CHAPTER 2: TAKE OUT

After travelling for almost half a day, Aeolous and I finally arrived to the capital. During the whole ride, we took three half-hour break every two hours. We also ate from a diner we saw along the way. Aeolous was a bit talkative the whole time. He talked about almost everything he did with his relatives. I can’t blame him though, he was just so excited with his stay with his relatives. Both my parents are only child, just like me. And my grandparents from both sides already passed away a few years back but my relationship with them is not any better. They treat me like the way my parents do, they all treat me as their instrument they can use to become the next ruler. My relationship with my parents is not the best but I think that its better than having no parents. I could not imagine myself surviving on my own. Most of the things I have is from my parents, so I am still thankful to them although I sometimes make a selfish wish that we would be just a normal family, no pressure and just simply living happily.

“We’re here. Good thing we left early or else we wouldn’t have made it. Let’s head to the arena and register” Aeolous led the way to the arena since its not his first time coming here while this is my first time to ever get out of our city, mother and father never let me go out of the royal boundary. They said that a royal like me should never take foot on a poor mage’s realm. Even going to Aeolous’ home is hard. Our mansion is huge and surrounded by wide beautiful landscape but it still fills too little for me. I mean the magic kingdom is huge but I’m not allowed to explore it. If my parents want me to become a Magic Queen, don’t I need to know my supposedly people’s way of living. I mean, if I’ll be a Magic Queen, I want to be a good and efficient one. I don’t want to be a failure.

The arena was full of mages from different cities, I’m not surprised though. The less fortunate mages would earn more if they become a knight or a knight leader.

Aeolous pointed the registrar and since we arrived at night, there were no line to the registrar anymore, the mages are just waiting for the opening remark of the Exam Master that's why they are still here even after they registered.

"Esco!" I looked at Aeolous when I heard him shout, he was looking somewhere east so I followed his gaze and saw a man with his black horse coming towards us. I think I saw him somewhere, though I'm not sure where. But one thing I'm sure is that he's also a royalty judging from his appearance.

"Aeolous" he chanted as he got closer. "We've just arrived. By the way, I know you know her. But for formality, Esco this is Eleina, Eleina he is Esco. A wind mage like me. I train with him since among all royalties of our age, the two of us are the only mage with wind magic. That's why we train together" my brows shot up upon hearing Aeolous' words but I quickly put it down. How did he know me? Did Aeolous told things about me?

"I just arrived too. I'm pleased to finally meet the ever so popular, Eleina" he extended his arms too which I did not hesitate to accept despite feeling awkward that he knows a thing or two about me while I have no idea who he was. "Uh... I'm pleased to meet you too, Esco" I did not smile since I know it would only look like an awkward or forced smile which would make things worse.

"Let's go?", it was Aeolous, he sensed the uncomfortable atmosphere. I don't know why the atmosphere is so awkward it’s probably just me. The two seems normal.

The three of us walked towards the registrar with our horse' leash on our hands, when we were about one meter away from the registrar, Aeolous, who is a natural gentleman, told me to go first making me look at them. Esco, being the gentleman that he is too, I think, he agreed. I nodded and said thank you. I already know that they would make me go first because as far as I know, as per Royal manners, a Royal Lord should let a Lady Royal go first. That's Royalty 101.

But, before I took my first step and greet the personnel in-charge of the registration, someone went neared the personnel. It took me by surprise and I was a little annoyed. Only little since I haven't officially fallen 'in-line' since I'm still one meter away, but still, I find it a bit annoying to suddenly jump in front of someone without fair warning. He literally just swooshes his way in front of me.

“Name. Age. Magic". The personnel who looked so bored, said. She was asking for the name, age and magic of the guy in front of me. That must be the information needed to register for the exam.

“Aiden. 20. Fire.” the guys said coldly. He sounded as bored as the personnel. That's not a nice attitude.

The guy quickly went away after that, I did not see his face. J wanted to know how he look so I could avoid him if ever I see him again, it’s not that I wanted to see him, it’s just impossible not top since we'll have training and exam together.

“Name. Age. Magic.” The personnel asked me while I was looking at the back of the guy. I returned my gaze to her before answering "Its Eleina, I’m 19 and I am a light mage. Thank you”. The lady wrote down something then looked at me with a gaze saying your-done-now-get out, so I went out of the line and looked at Aeolous who was behind me.

