They decided to have lunch at a nearby cafe, its pastel-colored ambience a stark contrast to the luxurious feel that the dress shop radiated. While Circe admired the cafe’s cute decorations, Zeke occupied himself by watching the passerby outside the large glass pane.

“Dungeon Regime takes inspiration from the Victorian Era, though they also mixed in some modern architecture and technology to show the development of the empire’s magic knowledge.” The thought passed Zeke’s mind as he stared at the different buildings across the busy street, leaning his chin on the palm of his hand. “…I wonder if I can start replicating the technology from Earth and sell them.”

The sounds of footsteps snapped Zeke out of his thoughts. As he and Circe turned, two waiters had placed their orders down on their table. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, it’s alright, thank you.” Circe responded with a smile, and one of the waiters promptly returned it with one of his own.

”It’s no problem, my lady. Then, please enjoy your meal.”

Circe had ordered a plate of finger sandwiches, chocolate glazed donuts, and a glass of strawberry smoothie, while Zeke’s side of the table had a lot more orders, starting with a stack of pancakes, drowning in thick syrup, one plate of two croissants, a dish of apple pie, a cup of black coffee, and to top it all off, a whole pound of cheesecake.

”They actually delivered all of these at the same time?” Zeke chuckled in disbelief as he plunged his fork into the pancakes, feeling the spongy dough fight back against the light force. “Magic sure makes things a lot easier, huh?”

“I’m more surprised at what you ordered,” Circe stared at the cheesecake filling up half of their table’s space, her expression unreadable behind her glass of smoothie, though the amusement rang clear in her voice. “Can you even eat all this? Are you trying to kill yourself with diabetes?”

“I’m not going to eat all of them at once, duh,” Zeke said after swallowing his pancakes, by then, he’d already devoured half of them. “The inventory would keep them from spoiling, so I can just keep the food in there until I want to eat them. Apart from that, I also need to test something out.”

“Test how fast you can eat a pound of cheesecakes?” Circe's face contorted after seeing Zeke’s pancakes disappeared little by little while she still held onto her first sandwich. “Are you racing with someone right now? Why are you eating so fast?”

“I’m not,” Zeke looked at her, confused. “I’m just hungry. And these pancakes are really good.”

Circe took another bite out of her meal. “…Has your dad been starving you?”

“It’s the opposite, actually. He ordered the chefs to make more protein-rich food for me, probably because I need to build muscles,” Zeke finally slowed down, taking a sip out of his drink. The pure, bitter jolt of black coffee washed away the saccharine aftertaste in his mouth. “But man, you have to admit, being a noble sure is great.”

”Yeah, it didn’t hit me until now how much power we have in our hands,” a small smile flickered across her face, airing every bit of delight. “By that, I mean how rich we are. Though I think Salvador has more money than Peregrine?”

“Yep, because Esmeralda was a Goldwyn once,” Zeke recalled the information he’d read from the estate’s library. “Goldwyn occupies the land between Oriens and Viridis, so they take full advantage of the trade routes along with their agricultural goods. Despite only being an Earl house, they’re rich enough that they didn’t have to worry about running out of money even during wars.”

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“Viridis Kingdom…” Circe sipped on her smoothie as her thoughts wandered. “The game doesn’t say much about them, though they’re an important ally of Oriens…They’re also the first to accept elves into their kingdom as official citizens.”

“Viridis already has a strong connection to nature in their history,” Zeke nodded, now moving on from his empty pancake plate to the croissants. He tore the pastry into small pieces and dipped them into his coffee. “It’s no surprise that the elves like Viridis’ land. But apart from little details in world-building, I doubt we’ll have anything to do in Viridis, or the other allied kingdoms any time soon.”

“Who knows, we’re just living day-to-day right now without much of a clear goal,” Circe commented as she lifted the pie server, sneaking a piece of Zeke’s apple pie for herself. “There’s no rush, of course. Since the game’s ending isn’t the end of the world…or at least things seem that way.”

“True,” Zeke nodded in agreement. “If it’s really going down a route like that, then the story writers should give the players a…sense of urgency, you get me?”

Circe stabbed her fork into the pie. “Yeah, I got it.”

