Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Chapter 19: Prelude at the cafe

Stunned by the beautiful sight of the city basked in the light of the midday's sun, Fen didn't even realise when the vibrant colours of the nearby buildings were replaced by the calm tones of green in one of the local shops.

"Here you go, sweeties."

This short sentence with how kind etched it was along with what word it ended at, managed to awaken Fen from his overwhelmed state. Looking down at the table he was sitting with his new classmate, he saw two servings of some kind of a strange meal.

Just its artistic value made the young man dubious whether this whitish ball of some sort of condensed flame was actually supposed to be eaten. Thankfully, before his rural upbringing could create another avenue for him to embarrass himself, Kaisha gracefully picked a small, silver spoon passed along with the meal before actually stabbing it right to the core of this fluffy ball!

"I personally prefer to go right for the filling. This way, the creme has the chance to properly fill up with the fruity taste!"

Doing as she indicated with her words, this girl pulled the spoon out of the centre of her piece of pastry, instantly colouring the white surface of the ball with some sort of thick, brownish liquid.

"Enough about me though, how do you like to eat it?"

After gathering a small bit of the creme along with some kind of solid pieces onto her spoon, Kaisha lifted the spoon to her lips. From the moment the piece of confectionery entered her mouth, the girl's entire face melted down as if all the stress from the frantic escape of theirs suddenly washed off her.

"Urgh... "

Not really sure how to respond, Fen continued to fiddle around his plate with this punny little spoon of his.

"To be frank, it will be my first time eating something like that."

Finally deciding to be open about this aspect of himself, Fen raised his eyes. Yet, as reluctant as he was to see the expression of ridicule on the face of this cute girl, when he saw her look, he instantly turned still.

Because the girl froze with another small portion of the sweet right at the gate of her lips!

Clang.

The sound of Kaisha's spoon dropping as her still fingers failed to properly keep their control over this piece of cutlery managed to shake the amazement from both of the young adults.

"H-how come?"

Not even noticing a long smudge of the creme that remained on her cheek, Kaisha simply stared right at Fen, with her mouth slightly tingling. Given how shocked she was, Fen couldn't really point out what was the reason behind that strange behaviour of hers!

"Well, back in the village where I was raised, getting to eat meat was already considered a luxury."

'Since this part of my fake story aligns with the real one, at least I will be able to sound convincing'

As hard as it was to admit in front of a young and beautiful female from the city that he was originally a filthy peasant, only recently lifted from his impoverished life, Fen didn't really have any choice here. Lying about his background would only make the shame even worse once he would be exposed, than what he felt right after adamantly admitting to his own roots.

"No! I mean"

Realising that she stood up and slammed both of her delicate hands against the table, Kaisha quickly looked to the sides, only to notice how her violent action attracted the stares from some other customers of the shop.

"I'm sorry. What I wanted to ask, is how come you could manifest such talent to have even Stiel praise it, if you don't have any background in arcanism!"

This time, Kaisha properly sat down. She managed to calm herself down to the point where she picked up a napkin from her pocket and cleaned her face from the remnants of her failed bite, only to grab her spoon once again. With her hand slowly reaching towards the girl's mouth, her eyes were glued to Fen's face, as if eating was only a background to the grand reveals that she most likely expected from her new classmate.

'What the heck am I supposed to say here'

The entire point about this meeting was to have him learn a bit more about arcanism, not to reveal more and more points about his backstory, only to have others be more likely to trip on the inconsistencies that were bound to appear!

"Ah, right. If that's the case, then you must be even more confused about it all. Let me guess, they didn't tell you anything at all?"

Kaisha's face suddenly relaxed, washing itself clean from all the tension that was present on it just a few seconds ago. It was as if all the surprise was replaced by sympathy towards someone who went through a harsh ordeal!

"I can't claim that they didn't tell me anything at all"

Reluctantly admitting to how he knew some occasional bits, Fen finally gathered the courage to bring his spoon over the slowly melting piece of confectionery. From how Kaisha asked about his way of eating this apparently popular product, the young man could guess that there wasn't really a bad way to go about it.

But as Fen, at last, managed to cut a small bit of the thick creme away with his spoon, he raised his head only to see Kaisha's eyes burning with passion.

"Yet, they didn't tell you anything that you actually wanted to know?"

Leaning over the table with her eyes all focused on nothing but Fen's face, it took a moment for this energetic girl to realise what kind of position she was in. Even with her proper outfit, at the current angle, all that Fen had to do to have a full and unobstructed view of her bosom, was to look down. And to top it all off, the only reason he could only use his peripheral vision to feast his eyes at the sight, was due to how close her own face appeared to his!

"Yeah, I still have a lot of questions, so I hoped that you might help me out with the basics."

With the topic of the entire conversation finally getting back on the right track, Fen couldn't help but sigh with relief. As much as he wanted to change himself to someone who he always dreamed of being, just this kind of short interaction with a female that paid him any attention was enough to put him on the edge!

"Okay then, but before that, let us get something to drink. And don't you worry"

Raising her hand high in order to attract the attention of the store's staff, Kaisha smiled wildly, as if something suddenly made her want to laugh in joy.

"You don't need to worry about the money. It's all covered by the school tuition. Also"

Once again starting her sentence only to stop it before saying anything of value, Kaisha suddenly supported her chin with one of her hands, making her look as if she was thinking about something really had.

"No, nevermind. I will tell you about it somewhen later!"