20 – Date 2
A steakhouse located on the bustling street of royal cuisines.
From Noble mtl dot com
This place was a fairly casual restaurant, frequented by commoners themselves.
From that restaurant emerged a pair of male and female, both sporting jet black hair.
“It was delicious.”
“Wasn’t it?”
Upon expressing his simple appreciation, a blush arose on Betty’s face.
In fact, the choice of today’s dining spot was hers.
It was a favorite place she sometimes visited alone ever since she came here with her family as a child.
Her heart fluttered as she received praise for choosing the place.
“Yes, truly.”
“hehehehe…”
The next destination was a cafe nearby.
Located in the middle of a park, an open-air café frequently visited by male friends or couples; a place with an atmosphere.
Of course, Betty, who has no same-s*x friends, had never been there before.
As soon as they stepped into the park, a group of commoner girls were seen playing, kicking small pebbles in one corner.
“My turn!”
“Argh! You cheater!”
Thomas looked at them with curiosity.
In fact, he had been frequently casting such gazes during the short time they spent together today.
He seemed like a child full of curiosity set out into the world for the first time.
It was pitiful to think of him living only within the confines of his family for more than 20 years due to its privacy.
Betty tightened her hold on his large hand.
“…Yes?”
Concluding that there was an issue when he felt a sudden exertion in his hand, Thomas turned his head, looked at Betty, and asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
‘Right, who am I to…’
She had no right to sympathetically determine his feelings, especially when she herself was not happy.
-Shh.
Betty felt a bit depressed, and sensed something quickly flying toward her face.
Of course, it’s a fast speed by ordinary people’s standard, but for Betty, it was a manageable speed.
‘It’s a stone.’
The girls playing nearby must have kicked it accidentally too hard in her direction.
In that split second, Betty was reminded of a scene she’d read in a knight novel when she was young.
It was the scene where the knight grasped the villain’s sword with only his forefinger and middle finger.
How much catharsis she had felt in that scene.
From the moment she wanted to become like the knight in the novel, Betty had devoted herself to swordsmanship to such an extent that she yearned for such type of ‘coolness’.
‘Surely Tom will find me cool. What if he falls in love with me at once?’
Holding onto such vain hopes, Betty spread out her fingers and waited for the stone to fly in.
But just then, she felt as if she was being wrapped in something.
“Shield.”
Thomas cast a shield spell and pulled Betty towards him.
-Clang!
The stone that clashed with the shield fell to the ground with a collision sound.
Betty could not immediately understand what had happened.
All she knew was that she was in Tom’s arms.
And that his scent was incredibly addictive.
‘Why does it smell so good… I want to keep smelling it…’
Unconsciously, her arms were wrapped around his back, pressing even closer in his hold.
“Wait a minute… Betty.”
Thomas tried to pull her off him but could not bring himself to put his hands on her body.
Just then, the eldest of the kids playing with the stone came running.
“I’m, I’m sorry, sir! Please, forgive us…”
The child’s complexion turned ashen as he bowed deeply.
Thomas chuckled grimly and waved his hand dismissively.
“Be careful next time.”
“Yes! We are really sorry!”
The child took another deep bow before leading his companions quickly away from the scene.
Amidst all of this, Betty pressed her face against his chest and deployed her wiles.
“Betty, um, stop…”
Thomas’s eyes showed genuine fluster.
At the same time, Betty felt something solid touch her lower abdomen.
It was gradually becoming harder and harder.
“Huh? What’s this?”
The moment she raised her arms to look downwards, Thomas swiftly disengaged himself and walked away.
There was something odd about his gait. He seemed to be leaning his upper body forward slightly…
“Ah! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
Betty belatedly realized her outrageous behavior and followed him.
“Okay, just a moment. Just give me a moment.”
Thomas approached a nearby bench, sat down, and folded his body forward as if he had a stomachache.
Betty worriedly called out to him.
“Tom, are you okay? Oh, did I hug you too tightly or something…”
She felt ashamed of the fact that she had unconsciously embraced him, and her voice trailed off.
“No, it’s nothing. Just give me a moment.”
He kept his back hunched and lifted only his head, casting a dubious glance at Betty’s chest.
Only then did Betty realize another one of her blunders.
The fact that she had pressed her uselessly large and hideous breasts against Tom’s body while hugging him.
‘He’s suspicious of me.’
Unknowingly, she raised both arms to cover her chest.
‘I can’t let him find out… It’ll, it’ll be over.’
At that moment, Tom stopped glancing and turned his head abruptly.
“Let’s go!”
Tom deliberately raised his voice, stood up abruptly, and walked away.
Betty followed him at a fast pace, stood beside him, and carefully held his hand.
Fortunately, he didn’t refuse.
———————
Something’s up.
Something’s up with her.
I just realized something when she fully hugged me.
I knew it for sure, thanks to my heightened sensitivity to magic.
