After walking a bit more down the street, we managed to find a stall that was handing out a map of the entire market for 5 Jiples. Not that we would be using it in this present moment as that would be against the spirit of exploration, but it was never bad to have one just in case one needed to get to a place quickly and efficiently. Next to the map stall was a random food restaurant, which we sat down at.
Oh wait, how could I forget
I reached into my pocket pulling out a couple of Kush candies, handing one to the princess.
"I have a question Hu,"
"These are Sativa."
"No, not that. I don't think that matters actually, at least for me. It may be another marketing thing to be honest. My question is, how many of those do you have left? I can't imagine much at the rate we're taking them at."
She looked a bit sad for a moment but I placed a hand on her shoulder comforting her in knowing that I always had my priorities straight.
"Don't worry, actually, that first night at the inn, the innkeeper himself was selling it as a side job. His rates here are much cheaper compared to what I was buying them at from llama traders in Riguo. Understandable as it's legal in this country. Fields of lush weed plants can grow as far as the eye can see. I even bought in bulk to potentially resell."
"I see," the princess replied, her smile returning "because the commodity was legalized in this country, it became a less scarce resource, and more people have the ability to actually grow it for cheaper prices creating jobs for the economy."
"Exactly! On this particular matter princess, we can thank capitalism. For even though the value the herb gives is likely higher than what we paid for it, and we would be willing to pay more, we can still get it at an affordable price due to a higher number of suppliers who will price their items competitively to get the most customers."
"Yeah that makes sense," she replied as we sat down at a table in the restaurant. She put a finger on her lip, "huh, this whole capitalism thing really runs everything in the world doesn't it?"
"Sure does, princess."
I turned as I heard a familiar voice.
"Riki?"
"Riki? Riki who? Riki Bobby the horse rider?"
"... Riki we know it's you, you're still wearing the same mask."
I went up to take the mask off to indeed reveal…
"Oh…"
It was the face of a man I had never seen before.
"I'm… I'm sorry I thought…"
"It's quite alright," the man said, taking the theater mask back. He did not, however, put it back on and instead set it on the table. "I know exactly who you are talking about. Word has gotten around that you have seen this exact mask twice now, no?"
"Let me guess, you're part of Riki's theater as well?"
"I was," he said smirking, "but currently I am just your waiter. May I take your order Mr. Hu, as well as your lovely companion's?"
He looked over at her.
"You're a princess, right? I am not sure if our chefs here can satisfy your royal taste buds, but we will try our best."
He handed us both menus. As he did, I stood up and grabbed the collar of his outside shirt.
"Who are you, why are you after us?"
"What?"
"How do you know who she is?"
"I just told you, I was a part of Riki's theater."
"So there's a conspiracy?"
"What? No sir, let go of me or I will have no choice but to kick you out of this establishment."
I let go of him as he dusted his shoulders.
"I say, are you always this rude to waiters? You know that's not good for your reputation right?"
"Sorry it's just…" I took a deep breath, "I get a bit paranoid from you just telling us you know the princess's identity. We spent a lot of effort trying to hide it."
"Fair enough," he replied, "but do know this, I know very well the bounty set forth on how much a returned princess will go for. And the only reason I'm not challenging you now for it, is because…"
"Because a man in love is the most dangerous?" the Princess answered for him with a grin. I looked to the side as, dammit that's right, the Princess had heard my passionate speech when I was in the bathhouse talking to Riki. In any case, the man raised an eyebrow as she said all that.
"I see Riki has spoken in my stead already. There's no reason for me to repeat my former boss's words then. For those of us who were part of the theater all follow the same philosophies on how to live life."
He turned to me.
"That said, perhaps I should revise my previous statement or rather, I should add a new clause which is just as important, especially for the man himself based on how my other coworker said the princess treated you when jealous. Even more dangerous than a man in love, perhaps, is a woman in love. As the woman will not only be dangerous towards who she is jealous of, but also the man she is in love with, himself. Unless of course…"
He gave a deadpan expression towards me.
