Capítulo 16: First Date Part 1
"Nnph~"
A small moan escaped Emma's mouth as the two of them slowly finished up their kiss. By now Emma's face was red with slightly moist eyes as she was making some light pants. There was a slight urge to push her down from the sight, but Noir stopped himself. They only just started their date after all.
After grounding himself back to reality, he reflected on the information he got.
'So I got a God fragment skill… But, what the hell does that mean?'
The icky feeling he had before was getting worse. He didn't like the feeling of being someone's puppet but he was getting that kinda vibe with how everything was leading up. If he really wanted to get sceptical, what if his hobby of watching anime was planned by a cosmic being above?
'I need to get more information about the Gods after this. But before that, I need to get stronger,' The fear of whatever agreement kept replaying to Noir. He had his share of bad contracts in his time and there's nothing worse than a contract you can't escape from, other than signing something you don't know anything about.
'Alright. After this date is over I'll try convincing Alice for some help. I wanted to take things slow with her, but I can't just stand still,' With his new goal in mind now, Noir momentarily forgot what he was doing as he was just staring blankly into Emma's eyes, who looked at him weirdly.
'I wonder what the Great Sage told him?' There was an obvious curiosity in her eyes as she silently stared back at Noir. Emma didn't want to interrupt him as she figured he was trying to process all the information which he appreciated but felt awkward for.
"Thanks, Em," Feeling a need to fill in the awkward silence, Noir thanked her before quickly adjusting himself.
"Don't worry about it. I like kissing you, Noir," A small smile formed on Emma's face as she leaned her head onto Noir's right shoulder. Feeling her closer up to him, Noir subconsciously wrapped his arm around her waist as he thought for a moment.
"I do too, but it feels kinda cheap when I use it as a chance to get some answers," There was some regret he had about his skill, which was he had to use it during the moment. It was very taxing for him mentally to kiss someone while listening to the wise words of an old man. It was very off-putting to him and he wished he could edit his skill to allow the questions to come afterwards.
As for Emma, she made a quiet sigh before turning up to him.
"It can't be helped. You used to be super serious about getting answers for anything. Remember our Sex Health Classes?"
There was a smug smile on her face this time as Noir was confused for a moment. Sex Health Class?
'Huh? What happened in sex health cla- oh fuck,' it was then Noir recalled something that the old Noir tried his hardest to forget. At the time he was adamant about finding out how the female body worked and about pregnancies to an uncomfortable degree to both adults and children nearby.
And meanwhile younger Noir was writing notes about this eagerly. When he recalled how stupid that was, the old Noir burned that book to ashes and tried forgetting everything.
'Goddamn, what the hell was wrong with that kid?'
Noir felt second-hand embarrassment as he looked away from Emma.
"Let's… not talk about that. God, I was cringey."
"It's alright. That's just how things are. Come on, I wanna see what kind of cafe you're suggesting."
Seeing how Noir reacted, Emma stood up, turned to him and leaned forward, showing off her breasts in the process of making the suggestion. Sometimes Noir thinks that they have a mind of their own, but he didn't complain about it since they were a nice view to watch.
"Sure let's go," Not wanting to get further tempted by her chest, Noir quickly stood up as the two of them started walking to their destination with Emma hugging Noir's arm again. There was a little silence between the two as Noir was still thinking about his skill and situation. During that time, Emma let her curiosity get to the best of her as she asked Noir a question.
"Hey Noir, did something happen with the Great Sage?"
There was no visible shake in Noir's expression, but he was startled for a moment. Seems like he made it obvious.
'I'll hold off on the God Fragment part for another day. I want to confirm what that means and if it's something dangerous,' There was a chance that possessing this kind of skill would make Noir a target if it was known so he wanted to stay quiet about it for now. He knows that cults exist in this world but he doesn't want to test them by being a piece of meat for them to enjoy.
"Nah, I was just feeling a little overwhelmed by the information I received. The Great Sage doesn't wait for you to write it all down after all," Noir quickly made an excuse as he pushed everything he learned to the back of his head. Right now wasn't the best time to be in deep thinking, he can do that later when it's just him by himself.
As for Emma, she looked at Noir's eyes for a moment as she was thinking about something before speaking.
"That's good to hear. Maybe I should try getting stronger too," There was a lonely feeling of being left behind that she just kept playing in her chest. She knows that Noir wanted to take a new path, but she didn't know how to support it without stagnating herself. She's even questioned what route she wants to go after she gets her job as a librarian.
