Chapitre 61: Chapter 61 - Let's enjoy a little
[Claire Bladeheart POV]
Finally, it was Friday night. I had just finished my last class almost an hour ago, and was now walking out of my bathroom. Using only a yellow towel, and with my hair still incredibly wet.
"I have to wear something interesting..." I told myself.
Luz and Arthur had organized a small party to celebrate their recovery from last week's accident. But since everyone they wanted to invite was having trouble with their schedule, the closest possible time that would be good for everyone was this Friday night.
Luz warned me in advance that this event would be a dinner with friends, at one of the restaurants in the Downtown Academy, he didn't tell me which one, he just said that I should be wearing a fancy outfit, but not so extravagant. It made me completely doubt what to wear.
"Hm... I wonder what my mentor is planning? The only thing I know about his tastes is in relation to the desserts he cooks..." I stared at my clothes closet a little longer, while tossing my towel on the bed and put on my underwear.
"Ignition... Wind Sphere." I activated two spells, the first one made my whole body surrounded by fire mana, making my whole body and hair start to get really dry. The second I used putting my hand on my head, creating a medium sphere of wind mana that was detangling my hair and now drying it definitively, giving a slight wavy style at the ends.
After a time, I decided what to wear, I grabbed my clothes from the closet. Now I had on a pair of long, skin-tight black pants and a white buttoned shirt. As an accessory, I tied my hair with a white headdress and wore, over my shirt, a small red open-waistcoat that went from my neck to above my belly. For shoes, I got black high-top boots, they were simple but comfortable and matched the rest. I put some perfume and light makeup on my face, using a light pink lipstick on my lips. I was looking at myself in the mirror that was there, analyzing well, I was ready.
Opening the door and walking out of my room, heading to the main room of the disciplinary committee, I noticed Kathyln sitting in a chair. She wore a lovely black dress that went to her knees, with lots of white details, as footwear, she was wearing black ballet shoes, with long white socks. Before I could say anything, I heard a door slam and two male voices talking, which soon after seemed to be talking to me.
"Oh! Hi Claire, you are good with this." One of them said "Hmmm, good taste, I must admit." the other spoke, and I turned around and soon noticed that the two people speaking to me were Elijah and Feyrith.
Feyrith was wearing a set of stylized clothing for elves. Having a long-sleeved buttoned shirt, an open vest with golden details, beige pants that completely covered his legs and simple black shoes. Elijah, on the other hand, wore very simple clothes. A medium-sleeved beige shirt, a black sleeveless vest, black shorts that reached below the knees, and brown boots with fur at the entrance, commonly worn by dwarves of the nobility. His glasses seemed to reflect total seriousness.
"Hello boys. Are you ready?" I looked at them.
"The only one missing is Curtis—" Elijah was interrupted by a loud thud and then we looked in the direction of the sound.
Curtis had just fallen flat on his face after leaving his room. He was wearing a pair of pants and a blazer in white, red and yellow. He didn't say anything, just looked at us, as he got up and approached us.
Of the disciplinary committee, only Theo, Dora and Kai had turned down the idea of leaving to dinner. With the five of us already dressed, we headed out of the building together. Once outside, I could see Arthur, he was talking to President Tessia and Secretary Lilia. Beside them there seemed to be a dark-haired dwarf and a green-haired girl.
"Hello, one of my biggest rivals! How are you?" Feyrith said as we approached them.
"Oh hey Feyfey. I'm fine, I was just introducing Tess and Lilia to two colleagues of ours who will be attending our little party. I introduce you to Broznean Boor and Emily Watsken. Broz was the dwarf I, Luz and Elijah helped before the first day of classes. Emily is one of Professor Gideon helpers." Art said excitedly and pointing to the two strangers.
"N-nice to m-meet you." The green-haired girl bowed slightly.
"Naice to meti y'all. Ooh! Elijah, U re usin a very good cloth, heh?" The dwarf spoke watching my colleague.
"Haha.. Thank you, this outfit was one of the ones I received from Darv's nobles before coming to Sapin... I didn't think I would wear it so soon." Elijah replied with a sheepish smile and scratching the back of his head, but then he went in the direction of the girl named Emily.
"And you really look beautiful. Great taste in clothes." He spoke to her, who instantly blushed and punched him lightly in the shoulder.
That girl, Emily, wore a simple sleeveless outfit with a dark green skirt that reached above her knees, while having long black shorts underneath. She had thick glasses, which made her and Elijah look like people who shop for accessories at the same place. The dwarf, Broznean, wore the Battle Mage uniform shirt, but he was wearing dark shorts that completely covered his legs, in addition to having a shoe with metallic details. As an accessory, I could only see a silver earring in his left ear.
