Chapter 11: Buffet Week
[ Ratha Guild – Guide Wing, Office 310, Floor 3 ]
Sera stirred honey into her tea, watching thin amber swirls dissolve slowly into the steaming liquid.
Her office was quiet this early in the morning. Soft sunlight spilled through the wide window, illuminating the tidy rows of documents stacked across her desk.
Formation week – the week before the raid, when every raid member practiced field exercises together – had finally arrived, and every guide in the guild was preparing for the same thing.
Extra mana stabilizers. Emergency supplements. Spare uniforms. Cleaning supplies.
And, inevitably, fresh sheets and condoms.
Formation week always meant a surge of guiding requests.
Espers who normally ignored their instability suddenly remembered how useful guides could be once a raid loomed on the horizon. Sera preferred to have everything organized ahead of time. The cleaner her schedule was, the easier it would be to manage the coming week.
And more importantly, the easier it would be to feed.
A small, pleased smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
If she were less dignified, she might have thrown her arms into the air and shouted in delight. Finally! A proper week of guiding sessions. A proper week of meals. Sera could have jumped for literal joy. Just days ago she had been at death's door, starving, and now she would finally be able to eat properly again.
In a strange twist of luck, the S-rank mage had been an opportunity in disguise. That guiding session had barely tied her over, keeping her half-starved body alive long enough to make it to the incoming buffet. Sera lifted the teacup to her lips, taking a quiet sip as her thoughts drifted back to the encounter, leaning back against the black sofa.
Initially, she had planned to play dumb and simply let him peek at her vessel. It would have been easier that way – let the curious S-ranker satisfy himself and leave thinking he had discovered something clever. But his slyness had irritated her.
The way Arlen's mana tendrils had slipped through her core, coiling and prodding like a child rummaging through a candy store, had been deeply rude. Did these pre-Filter humans have no manners?
Moreover, her hunger had already made her patience thin. Here she was, barely getting a morsel from him, and he was interrupting her meal to poke through her metaphorical underwear drawer. So she decided to teach him a lesson.
It had been a gamble, really. When she pushed her own tendril into his vessel, she had no guarantee she would find anything useful. What if she found nothing? She would have exposed her ability without any leverage. She was simply hoping for a weakness – some flaw hidden in the structure of his mind.
And then she found it.
Arlen Cunning's arrogance came from pride, and that pride was rooted in his mastery of mana.
So she took a piece of it. Not much.
Just enough to sting.
She wrested his control – the quiet familiarity that came from years of practice. A fragment of muscle memory, enough to leave his power slightly off balance. Sera had only meant to give it a tug. Just enough to make him realize how easily she could uncover all his little secrets and tiny perversions.
But then she looked at the memory. And for some reason, it looked appealing. Like she could eat it.
At that moment, her Instructor's lecture about not eating inappropriate things surfaced with chilling clarity. But as if she couldn't heed him at all, she tugged harder and stole the fragment, slithering her tendril back with its prize before finally digesting and swallowing it into her own core with fervor.
She had not expected it to be that satisfying. It was delicious. Why had her Instructor tried to forbid this? It wasn't as if she had crippled Arlen. She had only taken a sliver – barely enough to inconvenience him for a week or so. The memory would settle eventually, his instincts rebuilding themselves through practice. Nothing permanent had been lost.
And yet…
Don't eat things that aren't good for you.
Her Instructor had never been careless with his warnings. If he said something was dangerous, there had usually been a reason. Sera frowned faintly, rolling the thought over in her mind.
Perhaps her Instructor had simply been overly cautious. Or perhaps he simply enjoyed bullying her with rules. After all, she hadn't devoured the entire thing. Hardly enough to cause real harm.
The Instructor had always been merciless about rules, pouncing on the slightest excuse to scold her. Sera flushed. Perverted. Old. Man.
Still, a faint uneasiness lingered beneath her justifications, like a splinter beneath the skin. Sera stretched lazily, pushing the thought aside. No use thinking about it – it's time for formation anyways, she thought, glancing at the clock.
She tidied the tea set and quickly took off her clothes, her workout fit already underneath. Finishing off her ponytail, she leaned down and reached for the black duffel bag resting beside the chair. Slipping on her combat sneakers, Sera opened the sliding door and walked straight into something solid.
Or rather – someone.
Her forehead bumped lightly into a warm chest, the soft thud stopping her mid-step.
Sera blinked, tilting her head up.
Simon stared down at her, equally frozen, his bright green eyes wide with surprise. The light spilling from her office caught in his hair, turning the blond strands warm and bright.
"Oh–!" they both exclaimed at the same time.
Sera took a quick step back, one hand instinctively flying to her forehead.
"I–sorry," she said automatically.
