Chapter 25: 25: Dinner Dat-… Dinner as Friends!

The sky now darkened and star-filled, with only faint hues of blue highlighting the sky, two women met up once more outside of the guild’s training area. Having changed into some nicer clothes, Kaitlyn, having some extra time before Rachel would arrive, decided to pull some of her hair into a braid.

Sitting on a bench on the side of the road, Kaitlyn stared off into the night sky, counting the endless twinkling stars until she heard footsteps running over to where she was sitting. 

“Heyyy~” Rachel greeted with an excited wave, a happy smile on her face, “Sorry if I kept you waiting! Where do you want to go?”

Shaking her head and reassuring Rachel that she hadn’t been waiting long, Kaitlyn asked, “I was thinking we could go to a cute place downtown, they serve a lot of different types of food... Any place you were thinking of?”

A gust of wind blowing by as Kaitlyn finished her words, Rachel offered a hand, shaking her head, “Let’s get going to the place you were thinking, I don’t know the town as well as you do.” 

“Sounds... s-sounds good,” Kaitlyn murmured, taking Rachel’s hand with an embarrassed smile, “And I wouldn’t bet on it... I don’t spend a lot of time in town.” 

Laughing at Kaitlyn’s response, Rachel couldn’t help but think to herself, ‘why is she so cute... makes me kinda want to tease her... but AHH she’s also, like, so cool... like ohmygosh ohmygosh she’s so cool... don’t simp Rachel, stay calm, chant those Buddhist sutras.’

On the other hand, Kaitlyn was a little flustered, finding it a little hard to look at Rachel who, with a much more casual non-adventuring outfit, was giving off a very different air than usual, ‘Why is it hard to stay calm?! Stay calm Kaitlyn, stay calm... why do you feel weird when going out to dinner with one of your friends...’

However, as both parties had similar yet different trains of thoughts going on, they continued, continuing on towards their destination. 

Making idle conversation to learn more about each other as they meandered through the bustling night-life of the city, basking under the glow of magical lamps, wood-lit fires, and the quiet moon overhead, they arrived at their destination, coming to a stop before a small and homely restaurant. 

Nestled away in a corner of the series of squares that made up the downtown area, somewhere the foot traffic was a little lower, this restaurant was situated between a larger general store and a small apothecary shop. The shop itself, run by a family, had a steady stream of customers, their tables almost all filled, yet the atmosphere remained private and cozy. 

Walking in through the wooden doorway, Kaitlyn maintained a light hold onto Rachel’s hand as they were guided to a private table near the front corner of the restaurant. 

Hanging their coats on the back of their chairs, Kaitlyn and Rachel both sat down, enjoying the atmosphere of the restaurant. 

‘It’s cozy as always...’ Kaitlyn mused to herself, looking at the menu, ‘I love the small plants and heat lamps they put on each of the tables.’

A few moments later, having both ordered, Rachel asked Kaitlyn, poking at the small lamp that was on their table, providing some illumination along with radiating waves of gentle warmth, “How does this even work? I don’t see oil, fire, or electricity... there’s just kinda a glowing light in there, pulsating everytime it lets off a small surge of heat.” 

Looking at it from several angles, Kaitlyn confessed, “I’m not sure how it works either, I didn’t really learn how intricate magic engineering works, but I assume it's something with magic stones...”

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“Ahhh, no worries, that still answers my question,” Rachel nodded, putting her hands near it to feel the warmth, “Magic engineering huh... that’s really fancy, maybe Damien could help, he studied an adjacent field before we were summoned over here.”

Impressed at Damien’s skills, Kaitlyn asked, her curiosity sparking her question, “You were all students, right? What did you all study?”

Drumming her fingers against the table while trying to remember, Rachel explained, “I was a biology student, Oliver was a law student, Josephine was pre-med, and Damien was studying computer science.”

“I-... I don’t understand any of that...” Kaitlyn coughed, an embarrassed flush creeping up on her face, “Would you mind explaining that? Well... I understood Oliver’s field of study, I guess.”

Her gay panic-inator going into overdrive over how cute Kaitlyn was, Rachel calmed herself down before explaining, “Yeah! Of course, no worries! So for me, I was just studying... life. Like, studying animals and their behaviors among other stuff. On the other hand, Josephine was trying to learn to be a doctor, and Damien was... doing some fancy stuff with computers.”

Pausing for a second to receive and thank the waiter for their food, Rachel elaborated, “Also, to give a little more explanation on what a ‘computer’ is, it’s kinda like a fancy magical device that lets you view information easily in one place. Kinda would be like an entire library on a single stone tablet.”

Amazed, Kaitlyn took a moment to swallow a bite of the pasta she had ordered before mentioning, “That really sounds like this thing I heard some magic engineers are trying to do!! They’re like trying to make these capsules that can store magic energy in them, but like… more stable than in magic stone form. Damn, the world you came from must have been very futuristic…”

“Sh*t...’ Rachel thought to herself, hearing Kaitlyn's description of this new technology, ‘Aren’t they pretty much inventing batteries?! Huge brain people...’

Pushing her thoughts about science aside, Rachel answered, “Yeah! Our world was really different... I think we’re all pretty glad we were summoned though...” 

A silence falling between them, a pause in conversation to enjoy their respective dishes rather than an awkward one, Kaitlyn swallowed a bite before asking, “Why’s that? Any specific reason you all find this place better?”

“Well you see, I guess there were a few reasons, both good and bad,” Rachel explained, her hands never stopping in their path from the plate to the mouth, “All five of us summoned, I know only four of us are here, but all five of us were about half way through this one school institution, we call it university. However, all of us societally were kinda in dead ends... Some of us ran away, some of us grew up in the foster system, some of us were disowned. Not an ideal situation really...”

“I-I see...” Kaitlyn nodded, taking a sip of water to wash down some food, “Any other reasons?”

“Yeah! There were plenty, you sure you want to hear the comparisons between the worlds? It’s kinda long...” 

“Of course, I’d be honored!”