Cinnamon Bun

Chapter Five Hundred and Fifty-Eight - Lunch and Learn

Since it was nearly noon, it only made sense for Desiree and I to grab a little bite to eat. We were spoiled for choice--the northern parts of the city were dotted with countless cafes and open-air restaurants.

Before leaving the Adventurer's Guild, we'd gotten to speak with an older man who was about my dad's age. He'd been very nice, but a little confused about what we were doing. In any case, his job as an Adventurer had been to clear and protect the roads from Southerfell all the way to the furthest of the small towns along the coast.

That meant that he'd visited every one of them, at least a few times each year, and had a good idea of where each one was.

When I asked him about a mysterious disappearing fortress he had mentioned that one of the towns had a myth that wasn't too dissimilar to that and had pointed it out on the map.

It was a town called Blackwatch, which, when I asked about the name, did strike him as somewhat weird.

Blackwatch was the third-farthest town from Southerfell, with a population in the mid two-hundreds. It mostly did farming, some bit of mining, and there were apparently a few decent bloomeries there.

I had to ask what that was. Apparently it was a big smelter thing that turned iron-rich rock into lumps of low-quality iron that was shipped back to Southerfell by the trainload. Neat!

With the map we'd bought safely tucked away and a bunch of extra information crammed between my ears, I had decided the lunch was in order. Hence the hunt for a good spot to grab a bite.

We settled on a cafe along the main street. It had a small picket fence taking up some of the sidewalk, and there was plenty of space to sit down at a few tables with parasols above them.

Desiree sat across from me, her chair turned at an angle to accommodate for her tails. "Hey," I asked. "How are chairs made where you're from?"

Desiree blinked, then giggled into her hand. "What an outlandish query, though I suppose it is I who is the outlandish one here. As for our seating, you'll find that we prefer stools for simple seating at home and the like, but most seats with backs are designed so that the backrest comes in from the side and sweeps around to support your mid-back. There are, of course, male and female chairs."

"Huh?" I asked.

"It depends on the side in which the back has a slit," she said.

"Really?"

She nodded. "Just as how garments have their tail clasp on the left for women and right for men."

Wait, was this like wearing watches on opposite wrists, or the zippers on pants being on different sides, only for tails? "I didn't know that," I said. "That's neat! So if I ever look for something with room for my tail where you're from, I'll have to pay some attention to that?"

"Perhaps, yes," Desiree replied. "Rare as foreign visitors may be, it is customary to extend concessions to them. Any faux pas would be excused away, just as they would be for children... well. To a point."

"That makes sense," I said. Then I perked up as a nice lady came over and took our orders. There was tea and biscuits and little puffs of sweet bread--the smell of baking bread had been one of the reasons we'd stopped here--covered in fresh jam made from local fruit. We ordered a bit of this and some of that, and then the lady headed out to prepare everything.

"This is a pleasant day," Desiree replied. "Perhaps this afternoon I'll take some time to consolidate my gains."

"Your gains?" I asked.

She nodded, then paused and eyed me with... not suspicion, maybe something like curiosity. "We did survive quite the little ordeal overnight, did we not? Surely your skills have flourished."

"Oh, I guess?" I said. "I guess I haven't even given it any thought until just no--"

I started a bit as Mister Menu popped up next to me, almost as if he was making up for lost time.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Snoozing skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!
Rank C costs 1 Skill Point!

"Oh, hello there," I said to the menu.

Desiree giggled sweetly. "I see!"

"Usually the skills just... pop up," I said.

"Only if you're attempting to press them forwards. The World refrains from interrupting at ill-advised times. In my lands, most people have a ritual of taking stock of their growth each and every day, so any new levels or advancement becomes swiftly apparent, but for the few who don't pay as close attention, the World doesn't press."

Huh, I supposed that made some sense. I reached up and poked Mister Menu, but as usual, he poofed with a soap-bubble pop.

"Do you mind if I look over my stats?" I asked.

"I do not, of course," Desiree replied. "I'll keep an eye peeled on our surroundings and both ears perked for trouble, yes?"

I smiled, thankful, then poked at the menu with my mind.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I hummed as I read over my sheet. There was a lot of progress there, and yet. "Oh... I really ought to spend a skill point one day," I said.

"Do you have much to spend?" Desiree asked.

I nodded quickly. "Yup! Um... eighteen of them."

She stared so hard I could almost feel it. "Eighteen? Dearest Captain, do my ears deceive me? You have nearly as many unspent points as I have lived years?"

"Um... maybe?" I tried. For some reason I was feeling a smidge of shame. "I'm saving some of them! My Cleaning magic is really cool, so what if I got it to the rank past S?"

"S being the Master rank of a skill?" Desiree asked.

"Yeah, I think that's what it's called," I agreed.

She tilted her head to the side a little, which made her ear flick slightly, which was very cute. I had to wonder if she, too, was burdened by the Cute or Adorable skill line. "That's a lofty goal, I suppose. Grandmastery of a magical ability is doubtlessly an impressive feat that most wouldn't truly consider. Nonetheless, is that skill not tied to only one of your tails? Classes, I mean."

"Yeah," I said. "My main class, Cinnamon Bun Bun. The other has... a lot of unspent skills too."

"Then perhaps consider investing some of those? No one ever profited from hoarding their points under their tails. If you have a goal for them, then certainly they might come to be of some use, but otherwise, they're potential with no outlet."

"Hmm..." Well, she wasn't wrong. "I also... ah..." I glanced around, making sure no one was near enough to overhead.

"We have been conversing in my native tongue, if privacy is a concern," Desiree confided. By the look of her, she was amused that I hadn't noticed.

That made a lot of sense, it was a great way to keep our conversation private. Although, if we were speaking in a foreign language, it might explain some of the looks we were getting. But then again, I suppose we also appeared foreign ... and cute too, unfortunately. We attracted attention in a lot of ways.

"I have a lot of General Skill points as well," I admitted. "From the World asking me to, uh, fix up the occasional dungeon."

"Ah, yes. Something of great worth, that. And uncommon to the point of enormous value. I can see why discretion is warranted."

"Yeah. I've been trying to get some new General Skills, but they've been tricky. But you know about that." Thick Skin and Mana Regeneration were still out of my grasp. "But I think I might use a few points to improve some of my other General Skills. I think I know what I want out of them."

"Oh? Please, go on, satisfy my curiosity?"

"Sure! So... at first, I was thinking more combat-y skills and such, but really, I don't think that's ever really been my role. I think I might spend more time and effort improving my social abilities. Stuff like Captaining and Friendmaking, or Social Butterfly and Hugging Proficiency?"

"That seems eminently sensible, for a captain to have the skills of their trade seems only natural to me. You've steered us well thus far, but learning to feel the nudge of the World wouldn't hurt."

***