Chereads / Ambient Mage / Chapter 30 - Dinner for Two?

Chapter 30 - Dinner for Two?

"Alright ma'am, your card has been processed."

"Thank you."

"Your item is being prepared ma'am, it'll be out for you soon, in the meantime, feel free to explore the rest of the emporium?"

"Could you hold onto it?"

"Yes ma'am we can do that. When would you like to pick it up?"

"Later tonight if possible."

"Yes ma'am we'll have it ready for you when you arrive."

"Then, Lucas, let's continue our itinerary."

"Sure."

"Then, before dinner let's take a walk."

"As you wish."

And I made a bowing motion, and let my arms sway to point her towards the exit.

*Bonk*

"Idiot."

I guess I deserved that.

As she left the auction house I followed her.

"Hey, Lucas, you're not a knight right now remember?"

"Ah, right. So what do you mean by that?"

"It means to stop being stupid, and try to understand what I'm saying."

"Sorry, I'm not that smart, I can't read minds Charlotte."

"Fine, I'll say it for you just this once."

"I'm listening."

".....al...."

"Excuse me?"

She stopped.

I caught up to her and placed my head down to her mouth level.

She put her hands in a cupping motion around my ear.

"I want you to stop following me, and walk beside me like a real date."

I straightened my posture and nodded.

We walked, and she took me towards the north-western side of the city.

We went into a park.

The northern part of the city was mostly decorative, aside from the major buildings.

It consisted mainly of gardens, parks, wildlife and natural landmark reservations, and lastly the emporium and a few other buildings.

The buildings were in the southern area of the northern part. 

If I had to explain it would be like this.

The park I found Aisha in was in the northern part of the central city.

It had paved walkways, trimmed grass, and trees that were regularly maintained.

The buildings were simply across from the the central city, and the thing between the buildings and the central city, was the park.

Beyond the buildings, however were the real nature stuff happened.

Aside from a few paths maintained, and the monsters in the area culled, down to docile and danger level, the areas were untouched.

All the rain, and dry, the heat and cold, it was all separate from the controlled climate of the city.

It was a place of true natural beauty.

"What do you think Lucas?"

"Pretty."

"The landscape?"

"That too."

"Huh?"

She didn't blush, but her ears did get redder.

She was getting much better at hiding it, very quickly.

Maybe another secret of hers, I never found out about in game.

I was excited to see what she would open my eyes to next.

We walked through the park.

We discussed things like our aspirations, our goals, and what we had in mind for the future.

She spoke much about marriage, and having a family.

She wanted at least 3 children.

And at least one of each gender.

She was very eloquent with her articulation of her future.

It was almost like she was looking with an artifact into the future.

It was enchanting listening to her rattle off her descriptions of the marriage, and her future life.

They were quite vivid, but when I asked her who she wanted to marry, to obtain that life, she simply smiled and put her finger to her lips.

Then she asked me.

I didn't really know how to answer it.

I had been focused on becoming a mage, because in my previous world I never had magic.

I also was focused on destroying the great evil known as demons.

I mean eventually we have to enter the demon's dimension to fight the demon god.

So in my opinion, my future was quite bleak.

Our protagonist, was far too weak for the opening scenario.

There were three assassins of Charlotte.

Two of them were students, one was faculty.

As for why they did it, they each had their own motivations.

One was motivated by greed, one by their own penchant for destroying harmony, and the last to avenge a long standing grudge.

My next future plans consisted of getting strong enough to justify a harem, protecting Charlotte, and recruiting people.

So I chose to tell her about my future plan to recruit people.

"Really, why haven't you come to me yet?"

"Because you are way to strong to join the group, and for the same reason, we can't invite Aurelia."

With that Charlotte looked relieved.

"So who are you recruiting?"

"A few people I think have potential to be quite strong."

"And you think I don't have that potential?"

"No, I think you've already began to tap into it."

"So, I can't join because I've already began to become strong instead of only showing potential?"

"Yes, in essence I need people who aren't developed at all, so that we can be grouped together for assignments in class."

"Ah, so if I joined you the assignment might be too difficult, or my abilities may prevent the growth of the rest of the group?"

"Exactly."

She looked kind of sad that she couldn't join us.

"Don't feel bad, we'll all level up fast enough to join you and Aurelia soon. Then we can add you, and we can all have fun in classes."

"But that won't be until the second semester?"

"Actually, we can see each other as long as we are grouped together in class A or B, since we are all freshmen and have essentially the same classes except for you, who has more course maneuverability."

"Really?"

"Yes, unlike the dorms which are based completely on theoretical work, and potential, the classes are graded actual practical ability."

"I see."

"Then I'll see you in class A pretty soon huh?"

"Yeah, you will."

As our conversation came to a close, we exited the park.

 We ended up in the far western side of the city, near other restaurants.

"Hey Charlotte, didn't you want to get your jewelry, before the dinner?"

"Not anymore, it can wait. Once we are finished, we can go retrieve it."

"Understood."

As we were walking down the street side by side, she started to brush her hand across my own.

I opened my hand and let hers fall into my own.

With that, she looked at me waiting for confirmation, of my consent to show off.

I didn't give her a response, and she began to touch our arms together as we walked.

She led me like this, side by side, to the restaurant.