"The man is into that sort of torture… Hu what's wrong with you, my companion said you were smiling ear to ear when Riko called you her slave. Do you not feel the least bit indecent about that given we still live in a world where there are actual slaves? That on top of the fact that if I remember the history of Naka and Riguo correctly, your ancestors at one point were…"
"Nope, I never even gave that a second thought!" I interrupted, looking over at the Princess who was watching carefully as I picked my next words.
"I am the princess's slave and will always be her slave! For eternity!"
"Really… just full slave, huh? You're not even going to say 'butler?'"
"There is no need for euphemisms when I am speaking about the reality of the situation."
He laughed.
"Whatever, it's none of my concern. You do you buddy, you do you. Anyways, speaking of the reality of the situation, currently I am just a waiter. So what is it you'd like to order?"
"Oh, right right,"
I eased my guard a little as it felt like at least in the immediate future, the Princess and I wouldn't be in any trouble.
"I'll have the uhhh..."
I looked over the menu for anything I hadn't tried before.
"I'll have the porcupine fish."
He wrote it down on his paper casually as if the previous conversation hadn't occurred.
"And for you Princess?"
I looked at him suspiciously.
"Ahem… sorry, my apologies, you are trying to lay low as of now, no? What I mean to say is, lady Riko, what is it you'd like to order?"
She was looking up and down the menu.
"Hu…"
"You can't decide can you…"
"Yeah! I mean, look at this stuff, it all looks so good. How could I possibly only choose one? What did you get again?"
"The Porcupine fish."
"Hmm… okay that does look pretty tasty. But I'm just going to take some off your plate."
"Wait what? Was it established that you could do that?"
She gave me a pout.
"My apologies, I forgot that it was already established that you could do that. Well in that case, pick a different one then and we can share both."
"Mmm… I don't know Hu, the rest of the food also looks so good."
She just stared blankly at the menu for a while.
"Okay, how about I just get you started with some drinks then." the waiter asked finally.
"Water's good," I replied,
"Huh… uhhh… where are the drinks?"
The waiter pointed to the page of the menu with the drinks.
"Oh uhh…"
Riko began looking over the drink menu in silence for another 5 minutes before looking over at me.
"Hu…"
"You can't decide on the drink either can you…"
She nodded, admitting defeat.
I sighed.
"Do you want me to give my recommendation?"
"What! No, I can pick myself."
She looked over the menu for another 5 minutes as I could notice our waiter visibly getting more agitated from the long wait.
"Okay… perhaps I'll give you another minute to…"
"No wait!" the Princess said, commanding the waiter to stop.
"I'll have uh…"
"..."
"..."
"I'll have water as well!"
"..."
I internally face palmed.
"Alright, one water," the waiter said, faking a smile and writing down her order. Do you need more time on the food or?"
"Riko, what's your favorite number?"
"28, why?"
"Single digit number."
"4?"
I went over to the menu counting until I reached the 4th menu item.
"Tuna Casserole with Pita bread on the side for her," I said to the waiter.
"Very good," the waiter said, quickly writing down the order.
"Wait no, I didn't…"
"The drinks will be right out!" he said, walking away. The Princess began to pout again as she looked at me.
"Hu, what the heck, I wanted to pick."
"Yes, and I'm sure that waiter probably had a dream of being a famous theater actor. But he's not, so it would probably be polite to not waste too much of his time."
"Alright, fair enough. He did look pretty irritated."
I softened my expression a bit.
"But I mean it's fine, you said it's all about the same right?"
"Mmmm… yeah it's all about the same to me. The Tuna Casserole was definitely one of the options I was considering."
She looked up at me, still concerned.
"But how will we know which one would taste the best if we won't be able to try the other ones?"
"Mmmm… I guess we don't, but I mean we're just…"
She put a finger to my mouth,
"I get it, we're just making it up as we go. I guess I just wanted to make the decision myself. But it's fine if you do it since I trust your taste buds. Still, you looked at the menu once and decided in an instance what you wanted. How can you possibly decide on something so quickly?"
"Mmmm, well to be honest," I thought, pondering her question, "If you really want to know; I usually just go for what looks interesting and I haven't tried before. The porcupine fish seemed to fulfill both requirements."
"Yeah, that makes sense, but…" she looked over the rest of the menu, "surely there are times where even you face a decision where there isn't an obvious choice? Do you just pick based on your favorite number each time?"