"Where's Luz?" Kathyln said lightly scratching her hands and with her usual neutral expression, the only person I saw reacting to that was Tessia, who looked at her strangely.
"....? What is happening here?" I thought, not understanding why that way of reacting among the princesses, but deciding not to ask.
"He went to the restaurant right away, he told me he would arrange some things in advance, maybe get a good table for everyone and such?" Art replied the princess of Sapin as she looked at everyone there.
Counting on Luz, we were eleven people going to a restaurant, so it was very likely that he was looking for a way to have a table for all of us to stay. I fixed my hair a little and we walked together to Downtown Academy, with Arthur guiding us. I walked a little behind, watching the student council girls.
Princess Tessia was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with golden details, in addition to a white skirt that went to her knees, with pale blue high-top boots. Lilia Helstea wore a simple, sleeveless black dress that reached below her knees, wearing blue ballet shoes and having a light blue flower in her hair.
After a few minutes, we arrived at an extremely fancy restaurant, among those we had access to at the time. The restaurant's name was "Royalty's eyes", it was considered the most expensive and only high-ranking noble students could make table reservations there. I was confused for a moment, but then I remembered that Luz had a medal that put him on the same level of royalty as the Eralith family, so he should have used that to reserve a table for us.
Broznean, Lilia, Elijah and Emily were left with their jaws almost dropping to the floor after seeing the level of the place where we were going to have our "little party". Tessia, Kathyln and Curtis didn't react as much, as for them, that kind of restaurant was common, while Feyrith just seemed impressed by the class level of his "rivals".
"Excuse me, we have a table reserved for the Leywin name." Arthur spoke to a restaurant employee who was in the area in front of the door, he looked at a list he had in his hands and started to guide us.
At the moment, there didn't seem to be any other customers in the place. We were taken to a room, where there was a circular table with several chairs, Luz seemed to be already there waiting for us. He seemed to have decided not to wear a special outfit, he was wearing his disciplinary committee uniform, the same way Arthur wore that same uniform. It was as if the two of them didn't care all that much about clothes.
"Guys, welcome. You can have a seat." He said smiling at us.
There were already some appetizers on the table, some that I knew and others that I had never seen before. I sat in a chair near Luz and tasted one of the appetizers, it was salty, crispy and seemed to have cheese inside. The others started to sit at that table and taste the appetizers, their faces seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. But I saw Arthur chuckling as he tasted the same one I had taken.
"What...? Haha! That's amazing! I didn't know they had that around here!" Art said excitedly as he savored that cheese appetizer.
"Well, they don't have it here. I came early and gave the recipe for them to make for us. Apparently, they said that if some of the recipes are well accepted by their daily customers, I'll get some of the profit money." Luz said with a laugh and we all looked at him confused.
"What do you mean? You mean this isn't a recipe from here? It's something you asked them to make?" Elijah commented and the other just nodded.
"Amazing, I've never seen anything like this before, is it some commoner food?" Curtis asked.
"No, it's an 'invention' of mine. I call it 'fries and stuffed potatoes'." When Luz said that, Art started to laugh as if this was the end of the world. I didn't understand why.
"So it's just potatoes, heated in a different way, and stuffed with cheese?... How has something so simple never been done before?!" Feyrith said excitedly, he seemed to have loved it.
"Actually, the process of doing this without the cheese coming out of the potato is quite complicated and delicate. I stayed with the cooks for half an hour, helping them." Luz laughed.
After a few minutes of tasting that special appetizer, we finally asked for our meal. To call a waiter in that special room, we used a kind of bell-shaped artifact, which was in the center of the table.
Tessia and Lilia ordered a pasta with salad. Elijah and Broz asked for a large amount of meat. Feyrith, Curtis and I decided to order pasta with sauce. Kathyln and Emily ordered a simple plate of rice, meat, and potatoes. Luz asked for a grilled steak and Arthur asked for a beef stew.
We chatted for a while and soon our orders arrived, and along with them, there were bottles of wine and jugs of juices. Me and some others were confused by that, after all no one had asked for anything to drink, but Luz explained that he had asked in advance. But still, it was strange to have wine there, after all, I was the oldest of all at that table, and it seemed like the wine was just for me and Luz.
He had to explain to everyone that because of his special fire affinity, any alcohol that enters him is automatically burned, making him taste the drink without getting drunk. This was hard to believe, but he was apparently paying for everything, so no one decided to complain.
After a few minutes, we started to hear soft music playing in the room, I looked around and didn't see any instruments. "Uh... What is this?" Lilia was the first to ask.
"Oh! Sorry, I'm using a sound spell to make some background music for us. I thought the mood here would improve with that." Luz smiled at her and we continued to listen to that song.
