Chapter 238: Serie's Intrusion
It was almost noon, and the sun was beginning to get hot. Rhodes's gaze drifted over to a nearby restaurant, and he was just about to suggest they head back when he felt a familiar flicker of magic. Someone was casting a wide-area detection spell, and it was lingering on him. Serie. She was awake, and she was looking for them.
A smile played on his lips, but he didn't say anything, just acted as if he hadn't noticed. He would just wait for her to come to them.
"Teacher," Flamme said, pointing to the same restaurant he had been looking at, "it's almost noon. Shall we have lunch here?" It was a perfect opportunity to extend their time alone together.
"Alright," he nodded. "Let's see what the local cuisine is like."
The restaurant wasn't too crowded yet. She almost instinctively took the seat by the window, on the inside, and left the outer seat for him. He had been about to sit across from her, but he saw the expectant look on her face and, with a small, almost imperceptible sigh, he sat down beside her.
As they waited for their food, she rested her chin on her hands and looked out at the bustling street, a contented smile on her face. To be here, with him, just like a normal person on a normal date... it was a dream come true.
But as she smiled, a small frown came to her face. A strange, nagging feeling... as if she had forgotten something important. What was it? It was like she had forgotten a person. And then, as the food was being served, it came to her.
Frieren!
She had promised to have breakfast sent to her, but in her excitement, she had completely forgotten.
A pang of guilt, a fleeting and an insignificant thing, was quickly washed away by the immense joy of being alone with him, and the anticipation of their meal. It's fine, it's fine, she told herself. She's an elf. To miss a single meal... it's nothing. And if she's really hungry, she'll just find something on her own. I'll bring her back some dessert later, as an apology. And with that, she pushed the thought from her mind and turned her full attention back to him.
"Teacher, you have to try this," she said with a bright and a sunny smile, and put the largest piece of steak on his plate. She, for her part, just took a small sip of her soup, her gaze fixed on his face.
Just then, a figure appeared at their table. She unceremoniously pulled out the chair across from them and sat down.
Her golden hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and her emerald eyes were as cold as a winter's day, her beautiful face a mask of a pure and an unadulterated indifference.
Serie.
Her movements were so natural, so effortless, as if she were supposed to be here. Her gaze flickered from him, to the girl beside him, a girl who was now a frozen and a silent thing. A new and a different kind of a pressure now filled the air.
Her own hand, which had been about to serve him more food, was now a frozen and a silent thing in the air, and the smile on her own face was now a stiff and an unnatural one. Her heart was now a pounding drum in her chest.
Teacher Serie! When did she wake up? And how did she find us!? It's over...
He, on the other hand, was completely unfazed. "That was fast," he said with a casual smile. "Want to join us?" he asked, and gestured to the food on the table.
She did not answer him right away. Her gaze went from him, to the girl, and then back to the girl's now-pale and a nervous face. "What are you two doing here?" her voice was a flat and an emotionless sound, but the girl, she could feel the storm that was now brewing beneath it.
"Oh, just taking a walk," he said with a light and an easy smile. "The weather was so nice, and she was free, so I thought I'd take her for a stroll." He was telling the truth, of course. He was just leaving out a few... details.
At his words, she, too, seemed to come back to life. She forced a smile, though her own voice was a little... shaky. "Yes, Teacher Serie. I just... wanted to see the city. And... and to have a meal with Teacher, and... and to discuss our own... recent adventures." It's just a meal, she told herself. A normal thing for a teacher and an apprentice to do. But her own heart was now a wild and a frantic thing, and she was so, so afraid that her other teacher would see right through her.
She listened in silence, her own face a blank and an unreadable mask. Her gaze flickered from one to the other. She could see the nervousness in the girl's own eyes, and she could feel it, the something that he was hiding. She did not yet fully understand human emotions, but she was not a fool. She knew that the atmosphere between them was... different, different from how it had been in their own, quiet and a secluded, forest.
A walk? That was a ridiculous excuse. He had seen a thousand cities, had lived a thousand years. What could this small and an insignificant place possibly have that would interest him? And to have brought the girl, but not her...? She was curious.
But she did not ask. She just leaned back in her chair, and with her arms crossed, she gave them a look that said, "I am not speaking".
And her own, silent, scrutinizing gaze made the girl feel as if she were sitting on a bed of a sharp and a pointy needles, and she wanted nothing more than to just run away.
After a long, long time, she finally gave a slight nod, a silent and a reluctant acceptance of their story. She turned her gaze to him. "I'm hungry," she said, and then, her own eyes fell on the steak that the other girl had given him.
"I've already had a bite."
"I don't mind."
And with a movement that was so quick and so sudden that it was almost a snatch, she took the plate from him.
He couldn't help but laugh. "I wasn't going to not share. Slow down."
She took up a knife and a fork and began to eat, as if her own intrusion was the most natural thing in the world.
And the girl, she watched, and saw the easy way he had just given her the steak, the steak that she, herself, had given him, and the way the other was now eating it, with a sense of a pure and an unadulterated entitlement. The smile on her own face now faltered, and the joy she had felt just a moment before was now replaced by a new and a terrible feeling of a pure and an utter defeat. She looked down at her own, now cold and a tasteless, soup.
A new and a strange, and an utterly unbearable, silence now fell over their table.
He looked at her, at her head now bowed low, and then at the other, and a new and a strange, and an utterly unbearable, thought now came to his own mind. Don't tell me, he thought, that I have stumbled into a... a shuraba?
(End of chapter)
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