As the two of you take your leave from the campus, you cradle the heavy bundle of leather bound books your Mom gave you. You know perfectly well that these things are expensive, probably worth at least as much as some of the job crystals you've seen. The very first order of business is going to be dropping these off at your room in the Inn.
"So, Sera, you have anything you want to do?" you ask, "I gotta drop these off first, but we already did what I wanted," you want to study later too, but you figure that can wait until evening. You have all day and don't feel like doing anything strenuous.
"Um… it might be nice to go out to eat, Mister Adel's food is good, but I wouldn't mind something different, even if it isn't really…. useful for us." Sera pauses for a moment, "T-that is, if you don't mind, I can pay, I still have some gilder left from the job I took by myself," she rambles.
Wow, a free meal? Nice. It's kind of like a date, which makes you a little uncomfortable, but… eh, it's not like you don't like Sera, you're just not sure where you stand on the, uh physical side of things. She's kinda pretty you guess, in a way that used to irritate you about other girls and women. Oh, right, you're staring at her, and she's starting to blush. Crap. "Yeah, that sounds good, I never really ate out often, so that'll be nice," you babble a hurried response, quickly glancing away. "Just, let's stop at the Inn, first, gotta drop these off."
"Y-yes, of course," Sera seems a little unsettled from your impromptu staring, but it passes quickly enough. You spend a little time chatting about job possibilities on the way back to the Inn, Sera is thinking of just going the Bright Mage route when she can. You… aren't really sure yet, there are plenty of options after all. Once the books are dropped off in your room, you leave with Sera, it being the middle of the day, the Inn is pretty empty, you don't see anyone you recognize around.
Sera takes the lead after that. You start to get uncomfortable as the two of you begin moving into the wealthier part of town.
"Sera, where are we going exactly?" you ask as you pass by a storefront filled with jewelry that looks like it costs more than your house in total.
"My favorite restaurant, why?" Sera asks, seeming a little confused.
"Oh, right, of course." It's kinda easy to forget you guess this is probably around where she lived, "Should I have, like… gotten some nicer clothes or something?"
"No, I'm pretty sure nobody expects branded to wear formal wear." Sera answers, and peers at you for a moment, "Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm fine, just curious. I don't really know the uh… etiquette for places like this," you admit.
She doesn't seem to get it for a moment, and then her eyes widen, "O-oh, I'm sorry, I guess I didn't really think…" She fidgets with the hem of her cloak for a moment, "We, can um, go somewhere else, if you'll be more comfortable."
"No, no it's fine. I just didn't wanna embarrass myself or anything," you respond quickly. Sera was willing to hang out at the labs all morning despite the fact that you could tell the more esoteric stuff went right over her head, you can endure a fancy restaurant.
"Ah, you, um shouldn't worry. There's um… separate seating for the branded, so we don't… bother anyone else." She frowns, looking thoughtful, "You know… it kind of sounds bad when I say it. I guess some of the equipment is pretty outlandish though."
Yeah, that sounds about right. Soon enough you reach the place. It's exactly as posh looking as you feared, but Sera seems to know the guy giving tables, or he seems to know her. You do your best not to gawk at all the fancy glass chandeliers,thick carpeting and other luxuries.
You notice something tugging at your sleeve, oh, right Sera, time to go to your table you guess. You follow after her and the server being sent to guide you… and are suddenly quite glad for the separate seating. You feel really under dressed, even in your sparkly robe. The branded section is less crowded too, so that's good. Sera and you are lead to an empty table set for two, and take your seats a cross from each other.
"So... this place is really nice," you say idly as the server hands you a menu. You start idly flipping through it, holy crap this stuff is expensive. You also don't recognize any of the dishes.
"It really does have very nice food," Sera assures you, "Please don't worry about the price, I can cover it," she seems a little self-conscious about that.
"Right," you force yourself to relax a little, you're being dumb about this. Just pretend you're back at the Inn and chat with her like you would any other time, "So, what do you suggest?" you say, gesturing down at the menu.
"Um, lets see, my favorite is this one…" Sera and you go through the menu, in the end for lack of better ideas you just get the same thing she does. It involves mushrooms and other stuff, at least there's the appetizer of buttery little bread things, if you end up not caring for it.
As it turns out the food tastes kind of weird, but it's alright, and Sera seems to be enjoying herself, which is the main point anyway. As you work through your meal you bring up something you've been considering, "Hey, Sera, what are your goals as a branded anyway? I've been thinking about it… but I'm not really sure what I want to do in the long run."
Sera toys with the food on the end of her fork for a moment as she considers the question, "I'm… not really sure. I thought in the beginning that I would just do a dungeon often enough to stave off inactivity, with Father's hired branded watching over me… but the last few days have been really fun… aside from the scary parts," she seems to be giving it some real thought as she pauses, "For now, I just want to keep doing missions and dungeons with everyone. We're not high enough level to really do anything impressive yet… "
"That sounds about right," you muse, mortal peril or not, the last few days have probably been the most interesting and…. enjoyable ones you've had. You feel closer to the little group you've put together than you do anyone save your Mom or Uncle, honestly. Then you recall Maya's situation and something in your gut clenches. You won't let that happen. "That's probably the best idea for now, I wanna do more work on fusion, but I guess I need to get to the point where I can level up crystals reasonably fast to really get the most out of it."
"I'm sure, you'll be able to do plenty of amazing things." Sera responds shyly, looking down. "I admit… I didn't really understand most of what you and your Mother talked about, but it seems that you can create some really strong jobs that way." She pauses and smiles slightly, "I like your mother too, she really cares for you."
"Uh… I guess?" you never really thought about it. Mom worked really long hours, so she wasn't around very often, but you suppose you never really wanted for anything. "I could do without the nitpicking though," you grumble.
"I think Al is cute when she gets flustered," Sera mumbles. You're going to pretend you didn't hear that. You wouldn't have if it weren't for your damned perception score. "So what about you, what's your dad like, he sicced that jerkass on you, right?"
"Um… father meant well." Sera hedges, "He was just very worried about me. Mister Cyrille was just a little abrasive, that's all. Father is, well, always busy, but I know he cares."
That sounds… weirdly similar, except for the overprotective part. Mom always encouraged you to go out and do things, even if you're sure most of her grey hairs are your fault.
You spend the rest of the afternoon having a nice chat with Sera, and a bit of the early evening just sort of strolling around the city. You spent most of your time in the magic district, and Sera in the upper one, so looking around the other parts of the city is kinda fun. You actually locate a couple of interesting things. The main office of the 'auction house' in the city, where branded go to trade gear. It's invite only though, and you guess you don't have the levels for it. the other thing is the arena. From what you can tell it's an odd sort of place where branded can duel each other for prizes and gilder. They take bets too. Fighters have to be at least level five though. You don't feel like gambling at the moment, but it might be something to consider in the future, or at least tell Anshelm about. Seems like it might be right up his alley.
You and Sera end the night at the Inn as is usual. You wave to Hiro and his lady friend …Lucia, looks like? They've both gone and leveled again. You decide to spend the rest of the evening studying and chatting with Sera, you go off on tangents about the arcane theory behind what you're looking into and the spells she and you cast, as well as the methods used by non branded in learning and using magic and she nods along. She seems a little lost as you really get into the 'magi-babble' though. Still it's a pleasant enough way to spend the night, and you feel like you've made a good start on your studying, before you go to sleep. You definitely feel ready to take on another dungeon or two tomorrow.
You've discovered the Arena and the Auction House! Both are still locked though, give it a few levels.
Morning Vote time!
[]Shopping/blessings/etc.
What do you want to do?
[]Dungeons
[]Missions!
