The land stretched wide.
Mangrove trees surrounded the area, while caretakers moved in the distance to tend to them. It felt untouched at a glance, yet clearly maintained.
Up on the hill, away from it all, a picnic cloth had been laid out. Lancel and Ishtar sat together.
Ishtar opened the basket.
At once, the contents began to move. One by one, dishes rose from within, floating gently through what was clearly the usage of telekenesis, settling down before them.
"Uh...?"
This wasn’t what Lancel had expected.
He had imagined sothing simple. Boxed sandwiches, maybe. Sothing easy.
Instead, what ca out of the basket was sothing out of a five-star restaurant.
A plate of beef bourguignon. The at was tender and coated in a thick, dark sauce. Beside it was a coq au vin, the aroma of wine imdiately hitting Lancel. Next was a neatly arranged serving of ratatouille.
Then ca a bowl of smooth and rich truffle risotto. A plate of seafood linguine appeared next, clearly from the shrimp and shellfish placed over the coated pasta.
And finally, a set of glossy and delicate fruit tarts, arranged as if they had never been inside a basket at all.
Everything settled into place, leaving Lancel in disbelief.
"...This is a picnic?"
"You can’t have a picnic without truffle risotto. It’s a standard."
She giggled, as if what she said made perfect sense.
"...."
It didn’t.
Lancel knew that much. He had gone on picnics before with Leticia and rilda. None of them had ever looked anything like this.
Heck, none of the food here was even sothing he could casually afford for a regular al, let alone sothing to bring out for a picnic.
"What are you waiting for?" Ishtar leaned slightly closer. "Go on. Try it."
Lancel reached out.
"Don’t mind if I do, then..."
"Yes. Go ahead, Assistant Lancel."
Lancel began tasting the dishes one after another, taking his ti with each as Ishtar observed every small reaction.
"The fruit tarts are really good," he said after a mont. "I didn’t think fruit could taste like this."
"Really?" Ishtar’s lips curved into a smile. "I made those myself."
"Seriously?"
Lancel looked at her again, surprised.
Truthfully, everything laid out before him felt too refined for anything he was used to. It was difficult to even put most of it into words. But the fruit tarts were at least sothing he could understand.
Seeing Ishtar like this, without her usually getting into his pants, felt different. She resembled the kind of refined noblewoman he had once seen back in Emadestrin.
Even the way she ate reflected that. In contrast, his own way of eating felt rough. And that thought, for so reason, made him feel oddly embarrassed.
Ishtar elegantly wiped her lips with a napkin. After that, she took out a small lip gloss from her purse, lightly applying it with a few subtle puckers before turning back to him.
"Assistant Lancel. May I tell you a story?"
Lancel paused for a mont, swallowing what was in his mouth.
"A story?"
"Yes."
Ishtar straightened slightly, then began.
"Once upon a ti, there was a little girl born into a great family. But despite that, she was never ant to beco anything greater."
"Uh...?"
"When she asked why, she was told it was because she belonged to the second branch of the family. No matter how talented she was, she was never ant to overshadow the main line. She was expected to remain... diocre."
Ishtar paused.
"As she grew older, the little girl began to hate it. She hated her bloodline and the circumstances of her birth. She didn’t understand why she had to stand behind others, especially when those others were no more capable than she was."
"...."
"She had a cousin. A genius. The greatest of their generation. Even with the difference in age, everything revolved around that cousin. And then there were her nieces, around her own age, who were expected to shine more brightly than her."
Her lips curved into a bitter smile.
"She wondered if it was a sin to be born where she was."
"Um..."
"So the little girl, despite her talent, was forced to remain average. But she didn’t like that. She wanted to shine. She, too, wanted to stand out, even just once."
Her fingers brushed against the edge of the picnic cloth.
"To escape that, she turned to fantasies, reading stories from dusk till dawn. But what caught her attention wasn’t the main character."
She looked at Lancel.
"It was always the second lead. The one who tried, who struggled, who stayed... and was never chosen."
"...."
"And that’s when the little girl realized sothing."
She leaned back just a bit.
"If the second lead wanted a happy ending, then she couldn’t stay in her place. She had to take what the main lead wanted. She had to claim it for herself."
Her gaze didn’t leave him.
"Later on, a friend of hers ca to her. Her na was Winona. She talked about a man she was slowly growing fond of, stating he was a decent man."
This ti, her smile shifted into that of a mischievous one.
"The little girl saw him, and thought..."
A short pause.
"Ah. I want him too."
"...."
"Not for love or for anything aningful."
She rested her chin on her hand.
"She simply wanted to take sothing that was ant for soone else."
Her eyes remained on Lancel.
"After all... wasn’t she the one who was ant to be pushed out of the spotlight anyway?"
"Uhm... where are you going with this, Ishtar...?"
"Assistant Lancel." Ishtar looked at him. "You are that man."
"...."
"Am I a greedy little girl for what I did?"
Lancel went quiet for a mont, lowering the food in his hand.
Truthfully, he didn’t fully follow what she was getting at. If anything, the food had been distracting enough that he hadn’t paid full attention from the start.
"I don’t really get it, but..." he began, thinking it through as he spoke. "From what I understand, your friend, Winona, likes . And the only reason you took interest in is because of that?"
"Yes."
"...I don’t really see a problem, though."
"Eh?"
"I an, I don’t even know this Winona person." He shrugged. "As you said, she’s from Angelica’s class, but I don’t really know anyone there to begin with."
He looked back at her.
"And besides, weren’t you the one who ca up to first, Miss Ishtar?"
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