"It depends. Just a moment ago I did as I did not wish for any more of the waiter's time to be wasted. But when I feel like making a more true random decision I do this."
I took out from my backpack a pack of cards.
"Alright princess, I'm going to shuffle this deck of cards," I said doing just that, "later, I'll show you a magic trick."
"Woah, when did you have time to learn how to shuffle perfectly?" the Princess asked as I did perfect bridge shuffles.
"Merchants have a lot of freetime to be honest Princess." I said before darting my eyes back and forth before whispering something under my breath.
"Also, it's usually the sign of a degenerate gambler…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing nothing, later I'll teach you how to shuffle Princess, along with a magic trick. This dude Rodrigo taught me how to do both actually."
"Rodrigo. Wait, is he…"
"No, Rodrigo is not part of the merchant's guild." I said before her eyes became more hopeful.
"He's just some dude I met once. But it is interesting how even people you've only met once or twice, you still have some of the fondest memories with. But no, he's not part of the guild, we won't be seeing him again."
"Dammit… fine, just tell me how you choose things randomly then."
"Alright Riko, pick a number 1 through 10, and try to be decisive quickly about it so I don't have to keep shuffling."
"Okay okay, decisive, picking a number, hmmm….""
She thought for about 5 minutes as my fingers felt like they were going to break from all the shuffling.
"Let's go with… four!"
I searched the deck for cards ace through 4 of hearts before shuffling the 4 cards and placing them face down.
"Now just pick one at random. Don't think too hard and just be decisive, it's all random anyways so…"
"This one!"
She pointed to the one at the bottom right corner.
"Good, you're getting it now,"
As I flipped the card, a 2 revealed itself.
"Usually I'll assign numbers to the options beforehand, so in this particular case, we would go with option 2. It's as simple as that."
"Hmmm…"
She pondered my way of living life for a moment,
"I see, well it certainly is a practical way to decide things. Even so, doesn't it feel…"
She paused trying to pick the right words.
"Doesn't it feel like you're gambling a bit on your decisions?"
"Oh uhhh ahaha, I mean…"
I darted my eyes back and forth remembering all the late night card sessions I played.
"Maybe a little. But remember, this is only for things that you are truly indecisive on. And only for things that are not that important like what meal to have. Of course, it's better to think through things fully and come up with a logical conclusion on things and trusting one's own logic before using randomness to decide an outcome. But even in cases when one cannot be logical, for better or worse it still feels better when it's one's own decision. However, sometimes it's better just to make "A" decision, so that one does not waste too much of their precious time. Do you understand Riko?"
"Mmm… no, not really, that was a boring string of words, Hu. You really oughta be more conscious of things too, or conversation will get stale and time with you will feel like it lasts forever."
She turned away before saying something quietly.
"Not that that's a problem or anything…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing nothing, anyways, show me the magic trick!"
"Oh, right."
I took out 3 random cards from the deck. For those of you who have studied card magic tricks at even the beginner level, you will know very well what the term "doublelift" means. For those of you that don't though, I will just explain briefly that it is the flipping of 2 cards at once but appearing as if you only flipped one. A double lifting of the cards so to speak. More advanced tricks require triple lifts and the like but mastering just the doublelift was enough to entertain the Princess at the least as she "ooo'd" and "ahhh'd" as I made cards seemingly change places to different parts of the deck she did not think were possible.
Yes yes, those of you reading this who are true masters of the card trick arts, you probably see what I am doing as just noob tricks used to impress a bigger noob but I never claimed to be a great magician! I just learned this trick once and it is enough to at least convince a greater noob that I am a great magician! Stop judging me! I've seen how talented some of you really are at this. I am not worthy of your card trick brilliance, I am just trying my best! Anyways…
"Sir, your food is ready."
Caught up in the middle of our trance, I forgot that we had already ordered our food from the restaurant.
"Oh, thank you waiter, just set it…"
As we finally fell back down to our earthly environment, I realized we were surrounded now, by dozens of figures around our table in the exact same type of theater masks our waiter, and Riki before him, had worn.
"..."
"..."