Simon straightened abruptly, as if he had just realized how close they had been standing. A faint flush crept across his cheeks, the color spreading quickly up to the tips of his ears.
"I should be the one apologizing," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I didn't expect you to open the door so suddenly."
Sera looked at him for a moment. His blond hair was slightly messy, his training jacket slung over one shoulder as if he had rushed out the door.
"Anyways, good morning," he said.
"S–good morning," Sera replied, tilting her head slightly. What is he doing here?
He shifted his weight awkwardly.
"I…was wondering if you wanted to walk to the field together for formation training."
Sera blinked again. Simple request.
"Yeah. That sounds good. But how did you know I was here? Aren't the guiding offices out of the way?"
Simon rubbed the back of his neck, his ears turning faintly pink.
"I just…took a guess and it wasn't out of the way–I just happened to be in the area."
He knew guides tended to arrive early during formation week. Preparing for multiple guiding sessions required careful scheduling, and most guides preferred to organize their offices before the day began. So Simon had taken a guess that Sera might already be here.
In truth, he hadn't come just to walk her to formation training.
Formation week meant raid teams practiced together in the field, pushing their limits harder than usual. Stability sessions became more frequent as espers topped up their guiding beforehand to keep pollution levels low before a raid. It was normal for guides and espers to schedule more sessions during this period, and the guild relaxed its usual restrictions for raid preparation.
Simon had been thinking about asking her if she might be willing to guide him more than once during the training period. He wasn't sure if Sera would relax the usual limit of "maximum once per week" even during formation training. Their sync rate wasn't particularly high, and logically it didn't make much sense to request extra sessions from her when other guides could cleanse him more efficiently.
But that was the strange thing about the days leading up to a raid…
Espers and Guides grew…closer.
The danger changed things. War changed things.
When everyone knew they might walk into a gate and never return, the usual boundaries softened. People sought comfort where they could find it – extra guiding sessions, longer embraces, quiet nights spent together. If you might die tomorrow, wouldn't you want to spend one more sweet moment with someone you cared about?
Simon's ears turned pink. His crush on Sera had been slowly growing for months. Lately, though, it felt like a flower finally blooming into full spring. Somehow, without him noticing, spring had arrived in his heart. He hoped his excuse would be good enough. In truth, he simply wanted to see her more. (And if those extra sessions led to a few lingering, sensual moments with Sera…well, he certainly wouldn't complain.)
Once he resolved to ask her, the next problem had been figuring out how to do it. A text message felt too casual for something like this, especially since Simon already felt nervous texting her in general. So he had decided to ask in person. Heading directly to her dorm would have been far too forward, so instead he hoped he could catch her in her office before formation training began.
He was relieved that his guess had been right.
They stepped out into the hallway together. The guild corridors were quiet – a few distant footsteps echoed from somewhere deeper in the building. For a moment they walked in comfortable silence.
Simon glanced at Sera from the corner of his eye.
She walked with easy confidence, her duffel bag slung over one shoulder, her ponytail swaying lightly behind her. She looked relaxed this morning – like she had heard good news.
His ears warmed slightly. After a few seconds he cleared his throat.
"Actually…" Simon began, his voice a little more hesitant this time.
Sera turned her head slightly toward him.
"I was wondering if you'd be willing to guide me a little extra this week."
He quickly continued before she could respond.
"I mean, during formation training, since the guild relaxes restrictions this week."
He rubbed the back of his neck again, looking faintly embarrassed.
"I thought it might help keep my mind…stable. During the field exercises."
Simon stared determinedly at the hallway floor as he spoke, as if the tiles were suddenly extremely interesting. Sera watched him quietly.
Ah. She understood immediately.
It wasn't the words themselves – those were perfectly reasonable. Extra guiding during formation week was common enough. But Simon wasn't very good at hiding his emotions; it was the faint flush on his ears, the way he avoided eye contact, and the careful, overly logical explanation.
Sera had seen it many times before. The hopeful little tension in an esper who had developed a crush on their guide.
A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips. How cute.
Succubi were extremely sensitive to desire, and Simon's feelings were about as subtle as a candle in a dark room. Warm, nervous, earnest. How appetizing.
She tilted her head slightly as she studied him. Simon probably didn't even realize how obvious he was. From Simon's perspective, however, the moment was growing steadily more uncomfortable. Sera's expression hadn't changed at all. She simply looked at him with that same calm, thoughtful gaze guides often wore during sessions – quiet, unreadable, almost clinical.
The longer the silence stretched, the more Simon began to worry he had said something inappropriate. Perhaps he had been too forward. Perhaps asking for extra guiding had crossed some boundary he hadn't realized existed. What would he do if Sera never wanted to guide him again?
