42 Witch capital
Now that he's in the town, Andrew can appreciate the minute details that he couldn't get just from the window view in his room. He sees that the stalls are selling different things from one another, and yet all of them are sought after by people.
It goes without saying that the majority of the kiosks that line the streets are selling items related to magic and vis. From gemstones to grimoires, there's such a wide variety of these so-called magic goods that it's not an exaggeration to say that they have everything a mage or witch would need.
However, it's not to say that it's only magic goods making up the commerce of the town. Sure, it did play an establishing part in creating the witch's festival but, as Andrew can see, there are other goods unrelated to magic as well.
Fruits, vegetables, and meats all have their own stalls since they're labeled as main goods. Spices, herbs, and condiments which are considered as small goods can be bought in the same stall, but Drew has seen a few kiosks that strictly sell one kind of small goods.
One example of that is a stall that's only selling jars of honey, which Drew and Lu immediately took interest in. The two are staring at the back of the kiosk which has the shelves that are showcasing the singular product and the different takes on it.
"W, -Welcome! By any chance, a, -are you two interested in buying anything?" The vendor welcomes the two with the best shopkeeper smile she can pull since she's intimidated by Lu's presence.
The shop owner has a dainty physique that stands around 5'4". She wears a knee-length light-brown sweater dress with a dark-brown apron over it that has pockets. On top of her head, she wears a large beige tam hat that covers her blonde hair.
"Yes, but is there anything you can recommend?" Drew pulls out a jar from one of the wooden box trays in front of the shop and holds it up to his face. He sees herbs floating inside the honey just like some of the jars on the shelves.
"W, -Well, how about something sweet for your d, -date?" The vendor glances at Lu with her cyan colored eyes before bringing up a jar filled with a viscous blue substance in it.
It looks more like ink than honey, but the label on the jar says that it's honey and the drawings of a berry branch and cinnamon lets Drew know that this is some kind of berry-infused honey.
"What is that? Is that even honey? Drew, let's buy it. I want to taste it. Oh and this too," Lu says as she holds up a jar with honey that has ginger sitting inside of it.
"Th, -This is a wild blueberry and cinnamon-infused honey which is made to be really sweet, and that one is infused with ginger so you'll feel a bit of the spice from it." The store owner loses all the fear she has of Lu as she explains her goods to the couple.
It didn't take long for the vendor to go into what Drew can only describe as going full salesgirl on them. She passionately gives the two even more details about her product and the different recipes they can use it on.
"A hundred and forty Liras right? Here you are." Drew hands the Liras to the salesgirl and she gives him the two jars of honey that he bought. The salesgirl tied the two jars together with cord which will make carrying them easier.
"Thank you for your patronage!" She says waving her hand at the couple as they continue on their date.
Strolling further into town, Andrew ends up dragging Lu from kiosk to kiosk buying ingredients that leaves him with a hefty bag in his hand and a hungry Lu.
Not wanting to keep Lu hungry as they look for a restaurant to eat, Drew buys her a fruit crepe from a stand and she shares said crepe with Hauche who's sitting on top of her head. Drew couldn't help but smile at something so cute.
After a small amount of searching, they finally found a café to eat in. Entering the establishment, Drew and Lu receive a warm greeting from the waitresses near the door. They're quite friendly and cheery despite looking like it's a really busy day for them.
The uniform of the waitresses is simple, it's just a hoopskirt, a shoulderless blouse, and a corset to hold things together. For footwear, they have dress shoes and knee-high socks.
A waitress with antelope ears sticking out from the top of her head comes up to the two with a smile as she welcomes them with a glass pitcher in hand. She escorts the two to a table that could easily fit three more people in it.
"I'm so sorry, we're a little busy today so I hope you two don't mind waiting a minute to get your orders?" The antelope-eared girl asks as she pours the two of them a glass of water from the clear pitcher.
"That's alright with us, isn't that right Hauche?" Lu says to the chimeric beast as she grabs Hauche off her head and sets her down on her lap instead.
The Fenris girl, after apologizing again, leaves the two momentarily to focus on the other diners in the café.
Looking around the café from his table, Drew notices that most of the staff and some of its diners are Fenris.
"For a second there I thought you were talking about me and you." Drew softly laughs at his own self-deprecating joke.
"Maybe I am? Anyways, why did you buy all these ingredients after we bought the honey?" Lu asks as she nudges the heavy cloth bag on the floor next to them.