She has some sort of magic on her.
And that feeling—I felt it twice.
It’s a sensation that I couldn’t possibly be getting from her visible body.
It’s not just her chest. Her whole body was soft.
From this, there is only one conclusion I can make.
“She’s hiding her true form with magic.”
But why?
I have no idea.
“Ah…”
Then, something suddenly came to mind.
The day I was summoned here, Anderson Garju revealed the purpose of summoning me.
He told me about the characteristics of the princess.
“Could it be that she’s hiding her ugly appearance?”
There was something that I couldn’t quite understand ever since I first met her.
She’s not beautiful enough to warrant such a warning.
“But that feeling…”
The body I felt when I hugged her earlier was more curvaceous and voluptuous than the body I’m seeing now.
Suddenly, I thought about the clothing store.
The appearance of her younger sister. The body.
“Could they be sisters?”
But her younger sister didn’t have an ugly face. Rather, she had a lovely face with Oriental features.
“Just the body?”
“We’re here… Tom?”
“Ah, yeah.”
We arrived at the streetside café while I was lost in thought.
I glanced at her, and she looked anxious.
“Is she worried that her transformation will be discovered?”
“No, it’s more than that.”
I looked towards my destination.
The café had a white, arched fence, and within it were dazzling white tables.
Surrounding the café were quaint flower beds, created within the park itself, further enhancing the atmosphere.
“It looks like something out of a romantic comic.”
Most of the people sitting at the tables inside the fence were either couples or groups of males.
“Normally, it’s women or couples, but even that has changed.”
In retrospect, that seemed only natural.
Moreover, most of the men were striking, pretty boys.
“I feel nervous all of a sudden.”
One of the reasons Betty couldn’t sit still next to me was probably because of the café’s atmosphere.
“I guess this is why she was so excited…”
As we stepped inside the fence, the customers’ gazes fixed upon us.
-chattering-
There were several people whispering, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
But throughout it all, I noticed something.
It was the gaze of the men, especially those who came with their partners.
“It’s annoying.”
They looked down on me, flaunting expressions filled with a sense of superiority for having a relative advantage.
“I guess thin, pretty boys are popular here.”
“Hmm? But that was also the case in Korea.”
That thought crossed my mind. It was weird.
In Korea, traditionally popular men were the pretty boy types, and big, tough guys like me had fewer admirers.
But there were still some. Anyway, that was life.
However, I hardly ever saw guys like these, who blatantly emitted looks of contempt believing they were better. These guys here did, noticeably.
“Is it because it’s a different world?”
In my original world, I had heard several times about the sliminess of societies dominated by women.
Of course, not everyone was like that, but I could understand that some of these characteristics have shifted towards the males here.
Then, I began to feel a strange energy flowing next to me.
“……”
Magic power started to flow out in the form of ‘irritation’.
“Betty”
I grasped her hand tightly and warned her with a stern voice.
‘That elder sister and her younger brother?’
Reminiscing about a recent incident.
“Huh?”
She became panicked and her momentum subsided. Perhaps she felt the gaze too.
“I, I didn’t…”
‘Those are the exact sentences I heard earlier…’
But she stood up for me anyway, and it cheered me up. I asked in a light tone.
“Shall we order then?”
“Y-yeah…”
She bowed her head in regret and followed me to the order counter.
As I glanced over the menu, familiar names appeared.
‘Hm… I’m a bit suspicious of this too…’
From Noble mtl dot com
Starting from an Americano to a Café Latte, even a Macchiato, the familiar menu items catch my eye.
Considering how I got fed up drinking coffee at work, placing the order wasn’t a strange routine.
“Espresso Frappuccino with half whip, tall size.”
Betty, who was standing next to me, looked at me with an envious gaze.
It would seem impressive to someone for the first time, though it fell short of the much-discussed magical spell orders of the past!
“Um… Customer? What is whip?”
The attendant looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“It, it doesn’t have whip?”
“Yes, I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
Feeling embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head, correcting myself.
“Then, just an Espresso Frappuccino, please.”
“Okay.”
I resented the other solo runner who got summoned to this world before me.
‘If you’re doing research, do it thoroughly!!’
The clerk looked at Betty.
“I, I’ll have the same buy…”
As she shyly placed her order, the barista shouted out.
“Two tall-sized espresso frappuccinos!”
“We will call you when your drinks are ready. Please wait.”
We took a seat at an empty table.
As we waited, Betty suddenly made a troubled face.
“Hmm?”
I had a sensation of someone approaching from behind.
A man’s voice was heard.
“Lady Eun-In! We meet again!”
When we turned around, there stood the handsome boy from the ice cream store earlier.
His friend stood next to him, looking uneasy.
“Dick, we should leave.”
I remembered, that was his name.
“Pfft.”
An involuntary chuckle escaped from me.