"Make it be known that I am going there under protest!" I announced on the way to the Hostess of Fertility.
"Let it be known that your goddess doesn't give a damn and why the hell are you wearing your damn meteor armor!" Seshat demanded with her eyes twitching as damn near everyone stopped to gap at the guy wearing glowing molten-like armor leading his goddess in skimpy Egyptian clothing around.
For a moment I didn't answer and when Seshat coughed to continue to demand an answer I blew out an exhale of air. "I know for a fact I am going to get into trouble and face issues for going there. And no, I won't explain why the place is troublesome, it just is." I said making Seshat snort.
While Seshat might have pushed or slapped at my armor-clad form for refusing to answer. She had learned already the hard way, that the meteor armor I was wearing was scalding hot on the outside and she tried to push me out of her shop and began crying when she burnt her hands. Then she began guilt-tripping me with how she had burnt herself on the armor she oh so lovingly helped forge into perfection I didn't feel like I had much of a damned choice but to go to dinner with her.
Thankfully the armor was magically cooled on the inside, so I didn't need to worry about such heat.
When we got to the Hostess of Fertility, we easily entered but the restaurant's speech died down at the sight of my fully armored form and lithe goddess following behind me.
But then the awkward scene was saved by who I recognized as the waitress named Chloe who has green eyes and black hair with cat ears and a tail of the same color. "Ello! So, table for two?" She questioned with her cat tail swiveling behind her in interest at our arrival.
"Yes, a booth would be nice please," I said and then she led us to the booth in the back corner somehow guessing that we didn't want to be gawked at as much despite my ostentatious armor.
After handing out the menu Chloe pulled out a little writing pad and spoke "So what can I getcha two for drinks while you look at our menu?"
"Water." We both said in unison neither of us wanting to drink alcohol and walk across the city at night.
"Alright, well just wave to me or Syr as we are in charge of this side of the restaurant tonight," Chloe said and it was an Oscar award-winning act of my own to not twitch at the name Syr.
"Oh, and where is Syr?" I asked guilelessly making sure to ask where and not 'who' Syr was, as I very well could recognize her curly silver hair anywhere.
"Oh, she is in the back at the moment probably grabbing someone's food. Uh, she is a pretty lady with silver hair, she is unmistakable Haha." Chloe joked and went on her way after she poured us some drinks, which I really didn't even want to touch with her history as an assassin.
But not even a minute before Chloe left and Seshat slapped down her jug of water and was going to talk to me, we were rudely interrupted as a hand slapped down on our table as some drunk dude leaned over us.
"Hey... Why's your armor all glowing and shit? Is it like those magic swords, but you made all the swords into armor?" He asked slurring a bit but I saw not only his friends staring at us with interest I saw even Mia the owner of the restaurant was watching with interest.
"Sure. It's made out of magic swords, now go back to your friends and drink the fine drinks of this finer restaurant." I spoke calmly as I mentally readied to summon my Aquamarine and staff and just blast the man across the restaurant if he decides to get handsy.
And what do you know the man grinned and looked at his friends. "Boy come on I found what's going to pay our tab!" Then the man looked at me as his friends drunkenly stood up. "Alright buddie so give me a shoe... A shoe made out of magic swords out to be good enough right Mia!" He shouted at Mia who legitimately blinked in surprise at being addressed so bravely.
Mia already getting tired of the tomfoolery looked poised to have the men thrown out but blinked in surprise as I winked at her. "Alright here then," I said pulling a chair over from one of the neighboring tables and throwing the boot-clad leg atop it. "You can have my boots if you can pull them off," I said and then obviously the man tried to yank off the boots but screamed as he burnt his hands on the scalding meteoric armor.
"Anyone else want to pull magical armor off me?" I asked and everyone snorted and went back to their drinks as they probably thought I had some kind of skill that enhanced my armor or something.
