Lazing About in a Dating Sim

After a few more minutes of walking, Lucia and I ended up at the old courtyard and sat down on the giant boulder situated in the middle of it.

“I still can't believe that this is the only place on campus where there aren’t any benches.”

Lucia said with a bit of disbelief in her voice.

“Well, if there were benches here, I don’t think it’d be as quiet. A whole lot more people would be here right now if this place was more comfortable.”

“Ugh, I guess you’ll have to do then.” 

Lucia replied before putting her head in my lap.

“Oi…” 

“What? Like you said, there’s no one here right now. Which also means that no one can see us right now.” 

“…”

“Logic’s not so great when somebody else uses it against you, huh?” 

“Point taken…”

“Anyhow, we’ve got about another 15 minutes before I’ve got to go back to Abjuration class, so is there anything that you’d like to talk about in the meantime, Otto?”

“Honestly, I’m fine with any topic you wanna talk about.”

While I may joke about it from time to time, I have always loved it when Lucia gets passionate about the stuff she likes.

“In that case, mind if we talk about our date plans again? I wanna make sure our first one goes well.” 

“Sure, but what do you mean by first date? Haven’t we gone on a ton of those already?” 

“We didn’t go on those dates while we were dating so they don’t count.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

I said before gently rustling through Lucia’s hair.

“Anyway… I was thinking that we could maybe stop by somewhere else after the date is over.”

Lucia suggested.

“What place did you have in mind?”

“My parents' house...”

“I see… are they going to attempt to murder me the second I walk through the door, like Ameil did?”

“What no! Okay… maybe but I’m pretty sure I can stop them if they try anything! I haven’t taken the advanced courses yet, but I’m pretty proficient when it comes to protective charms now.”

Lucia said hastily.

“Well, if you’re sure…  I don’t see why we can’t drop by after our date.”

“You’ll be fine, trust me.”

Lucia remarked in a reassuring tone before cupping my face with her hands. 

“Anyway, let’s talk about a different aspect of the date now. Wouldn’t want you to dwell on that part too much and get cold feet.”

“If I did end up getting cold feet, I’m sure you’d find a way to get me out of bed, Lucia.”

I said with an indifferent expression plastered on my face.

“Whatever. So, do you have any food allergies, Otto or are you good with everything?”

“I don’t recall having any allergies, no. Why do you ask?”

I remarked, after contemplating for a couple seconds.

“Well because I’m pretty sure there’s every type of fruit imaginable in the coffee shop that we are going to on Sunday.”

“…Seriously?”

“Yup, they even have something called a Mangomellon smoothie, which I’m pretty sure is made with ingredients that shouldn’t even fucking exist.”

“How is that even possible?”

I asked incredulously.

“From what I’ve heard, they have a bunch of alchemists on their payroll that create new flavors on a daily basis. And one day, one of these alchemists apparently fucked up and the Mangomellon shake was born.”

“Huh, neat.”

I said simply.

Honestly, I didn’t even know alchemy was a thing until Lucia mentioned it just now.

And now that I’m thinking about it, most of the knowledge I have that is related to the magical phenomena in this world, I got from Lucia.

Without her, I’d probably be as knowledgeable about magic as I am about quantum mechanics.

“But yeah, that’s why I wanted to make sure that you weren’t allergic to anything. Otherwise I would’ve changed the place we’re gonna have our date at. I don’t really fancy the idea of you getting into another near death situation.”

“…Didn’t you just say that your parents were gonna attack me the moment I walked into their home and yet want me to go there anyway?”

“I said that there was a chance that was gonna happen, Otto! A chance! Plus I’ve got precautionary measures for it so it’s not like you’re gonna be put in a situation where you might die.”

Lucia said quickly.

“If you say so. Anyway, have you got any other questions for me, Lucia?”

“Just one, do you mind if we were to go to the coffee shop a bit later in the day?”

“…Weren’t you the one who suggested that we go there in the morning?”

“Well, yeah but the situation has changed.”

“How so?”

“Apparently, there’s going to be a promotional event happening that morning and I really don’t want to deal with the shit that sorta thing brings.”

“Alright, what time would you like us to go to the coffee shop then?”

“How does 4:30 sound?”

“If it means I get to sleep in more, I’m all for it. And while we’re on the topic, what’s the name of the place we’re going to again?”

“Originally the coffee shop was called the Brewer’s Dozen’ but they changed the name to ‘Crumpets and Coffee’ a couple weeks ago.”

“What did they do that for?”

“I think it was because the first name made the place sound too much like a bar, and drove some customers away.”

“Gotcha.”

I said after stretching my arms a little.

“Right, now that we’ve gotten all the details for the date out of the way, is there anything else you’d like to chat about Lucia?”

“Not really, besides my lunch break is about to end, Otto.”

“There’s no way we’ve been talking for 15 min-”

Before I could finish my sentence, the school’s bells rang and indicated that Lucia’s lunch break had indeed ended.

“Told ya.”

Lucia said with a smug look on her face after getting up from her seat and playfully rustling my hair.

“How’d you know that it was already time for you to go?”

“Oh I don’t know, perhaps it’s because of my intuition or maybe it’s because of the giant clock tower over there.”

Lucia remarked before pointing to the Abjuration classroom, which was currently a few miles away from us.

“Huh, was that always there?”

“Obviously, yeah. Anyway, I’ll see you later, Otto. Try not to fall into a portal to the lightning realm before then!”

Lucia said before waving goodbye and walking towards the Abjuration classroom.

Leaving me alone and slightly baffled by what exactly a “lightning realm” is.

…Is it like a place where everything is completely made out of lightning?