WE all reboarded our carriages and set off for a high-end restaurant that nobles and royals might go to. It was a sort of open-air restaurant with tables lined up under the eaves of the building. Considering our guard detail, though, we’d reserved a room inside.
“I can only ever come to places like this when I’m spending time with all of you,” Sophia smiled, and Sasha nodded in agreement. She, Sasha, and Milia regularly went out together after class.
We ordered pasta, pizza, salad, and meat dishes. Everyone’s guards also sat down at nearby tables and ate. It was unnatural for them to be standing inside the restaurant after all, and everyone told them they were welcome to eat.
The food came on large dishes, which we divided amongst us and ate. Maybe it was more fun to share food with everyone rather than to have set courses for each person. Sophia was practically bouncing up and down, so perhaps it wasn’t common for her to eat like this.
“Arius, it’s indelicate to stare at a girl while she’s eating,” Milia remarked with a teasing smile. Sophia blushed, probably because Milia drew attention to it.
“The food here is great. I could eat this forever,” I said, and, trying to distract from Sophia’s discomfort, I ordered another four pizzas and enough pasta to feed four people.
“We can’t eat all that,” complained Zeke.
“I can easily eat all that. What I just ordered, I’ll be eating by myself.”
“Knowing Arius, he’ll have plenty more space after. I’ll order more too,” boasted Vern, and he and I went to work polishing off the vast quantities of pizza and pasta. Zeke and Sasha looked surprised, but the rest of the group knew we ate a lot.
Sirius and Alicia also seemed to be enjoying the pizza and pasta. Their manners were perfect, and they didn’t get any sauce around their mouths. Zeke had mentioned not liking tomatoes, but he was eating tomato sauce like it was nothing. That made Sirius and Alicia look at him with awe.
“You two look impressed, but he’s not forcing himself to eat it,” Milia confirmed. “It’s only raw tomatoes he doesn’t like. He’s fine with tomato sauce.”
“How do you even know that, Milia? I mean…it’s true,” said Zeke, blushing, but he could’ve just not commented on it.
“Arius, I should have said this sooner, but thank you so much for helping us train,” Milia emphasized yet again. “I was absolutely no match for Raymond, but I made it to round three, and that’s thanks to you.”
No, it was thanks to her own hard work. I didn’t do much at all.
“I wasn’t able to win, but I did learn a lot,” Sophia said, looking directly into my eyes. “So, I’d like to thank you as well. Thank you for inviting me to join the practice.”
She was exaggerating, too. All I did was make the opportunity. She’s the one who taught herself what she learned.
“I’m grateful as well,” piled on Vern. “Having you critique my fighting style made me change, and I’ve definitely gotten stronger because of it. And you better teach me about mana manipulation like you promised.”
Vern had let go of his strange hang-ups and reevaluated his style. He was probably the one who saw the most growth from the practice sessions.
“I’m still trying different things out, but I think I’m onto something,” Zeke also chimed in. “And that’s thanks to you.”
Zeke had stopped comparing himself to his twin brother so he could live in a way true to himself, and I wanted to support him in that.
“A-Arius, because you invited me to practice, I-I became friends with everyone,” piped up Noelle. “Th-That’s why I’m really, really grateful.”
Noelle was so nervous that her face was bright red. She’d worked so hard.
“It’s because you’re all my friends,” I tried insisting. “I told you: you don’t need to thank me. I just did what I wanted to. I’m actually grateful to all of you for today. I had a lot of fun, and I think Sirius and Alicia did too.”
“Yeah, it was really fun!”
“Thank you, everyone!”
Everyone smiled at them.
“I’m glad. It’s a good thing we invited them then,” said Sophia.
Since I had to take Alicia and Sirius home, I was planning on leaving soon.
“Arius, we’ll take them home,” Sophia offered as I was about to get up.
“Yeah, it’d be nice to chat a bit more with them,” concurred Milia.
“I want to talk more to them too,” Alicia pressed excitedly.
“Me too. Master Arius, can we?” asked Sirius.
