Chapter 7- a sudden parting

Entering the café, Riyoko and Arisa were greeted with a warm and gentle welcome by two gentle-looking staff, a man and a woman, displaying professional and elegant smiles, fitting the calm and classy aesthetic provided by the café, along with its calming background music, playing across the whole area in a gentle volume.

"a table for two?" the waitress asked with a gentle tone.

As the two nodded, the waiter led them to their table.

Sitting down on the warm and comfy chair, Riyoko couldn't help but let out a relaxed expression as he breathes out all the stress he was carrying.

"Perfect time and place to calm down and relax, isn't it?" Arisa said with a gentle smile.

"Yeah…" Riyoko replied in an incredibly relaxed manner.

"wow… you're completely different from just seconds ago,"

"I can't help it… this music, this aesthetics, this chair, and this overall mood… it's just…"

Riyoko let out a sigh of relief.

"we're glad to see you're enjoying yourself, dear customer," A waitress said, approaching them from a short distance with a small menu book in hand.

"This is our menu, we serve different dishes and desserts from all over the world. if you'd like, you can check the map on the back of our menu," the waiter then bowed, "please call us whenever you'd like to order, one of our waiters will come to you," and so, she left.

"Woah… this place is great and the menu is amazing…" Riyoko looked around, "and there aren't too many people… I wonder if it's because…"

"It's very expensive here," Arisa said, completing his sentence "you should know just from hearing that they serve dishes from all over the world, this isn't your typical café restaurant,"

"Figured…"

"Don't worry, it was Reine who asked us to go to this place, we're not leaving until she comes back and pays for everything we ordered so just pick whatever you like without holding back," she said with an angelic smile.

"what you said could either be interpreted as devilish or angelic…" Riyoko said blatantly.

"Still though, from all over the world, huh?" Riyoko's eyes enlarged as he realized something, "oh yeah, she said something about a map,"

Riyoko flipped the book, "the geographical structure of this world… I've been curious since we had that conversation when we got down that building…" he thought.

Opening the book from the back, Riyoko felt confused.

"Hm? it's showing just one large continent… didn't they say that they serve dishes from all over the world?"

Jiro looked at the other side of the book, beside the page with the large continent.

"And on the other half says overseas… it just displays pictures from the land and the dishes found in them…"

"Ooh… They actually have detailed areas and other information even regarding overseas…" Arisa said, seeming slightly amazed.

"So they don't show the whole map…" Riyoko mumbled.

"Hm?" Arisa tilted her head in question.

"crap… did I do it again? Did I say something weird?" he thought.

"well… apart from it being unnecessary, showing the complete map of the world would only remind people of the horrible truth within it… so It's understandable that they don't want to show it," Arisa said, with a slight hint of pity and sadness in her eye.

"what…? Horrible truth within this world?" Riyoko thought, "what does she mean? In this world where magic runs a lot of things, I could see it solving a lot of world problems that my world has… So this world has something so bad that people want to be ignorant about it?'

"first of all... people would want to be ignorant of a problem they know they can't solve easily… and she's saying that it's so bad they would drive it off the map?"

"Let me look into this further… Also, did they mention what continent this is? It's like a whole continent filled with a lot of countries…"

Riyoko noticed a familiar name in a corner, indicating the name of the continent, "land of… Pangea…"

"Pangea!? Based on my knowledge from my world, this means that in this world… or this earth, the supercontinent was never split into multiple ones!? But that's weird… if it is the so-called supercontinent, then shouldn't this be bigger? I feel like it's cut off some parts or something…"

"could it be the dark truth that this world is hiding?"

Riyoko felt a mix of emotions run through him, but most of all, he was exhilarated.

"What's with this feeling of wanting to know more… I never felt like this before…" he thought.

"Well? What is it?" Arisa asked, driving him back to reality.

"h… huh?" he said, slightly confused.

"Your order, have you decided on it yet? You seemed like you were deep in thought, were you thinking about something?"

"n… no, I was just really thinking about what I'd order, I was having a hard time choosing between these," he randomly pointed at two different orders.

"I see," Arisa nodded, "it would be too shameless of us if we order too much and not even finish it,"

"Y… yeah," he said, going along with her.

"Well, how about I order this one and you order that one?" she suggested, splitting his choices between the two of them.

"eh? What about your order?"

"I was also curious about this other one, so there's no problem there,"

"I see if that's the case…"

And so, they called the waiter and ordered their food.

Later.

As the waitress served them their hot steaming food, spreading a delicious aroma all over their table. Riyoko and Arisa sat straight with guilty expressions as Reine stood between them with dead eyes and an empty smile, emitting a threatening aura.

"so… where's my seat?" Reine asked blatantly with a cold tone.

"I didn't think about it!"

"I didn't think about it!"

Arisa and Riyoko thought in sync.

"So you two decided to have lunch together without thinking about me except for the fact that I'm paying?"

"I had so much in my head and the mood was just so relaxing so I just ended up going with Arisa's flow!" he thought in panic.

"t… this is just a snack… of course, we thought we should eat lunch when we're together," Arisa said with a slightly nervous tone.

"What a horrible lie!" he thought.

Reine stood still in silence looking at the two of them with her cold stare.

"Umm, Miss? If you'd like…" The waitress gently approached her, offering her a chair.

Reine smiled brightly for a short moment as she took the chair and thanked the waitress, but as soon as the waitress left, she sat down and quickly returned to her cold expression.

"S… sorry!" Arisa bowed her head, "it just felt so natural for me… you always go do things and treat me to lunch just to eat alone so I just instinctively assumed you won't be eating with me today either!"

"Huh!? she's like that?" Riyoko said in shock.

Reine's cold stare quickly shifted to a guilty look, avoiding eye contact with the two of them.

"S… sorry, I wasn't really mad, I was just messing with you two… jeez, I didn't expect you to just say that… Also! I eat with you sometimes!"

"If by sometimes you mean rarely then yes," Arisa replied blatantly.

"ugh," Reine looked away with a guilty look, seeming defeated, "this makes it harder for me to say this now…"

"say what?"

Reine let out a sigh, "for now I'm going to order something quick, then after we're done here, I'd like to ask you a favor,"

"Favor? What is it this time?" Arisa replied as if she was used to it.

"Looks like I'm going to be a bit busy this afternoon and I want you to take care of Riyoko in the meantime,"

"huh? But you know I have rounds to make later,"

"I know, and I'm saying you should take him, it'd be a good exploration and learning experience,"

"What are you talking about!? You know it could get very dangerous!"

"Don't worry too much, in the worst-case scenario, quickly give me a call by pressing the absolute emergency button I gave you. And also…" she stared at Riyoko and smiled, "I trust that he'd be fine," she then looked at Arisa with a serious look, "And most of all, I trust you a lot,"

Arisa let out a sigh, "jeez…"