Morning.
By the time Shiina-san slowly woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.
It seemed like she had slept for a very long time.
Shiina-san's first reaction was to check her watch.
The time on it was already 8:50.
Which meant... she had slept for about five hours?
"Shiina-san, you're awake? Do you feel unwell anywhere?"
Hoshinomiya-sensei, seeing Shiina-san awake, quickly walked over and used a simple instrument nearby to check Shiina-san's physical condition.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei, why are you here? Besides a slight headache, I feel... a bit weak."
Shiina-san seemed to want to get up from the bed, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she felt her legs give way and sat back down on the bed.
"This is normal, Shiina-san. You experienced symptoms of stress-induced unconsciousness. However, judging from your reaction, the stress symptoms seem to have disappeared. In that case, you just need good rest to recover quickly. As for why I'm here... it's because I'm the only doctor on the island~"
Hoshinomiya-sensei smiled brightly.
But Shiina-san couldn't smile.
Because she remembered what she had seen... "Hiyori, are you awake? I've come to see you~"
A familiar small head peeked out from outside the tent.
"Amane-san?"
"Amane-san!! Shiina-san needs good rest now, so I'll take care of the food you brought."
Hoshinomiya-sensei said, reaching out to grab the lunchbox in Amane-san's hand, but Amane-san deftly dodged her.
"There's still a lot of porridge, Hoshinomiya-sensei. You can go to Class C and eat with them. This is specially prepared for Hiyori by me."
Shiina-san felt a warmth in her heart when she heard that Amane-san had even cooked porridge for her.
"Actually, you didn't have to go to so much trouble."
As soon as Amane-san entered the tent, Shiina-san smelled a rich aroma of meat.
Amane-san wouldn't make her eat meat first thing in the morning, would she?
"Patients need to eat more delicious and nourishing food to recover faster."
Amane-san said, taking out a small bowl and a wooden spoon from the lunchbox. It looked like it was handmade.
Then, Amane-san poured a full bowl of porridge for Shiina-san.
After seeing what was in the porridge, Shiina-san's face immediately turned unsightly. The porridge was covered with black and yellow floating bits, and occasionally, she could see chopped greens and unknown meat.
"I learned this from a classmate, Xiaoyu, in our class. In her hometown, it's called preserved egg and lean meat porridge, and she said it tastes good. But because of the ingredients, I used lamb instead. I didn't expect the luxury cruise ship's kitchen to actually have preserved eggs."
Amane-san finished speaking and handed the bowl to Shiina-san.
"This... can I really drink this?"
Shiina-san looked at the floating bits with some suspicion.
"Probably."
"Probably? Amane-san, haven't you made this before?"
Shiina-san suddenly realized that Amane-san's way of speaking was a bit too strange.
"No."
"Huh?"
Just as the two were staring at each other.
Hoshinomiya-sensei's voice came from beside them.
"It tastes pretty good."
Amane-san curiously turned her head and saw that Hoshinomiya-sensei had found a bowl from somewhere and had already secretly eaten the remaining bowl from the lunchbox.
"Hoshinomiya-sensei! Didn't I say you could eat whatever you wanted in Class C? You're actually snatching food from the injured Hiyori..."
"It's okay, I can't eat that much by myself."
Seeing Amane-san cook porridge for her and speak up for her, Shiina-san was a little touched and quickly stopped Amane-san from continuing.
"Well, since Hiyori, you said so..."
Seeing that Shiina-san didn't say anything, Amane-san could only give a sidelong glance to Hoshinomiya-sensei, who was secretly laughing.
"Hehe."
Shiina-san also started laughing, then took a big gulp of the porridge. As soon as it entered her mouth, Shiina-san's eyes lit up.
The porridge must have been cooked for a considerable time, especially the lamb, which was almost stewed to tenderness, making it almost like a meat stew.
The flavors of preserved egg and lamb blended together, and there seemed to be seasonings like ginger, too. In short, the taste was quite strong, but for the weak Shiina-san, this was the best tonic.
After finishing the porridge, Shiina-san finally remembered what had happened that morning.
"Oh right, Amane-san, yesterday I encountered something terrifying by the well. If you're okay, definitely don't go there."
Seeing Shiina-san's serious expression mixed with a hint of fear.
Amane-san unnaturally averted her gaze.
"Look into my eyes, I'm very serious! I really saw a monster!"
Shiina-san's serious expression still looked quite cute to Amane-san.
But... if she knew that Amane-san was the one who scared her unconscious... what kind of expression would she have?
Hoshinomiya-sensei saw Amane-san's somewhat awkward expression, her eyes darted around, and then she smiled and sat down beside Shiina-san.
"Shiina-san, what did you see?"
At Hoshinomiya-sensei's question, in an instant, Shiina-san seemed to return to that scene.
"White, white long hair covering her face... very pale skin... and a pair of terrifying purple eyes... It was too scary, it was just like..."
Before Shiina-san could finish speaking, her gaze met Amane-san's.
Looking at Amane-san's large, bright, blinking eyes.
Shiina-san tentatively covered Amane-san's face with her hair.
"So... Amane-san, you're the monster!!"
"Hey, hey, I'm not a monster! That's slander! Hoshinomiya-sensei, someone is slandering me!"
After a period of playful banter, Shiina-san finally understood what had happened then.
However, from Amane-san's description, Shiina-san simply didn't believe her account.
Rather than believing that a hair tie had fallen into the well, she was more inclined to believe that Amane-san had been waiting there all along.
The reason she came to this conclusion was that she hadn't heard any movement; even climbing would surely make some noise.
Amane-san had made absolutely no sound at that time.
This indicated that Amane-san had been lurking at the wellhead from the beginning.
In that case... Shiina-san immediately realized a serious problem.
Her identity had probably been exposed.
By the afternoon, after Shiina-san was able to move freely, she quickly rushed back to Class C's campsite, where she ran into Sakaue-sensei and Ryuuen-san.
During Shiina-san's unconsciousness, only Ryuuen-san could make the second check-in.
Shiina-san's absence from roll call had resulted in Class C being deducted five class points.
"Sakaue-sensei, Ryuuen-san, I'm very sorry, I..."
Before Shiina-san could apologize, Ryuuen-san interrupted her.
"I've already heard the details from Sakaue-sensei. This isn't your fault. It seems I underestimated Miyako. I originally thought it was about catching the king first, but I didn't expect her to be like a fish in water in Class C. Neither you nor Ishizaki could restrain her, which led to us being completely exposed on just the second day."
Completely exposed?
"Ryuuen-san, do you mean she knows I also have a special identity?"
Ryuuen-san shook his head.
"She already knows you're a key card holder and I'm an infiltrator. After you fainted, she picked up the key card. The urgent matter is that we can only accelerate the plan."
Ryuuen-san looked at Amane-san, who was arguing with Ibuki in the distance, with an unfriendly gaze.
"But our food isn't ready yet."
Shiina-san recalled the previously arranged plan and said with some concern.
"But we have no choice, do we?"
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