"You said you wanted to try out the honey right? So I thought about making something from both types and see if you'll like them."
"Make? Like cook?" Lu responds, curious as she is amazed by Drew.
"Yeah, why do you sound so surprised by that?"
"You can cook?" She asks doubting him.
"I made breakfast for all of you!" He argues as Lu gets on his nerves.
"Pfft- anyone can make bacon and eggs. That doesn't count," she replies which starts an intense back and forth between the two.
As Drew passionately argues about his cooking skills to Lu who isn't taking this as seriously as him, he fails to immediately notice the two familiar figures walking towards their table.
His arguing dies down as his eyes stare at the two figures walking up to them. Lu catches on and looks over her shoulder to see who it is.
"You two seem to be having fun, care to explain yourselves?" Melissa asks looking a tad bit pissed that after six days of not hearing from them she sees Drew and Lu leisurely hanging in a café.
The look on Melissa's face reminds Drew of a familiar expression he's seen before. It's the face of someone who's a hair away from beating him up.
Meanwhile, Aranea is as jealous as Melissa is angry with the two.
"It's been a bit hasn't it?" Lu says faintly smiling at Melissa and Aranea. She's happy to see the two doing well.
"B, -Before anything," Drew pleads as he holds one of his hands up. "Can I ask something?"
"What is it?" Melissa asks crossing her arms.
"Why are you two dressed as vestals as well?" Drew points out that both Melissa and Aranea are wearing the same black habit as the girls in the monastery, with Aranea wearing the veil while Melissa isn't.
Aranea drops her head down to hide her embarrassment while Melissa rolls her eyes to look away as her face becomes flustered.
"W, -We were forced to wear these clothes since we decided to help with the festival, but quit trynna dodge the question!" Melissa shouts getting the diners��� attention as well as some of the waitresses.
"Can I help you two?" The antelope-eared waitress walks back to the table and she looks ready to escort Melissa out of the café for causing a mild ruckus.
Drew again raises his hand, but this time to get the Fenris girl's attention.
"They're with me, I'm sorry if we troubled you for no reason," Drew apologizes and asks Melissa and Aranea to take a seat which they do.
Both Melissa and Aranea sit next to Drew, leaving Lu sitting alone in front of them.
"Oh don't worry, I was just about to get to your table and ask you what you'll be having. So, what'll it be~?" The Fenris girl hands out each of them a menu before taking out a pen and paper to write down their orders.
Drew's surprised by how inexpensive everything is on the menu that he sort of doubts the quality of the food, but with all the people in the café enjoying their meals that doubt in his mind disappears.
"Spiced hot chocolate with extra chili and orange chicken," Melissa says to the waitress who writes it down.
"I'll have a stir fry beef and broccoli. O, -Oh and a cheesecake for dessert," Aranea mumbles out while hiding her face since she's still embarrassed for causing trouble with Melissa. Even though she didn't do anything.
"I think I'll have a pizza and a salad," Drew says as he glances at Lu who still hasn't decided on her order.
It's obvious to him that Lu's still hung up about Aspen and that she won't be comfortable with Melissa until she resolves everything with her.
"She'll have the steak and potatoes," Melissa blurts out while pointing at Lu.
The Fenris girl leaves the four of them as she heads inside the kitchen of the café.
To Drew's surprise, he's not the only one who manages to notice Lu's uneasiness as Melissa gets up from her seat and moves to sit next to Lu instead.
"I had a lot of time to think about what happened that day and I'm still thinking about it. One thing's for sure though, it was wrong of me to have been angry at you.
Especially now that I think you did all of this to keep us safe. You can explain everything to me after this because right now I want to have lunch with you two since it's been a while." Melissa returns Lu's gentle smile and that alone is enough to pull Lu out of her shell.
"Pfft- Drew said the same thing to me while he was taking me out on this 'date'~" Lu glances at Drew with a smirk.
"Seriously, I think by far the worst offender between you two has to be Drew. He disappears on us for three days, reappears to try and save the day and nearly gets himself killed, and then acts like nothing happened," Melissa rants while Aranea is shaking Drew around and asking him if he's really on a date with Lucifia.
"Oh please don't get me started with that. He's a handful, to say the least," Lu comments while letting out a tired sigh.
"H, -Hauche, buddy, take my side on this will you?" Drew begs, looking down at Lu's lap where Hauche is sitting. The chimeric beast pretends to not understand him by grooming her face with her front paw.
"Oh c'mon!"
