What is a date? Apparently, a date is when two people go out together to eat, shop, or see a show. Well, at-home dates also exist, so going out is probably not essential to whether something is a date or not.
“And that’s why I think that dungeon dates should be a thing,” I explained.
“Absolutely not,” Eleanora said.
Does that mean dungeons aren’t for dates?
Eleanora had asked me about what dates Patrick and I had gone on recently, and I couldn’t think of anything other than going dungeon crawling. I’m pretty sure we’ve gone out together though...
“Oh, we went to a café and ate carbonara. We even had coffee at the end of the meal.” A man and woman having a meal together at a café—this has to be a date! I’m sure Eleanora, the monster ravenous for romantic stories, will be satisfied. Despite what I thought, the girl who had already refused to acknowledge our dungeon crawls as dates began complaining about our café date.
“Did you dress up to go there, Yumiella?”
“I can’t remember what I wore several days ago.”
“You shouldn’t forget what you wore to a date, since you would’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over what to wear!”
I don’t remember precisely because I didn’t agonize over it. An additional rule that I hadn’t heard before came into play: my example wasn’t a date because I hadn’t dressed up. I had no choice but to accept my defeat.
“In that case, I don’t think I’ve been on a date with Patrick in a long time.”
“That can’t be...! I thought that your relationship was going well.”
I mean, this is only because your definition of a date is very narrow, Eleanora. Everything would’ve been fine if Eleanora would just acknowledge a wider scope of activities as dates, but it seemed that she had a different solution in mind.
Eleanora broke into a smile and said, “I’ll plan a date for you two!”
A date planned by Eleanora... I had an incredibly bad feeling about it, but it could be surprisingly fun. It would be a good chance to visit places I’d usually avoid.
After some time, Eleanora handed me some notes. I thought the notes were an itinerary, but for some reason there were three pages, which only became more confusing when I saw that the plans took place over the course of several days.
“Um, so where exactly are we going...?”
“The first page is just for planning. The actual date is on the second and third pages.”
This was starting to feel like a hassle. There was definitely not going to be a surprise twist—it was going to be a hassle. Well, actually, maybe it’s like a to-do list. It might look like a lot to do at first, but once you tackle each item, it might take less time than you thought.
Before going any further, I needed to look at the first line. I began going through the items on the date that Eleanora had planned.
“Wait to be asked out.” Huh? I’m the one coming in with a plan. Shouldn’t I be the one asking him out? Whatever, there’s nothing easier than waiting to be asked out. I’ll go back to my room and think about that card game that looks like it’s going to become popular.
I began to head to my room, but Eleanora grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“You need to do your best to get Sir Patrick to ask you out,” she said.
“I need to put in effort to make him ask me out...?” Is this some new-age way of thinking?
Eleanora then explained this mysterious concept of “making an effort to be asked out.” Basically, men were supposed to be the one to ask a woman on a date, so women had to show the men that they wanted to be asked out...or something like that. I wanted to ask, “How successful have you been with Prince Edwin doing that?” but I couldn’t bring myself to do so.
I don’t wanna do this. I’m supposed to say stuff like “I’m actually free tomorrow,” or “I’m interested in this movie, but I don’t have anyone to go with,” right? If I’m free, I could just play video games, and if I’m interested in a movie, I’ll go see it on my own.
Not only was I unenthusiastic about Eleanora’s methods, but I couldn’t imagine Patrick taking notice of such tactics. It wasn’t that he was dense. Rather, he understood that I would never use such methods to get him to ask me out.
I entered Patrick’s room, and Eleanora was waiting right outside, holding her breath.
“Are you free right now, Patrick?”
Patrick was writing something down, but he stopped to turn around. “Yeah, I’m—” he started to say.
He was probably reading the piece of paper in my hands. I stood there expressionlessly holding a piece of paper with some writing on it in both of my hands. The text on the paper read, “Eleanora is listening to our conversation. Ask me out on a date.” Perhaps that was enough for him to understand the situation, because he immediately looked at the door as if he was wondering if Eleanora was there as he responded.
“Perfect timing. We haven’t been able to go out recently, just the two of us, so I wanted to ask you out on a date.”
“What? A date? Thank you for asking me out.”
“When would be good?”
“Hmm, maybe in a week?”
“Got it. Then let’s go out, just the two of us, a week from now.”
To provide some additional context, I was maintaining a look that was even more expressionless than usual during this entire conversation. Maybe it was because he was unconsciously matching me, but Patrick’s expression was quite lacking as well. Our lovey-dovey-sounding conversation put a smile on only one person’s face: dear Eleanora, who was probably pressing her ear against the door.
For the time being, I’d secured the time in both Patrick and my schedules for our date. The “getting asked out” step was done. I then went over the second line on Eleanora’s itinerary.
“Spend one week deciding what to wear.” I’m definitely not going to meet the deadline if I take that long.
✦ ✦ ✦
It was the day before our date. I’d spent the entire past week deciding what to wear. The decision was whether I would wear my usual dress or something else. Eleanora had demanded I spend a week on my decision, and I’d spent the week making the decision, so I had fulfilled that requirement. Even if I ended up wearing my usual outfit, I’d still gone through the process of spending a week on that decision.
There was only one other instruction from Eleanora as to what I had to do before the date. I checked Eleanora’s notes.
“Try to sleep early on the day before but be unable to sleep because you’re too excited.” Is she really trying to tell me how to fall asleep?
I was going to execute Eleanora’s plans perfectly, so I got into bed early and properly got exci—