Chapter 57: ~Chapter 18~ Part 1

"Another perfect score," Judy flatly stated at the end of the last song by some lesser-known pop band. I emerged from my thoughts and looked at the other girl grinning broadly in front of me. After a second or two I returned the gesture, albeit weakly. My reaction must not have been satisfying enough, since the princess's smile quickly withered and got replaced by the apex predator of all pouts.

"Don't you have anything to say?" she asked me as her brows twitched dangerously.

"Good job. You are a great singer," I answered in a machine-like fashion, which only made her pout even harder.

"You didn't mean that at all!"

"I did," I told her with a sigh, "You cannot expect the same enthusiasm after the... what was it? The sixth time?"

"Eighth," Judy corrected me while she was poking at the touchscreen of the song picker.

The princess turned her nose up with a huff and sat down beside me, letting Judy onto the center stage of the small karaoke booth. In retrospect, I felt a little sorry for her, so I tried to come up with some minor praise, but I never had the chance to say it as Judy began singing and I once again felt myself slip into a tired stupor.

It was more about mental exhaustion than physical, though the latter also played a role in my sour disposition. After my encounter with the creature on Friday, I had spent all my time knee-deep in research. I didn't know how other survivors of near-death encounters coped with the experience, but in my case, it manifested as a compulsion to find out as much as I could about my assailant lest I would be found flat-footed again.

Unfortunately, I couldn't turn up much. It was a Faun, one of the demi-human foot soldiers of the Abyssals. Of that, I was fairly certain. However, I could not find any reference to the outline light show that we engaged in. Not only that, according to the Celestial Hub, Faun were supposed to be these inarticulate monstrosities that only cared about fighting and destruction, another bit that didn't fit my attacker's modus operandi. I was getting so desperate I even tried to call Snowy, but she had her phone turned off all weekend for some reason.

It was more than a little infuriating. I had the entire Celestial Intelligence Network at my disposal, combined with having an actual Abyssal in my phonebook, and yet I still came up blank. And then there was the date, or rather, the outing. I was tempted to pull the plug on it, or at the very least indefinitely postpone it, but both Judy and Elly kept bombarding me with text messages about their plans, and I just didn't have the heart to rain on their parade. Not to mention, while that Faun was probably really, really dangerous, he didn't actually ‘attack' me per se. Or maybe he did? No, in hindsight I can say that whatever that special effects show was back there, it didn't feel like an attack. Not to mention that I was reasonably certain that if he wanted me dead, I wouldn't have been sitting in this karaoke booth. I couldn't even attribute the uninterrupted continuation of this old habit of mine called breathing to just staying indoors for all Saturday. My wooden front door probably wasn't going to stop him if he really wanted to come in.

In retrospect, my dat—outing turned out to be fairly uneventful. That didn't mean it wasn't hectic, tiring, and positively exhausting, but at least there was no sign of the Faun anywhere.

Now, I wasn't saying that it was all bad. When we started out, it was actually fairly exciting, as seeing the two girls in their casual clothes was a refreshing experience... though I suppose I've already seen Judy like that, but this time she put extra effort into her appearance. She was wearing a knit sweater under a light coat with jeans and a pair of ankle boots, which fit the season pretty well, and she looked pretty good in it. The real surprise was the princess, who showed up in a low-cut blouse with a short skirt and stockings with a pair of long boots. I couldn't help but ask if she was cold like that, but she insisted that she was fine. Draconic physiology, I supposed. Needless to say, I felt a little under-dressed, as I was only wearing my uniform's trousers and shirt with one of my black, double-breasted woolen long coats, of which I had about twenty in my wardrobe for some reason. The girls insisted it suited me, but I still regretted not wearing a different pair of shoes at the very least.

Not that these silly apparel issues held my attention for long, as it was hard to keep my mind off the Faun and our encounter, and the girls quickly noticed that I didn't have my whole heart in the activities. Speaking of activities, the two of them apparently couldn't agree on exactly where to go and what to do, so we went everywhere and did everything.

The morning started out with us heading to the zoo, followed by a snack at a bakery at the other end of the town, after which we had a brief window-shopping session ending with a short lunch at a fancy restaurant. After that, we visited an aquarium, watched a god-awful romantic comedy in the cinema, and finally ended up in the karaoke bar tucked away in a corner of the shopping district.

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"Your turn."

I involuntarily twitched and blinked with what I hoped wasn't a particularly stupid expression before the words properly registered and I took the microphone from the hand extended towards me. I stood up and walked to the song picker.

But back to the topic of the outing: While I wouldn't say we had a bad time, there was something of a tension in the air between the three of us.

By all intents and purposes, this little outing should've been a blast. I was spending time with two people I liked, we were going around to places traditionally associated with fun, and even without that, just hanging out with my friends like this should've been enjoyable in and of itself... and yet it wasn't. Not really. It felt more like we were eyeing each other for the whole time; waiting for someone else to break the ice and address the elephant in the room, but neither of them did it. Though again, nor did I. Stones and glass houses, eh?

And so we were here, trapped in this non-relationship where no one really dared to make the first move in fear of ruining it for everyone. I was seriously tempted to just break the status quo and get it over with, sink or swim, but at the same time I knew it was too early to do so. I was damned if I made a move, damned if I didn't. God, I hated these stupid social Gordian knots.

"Are you okay?"

"Hm?" I was a little startled as I looked up and met the princess's eyes. "Yes, why?"

"You've been cycling through the songs for two minutes," my assistant supplied the answer. I frowned and glanced down at my hand, which was still absent-mindedly poking at the screen. I stopped and stifled a groan.

"I'm fine, I just... I was just lost in thought."

My two companions shared a skeptical look between each other at my expense.

"Chief... If you don't feel well, we can always end the day early."

"Nah," I shook my head as I began cycling through the songs again. "I'm fine. Just give me a moment."

I sighed inwardly. Great. Now I even made them worried. This was steadily shaping up to be the best worst double non-date in the history of ever.

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