'I'll follow Noir for now. Until I know what I want to do for my career,' It was the simplest way to improve while learning more about yourself. The Hero school was a good place for both making connections and for job opportunities. Even if she ends up not making use of it, it was still a good thing to write on the resume.
But Noir, who wasn't aware of Emma's thought process, felt pleased by her words.
"You plan on taking the hero exam too?"
"If you're going then I'm going too."
"Then we better start training together sometime."
There was something happy about hearing the words coming from Emma's mouth as opposed to him convincing her. The two of them spent the rest of the time talking about when they could try training, some plans for the future and even inviting Emma over for dinner one day.
>\/<
"Wow, this cafe looks amazing!"
Once the two of them got nearby, Emma's first thoughts about the establishment were on full display. The inside of the premise could be summed in two words: Aesthetically pleasing.
All the tables and walls were designed in a simple manner with flowers and other decorations around but you never felt imposed by how much space they take up. The atmosphere felt peaceful yet chaotic as he saw the waiters and waitresses come to serve customers with floating trays that looked like they were being powered by levitation magic.
The sight was terrific to the unfamiliar Noir, but he quickly broke out of its charm as he looked around for seats.
"Come on, let's take a seat over there."
"Okay~"
Emma seemed to be in a good mood after seeing how they looked so far. Once they began seating down the two of them briefly looked through the menu before a waitress came to get their order.
"Welcome to sunshine cafe. What would you like to order?" The waitress was a young rabbit girl about their age with green hair and lime green eyes wearing a black and white maid outfit with some flower hair ornaments. She looked just a bit shorter than Emma but her bust size seemed to rival hers.
"We would like a super deluxe sundae," Seeing the sudden beauty in front of him, especially someone from the beastkin tribe, Noir tried his best to reply as normally as possible. He didn't want to trigger any landmines by having his inner weeb be shown on display, not to mention he doesn't want to get kicked out for it.
But he does have another reason to come back to this place now and then.
"One super deluxe sundae coming right up! We have a couple's only offer going on at the moment. If you can finish the sundae in under 20 minutes then you just have to pay half the normal amount as well as get matching necklaces."
The rabbit girl waitress pointed at one of the options in the special section where there was an image of two silver necklaces with a green gem inside them. The design looked good by Noir's standards which tempted him to try the challenge out. As for Emma, even though she owns a lot of jewellery at home, she liked the idea of wearing matching necklaces.
"That sounds like fun. Let's try it."
"Yeah, of course, we're going to try it."
"Your order will be here soon."
The two of them agreed to the challenge as the waitress went to send their order to the chef. In the meantime they talked about what they were doing the previous day, where told her that he spent his day training his arms and legs and fought some slimes nearby whereas Emma told him she had lunch with their Takoda, someone that the old host knew, and then they watched a romance movie together.
Although Noir was interested in the new person that he couldn't recall anything about, his attention was quickly drawn to the movie topic. He didn't expect there was anything like that in this world, but fortunately, Emma corrected him on the misconception. They were expensive magic items that even her family couldn't afford without making a sacrifice to their income.
The only reason they could get one was because of a business deal her father made with a Viscount. Even then, it was only one in black and white. Apparently, nobles ranked marquise and above can watch coloured movies.
'It would be nice if I could get some kind of business in the live-action scene. Sounds like good potential considering they could perform the CGI first-hand,' There were some good animes that could be used as a reference in this world and wouldn't look too out of place considering where they are. Obviously Noir would have to find the people in that industry but it sounded like a fun idea for him to do as a side project.
'Even something like having broadband would be awesome. The only problem is I don't know anything about networking and satellites but I could probably find some people who seem interested in the idea,' The Hero Academy is where Noir plans to take the first course of action. Not all the students there are combatants after all and even geniuses in their fields can enter as long as they've passed their specialised course. The only issue is that they're in a different building but they're still close enough for the students to interact.
"Your order for one super deluxe sundae is here!"
While listening to Emma talk about the romance story, the sundae surprisingly didn't take too long as the waitress came back with a massive sundae…
"Holy…"
"That's a lot."
… That was the size of both Noir and Emma's heads combined and was lifted up with a levitation spell. The two of them could only look at it in surprise as the waitress seemed to enjoy their shock.
"We hope you enjoy your time at the sunshine cafe!"
The Waitress said as she performed a short bow and got the timer ready. As for the other two, they were having mixed reactions. Emma was always ready for a challenge, especially when it came to desserts but she was worried about getting fat, as for Noir he had to double back on himself as he mentally tried calculating the calories, a habit he had ever since he learned what calories were.
