The Ivory Rapier was a slightly higher end restaurant where the financially stable frequented and those out on a bonus liked to celebrate at. The large dining room was cleaner than most taverns, though no less rowdy. Some members of the Adventurer’s Guild came here to eat after a long day as well, so the crowd inside was something of a mix compared to a fully formal restaurant or a simple pub. This restaurant was Minerva and Cynthia’s favourite place to eat when they wanted to treat themselves, and today, Minerva was treating them all to a nice meal away from home.

Minerva and Yule had already secured a table for their group and Minerva stood up once she saw Penelope come in with Cynthia.

“There you are! Over here, you two!” the mage called out.

“Hi love,” Cynthia greeted with a quick nuzzle.

“Where were you?” Yule piped up as Penelope sat down beside him.

“Oh, we had a bit of a detour. I accepted a job,” the girl replied.

Minerva blinked, then looked over at her partner, a clear question in her eyes. Yule just seemed exasperated. The rundown of what happened was given to the other two so they could be up to speed. Cynthia and Penelope explained together, allowing Minerva all the information she needed to advise on their next steps.

“Well, the only problem I can foresee is that the Adventurer’s Guild may feel like their toes are being stepped on,” Minerva stated. “The bureaucracy there is ironclad and almost oppressive at times, if you don’t follow their policies. However, there are workarounds. Would you listen to my suggestion?”

Penelope nodded; she was eager to lend a hand to Mr Ulfric, but did not want to cause anyone trouble.

“Have Mr Ulfric make a new request at the guild, this time asking for a piece of art and let Cynthia accept it. While the guild is pretty stingy on letting people make certain requests outside their walls, they rarely ever question where items come from.”

“That’s true,” Cynthia “We actually had a bit of a scandal and a need for rules revision a few months ago, when someone submitted a request for an item that was already owned by someone else. No one at the guild knew, but the clerks had the huge headache trying to sort all of that out.”

“Indeed. But! For the moment, let’s put that aside. We are here to have a nice dinner together,” Minerva said, reminding everyone the reason for being at the Ivory Rapier.

“What do you suggest, Miss – er – Minerva?” Penelope quickly corrected herself when the mage gave her a stern stare for trying to be formal, again.

“The meat stew~!” Cynthia almost howled gleefully, already knowing what she wanted. Minerva rolled her eyes.

“Gluttonous carnivore, not everyone wants to eat that much stewed meat like you do.”

“I just know what I like.”

Yule had the menu next to him and shared it with Penelope who barely understood what was on there. While there was not a large selection, it was still a full page of symbols and characters she did not recognize yet. Some she knew like the word for ‘vegetable’ or ‘soup’, however, some words she did not quite know yet, mainly because some characters she couldn’t recall by heart.

It was easy enough to identify the prices, though, and she mentally balked at them.

Penelope could feel a small trickle of sweat going down her temple as she tried to convert the amounts into yen, which she was more familiar with.

What is this? And why is it 40 Draks?! If one Drak is 150 yen, then.this item is around 6000 yen?

The girl looked over at Minerva with a nervous smile.

“Ah, just get me the cheapest thing. I don’t feel too hungry,” she fibbed. At that moment her stomach chose to growl very loudly. Just enough that someone from a neighboring table could comment.

“Oh, my little miss. You must be very hungry! Remember to eat loads so you can grow up big and strong!” the almost giantesque man said. His skin was covered in patches of stony flakes and he had a broader frame and taller height than most of the customers in the restaurant. He grinned at Penelope who looked away in embarrassment, laughing even. How embarrassing. She wanted to crawl under the table and hide there until dinner was over.

“Don’t worry about the price, Penelope. This is a treat. A treat!” the older woman insisted, covering up a smile with her hand.

“Hn…still, I don’t know what’s on the menu…” Penelope mumbled, unable to look anyone in the eye. “I’ve never really eaten at a restaurant before, so I don’t know what’s good to eat or to try. My parents always said it’d be a waste to take me.”

The air became sombre around her and Penelope worried she said something wrong. There was a dark look shared between the two adults, a silent conversation happening in seconds in that one look.

“Well, what do you usually like eating?”

“Ah…food?” Penelope answered vaguely. She didn’t know why they were asking.

“Cynthia shook her head. “No, no, no…like, what do you like? Do you like salty food? Sweet? Spicy?”

Oh, that’s what they meant. Thinking on it, she never paid much attention. As long as she could eat something, it was fine even if it was expired. There were many memories of late night expired meals she would grab from the convenience store, eaten cold from the container, but she’d gotten used to that way of eating. Well, when she could afford it. Even something at a hundred yen was painful to pay for back then.

And even when she did like something, it soon became her sister’s favourite and Kasumi had learned to give up on liking anything, lest it be taken away to be given to her.

“I don’t have any favourites.”

Again, the two adults seemed to frown in silent conversation, though they now shot a glance at Yule, who nodded at them.

“Well, that’s no good. All right…we are going to order some food and we will share from each of our dishes! And you can see what you like.”

“Wh–no, no, no, you don’t need to do that. Just something small is enough, I could even wait to go home and make something there–”

“No. A treat is a treat. And you are going to enjoy it, end of discussion,” Minerva insisted.

Penelope gulped and nodded. Good grief, they were quite pushy, weren’t they?

The next time the server passed by, Minerva gave their orders and asking for an empty plate.

