Weekends at the Academy seed to sort out one of two ways for most: Stay on campus, or stay off campus.
This was because travel back to the Academy was exhaustive on foot and expensive by air car, so students tended to maximize their ti outside the Academy when they did go.
But for Kir, money wasn't going to be a problem for a little while, so when his date with Kordia and Rainier finally ca, he insisted on paying for everything as they ventured into the city, doing a bit of light shopping and sightseeing as they walked together.
Students weren't an uncommon sight, and more than once the trio waved to soone dressed in the sa uniform, though they tended not to look Kir in the eyes.
Most of their ti was spent in the middle district. Kir noted that people there were less likely to show outright hostility toward him, but the looks he got were still wary.
"W-wow..." Kordia said as soon as they arrived at their dinner destination, which Kir had decided on thanks to so helpful advice from Stella.
While she'd never been out of the shop, she did acquire quite the trove of knowledge on Norneau for direction-giving purposes. At Kir's insistence, however, she stayed in the Academy; to which she boasted loudly in her reply that she would have a sequel to her last book out by the end of the day.
"This looks fancy," Rain declared with a big smile on his face. He was wearing his halo out, letting it rest on his head like an over-large circlet that refused to stay horizontal.
The three of them were still in their uniforms, and while there was no written dress code, as soon as they entered it beca apparent that this restaurant - located in the city's middle tier - catered to the wealthy.
However...
"Welco to The Lake and Lily... um..." the concierge, a young beastkin lady with white, wooly hair and lamblike features tapered into silence for a long mont before ending with "...students." She smiled nervously, eyes locked on Kir, who had led the way in.
"Is there a problem?" Kir asked, internally suppressing his self-recriminations at not having foreseen this potential turn. "We'd like a table for three."
"No problem! Let just, um, ask the manager." The concierge left, following the age-old tradition of making a problem into soone else's problem.
"They've got so really nice tables," Rain noted obliviously.
The manager ca out shortly, an elven man wearing an officious smile as the sheepish concierge hovered behind him.
"Ah, students. We normally don't see many Academy students unless it's a holiday. Would you be willing to demonstrate that you can, in fact, afford to dine here? I'm sorry but students have been known to dine and disappear at tis." His eyes kept flicking up towards Kir's horns and down to his tail.
Kordia started tugging on Kir's shirt, but Kir simply reached into the dinsional storage on his left forearm and produced a gold coin, which he flipped to the manager. "That should more than cover our als," he said, not wanting to deal with the man any more than he had to.
"Ah right this way," the manager said, leading them towards a section of the restaurant that was walled off from the rest. He opened the double doors to the room and gestured for them to sit at the large, circular table.
Kir, Kordia, and Rain took their seats before the concierge ca by, nervously dropping off nus. "Your server will be by soon," was the only thing she said to them before closing the door behind her.
As soon as the door shut, Kir let out the breath he'd been holding.
"Kir, you didn't have to do that, we could have gone sowhere else," Kordia said.
"It's fine," Kir said. "I just want us to have a good ti and not worry."
"They even gave us a private room," Rain smiled at the decor around them.
Kordia winced, which ant she likely was on the sa page as Kir. The private room was so the manager could take his money and keep him out of sight. Their server, a much younger elven girl who looked related to the manager, showed up a few monts later. One look at the nu told Kir that he was at serious risk of overpaying, at least Rain started ordering.
"Can I get the aurochs steak with honeyed carrots, mashed tubers and red wine sauce. Oh and a dragon's egg soup bowl, extra spicy. One broasted raptor, and the..." Rain paused to look at the nu once more "Flan. For dessert."
"A man who knows what he wants," the server winked at him before addressing everyone. "Is that for all of you?"
"I'll have the sumr berry salad with chargrilled raptor," Kir said.
"I'd also like the aurochs steak..." Kordia said nervously, looking at Kir as if he would disapprove. He gave her an encouraging smile instead.
"Anything to drink?" the server asked.
Before Kir could answer, Kordia spoke up.
