After the magic tool shop, lunchtime arrived.
Rei did not head straight home. Instead, he led Eve to a nearby diner, still in unusually high spirits.
"This place has a weird ordering system," he muttered. "Anyway, I'll get the food. Wait here."
He disappeared toward the counter before she could respond.
Eve sat alone at the small wooden table, looking around with quiet curiosity. It was her first time in a proper restaurant like this. The room buzzed with locals and adventurers: rough laughter, clinking plates, the rich smell of stew and grilled meat. The price board listed set meals starting at 300 lien—affordable, busy, popular.
Rei returned carrying an alarming number of plates, balanced precariously in his gauntleted arms.
"Sorry for the wait. Forgot to ask what you wanted, so I just grabbed stuff. This chair is wobbly as hell... It'll hold, right? Eh, whatever, too much trouble to change it."
He set most of the plates in front of Eve.
She stared at the mountain of food: steaming rice bowls, grilled skewers, thick vegetable stew, fried fish, bread rolls, and more.
"...I can't eat all this."
"It's training," Rei said matter-of-factly. "Healthy body, high-quality mana. You're too skinny anyway. Eat more."
"But..."
She trailed off, eyeing the impossible pile. She had eaten normal portions until yesterday. There was no way.
Rei shrugged. "Honestly, I didn't expect you to finish it all at once. Physically impossible for that scrawny frame to hold—"
Eve relaxed slightly. So he would eat most of it. That made sense.
"—which is why there's a spell that lets you take food into your body instantly, without even moving your mouth. Even someone with no appetite can become a big eater in seconds. Watch closely. It only takes an instant."
He lifted the faceplate of his helmet just enough, picked up a full plate, brought it to his mouth—
—and the entire plate vanished.
Gone in a blink. Food, porcelain, everything.
Rei repeated the process with the next plate. And the next. In moments, the table was nearly clear.
Eve's eyes widened.
"It's... disappeared?"
"Convenient, right? I'll teach you. First, hold the food like this."
He demonstrated.
"Like this?"
She mimicked him, lifting a skewer carefully.
"Then bring it to your mouth and chant: 'Meshi Kiel.' I can do it silently now, but you probably need the incantation at first."
Eve nodded seriously, focused.
"Meshikiel."
Nothing.
She tried again. And again. The skewer stayed stubbornly solid.
Rei's shoulders began to shake. He covered the front of his helmet with one hand.
"...It's hard," Eve said quietly. "Any tips?"
"Kukuku..."
He trembled harder.
"Of course it's a lie."
Eve froze.
After a long second, realization sank in.
She had been tricked.
"...That's terrible."
Rei laughed outright, body shaking with mirth.
"Why did you believe it? The plate disappeared too. That's the first clue something's off."
Eve's face stiffened into a sulk. She felt foolish. And annoyed.
"You're too innocent. Gotta be more suspicious. Otherwise people like me will trick you forever. Lesson learned, right? Though I doubt you'd fall for it again... hehe."
"Hmmph."
Eve's expression darkened further while Rei chuckled happily.
She did not believe in gods, but at that moment she wished for divine punishment.
"Let this be a lesson—Whoa!?"
A loud crack split the air.
Rei's chair collapsed beneath him.
He hit the floor hard, sprawling in an undignified heap.
"Ouch... what the hell? My butt... Oh. Chair broke."
Eve stared.
Perhaps her silent wish had been granted after all.
Rei glared up from the floor. "Hey. What are you laughing at? Enjoying my pain that much?"
"...?"
She touched her face. The corners of her mouth had lifted without her noticing.
She had been smiling.
Rei sighed, accepting a replacement chair from the apologetic waiter.
"Well, it's better than your usual blank stare. You don't have a bad face. Looks nicer when you smile."
Eve's heart gave a small, sudden thud.
"...Do you like my face, Rei?"
She asked quietly, testing.
"Nah. Not interested."
The reply came flat and immediate.
Eve's expression froze solid.
Rei, oblivious, retrieved the remaining food he had "magically" stored earlier and resumed eating with focused intensity.
Eve stared at the pile still in front of her.
"Now that I think about it... what are we going to do with this?"
Rei paused mid-bite.
"...What should we do?"
He sounded genuinely puzzled, as though the thought had never occurred to him.
Eve said nothing. She simply began eating her own portion in silence.
Rei mumbled something about help, but she pretended not to hear.
By the time she finished her share, Rei was still laboring through the mountain, huffing and muttering complaints between bites.
Watching him struggle, cheeks puffed out like a child refusing vegetables, Eve thought:
This person is so childish.
After lunch, they walked home under a clear sky.
The day's events replayed in Eve's mind.
Rei was strange.
One moment mature and distant, the next bursting with boyish excitement or pulling childish pranks.
Gruff and dismissive, yet quietly caring—removing collars, teaching magic, dragging her out to run, feeding her too much food.
His words and actions never quite matched.
A mismatched, puzzling person.
And she realized, walking beside him, that she knew almost nothing about him.
He never spoke of himself. Questions were deflected, brushed aside. He had resisted even giving his name. The helmet stayed on. There were "circumstances," he said, but nothing more.
She glanced sideways at him.
If she stayed close long enough, would he open up someday?
These warm, strange days would continue for a while yet.
Maybe one day he would tell her.
She hoped so.
Then—
"...Rain?"
A single cold drop struck her forehead.
She looked up.
The sky had darkened in moments. Bright sun swallowed by heavy black clouds. The world turned twilight-dark.
And high above, coiling lazily through the air—
A massive serpentine shape undulated against the storm.
Huge.
Ancient.
A dragon.
Eve's breath caught.
"—Eh?"
Rei stopped walking.
His helmet tilted upward.
For once, he did not grumble or laugh.
He simply stared.
And in the sudden silence between them, the first rumble of thunder rolled across the sky.