It was simple, soft, gentle, with a light touch of sadness but also relaxation. I knew recognize it a little, it seemed to be a string instrument, but I feel like I've never seen anything play so softly, apparently Sound spells can make miracles
"I never hear a song like that." Feyrith spoke what I thought, and everyone seemed to agree with that, even Arthur.
"Oh, it's a song that's usually played to calm someone down before bed. But it has a story behind it." He said and Kathyln, who was one of the people sitting next to him, poked his cheek.
"A story?" she asked while she tilted her head.
"It's pretty unknown because it was a spoken story, not a written one." He replied and seemed to start talking about this unknown story.
"It all starts with a spell to summon elemental spirits, in which at a certain moment, a water spirit was summoned to assist a mage in battle, and strangely the spirit did not disappear after being used." saying that, Tessia and Feyrith were super confused, I think it's because spells involving summoning elements are something much better known to elves.
"The spirit then came to be seen as a familiar to the mage, but in fact they both treated each other as lovers, as the spirit was female in appearance. The spirit never changed its appearance, but the mage began to feel the ages... And this song was hummed by the spirit on the day the mage felt he was finally going to die." He continued the story, and I felt a huge chill at the last sentence he said.
"The music was heard by all the people in the village, as if the melody had passed through the walls of all the houses. And when they went to the mage's house, they found him dead in bed, with a puddle of water beside him on the floor." Luz said this calmly, and we all looked at each other and listened intently to that ending.
"Actually, I've never heard that story..." Lilia said.
"Yes, it looks very sad..." Tessia said hugging Arthur's arm, as she was sitting next to him.
"Well, the song represents calm, relaxation and sadness because of that. As I recall, the name of the story is lost, but the song is called 'A Puppet's Rest'." He continued talking and drank his wine glass in one go. "But let it go, just hurry up to our little party. After all, we're here to celebrate the fact that Arthur, Tessia and I are okay even after the accident."
He refilled his glass and looked at Curtis. The prince looked slightly sad to be the first to do that to him, since he was the one who made that attack, but ended up accepting it. With that, we all cheered and returned to our dinner, with the music always playing. The melody was so calm and simple that it didn't make me sick that it was playing in a six-minute loop.
After everyone there finished their dinner, Luz got up and called Lilia, she was confused and got up, soon being pulled by the waist as they stood there. "What do you think about having a little fun dancing?" He said, making the music distort slightly, getting more excited.
"D-dance?" Lilia said shyly, making some stare at his action, but soon it seemed that Arthur got up and did the same to Princess Tessia.
"Hep!" Tessia was making an adorable noise, slightly startled by the way the situation had turned out.
"Well... I'd say... Since this room is all ours for now, we could do something like this. After all, there are 5 girls and 6 boys here. So we can do...a dance where we switch pairs?" Curtis mentioned that detail.
"Woah. U'all can dancy togeder, I am oka with djis." the dwarf, Broznean said, patting his stomach lightly, as if he was super satisfied with his food and wasn't getting up anytime soon.
With that settled, I drank a full glass of wine and stood up, accepting the idea, going to dance initially with Feyrith, while Elijah called for Emily and Kathyln stayed with her brother. I don't know how long it lasted, but for me we had a lot of fun dancing, always changing partners, each girl danced at least once with each boy and vice versa.
The music was sometimes changed to a more calm and fun one that I didn't know, but the way Feyrith, Tessia, Arthur and Luz danced excitedly to it, maybe it was a well known song among the elves in Elenoir. It was funny to see the three boys trying to teach the other two how to dance it, while to teach me and the other girls, we only had Tessia for that.
With all that done, we heard a knock on the door and Broznean went to open it, he looked at us and asked "Did some ofyu guys order a dessert?"
"Oh! I had a dessert set delivered, an hour and a half after our orders had been delivered." Luz answered and went to the door.
"An hour and a half? How long has it been? I really thought we stayed here longer." I thought, curious that my time perception was so bad... Maybe it was because of the wine.
Luz, along with two waiters, came to the table with trays. They put the trays on top and opened the lids, showing several cupcakes and glass cups with a kind of cream, reminding me of the first time I tasted his food. Plus, each dish seemed to have the first name, or nickname, of each of us, each letter made out of chocolate.
"Each one get a plate. And before you ask, yes, the people I invited but couldn't come, they also have their own dessert, I've already asked the waiters to wrap their desserts when we leave." Luz said as he gave a gold coin to one of the waiters and they left, leaving us all alone in that room again, now with calm elven music playing in the background.
"Oooh! So you really planned it out beforehand? Smart guy!" Curtis said, making us all laugh and we grabbed our respective plates.
"Is there a difference between each dessert, since each one has its own name?" Emily asked.
"No, that is, if anyone here gets sick of dessert, they can leave their dessert on the table, because then we can take the leftovers." Luz replied and we started to taste.