The twins seemed to have become really close to the two girls. So, the five of us would be chatting as we traveled through the city at night? That was another nice thing about going out with everyone.
“Master Arius, can we come out with everyone again sometime?” Sirius asked when we were in the carriage, and he and Alicia stared expectantly at me.
“Sure, but next time, make sure you tell Ms. Maia you’re going out.”
They smiled and nodded. Sophia and Milia were looking on with smiles too.
“And could you stop calling me ‘Master’ Arius? Just ‘Arius’ is fine. Or even ‘big brother.’”
“Okay…Arius.”
“Could I…call you Ari?”
“Sure, I don’t mind. That reminds me, I have something to give to you two.” I took two short swords out of my Inventory. They were identical, simple swords with no hint of decoration on the hilt or cross guard. “It’s hard to use these short swords correctly. If you’re not careful when you put your mana into them, they stay just normal swords. But if you can manipulate your mana well…”
I passed my mana through the sword, and a blade of blue light appeared. You could freely adjust the length of the blade, so it was a convenient weapon to carry around.
“I don’t know if you two are going to become adventurers, but it’s still a good idea for you to get stronger so you can protect yourselves. Once you can make a light blade on this sword, it means you’ve sort of got a handle on mana manipulation.”
“Arius… Is it really okay for you to give us amazing swords like this?” Sirius asked. He seemed to know how much they’d cost. They were a drop from the Dragon’s Palace.
“After spending time with you today, I can tell you’ve been taking your training seriously. Keep at your mana manipulation practice until you can make the light blade.”
“Thank you, Ari! I’m going to work really hard so I can be as strong as you!” exclaimed Alicia.
Being called by that nickname did make me a tiny bit uncomfortable, and Milia was giving me a look like she was teasing me. But whatever. It was what it was.
“I can’t believe you two have been practicing mana manipulation since you were little, but I guess it’s actually not that surprising since you’re Arius’s little brother and sister. I can’t let you guys beat me,” Milia smirked, her eyes serious. I didn’t think she was feeling competitive against the twins, but she did really want to get stronger.
I brought the twins into the house, where we found the head housekeeper, Maia, waiting with our parents, Darius and Rhea. I had told them about today in a Message. Rhea started grinning when I told her we came with Milia and Sophia. I ended things quickly and told them I had to make sure the girls got home, immediately leaving the house.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk to your parents longer?” Sophia asked.
“Yeah, weren’t you just saying you never go home? Maybe you should talk to them once in a while,” said Milia.
“Don’t worry about me. I know you have your guards, Sophia, but you girls shouldn’t be heading back on your own at this time of night.”
Sophia’s guards were women, so some idiot might underestimate them and try something.
“I guess… I feel bad about interrupting your family time, though. But…thank you,” Milia relented uncomfortably. However, Sophia looked happy for some reason.
“You don’t need to thank me for this. I’m actually grateful that you two tried to interact with the twins so much. They seemed happy.”
“And that’s definitely something you don’t need to thank us for. I’m happy we could become friends,” Sophia said.
“Arius, if you ever take them out somewhere again, would you invite me along?” Milia asked.
“Sure. I’m sure that’d make them happier too.”
The two girls were such kind, considerate people. I bet the twins would be happier having them along than just hanging out with me.
But just as I was thinking that, Milia said, “I appreciate you saying that, but I think you’re the person they want to see most.”
“They really admire you. You can tell just by watching you three together.”
It didn’t really click for me when they said they admired me. It wasn’t like I’d done anything particularly brother-like. That thought must have shown on my face, because Milia rolled her eyes. “You don’t even see it, do you? You can always see other people so well, but when it comes to yourself, you’re practically blind.”
“He is unaware of a lot of things, isn’t he?” Sophia said with a frown.
“A lot of things? Like what?” I asked, and the two girls turned red.
“See… That’s exactly what I mean,” Sophia uttered.
“Why don’t you try figuring it out yourself?!” cried Milia.
Well, it was my own problem. Guess I had to think it through and find the answer.