'Welp, say hello to diabetes. I'm surprised that they have something like this in this world. Guess the food business isn't as behind as I thought it was,' His initial thoughts when he was coming here were that there was a high chance that food and sweets would've been lacking but that wasn't the case. It seems like they were able to harvest sugar in this world, which wasn't a bad thing for Noir as at least it gave him something to look forward to.
'Though it feels bad that I can't make use of my cooking skills. Oh well, I'd like to try out the new food,' Since the food looks good so far, he wanted to try out as much as possible and maybe learn a few things.
"And the time starts now. Good luck," While Noir was mentally crossing off his list of Kickstarter ideas, the waitress pulled out a small rectangular timer from her inner pocket before placing it on the table. It was a magic device that functions as a timer and it was counting down from 20 minutes.
"Quick, let's start," Seeing as the timer has started, Emma broke out of her shock as she took a bite to finish it in time. Her desire for the necklaces was her fuel for completing the challenge. As for Noir, he didn't dilly dally either as he picked up a spoon and joined the fray.
The flavour of the sundae was surprisingly good. It was sweet and creamy, filled to the brim with ice cream, chocolate sauce, wafers, sprinkles and strawberries. With just the cream alone, it was the best thing he had in his life. Much better than the ones he'd buy at the supermarket at least.
In the beginning, it was fun eating the massive dessert, but when it hit the halfway mark the sugary dish started taking its toll on Noir and Emma's stomachs, yet there was still more than half of the dessert left.
"Ugh, my stomach's killing me."
Seeing so much remaining was almost daunting to Noir. Although he loved his sweets, he wasn't crazy enough for something like this. He needed a break from it.
"Don't worry, we're dealing a dent to it."
As for Emma, she was struggling but she seemed determined to continue. The sight was amusing to watch for a while but Noir wondered why she was so determined for a necklace as opposed to buying a simple one.
"You really want that necklace, huh."
"Of course! It would be a fun thing to look back onto in the future and stuff. Plus it gives more of a story to it when we worked hard for it."
"Is that so…"
It was a simple answer that seemed almost innocent that Noir couldn't help smiling. It was wholesome to him when he saw how committed she was to their date. So much that he didn't want to let her down too.
"Alright, time for round two."
Feeling a second burst of energy from who-knows-where, Noir picked up the spoon again as he tried to make up for the lost minutes he spent taking a break.
"That's the spirit!"
It was an unrefined sight to see, but the two of them said "Fuck you" to social etiquette as they began scarfing down the Sundae without care for some of the customers near them. Fortunately, they were mostly people who were by themselves so they didn't ruin any other couples' dates, but it was worth it all when they got to the final minute mark and there was barely anything left.
"Damn that was lethal…" With his head laying on the table, Noir was groaning in pain once he took his last bite. After all was said and done, the realisation that he consumed a large number of calories kicked into him and made him feel whiplash instead of feeling like he achieved something.
It was too much sugar. Even if it tasted good and felt worth it, it was too much. If it was the old him that was obsessed with staying healthy then he would've had trouble continuing after taking the 5th spoonful.
"At least we got through it. Just barely though," Emma said as she collapsed to the backboard of the chair with her hands on her belly. It was a lot rounder compared to when they came in, but Noir couldn't say anything bad as he was just as big.
The two of them spent some time in their position to recover from the food coma they put themselves in as the timer rang. It was a hum of a sweet melody of birds chirping which helped them with their mental fatigue. After about half a minute of listening to the music, it finally stopped as the green-haired waitress came back with two boxes.
"Congratulations, dear customers. You two have managed to eat through the super deluxe sundae! As a reward for completing the challenge, you both have won the sunny cafe's couple necklace!"
With a sudden loud voice, the waitress spoke like an announcer as she handed the boxes to Noir and Emma. Upon the news being announced, the other customers in the building began clapping their hands at their achievement.
Noir felt happy with the congratulations as he had a confident smile on his face, likewise with Emma, but with a hint of redness from having their couple's status revealed.
"I hope you two enjoy the rest of your date," With those words, the waitress performed a maid bow before excusing herself. As for Emma and Noir, they both looked at each other before opening the box. Their much-desired rewards were waiting. The same necklaces that were displayed on the menu but they looked much more beautiful in person than on paper.
"They're beautiful. Help me put one on," Seeing how gorgeous the jewellery was, Emma sat next to Noir facing her back slightly towards him and adjusted her hair to help Noir out.
"Sure," While feeling a little excited, Noir helped her out by taking off her old necklace and putting on the new one. He did get to glance at her deep cleavage for a moment but refrained from staring too long as he quickly clipped the new one on.
Once he was done, Emma smiled at Noir before hugging him.
"Thank you, Noir! You're the best!"
Her eyes were shining as she felt happy about their work. The feeling of getting his body embraced by Emma's, as well as feeling everyone staring at him, felt really good to Noir.
'It never gets old seeing people get annoyed or jealous of me. But regardless of those narcissistic thoughts, being with Emma is fun,' Even before his days of being a streamer, Noir always had a subconscious ability to tell when someone was looking or talking about him. It was part of the reason why he got into so many fights in his past life, but it helped him to figure out the good and bad people in his life.
"Lemme help you with yours."
"Please do."
He turned around as he suddenly jolted upon feeling Emma's breast leaning onto his back. His body was beginning to have a natural response to the feeling, but he was able to hide it from her as she finally finished putting it on him.
"It looks good on you, Noir."
"And I think it looks better on you."
Feeling the urge to tease her, Noir gave her a head pat as well as complimented her. He's been tempted to do so for a while and now was a perfect time.
"Haha, that feels good," Noir was expecting her to be against the head pat or do something that anime girls would do, but instead she simply made a peaceful smile as she enjoyed the feeling. Her hair was a lot softer than he thought it was and was pleasant to the touch which made him want to carry on patting her for longer but stopped when he realised the people watching them were giving him weird looks.
'A man can't get some piece of mind huh,' There were certain times he loved the attention and now wasn't the right time. Seeing as they'd already finished their order, Noir thought it was a good time to leave.
"Let's get going now. Wanna take a walk by the river? It's a good chance to burn off some of the calories."
As someone who's focusing on maintaining good health, a walk was a good first step to burn off some of the calories.
'Though there's a chance I'm gonna have to fight over 100 slimes to burn all of the calories,' He was slightly lamenting it, but it was still worth it.
"I like that idea. Let's go."
Agreeing to the idea, the two of them wobbly got up as they went to the counter to pay. It was 6000 Eru, which was about 6 silver pieces. There were some depressing thoughts after seeing a lot of his money gone in such a quick time, but he knows that he'll be able to make it up soon in the future.
"I could've paid half, you know?"
"It's fine. I gotta pay for the first one at least."
"If that's what you want. Next time we'll do fifty-fifty."
"Sure."
There was something warming to Noir seeing her understanding side with his financial situation, but as the person who suggested their date, he wanted to at least accommodate for it.
While they were exiting the cafe, there was something harmless that Noir wanted to test out on Emma as she was walking a little ahead of him. He reached out his hand and smoothly held hers while she moved it.
"Eh?" Emma made a sudden noise from the sudden contact as she looked at Noir. Her eyes alternated between him and his hand holding hers before she started to blush.
'I was wondering why she never held my hand. She might just be embarrassed about her warm hands,' He recalled that some people felt self-conscious about their hands if they were too warm or sweaty. Personally, Noir didn't care for either, but he thought it was entertaining.
Feeling like he should speak, he opened his mouth.
"This takes me back to when we were kids in a way. We haven't held hands since then," There's a scene that flashed in his hands when the younger Noir would take Emma around town or the forest to explore. It was during his reckless child stage before he got depressed by the world and the situation he was in.
He even felt it was funny how she'd be smouldering her breast onto his arm instead of holding hands, but he guessed that was just how she perceived things.
"Though for some reason you seem to be more comfortable with wrapping your arms around mine."
"This and that are too different things!"
There was a loud response to the tease that Noir wasn't expecting, but he didn't want to let go of the chance to mess with her.
"Oh? Was it to charm me by any chance?"
"Hmpf, Noir, you Doofus!"
Emma pouted as she pinched Noir's sides. It stung a little but thanks to levelling up a bunch, it wasn't too painful for him as he laughed it off.
'A healthy amount of tsundere is always entertaining.'
Even though she was pinching him, he didn't mind it much purely because it was something minor. He liked Tsundere's, but only when they weren't too violent. Once they hit a certain threshold Noir would actively dislike said character until they redeem themselves, which is rare.
Fortunately for him, Emma was nowhere near that level so far as he chuckled a little.
"Haha, maybe I teased you a bit too much," Trying to calm her down, he put his arm around her waist again.
"Mmm, I don't remember you having this teasing side," Emma didn't seem to dislike his arm around her body, which Noir took as a sign she wasn't too embarrassed.
"Blame the sundae. I'm having a sugar rush right now."
"Is that so?"
But even so, Noir carried on messing around with Emma since he enjoyed her reaction as they continued walking around the area. The date only just started, with spicy things yet to come.
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