"Wine! Um... Tayberry if you have it," she looked at Kir again and he shrugged.
"I'll bring the bottle," the server said with a respectful bow.
Kir was pleasantly surprised to discover nothing amiss about the al when it arrived. Between the three of them, the conversation was pleasant and mostly about what they dealt with at school. Well, the conversation between Kordia and Kir to be more precise. Rain was too busy stuffing his face and answering in unintelligible muffled sounds that seed either positive or negative.
Kordia relaxed a lot more after her first glass of wine, and soon was leaning against Kir as they gossiped about school. Kir told them all about what Professor Ingotszen called him to the office for.
When Kordia asked if he got anything out of it, he answered, "It got interested in seeing the Great Dungeon of Duat."
"Mmph!" Rain swallowed his bite before speaking this ti. "I've been wanting to go there for years!"
Kordia's assessnt was a bit more on the money, "They say if you can make it back from the fifth strata, you're set for life!" her eyes had a glint of ambition about them. "Of course, you have to be strong to get that far. It's the ultimate test for mages."
"Then we should go soti!" Kir proposed. The mood dampened a bit as soon as he proposed it. Then he rembered. "Oh. Right. You both have to get married after you graduate."
"Just getting there is pretty much a month in the desert," Kordia sighed.
"And the only way to get past the third stratum is to have a full team of adventurers. That far in, people stay for weeks at a ti," Rainier added, still seeming a bit wistful as he finally drank his cup of wine.
"I'm sorry," Kir said. "I didn't an to-"
"No sorry," Kordia said, poking Kir. "We can imagine it. Not like it's gonna happen but we can think about it. Maybe try one of the close by dungeons if the school will let us. Is becoming a delver sothing you want to do when you graduate?"
Kir grew thoughtful.
"I don't know what I really want to do yet... But after I figure out things, I think I want to leave the world better than when I found it." He took a bite of bread and then asked, "You said there's a dungeon close by?"
"Yessir!" Rain said as he poured himself another glass.
"You need an adventurer's badge to get in, but the entrance is just outside the city. You can see it from the towers sotis," Rain tried to pass Kir the cup he'd just filled.
"I, uh... shouldn't drink..." Kir said, trying to politely refuse.
"Relax a little. You've been tense since you got here," Kordia said, pressing herself against him. "No one out there knows we're all on a date," she giggled, tilting her ears slightly towards the door.
As if to disprove her point, the door suddenly slid open and the elf from earlier ca in.
"Just checking to make sure everything is alright," she smiled. "Can I get you another bottle?" she asked.
""Yes!"" Rain and Kordia said at the sa ti.
She was gone and back rather quickly, and as soon as the door closed again, Rain decided to take Kordia's side.
"Have you ever had wine before?" he asked.
"No," Kir said. "I just don't think I should drink until I'm an adult."
"But you have your wings. That ans you're an adult, right?" Rain said, rubbing his hand along Kir's back as he offered Kir a cup of wine.
Kir flinched. He'd showed Rainier his tattoos, and an interesting effect of it was that touch was dulled where they stored his wings, but right in between, along his spine, was quite sensitive. Even with all his misgivings, he wasn't used to this kind of peer pressure. "I guess... a little will be alright..."
He took a sip.
It was cold, with a sumry flavor, fruity and bright. Looking at the bottle he noticed there was an etched magic circle for cooling, glowing faintly from recent use.
"Wow you're glowing," Kordia said. "You must be a lightweight," she chuckled, encouraging him.
Kir continued to sip, before taking a longer pull. He rembered...
Wine, but no one to drink it with. The sense of a final night. A final task. A final ssage...
The mory from his past life was overwhelming... his old self had felt... empty.
Kir looked at his Kordia and Rainer. The two people who he'd been lucky to et, to talk to, and now to date. He drank down the glass in one final gulp, exhaling a satisfied gasp as his vision started to get a bit blurry. He wasn't going to let himself feel that way, ever again.
He was going to-
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