Apparently, the girl's name was Dan. I wanted to say that was a dude's name but I didn't bother. It was probably just a short form of Daniela or something like that, probably.
She was a C ranked Adventurer and an ogre-man hybrid. I didn't have it in me to ask which one of her parents was the ogre one…
Anyway- "As promised." When her portion came, she shared half.
This way, not only did we both get to eat warm fresh food, we got to eat at exactly the same time too.
Win-win.
The food was pretty good too so it was Win-win-win!
Or so it should have been but the girl didn't leave.
"What?" I asked, noticing her stare.
"You were traveling with those two half-deads?'
"Yeah?"
"And now you have another one, that foxwoman?"
"Yes?"
"A slave?"
"What's up with all these questions?"
"Nothing much," She stood up. "Just curious, you see. Thank you for the meal."
She paid for her portion and left.
"She a regular here?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then how come you didn't give her first despite she asking first?"
"I- we-" The waitress was at a loss for words. Understandable. She probably prioritized me since I was sort of a nobility in these parts.
"Well, anyway, don't do that again. I can wait just like anyone else here," As long as I wasn't in my holy-I'm-gonna-eat -you-now- red phase, everything was fine.
I paid my portion and even left a little tip but although she did take the tip, she also mentioned it was really rude to leave a tip. But she did thank me and understood that I didn't know.
Why would a tip be rude?
Didn't leaving tips- ? Sigh. Yeah, honestly, I didn't really like the tipping culture but habits and social constructs were a real thing.
Going up the stairs was just as bad. This darn thing didn't screech as much when Vivia climbed but creaked like hell whenever I climbed. But wasn't I just bones and kind of light? So, what the hell?
Sigh. I still kept going though. There was hardly anything else to do anyway.
As I neared my room something felt odd. The door was unlocked and there were people inside. But I had locked it and only I had a key…
With a hand on my knife, I slowly opened the door to find… Escalor, Vivia and Siarre all just casually chatting on the bed. Yes, on the bed.
"Welcome back, Lord Sean," Siarre said, standing up.
Kind of awkward… "Did you guys eat?"
"Not yet, but we were about to," Escalor said.
Yeah- definitely awkward. "Well, I just ate but I can join you if you'd like."
What the fuck am I even saying?
"Ah, no need," Siarre said. "Please rest well, my lord." She stood up, "Come Vivia."
And left with the girl.
Meanwhile, Escalor hung around for a minute. "We were actually wondering whether to wake you or not and well… went over to take a shower in the community pool and when we were back you were already eating with someone."
That did make sense. Guess I was so engrossed with the eating part that I forgot to keep a track of my surroundings. "Fair enough. I wanted to check on you guys but I didn't know which rooms were yours. So, I just went down."
"Oh, don't worry about it. And if you'd like I could show you to the pool for a shower?"
"Not interested in public baths." Seeing other naked people either made me horny or want to puke; there was no in-between.
"I see. See you later then." He left.
He was behaving awfully chummy these days. I didn't really blame him though. If I were in his shoes, I'd try to butter up a superior and gain his favors too. At least the old me would have. Right now, I wasn't too sure.
As they left, I began to think more about the circumstances and the things I wanted to do. I wanted to get stronger and I wanted to explore this world some more.
But I also had to learn how to talk. Of course, I could produce some sparks now but I couldn't really control the sparks and I certainly couldn't use it to talk. Besides, that cost a whole lot of MP every time.
I still didn't know how to properly use the spells; things other than darkness that was. I tried reading the beginner book but that was still beyond me.
For example, just saying Dark could lead to a darkness spell. Meanwhile, the other elements weren't so simple. Even if I started shouting thunder or water or whatever, nothing happened. And why nothing happened, this book had no answer to.
Siarre mentioned something about liquid magic flowing in our veins and stuff. But I didn't have veins let alone something flowing in me.
She probably meant MP?
Or was it the new attribute Mana? Mana made more sense but I didn't know what it was exactly. People from this world instinctively felt it but I didn't. And that was the fundamental flaw in all this….
Maybe I was just not cut out for this?