"Alright you gits, take your friend to get some burn cream on those hands!" Mia ordered the drunks who grumbled but dutifully paid their debts and took their cringing friend with burnt hands off to probably buy some burn cream as monsters with fire abilities weren't all that common in the dungeon so most of the time adventures didn't really run with it on them at all times, unlike a general healing potion.
Finally, we got some peace to look over the menu, and after we compared what we wanted. Seshat ended up getting a baked fish with some roasted vegetables and I ended up getting the loaded spaghetti with meatballs and some vegetables.
"So, Jake do you think you will be going deeper into the dungeon with your new armor?' Seshat asked me conversationally and I nodded as Kobolds and Goblins weren't at all a threat to me with how I picked them off at a distance, so I planned to move onto like the fifth floor where the number of different monsters varied greatly.
"Yeah, with the new staff and this armor, I am very confident in my chances even with the weird new monsters," I said as wondered how debilitating the heat coming off my armor would be for an aberrant monster of the fifth floor like Killer Ants and War Shadows if they were to attempt to dogpile me.
Well, I knew for a fact that the Frog Shooters would be completely helpless against me, as their tongues certainly couldn't/wouldn't wrap around me.
But from the kitchen backroom of the restaurant, I saw Syr Flova come out with a service tray tucked under her arm and was bee-lining towards my table.
No, she was a missile locked directly onto me.
Syr was a beauty with gray hair that she keeps tied with a small knot in a ponytail style. Her eyes are the same color as her hair, and she has a light peachy colored smooth skin that just barely looked human with how almost perfect she looked despite working for several hours.
"Hello! Welcome to the Hostess of Fertility, my name is Syr and what can I get you two?" Syr asked and Seshat quickly said she wanted a baked fish platter.
Syr quickly wrote down Seshat's order without much change from her service-oriented expression but when she looked to me, I could see the 'deeply' inquisitive light within her eyes, and I wondered what sighed filled either Horn's or Freya's eyes as she hungry stared at me.
"I will take the house special loaded spaghetti," I said simply and Syr didn't respond still staring at me almost spellbound.
"Ahem!" Seshat coughed frowning as she realized the way the girl's dilated eyes were staring at me, that something was up, and remembered how I didn't want to come here to begin with.
Yeah, I could tell it was Freya in the Syr guise as I didn't think Horn would so smoothly get out of such a blank moment with merely a blink. "Oh, I am so sorry I was just trying to recall the spaghetti's complimentary sides, would you like garlic bread or salad?" She asked with no shame and seeing Seshat not calling her out on lying straight to our face. I knew damned well that this was Freya...
'Fucking should have put my foot down and just made my goddess a sandwich or something.' I mentally cursed as I kept a smile and just nodded not holding the girl's weird staring against her.
"I will have your orders brought right to you guys so please be patient!" Syr said cheerily and even waved to us as she strutted back to the kitchen with an entirely too much series swaying to her backside which sent her long skirt swishing about.
"Hmm? You like her Jake?" Seshat teased me and if I was drinking my water I would have spat it on her face as I already damn near choked on my own breathing at the thought of asking Syr of all people on a date.
"I would sooner tame and marry a harpy from the dungeon than ask her on a date," I whispered seriously and even made sure to cover the side of my mouth so no one could read my lips with my words making Seshat's eyes widen dramatically as the words rang out true.
Seshat then took a drink looking at me with a raised eyebrow before she shook her head. "Ah, I see... You have already fallen in love with your beautiful and oh-so-helpful goddess, haven't you? Well too bad I won't court you until you hit at least level five and gain an extra century of lifespan." Seshat teased me making my eyes roll.
"Granted you are certainly a great goddess who is actually useful, unlike a great number of deities who just sit around and suck up all their Familia's wealth to buy ridiculously priced crap like Soma wine." While I was lambasting said useless gods Syr happened to be nearby cleaning off a table and knocked off a glass breaking it on the ground as my words made her body twitch.
"But either way it wouldn't be you courting me, it would be myself earning your affections as I am no bumbling boy stumbling about," I said with some confidence as I wasn't some dense cowardly harem protagonist that would get knocked out with a nosebleed at seeing some tits.
Seshat hummed in thought and her finger twirled across the rim of the small jug of water we were drinking out of when she spoke it came out with a husky tinge and Syr still working to clear off the table and clean up the dishes she dropped and broke listened in as well. "And how you go about... Seducing me, my dear adventure?"
Seeing everyone else loudly drinking and finding this to be kind of exciting I leaned forward unknowingly as Syr herself was only miming her brushing motions to pick up the shards of the plates she broke.
"Well for you, I imagine a fun little date could be going to look into high-quality materials, and taking them home to work together would be fun... But no for a romantic night for you. I would take you outside Orario on one of the casino boats that heads down to Melen and we could travel down the river at night watching the moonlit riverbank pass by us." I said verbally painting a romantic picture of a trip of going down the Nile River with my goddess.
"Hmm... You better not excite me anymore Jake or I will bite my claim onto you." She huskily and I saw her eyes tightened and locked onto my shoulder like a cat about to pounce.
"Foods here!" Syr practically yelled as she hurriedly split us apart by pushing the server tray across the table loaded with a hearty amount of food.
"Girl, you ruined the moment!" Seshat complained folding her arms under her handful-sized breasts and grumped before she took the fork and stabbed the fish right in the eye as she looked at Syr who only smiled innocently.
"Oh whoops, the restaurant is so loud that that I didn't really notice." She said once again lying through her teeth, but with how the kitchens were behind Seshat's side of the booth, she couldn't have seen her coming, to refute her words.
"Whatever..." Seshat muttered and then waved Syr off who was still wearing her smile as she bounced away over to the blond form of Ryuu who was working to clean off the bar.
"Anyway, as nice as such a date with you sounds like. You need to level up a few times before you even think about barking up my tree... I want a relationship that will last a couple centuries not get with someone that will grow old and die in a handful of decades." Seshat said mercilessly and I had to respect that she was undoubtedly at the minimum many thousands of years old.
"Fair enough... To be fair I want someone that can give me children anyway." I said shrugging making Seshat's eyebrow crop up in interest before she nodded happily, obviously having her own thoughts about my statement.
After a couple more minutes of enjoying our food, I was already feeling stuffed and Seshat herself managed to eat most of her large baked fish, so she dropped a few coins on the table before she stood up. "Alright, Jake come on let's go going home together." She said and for a moment I didn't understand while she specified why she said about us going home together. But as I stood up Seshat took my arm and pulled it flush against her chest as we walked towards the exit of the restaurant.
But in the stretch of time, as Seshat walked to the exit with me, I could almost feel the world freeze as Syr who was working on another table between us, and the door, looked up sensing our motion.
Both Syr and my goddess made eye contact and I felt Seshat's arms pull my arm against her chest tighter, and I could feel her smug feline pride with her tail flowing side to side as we walked past the frozen form of Syr, whose face was a stitched together rictus of a grin as she bade us goodnight.
As we made our way home Seshat spoke up with a chuckle. "Yeah... That girl is going to be in trouble. If I didn't know that she was a human, I would have thought she was a goddess of the dead with how she was looking through you and trying to see your soul or something." Seshat then stretched throwing her arms behind her and having her thin satin clothes pull taunt against her frame before she came back, and her amber-slitted eyes locked onto my own blue ones.
"Jake as I said, she is trouble, so I admit you were right, let's just stay away from there," Seshat muttered as we headed back home in silence as I held her hand.
But even as I laid into bed all I could replay in my head was the moment Syr looked into my eyes and her own grey ones dilated at the sight of me and I knew deep down that my Outsider soul was going to be an oddity for her. That's not including whatever Terraria had done to my soul either.