“But like you said, we don’t know anything at all,” Zeke tore the other croissant apart. “We just need to live as our characters, then maybe one day everything will become clear. At that point, I’m sure we’ll be strong enough to be labeled as overpowered main characters.”

Seeing Zeke make a joke with a straight face, Circe couldn’t help but chuckle, letting a smile spread across her lips. “Yeah, we’ll be strong enough to throw hands with gods.”

Zeke snorted, smirking. “I don’t want to throw hands with gods, though, as cool as that’d be.”

“Why not?” Circe chuckled.

“Too much work for a good-for-nothing. I just want to live like a spoiled, rich kid. Is that so wrong?”

Circe made a stern face. “No, you have a point, let me join you.”

Chuckling to themselves like children, the two of them continued eating the rest of their food amidst the cheery atmosphere.

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.

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After Zeke stealthily whisked away the pound of cheesecake into his inventory, he paid for their meal and left the cafe. Not long after, they found themselves at the town square. A large water fountain stood as the focal point of the plaza, where many citizens walked by while children ran around in a game of tag. The splashing of the cascades acted as a white noise amidst the busy chatter.

Circe took a seat by the edge of the fountain, gazing ahead at the rowdy kids with a smile on her face. “This is nice. Everything’s so peaceful.”

Zeke walked over to her, holding two pork skewers in each hand. “Right, and the food’s delicious too.” As he spoke, he gave half of the skewers to Circe.

Biting into the meat, the aroma of pork grilled to medium-rare combined with the richness of the spices bursted in Circe’s mouth. She could feel herself melting alongside the skewer’s intense flavor. “Where the heck did you find these? They’re so good!”

”It’s the power of street food,” Zeke swiped all of the meat from his skewer out in one go, dragging the pork alongside the vegetables. A perfect blend of the greens’ bitterness and the meat’s tender grease brought bliss to his tongue. “This is kind of making me homesick. There’s a barbeque vendor near my place and I’ve eaten there since I was young.”

“…Do you think we can go back?” Circe looked down at her skewers, a gloomy look spreading across her face. “I mean, it’s not that I dislike this place…but I have family and friends back there.”

“…” Zeke settled down next to her, the once delicious aftertaste in his mouth now turning bland. “Usually in these types of settings…the main characters can return to their original world after they complete their quest, right? Maybe once we’ve reached the game’s ending, we can go back home.”

Circe chuckled, warmth replacing the shadow on her expression. “What makes you think that we’re the main characters?”

Seeing her laugh once more made Zeke feel satisfied too. He smiled and responded with a playful shrug. “I did say that I have good instincts. Let’s just say…it’s a hunch.”

“A hunch? So you’re not even confident?” Circe snorted, her smile growing into a toothy grin.

Zeke laughed. “What makes you think that? Where was it implied that I wasn’t confident?”

“Alright, alright,” Circe’s eyes averted to the children not too far from her, now moving on from tag to a game of hopscotch. Silently, she wondered how they played despite not having the layouts drawn on the ground. “Let’s go with that then, trusting your instincts means you’re confident.”

Zeke finished the last of his skewers as Circe continued nibbling on her second pork brochette. “…I enjoyed myself today, by the way.”

Surprised by the sudden confession, Circe’s widened eyes found themselves locked on Zeke’s expression in an attempt to read the emotions on his stoic face. Despite his attempts at remaining calm, she still noticed a tinge of scarlet dabbed on his cheeks. A giggle escaped her lips. “Same here, it’s nice to go out under the sun once in a while,” but after she gave herself a second of thought, heat rose to her face. “…This is kind of like a date, isn’t it? A real date.”

Circe snuck a peek at Zeke’s expression, and while his cheeks remained as red as before, the seriousness on his face never wavered. Zeke glanced up, but he averted his eyes back down the moment he met her intense gaze. “…You didn’t have to say it like that. It could’ve just been a nice little hangout, you know?”

After seeing him blurt out whatever his flustered mind could, Circe felt more relaxed. “He’s still a cute idiot.” Chuckling to herself, she responded in a playful tone. “Sure, this is just a nice little hangout.”

A welcomed silence befell the atmosphere between them. They quietly enjoyed the rest of their food while listening to the calm splattering of water from the fountain behind them. Perhaps the cool mist could help dampen the heat on their faces.