That cupcake was very fluffy and soft, when I cut it with the fork, I noticed a chocolate filling with strawberry pieces coming out of it. I tasted it, soon to discover that it was very warm, so I took a spoon with the cream that was in the glass and put it in my mouth, it was very cold, with a light citrus fruit flavor. Some tasted separately, others ate reversing between fork and glass, but Luz and Arthur were the only ones who took the glass and threw the cream directly on top of their cake, to eat it all at once.
"Oh my god, how delicious~"
"I so wish Mom could do something like that."
"Oh my, I want the recipe for that!"
Everyone spoke excitedly in response to the delicious taste. Luz gave a light laugh seeing that everyone liked it. "Great, because that's not a dessert on the menu here. It's one of my recipes. If you want, I try to make this dessert on the weekends for everyone here." He said smiling.
"Better! We could teach this recipe to the cooks at the Academy. That way we'll have a chance to taste it without you getting too busy." Lilia said with a giggle.
"But this is too good to be common in the cafeteria! Maybe it's good to be a specific dessert for a day of the week." Curtis gave the alternative.
"How about every Wednesday? Usually this day doesn't cheer anyone up at school, so something like this is great." Tessia made a comment and everyone seemed to agree with her.
"Okay! I'll write the recipe on a piece of paper and ask Cynthia to hand it over to the staff." Luz said watching us.
We had all finished eating, and now we have left the restaurant, with Luz apparently having paid for everything. We looked into the distance, the sky was starry and the moon was full, making the moonlight touch my face. That along with the quiet breeze on campus was what made the moment more relaxing.
Feyrith was carrying desserts for Kai, Theo and Dora, while Lilia carried desserts for Clive, Jarrod and Fable. Yes, even the entire student council had been invited, but the three boys also declined, on the excuse that they had more important things to do.
People were walking further ahead of me, while I was lagging behind because I was admiring the landscape. When I noticed this, I looked where they were going and saw Luz stopping so he could walk with me.
"Did you like the dinner?" he asked, smiling.
"It was amazing, it didn't last that long, but it was great for us to start this school year well" I replied and soon feel his hand touching the back of my neck, and then he gave me a hug.
"Fine, I hope this is a good reward for my delay on Monday..." He said, making me laugh.
"Yes. You were very late that day! I was waiting for you until 11 pm! What Professor is teaching until this time?" I said, remembering how stupid I felt for waiting so long for him.
"I'm sorry.. But I already told you, you should blame Kai, he was the one who kept asking so many things that made me take time... Besides that problem happened..." He said that and I sighed.
That night, he arrived at the DC main room with his clothes slightly torn and with Kai having bloodstains on his uniform. They told me that they tested some special runes in practice, and accidentally one of the students made a rune that represents explosion. Causing great chaos in the classroom and causing some to be hit by shards of fragile glass equipment in place.
"Fine. I understand that unforeseen events occur." I smiled at him and soon he stopped hugging me.
"Everyone was wearing amazing clothes.. I feel like an idiot for only wearing my uniform."
"You were the one who told us to wear a slightly different outfit, silly." When I commented on it, he gave himself a facepalm.
"My mind gets really full sometimes and I forget to do some things.. I'm sorry." he said looking into my eyes and smiling slightly.
"I hope you haven't forgotten that tomorrow we return to our battle training." I said while smirking.
"I would never forget that. Btw, Arthur and Tessia will be there too, because that room is actually theirs. No problem right?"
"Of course not. It will be great to see her and your brother's progress as well." I said and he soon gave me a big hug, bringing our faces close to each other.
"H-e-eh?!" I was confused and started to blush a lot.
We stayed like that for long seconds, until he kissed my forehead. "It's going to be very early, I'll have to wake you and my brother."
"W-why do you have to act like that, mentor?" I said still blushing, I ended up calling him 'mentor' in a public place without realizing it.
"Because I want to see you happy, Cupcake... Not just you, but everyone around me. Got it?" He said still smiling and hugged me more, until he released me slowly.
I looked around, we were completely alone there, or I could say that we were "almost" alone. Since in the background I could see Arthur and Tessia talking alone, while Elijah seemed to take Emily and Broz to their dorm.
"Yes, I get it... And you know that if you hurt yourself enough, it does the opposite of what you want, doesn't it?" I answered him, remembering the feeling of panic and terror I felt when I saw the Dire Tombs rescue report.
He took a long breath. "Sometimes happiness is not all you will feel, along all the way, anything can happen, but my goal is.. That you all at least are happy or satisfied.. As much as possible."
"Nice answer." I said and he punched me lightly on the shoulder, making us both laugh.
"You'll have to sleep like a baby. For tomorrow I'll be the devil." He smiled mischievously and ran ahead of me.
"H-hey!" I run after him, heading back to the SC/DC Building.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone