something… surely the pasta dish isn't the secret weapon of his cooking arsenal, there must be something more; and I want to know what I'm dealing with. Before he knew it the first-seat had challenged the stranger… the redhead didn't understand why he had this need to compete with Benjamin, but that was too late to ponder on.
Sōma was used to more of a reaction when he was going up against someone than wanting a chewing gum. Nakiri offered some of hers, but that apparently wouldn't suffice. Ben wanted a nicotine gum, which he had left in his room. The headmistress wrapped his left arm around her shoulder. Sōma tensed of what would happen if they went to Benjamin's room alone; so he wrapped the Dane's other arm around his own shoulder.
Ben had protested them helping him, but arm in arm they made their way to his room. He opened his door softly, and a dimly-lit room welcomed them. At first it looked like any other room at the Polar Star, but then the eyes adjusted to the light. On the pin board the dorm tenants used for letters and postcards, was created a literal web of different colored strings; each going from one scrap of paper to another. Every piece of paper had something written on them in English, which sadly wasn't Sōma's forte, that and the fact there was no lights turned on made it impossible to read.
As Benjamin explained what it was, the redhead began looking for his own name… for some reason he really wanted to know the status between himself and his friends. Nakiri was apparently studying another part of the board, maybe she was looking for her piece of paper. He quickly learned the gist of the color-scheme: Green was 'friendship', dark blue was 'family', pink was 'in love', and red was 'going steady'. Then there were more difficult colors to discern: light blue, yellow and black; all of which Sōma couldn't guess the meaning of. Sometimes there would be multiple strings between to paper scraps, indicating conflicting relations.
"So this is the extent of what you learned. I wish I could do something similar." The first-seat finally managed to utter. He glanced quickly at the blonde girl before his eyes returned to the diagram. It would be nice to know what Nakiri is thinking sometimes… unknown to Sōma; she was sneaking a peak at him moments after he did, blushing.
"Careful what you wish for, mate. To be able to do what I do means no one can hide anything from you." Benjamin continued explaining after a heavy sigh…
Sōma let the gravity of that lifestyle sink in. Always having ones guard up in fear of being hurt or hurting others - It could be difficult enough as an average person, but seeing past every white lie would be too painful. Ben must be living a quite lonely life… well; we'll have fun with him here.
It would be an understatement to say the redhead was disappointed by Benjamin's dish that evening. It certainly looked stunning, but the actual taste was nothing breathtaking; just a better than average pea-soup. The first-seat inquired him if it really was the best he could make. The Dane gave a tongue in cheek "Best tasting? Whatever do you mean, Yukihira-san? The brief clearly said my most impressive dish, not the tastiest."
"Benjamin Williams you cheeky asshole, you get away with that dish on a technicality" Sōma thought. He accepted that the newcomer would keep his cooking-prowess secret… for now.
The night progressed similarly to the night before with a few key differences. First of all; Benjamin was drinking the rice juice with them, not that it made any impact as he was the only one actually old enough to have tried alcohol. Secondly; instead of playing 'old maid', Ben and Nakiri Alice were playing their own version of '20 questions' with some bizarre rules.
As the newcomer had retired early from the party the day before, he'd never seen Isshiki-senpai's infamous 'naked apron'. What the dorm members had thought could be a fun episode, was immediately cut down; Benjamin didn't even flinch.
When the group couldn't find their temporary tenant the next day, a wild goose chase began. It was only when Nakiri explained she had accepted the business-arrangement, they managed to find out he'd left the country.
He's even harder to keep tab on than pops. Well; I doubt it'll be the last thing we see of Benjamin Williams.
This concludes the sixth chapter of A taste of Knowledge, I hope you liked it… if you did, you can do the different kinds of following and commenting. Next chapter will be after a short time skip, up to more current events in the manga… on a related note, I might not be able to post next week as I'm out of the country, but I'll try to see if I can work some magic.
*Inscription at the entrance of the 'oracle of Delphi'
- One-of-Stone out