Are you okay?

I read what he mouthed. It must be about the little commotion with the guy earlier. I smiled and nodded at him as a sign that I'm okay.

“Name. Age. Magic.”

“My name is Aeolous, that’s A-E-O-L-O-U-S. I’m 20 years old and my magic is wind” I chuckled when I heard him spelling his name out. One time he told me that a lot of people gets the spelling of his name wrong that's why he needs to spell it to someone who he just met for the first time.

Aeolous went to me after his turn and we both waited for Esco.

“Name. Age. Magic.”

“I’m Esco, a 20-year-old wind mage. By the way, when does the opening remark for the 10-days training starts?"

"It starts 3 hours and 41 minutes from now"

"Thank you"

"So... we have almost four hours to burn. What do we do?" Esco asked us after asking the personnel.

"Well, I'm hungry. How about the both of you?" I checked my self. I'm hungry. I feel like my stomach will be growling because of emptiness if I still don't eat a few minutes from now.

"I'm starving" I answered truthfully.

"Me as well" it’s understandable. The three of us just got here from a long ride. We better stuff our self to the best diner we can find.

"Great. That's settled then. Let's get on to our horses and start looking for the best diner in the city" and it seems like Aeolous and I have the same idea.

We get on to our horses and started looking for a diner.

DIVINE DINE

That's the name of the diner we're at, among all the diner's we saw a while ago, this one is the diner we all agreed to eat on. The other diner's we came across was either too crowdy or dirty for us.

The waitress gave each of us their menu list and left. After a few minutes of scanning the menu, the waitress came back and asked for our orders.  She was now holding a pen and a small notepad.

"Young Miss and Young Lords, may I ask for your orders?" she readied her pen and notepad.

"I'll have a chicken nugget with fried rice, chicken shawarma, creamy pasta, 2 slice of triple chocolate cake and an iced coffee. Thank you" Aeolous said his orders first, he said those while looking at the menu list.

"For me, three slices of cheese cake, chicken shawarma, creamy pasta, two slices of special pizza and a lemonade" it was Esco, he already memorized his order and spoke, looking at the waitress.

"And for you Young Miss" all their attention shifted to me.

"I'll have a creamy pasta, beef shawarma without vegetable, please! A slice of special pizza, two choco brownies, double patty burger without vegetable too, a large fries and an avocado shake. Oh! I'll order another two choco brownies, a muffin and three fresh apples for take-out. Thank you!" The waitress wrote everything on her notepad and when she was done, we gave her our menu list to her. As I was handing the menu list, the two man in-front of me caught my attention, they gave their menu list first so while I was giving mine, they looked at me, smiling. I tried so hard to not laugh, I know they were surprised that I ordered a lot, what can I do? I was really hungry.

"What's the take out for?"

"Later? Uh... for midnight snack, later" he chuckled at my response. Their foods look delicious and if it does taste good, I'll certainly come back here.

After 45 minutes of waiting, all our food arrived. Good thing the table was large enough to fit everything we ordered. And I guess we're all really hungry because when the foods are all properly placed on our table, the three of us started eating our hearts out without uttering a single word.

"I'M STUFFED!" me.

"I'M FULL!" Aeolous.

"THAT WAS DELICIOUS!" Esco.

We chanted in chorus after eating everything on our plate. I can't believe we finished everything in a span pf half an hour. That's how delicious the foods are. I'm definitely coming back. The foods are delicious.

Aeolous called for the waitress and asked for our bills. The waitress gave us three bills, one for each of us. Aeolous did not ask to pay the bills for me because the first time he did, I got angry at him. Now he doesn't do that because he knows I don't like it when other people pay for something I enjoyed. It’s a nice gesture but I can pay my bills just fine.

After another thirty minutes of talking about random things and resting we all head out. We still have an hour before the opening remarks starts but we decided to head back already.

I was holding the paper bag containing all my take outs. I can ride a horse with one hand so it won't be a problem.

As we were taking the road back to the arena, a guy who was holding two apples, was running towards us really fast. He passes by us and continued running and we saw another man, a pretty fat old man, running after him. The three of us looked at each other and quickly ran after them.

The three of us was running after the two men we saw. We think that the first man stole the two apples he was holding from the older man who was running after him. The older man must be a vendor, a fruit vendor.

