Following the film, Nishida recommended that we visit 'StarShuck,' which, to be honest, I had no idea what that place was.
"What if we head to 'StarShuck'? Their short cakes and pastries are absolutely delicious."
"Sounds good."
"Hmm."
It seems that they are discussing a cake shop.
"Aren't they quite expensive?" inquired Rika.
"Well, a little. You've never been to 'StarShuck' before?"
"Nope, I heard it was expensive, so I just ignored it."
As if Rika had said something extraordinary, the three of them began to stare at her.
I listened to them talk and remained silent because all I knew was that they were discussing a pricey cake shop.
"I understand it's a little expensive, but it is one of the most popular bakeries."
"I know that but—"
"How about I pay your expenses, lovely ladies?"
claiming claiming that with a strange expression on his face, Nishida glanced at each of the three girls.
He mentioned that he would cover the cost for 'lovely ladies,' so am I included in that category?
"I can pay for myself."
said all three of the girls simultaneously.
"Sigh, I try not to waste money, but since we have already decided to go to "StarShuck," I'll let this one slide."
Everyone started moving towards the destination. I approached Nishida to ask a question that was running in mind.
"Nishida, are my expenses going to be covered too?"
"What? Why would I cover the costs for someone like you?"
I knew he was talking about the girls, but after he promised to pay for expenses, I started thinking about all the things I could buy at the store, which prompted me to ask him again.
Sigh, and here I was thinking I would purchase everything they had to offer.
We did not have to travel far to get to the cake shop because it was close to the theater, and then we went inside via the automated door.
We were greeted by the store clerk and proceeded to the vacant space located near the other end of the entrance.
"Phew, glad we got an empty table. it was a Sunday, I assumed we would have to wait a while for any open seats."
"I also anticipated that there wouldn't be any open seats for a while."
They prefer to wait here instead of going to another cake shop?
"Heh, I can get premium seating easily because of my father's connection."
"Instead of waiting for this bakery, I would have visited another one."
It was as if Rika read my mind as she said the same words that I was thinking.
I turned to face Rika because I was reminded of something she had told me twice.
"What?"
"I don't enjoy seeing other people eat."
I said, getting a little closer to Rika's ears and lowering my voice.
"What are you trying to say?"
She responded by narrowing her eyes and giving a small grin, indicating that she remembered everything.
"You told me not to ask for anything else."
"Order whatever you want."
"Really?"
"Yes"
I felt as though she was lying when she turned to face me and gave me a tiny smile.
"Are you sure?"
"You see, you can pay for it yourself by cleaning the plates here."
I can pay just by cleaning plates? Doesn't cleaning plates seem simple?
"If I ordered everything on the menu, how many dishes would I have to clean?"
She gave me a disgruntled look, as though she was hoping I would say something different.
"Hmph, I thought you were the height of stupidity, but you beat your own record, congrats."
"I can't pay by washing dishes?"
"No! I will only pay for a short cake and something to drink, so don't expect anything else."
She spoke in a slightly higher tone, interrupting our private conversation.
"Um, are you two done talking? How about we make our orders?"
Tsurumi then proceeded to call the waiter to take our orders.
Based on my previous experiences, I knew how ordering at places like these worked.
Attempting to order something, I picked up the menu from the table, but my limited reading comprehension made it impossible for me to understand anything.
It has never been difficult to learn a language, but reading has always required more effort. Not understanding anything, I considered waiting and ordering by observing what these humans would order.
I knew that there was a lot of variety of cakes but for me who only tried them just a few time, every cake was the same so I thought about letting others decide, well what I wanted was to order the whole menu which was not possible since Rika told me that she'll only pay for one.
I thought of a few different ways to place an order but the one I used was 'whatever she said'.
After giving our orders they started chatting again—well bad mouthing Nishida still considered as chatting. Thanks to Nishida's sacrifice today I picked up a lot of cusses.
"Keana look there isn't she Hirawa."
Tsurumi called out to Rika, who was sitting in front of us, and then turned to point at a table that was at her blank spot. Observing that Myoga and Nishida both turned to face that way.
"Yes, I did see her there as soon as we entered."
"Well, Rika, why didn't you tell me?"
"Why? I felt it was unnecessary because, after all, you can meet her whenever you want because she attends our school. I am really not sure why you treat her like she is a celebrity.
"Whoa, I never imagined I would run into her."
I, too, was drawn to the table Tsurumi was pointing to after seeing their reactions. There were three people sitting at the table, two of whom were girls around Rika's age. Their table was three seats down in the next column from ours.
When we first entered the bakery, one of the girls attracted my attention because of her stronger aura than Nishida, but I chose to ignore her because I did not think any of them were significant.
"Man, thanks to my luck, I got to see Hirawa in her casuals."
He spoke in a tone that indicated he was very confident.
What connection does it make to luck? Isn't this just an random meeting? Maybe I will ask him directly.
"What do you mean, it is because of your luck? It might just be a chance encounter."
"Perhaps, but it might not be as I really thought this morning that I should meet up with some hot girls, so I did. I also thought about seeing Hirawa in her casual, and now I did."
"Eww!"
"Gross, I told you, Tsurumi, deny his request to join us."
"Sorry, guys. I don't know what was going through my mind when I let him join us."
"I am not sure what this has to do with your blessing?"
"Well, it is rather simple—my blessing uses mana for each positive event in my life. Additionally, it eliminates all of the negative things that will occur in the near future. In other words, nothing negative will ever occur while I still have mana."
He will be fortunate until his mana runs out, I guess, but how does this mana-to-luck exchange happen? Is the amount of mana used determined by how much bad luck his blessing cancels out, or is it constant for every negative event that occurs?
He then continued.
"For instance, my blessing will negate if someone tries to shoot me with a gun, but negating these kinds of attacks will require a lot of mana because the likelihood of dying in this manner is almost close to one. Nevertheless, this will not be an issue because I have twice as much mana as the average blessed."
He said, wearing a smug expression.
So what will happen if his mana reaches zero? Also, since humans are not able to see auras, how did he know how much mana he possessed? I don't think there was a way to figure out mana the last time I was in the human realm, so perhaps humans discovered it recently.
"So what happens when your mana is exhausted Pervshida."
Rika again posed the question that was on my mind and that I was about to ask him.
"I don't know, you see my mana is so high that there's never been a situation where my mana is completely exhausted. There is a saying that, 'The amount of luck you use is directly proportional to the amount of bad luck,' I might die once my mana runs out, but mana replenishes when you get enough rest, and my mana is so high that it will not be an issue even if I do not get any rest for a week or more."
Interesting. I always like learning new things but what I like the most is finding the unknowns.
Hehe, maybe I can try to kill him until his mana is depleted and then wait to see what happens.
"Hmm, so there is a way we can get rid of him without breaking any laws."
"Sorry, Myoga darling, but my mana cannot be exhausted."
He turned to face Myoga, closed his eyes, and ran a gentle hand through his hair.
Wanna give it a try?
"Wanna give it a try?"
"Huh?"
Oops, I said that aloud.