The meals went as follows: Yule ordered a creamy soup made with wild mushrooms; Cynthia got herself a meat stew and Minerva asked for a plate of roasted chicken with vegetables; Penelope was welcomed to try a bit from each of their dishes before they would ask for her own dish.

Minerva’s dish was fragrant, the vegetables crunchy and fresh. They were seasoned just right, which appealed to Penelope. While the meat was salty, it was not overpoweringly so, and was tender and moist.

Cynthia, well, got the stew and while she expected it to taste like the one she created the other night, there was just something deeper in the flavor of this one. A depth found only when the meat truly was allowed to sit in a pot for hours, tenderizing and melting into the other flavors surrounding it. It truly was delicious and Penelope could understand why it was the Cyno female’s favourite meal.

As for trying out Yule’s meal…

“Here, have some,” he offered. A spoonful of his soup was held out to her to try. Just looking at it, the soup was creamy and even a little thick. A potage, maybe? There was a savoury, yet earthy aroma to the soup that just made your mouth water, most likely due to the slices of wild mushrooms in there.

Penelope moved closer and chomped down on his spoon directly, without taking hold of the spoon, effectively making Yule spoon feed her. Penelope recognized the taste of the soup as cream of mushroom and, oddly enough, the very taste of it made her eyes sparkle. Yule looked a little less please, however.

“Wh–hey, you weird girl, you were supposed to hold the spoon yourself!”

“Eh? You weren’t just holding it for me?”

“Who would do that?!” His voice went a bit higher, as did the temperature of his face. The boy was red faced. He gave her the spoon, now that it was empty. He even went as far as pushing the bowl towards her (though he still grumbled).

“Here, you like it, right? I’ll order another one for me.”

“Oh, thank you, Yule…” The girl suddenly felt a bit awkward, having a meal pushed onto her, but the taste of this soup really was delicious. The creamy, smooth taste of something milky…yes, this was something she honestly liked. The mushroom was diced and their flavor had settled well with the other ingredients; easy to eat and enjoy. “It’s…good.”

Minerva and Cynthia shared a look again, though they were more amused than anything else.

“I guess you like milky things?” Cynthia asked, as Minerva waved someone down to order more.

“Yeah. Milky foods are yummy. I guess eggs are good, too. I remember eating those when I was little, and they were always so good,” Penelope admitted, not seeing a strange look cross Minerva’s face as a server arrived. The older woman made another order as the rest of the table enjoyed their meal.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was a bit busy, but not generally bad. Penelope learned to drown out the myriad of voices all around her so she could just focus on her friends here. Not used to long conversations outside of work related matters, Penelope had been slowly warming up to the thing known as small talk. Nothing dire to discuss, just little things in their daily lives, little stories or just topics they felt like talking about. Penelope mainly listened as was her habit, but she was opening up, blooming like a flower bud that finally got some sun.

Soon, their plates were cleared. However, the meal was not yet finished.

A new plate was set in front of each person.

Penelope just stared at the item in front of her.

A silky smooth surface and a whole body that jiggled gently as the plate was moved. The top was a deeper colour than the rest, dyed that way from the caramelized sugars set when the dish was first baked. There was a slight smoky scent accompanied by the mellow smell of milk and eggs mixed with sugar. On the plate itself were dollops of whipped cream and shavings of chocolate, to give the plate a fuller look.

Penelope knew what this was.

Pudding! She thought, stars in her eyes. Goodness, she hadn’t had one since she was sixteen years old and a classmate was giving out samples made by their family’s store. Before that, her last stint with a pudding cup had been after her sister got her first taste of pudding and demanded more and Kasumi’s had been taken as a result.

Everyone had one, so it meant that the confection in front of her was meant for her, but she couldn’t help asking anyways.

“This is for me, right?”

Minerva gave her a soft look.

“Of course it is, my dear.” A pause. “Unless you want Yule to feed you some of his again–”

“Shut up, you old hag!”

“My, my, my, where are your manners, my nephew…”

Ignoring the usual squabbles between nephew and aunt, Penelope turned the plate around, just taking the pudding in at every angle. Its soft body swayed gently at the movement, which tickled Penelope’s fancy enough for her to shake the plate on purpose and watch it jiggle merrily. She was so engrossed in this that she hadn’t realized the others were now watching her every move. When she did realize it, she stopped, placing her hands on her lap as a blush crept up her neck.

Oh, my god. I’m 38 years old, why am I acting like such a kid? Oh, well, I guess I’m not 38 anymore…am I 40? 48 now? Agh….

Before anyone could say anything she picked up her spoon and took a small bit off the top where the caramel was the strongest. She took a bite and positively melted as the flavor of the pudding hit her. The soft creamy texture of the confection just disappeared the moment it hit her tongue, spreading a refined sweetness throughout her taste buds.

It’s so tasty, what the hell…Penelope was almost in tears.

The giant man at the nearby table loudly cut through her thoughts.

“There you go! Look at that happy face, hahaha!”

The urge to hide came over Penelope again, however, she thought it by bringing up the cloak more around her face and continued to enjoy her pudding. She was practically wriggling with silent joy with every bite. Coming to the conclusion that she was entitled to enjoy her food however she wanted (even if it made her feel silly), Penelope relished her pudding until the last bite.

New life, new me! I should try to enjoy things a bit more. Who knows when the next time I can have something like this again.

The night ended on a cheerful note, Minerva paying for their meal and the four of them heading back home to the shop to rest up for the next day and the work ahead.