My horse is naturally faster than other breeds of horse, and the two bags that Lupin was carrying and one bag that Esco's horse was carrying was not helping. It made them even slower. We were not able to tail the two men but I'm sure were not far behind. We can't see them now since we're a minute late before running but we'll definitely be able to keep up. Ahead of us are three different roads that leads to three different places. I was scared to ride on my own but we got to help that old man. I took the right path, I gestured Esco to take the middle path and Aeolous to the left path.

I slowed down the pace of Gilda and looked around. When I was looking straight, I saw the old man looking to different directions, he probably lost the guy he was chasing. I was about to go to him when I saw a narrow alley with a dead end, on the corner of my eyes. Instead of going straight to the old man, I maneuvered Gilda to turn to the narrow alley. Yes, it was narrow but a horse could still fit.

The man was wearing thick black coat. I remembered the man who was carrying two apples was wearing a black coat. This must be that man.

His back was facing me, he was doing something with the horse in front of him. I scanned the horse, it was a black-maned cremello horse. If Aeolous was here, he'd be really jealous. But what is he doing with the horse, is he... perhaps, he's stealing it too?

A whistle pulled me back to reality. It was the man. He was looking at me. To be more precise, he was looking at my... legs?

I quickly got off of Gilda and fixed myself. Why did I forgot that I was wearing a skirt? This man is not just a thief he's also a pervert.

"EHEM!" I faked cough.

"You were the one that the old man was chasing, weren't you? He's chasing you because you stole apples from him. Give it back to me. I'll return it to the old man. If you don't, I'll call a Magic Knight to capture you"

"Call them and when you come back, I'll be out of here"

"Stealing is bad. Buy your own food, don't steal them"

"Don't have any"

"Then work!"

"Yeah, sure"

"Why are you still here? Go! Call the Knights like you said"

"Why are you doing this"

"It’s not something you would understand"

"Try me!"

"Your stubborn. Fine! We're hungry, we've been travelling for days, my horse needs food. This horse is the only thing I got, the least I can do is to keep him alive" I looked at the horse and saw that it was eating an apple that was on the ground, I saw another apple a few centimeters away from the one that the horse is currently eating.

"You gave the horse both of the apples that you stole?"

"Watch your words"

"What? You really did steal them"

"Whatever. Yes, I gave him both the apples. Now get lost!"

"But... a while ago you said 'we'. Which meant that you were both hungry. How about you? You’re not going to eat?"

"I don't need to eat"

"Nonsense! You'll die if you do not eat. I'm certain that your horse won't like it if you die" the horse screamed when I dropped those words. What a smart horse. Gilda is a smart horse too, they could be best pal. I looked at Gilda and saw her looking at us, uninterested. Or maybe not, Gilda is a bit snob, she only likes me.

I went near the horse and run my fingers on its mane. This horse is really pretty. I mean, Gilda is pretty but this horse' is rarer than Gilda's. This is actually my first time seeing a black-maned cremello horse.

"Two apples aren't enough for this big guy" the man chuckled. What did I mean by that? I did not mean that the guy should have stolen more. I meant, his horse should eat more.

"If I could then I would. But that old man is still quick. I could only grab two"

"Here eat these" I took out the apples I bought from Divine Dine and feed the horse. I badly want to eat these too but for now, the horse needs it more than I do. And for Gilda, I'll just buy her later.

I eyed the man and he mouthed 'what' while raising one brow on me.

"Here!" I pushed the paper bag to him. He gave me a puzzled look.

"These are my take outs from Divine Dine, there are two chocolate brownies and a muffin inside. Eat them. It's not good to stay hungry. You'll die" he was still eyeing me suspiciously, then said "You're creepy". My eyes widened.

"Me? Not you?" between the two of us, the creepy one is definitely him.

"Yes, you. Your creepy. One moment you were angry then the next minute your concern. That's creepy"

"J-just get them" why can't he just take the food and thank me. Why does he have to say those words? Here I am, helping him and he's doubting my kindness. I was only angry because the old man was only trying to earn money. His actions are still not right but if I were in his situation, I'd do anything for Gilda. She's not just my horse, she's also a friend. The horse and this man probably have the same relationship.

"Okay! Okay!" he lifted his arms like he was giving up. He was finally giving in.

"Good!"

"Thank you for this then. Now, go away!"

"Tsk" I rode on Gilda's back and made my way out without looking back.