"Welcome, do you have a reservation today?"

"Yes, a reservation for Charlotte?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Right this way."

This was quite the fancy place.

Fancier than the restaurant Aura and I went to.

Although, they did have different reasons.

Aura and I were simply out to be out, but this is, well was, a formal date.

We had our candlelit dinner just according to her plans, and as according to etiquette in higher end places, nobody was watching us, allowing for us to continue our conversations in peace.

Unfortunately nothing would ever be that good.

"Excuse me, are you Lady Charlotte from the knight's course?"

"Yes? What do you need?"

Her voice began to get cold.

"Why are you here with Lady Aurelia's knight."

The girl asked in an accusatory tone.

"Well, Aurelia and I are actually good friends, so she lent me her knight for the day."

"This seems like more than an escort doesn't it?"

"Are you changing masters Lucas?"

I wasn't close enough to this person to have them call me by name, so I didn't know their problem.

"Well, it's not exactly like Charlotte has her escort knight here in the academy, and if she decides to go to a restaurant to eat, and still needs my escort, doesn't it make sense to have both of us sit down?"

"No, because this is more like a date than an escort."

Charlotte butted in, with a frigid tone of voice.

"I appreciate your observation, but you are disturbing my dinner, I do not mind if you join us, but do not continue to disturb us."

Charlotte gave the polite way of, leave the two of us alone, but why would a person such as this pick up on this?

"Then I'll join you."

"Ah, this is actually a reservation, naturally Lady Charlotte was being polite, and asking you to leave."

The person turned red in embarrassment and left our table, and the area quickly.

Once again the mood was underwater.

As we finished our dinner, and left the restaurant as the sun came down.

Under the ever watchful eyes of the city, we walked arm in arm towards the emporium to pick up the jewelry.

"Hey Lucas?"

"Yes?"

"Despite the hiccups today, especially my little outburst, did you have fun today?"

"Absolutely, it's always fun with you."

"That's good to know."

We entered into the emporium and Charlotte picked up the jewelry.

She held it up for me to see, and we walked out to the night city.

"I didn't have this planned originally Lucas, but would you follow me once more?"

"As your date, I have no choice do I?"

"No, you do not."

She giggled, and I broke into a smile.

We walked to the park in the central city, where she laid out a blanket and we sat down under the stars.

"Hey Lucas, hold this for me for one second."

"Sure."

She handed me the jewelry, and began to put her hair up.

She turned to face away from me.

"Hey, Lucas, could you put it on for me?"

"Yes."

I pulled the necklace's clip apart, and began to move around her neck.

I accidently brushed against her neck, and a small squeak came out of her.

I finished clipping the necklace around her neck and let it drop.

"All done?"

"All done."

"Thank you."

She turned back towards me and we sat there under the glow of the lamps and the stars.

She rested her head on my shoulder as we sat together on the blanket.

Eventually she fell asleep and I let her rest for a while, before picking her up and walking her to the portals, to get her back into the academy.

I entered the knights course's dormitories.

I made my way towards her dorm, and surprisingly her dormmates were there.

Her roommate, showed me her card to assure me she was who she was, and asked to take Charlotte back to her room.

As I bent down to let her down, her arms were still tightly wrapped around my neck and shoulders.

I guess, from her holding me like that before she fell asleep.

I had her friends pry her fingers apart, and take her up to her room.

After that, I left back to the Estelle dorm for planning my recruitment of Morgan.

Unlike Aisha who is unconfident by personality, Morgan is not unconfident, but simply realistic with her situation.

She is relatively untalented, but works hard. Despite that she gets pushed around and looked down on, for her work.

She dislikes disingenuous people, and is extremely unconfident in her ability.

Despite her 'talent' maxing out at the 5th circle, she is one of the stronger companions in game, if you have her in your party.

She receives the ultimate magic of Great Mage Master, Genoa.

The magic allows for the user to increase their talent, by widening their mana circuits inside their bodies, and reinforcing their mana core inside their bodies.

In game this was the explanation, but the reality of it was, that it hurt to do both.

I would try it too, but I already have the blood and talents of a dragonoid.

But the current Morgan has not yet met Genoa's inheritance.

Therefore, I couldn't use it to further my body yet.

Dragon blood due to it's strength, simply doesn't die out.

Instead it actually starts to populate a persons body.

A dragons curse includes a sacrifice of their own blood, since the curse magic uses their blood as the basis of draconization.

However, unlike my inevitable transformation, if I can manage to meet the other alive dragons, the cursed will start to lose their mind before the full transformation even sets in.

They are simply wild beasts by the time they dragonize, and in which case, the dragon which cursed them will destroy them.

A cruel punishment, but only used on those who deserve it.

So, my plan is to give Morgan the opportunity to receive Genoa's inheritance early by a week.

Hopefully, it will give her enough confidence to trust me.

I need to power up all the characters now, since who I believe to be the current protagonist, isn't strong enough yet to take on the assassins.

Aside from the protagonist, the other characters are meant to be weak.

The clear conditions for this scenario is to capture the assassin or assassins.

The way to do so is have your character knock them out, or alert the professors or admins for it to be considered won.

Just one assassin caught is considered passing, even if you kill the other two.

But I'm not just a good player, I'm great, so I'm going for a perfect clear.