Inside Sera's mind, however, the situation looked very different.
Formation week had arrived. Buffet week.
And Simon had just politely offered himself for seconds.
Internally, Sera was practically bursting with delight. After barely surviving the past few days on the energy from that bratty S-ranker, the thought of a week full of eager espers requesting extra guiding sessions was almost enough to make her laugh out loud.
How considerate of Simon to present himself so willingly.
Sera opened her mouth to answer–
"Ah–hey! Simon," a voice called out from down the hallway. "So you had the same idea too?"
Simon startled slightly and turned toward the sound.
"Yoru!"
Leaning casually against the wall a short distance away, Yoru watched him with an easy grin. His arms were folded across his tight, fitted t-shirt, his long black hair tied into a loose ponytail down his back, sharp grey eyes watching them with open amusement as he stood there perfectly relaxed.
Simon knew him well enough. A B-rank Esper.
Yoru's room was only a few doors down from his in the Esper dorms, and the two of them crossed paths often – late nights returning from training, early mornings heading to the cafeteria, or the occasional quiet hour in the combat halls when most of the guild was still asleep.
They weren't close, exactly, but Simon respected him. Yoru was his senior and far more experienced in dungeon combat. Simon had learned more than a few things just from watching him train – the way Yoru moved through fights like a shadow between lantern lights, silent, efficient, and fast. One moment he was nowhere, the next his blade had already kissed an opening, poison doing the rest.
Even now, Simon couldn't quite tell how long Yoru had been standing there. Which meant there was a good chance he had heard everything.
Simon's expression grew flustered.
"Uh–"
"Relax," Yoru said lazily, pushing himself off the wall. "I'm here for the same thing."
He rolled one shoulder as he approached, eyes flicking briefly between the two of them before settling on Sera.
"Formation week," he added. "Of course everyone's lining up for Guide Yun."
Simon's face turned red.
"I wasn't lining up."
Yoru smirked.
"Sure you weren't."
Then he looked back at Sera.
"So," he said casually, "you got any openings this week?"
"Plenty," Sera chirped brightly.
Inside, she was already tallying the situation with quiet satisfaction. Meal number two.
Yoru was one of her regulars – one Sera was very familiar with. Blunt, forward, and completely shameless about his habits. Unlike Simon, Yoru never bothered disguising his intentions behind polite excuses or careful reasoning. He had been the very first Esper she guided when she began her probationary rounds at Ratha. Back then, his candid nature had actually helped her adjust to the guild's culture far more quickly than she expected.
In fact, he had been the one who helped her establish her rules.
"You need boundaries, Sera," he had told her once, leaning against the balcony railing outside the banquet hall, cigarette in hand. "Otherwise, I'm going to push as much as possible. And trust me – other Espers will too."
At the time, Sera had taken that advice very seriously. Her succubus nature was naturally alluring, and while that made acquiring meals easier, she had little patience for unruly food. It was far better to establish limits early before a pushy meal started testing her patience.
Sera tilted her head slightly now as she considered him. "Though," she added lightly, "since you're B-rank, the cleanse rate won't be particularly effective."
Yoru shrugged immediately, completely unconcerned.
"Yeah, of course." He shoved his hands into his pockets.
"You know I'm not here for the purification," Yoru said, winking at her.
Sera gave him a knowing look.
"You're never here for the purification," she shot back.
Yoru grinned.
"See? This is why we get along."
Beside them, Simon's ears turned a deeper shade of red.
Everyone in the guild understood what guiding sessions involved. Espers joked about it in the locker rooms, and rumors circulated through the dorms about which guides were particularly skilled in the more…intimate aspects of their work.
But it was rarely spoken about directly – usually hidden behind euphemisms and a layer of polite distance. Yoru did not believe in polite distance.
The casual way he said it – right there in the hallway to Simon's crush, as if they were discussing the weather – made Simon wish the floor would open up and swallow him whole.
Yoru continued, entirely at ease. "If we're about to walk into a gate where one of us will definitely die…" he shrugged, "I might as well get hot and heavy with some pretty guides before potentially kicking the bucket."
Simon looked like he might combust. Sera, meanwhile, didn't look bothered in the slightest.
"Alright," she said easily. "I'll set you for your usual slot and then you can send me your preferred times for the extra ones."
Sera was pleased. She had to simply breathe air and espers were walking in to be her breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Her internal satisfaction grew rapidly as she mentally rearranged her schedule.
Buffet week truly had begun.
Then she turned back toward Simon. "And Simon," she added cheerfully, "I'll set you with your usual slot too. Multiple sessions are fine this week. Request as much as you want."
Simon blinked. For a moment, he looked completely stunned, then his ears turned red all over again.