Not a Date

"There's a very real chance Luft will send the dragons to attack the factories while the city is mostly empty," Rory continued. "If the clouds break, the city will be destroyed. So… can you buy us time if that happens?"

Cecilia blinked at him with her wide brown eyes. She nodded slowly.

"Yeah, I can. I will. So you have to succeed and come back for me."

Rory smiled faintly and restrained himself from patting her on the head.

He turned to look searchingly at the knight. "How soon can you depart?"

"Now." He rose from his seat. "But the ride will only take half a day, and the city needs time to evacuate, so I'll spend the rest of this afternoon getting my things in order. Meet me at the southern gate at dawn."

They were dismissed by the city lord then. Everyone had a great deal to take care of now. Rory wanted to use his time to rest before the next leg of his journey. But when he and Cecilia exited the manor into the courtyard, she grabbed his sleeve firmly.

"Th-the shops will close soon," she said. "Just in case, you should at least see them once, right?"

Aurelius blinked at her. This… was obviously an invitation to go on a date right before they would part again. It reminded him that they never really had a chance to talk about their feelings since reuniting.

His hopes that distance would erode her feelings for him didn't pan out. And while he didn't see her as a little sister anymore, she was still something like a cute cousin in his eyes.

"Well…"

Cecilia frowned when he hesitated.

"It's been a whole year, Rory" she said softly. "Don't you want to know what I've been doing?"

Rory frowned too. It wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with her, he just didn't want to lead her on.

"We can walk around town together," he said, "but it's not a date."

The sorceress smiled, but Rory could see she was biting the inside of her lip. "Alright."

They toured around the market district and gradually started chatting about everything they had each missed from each other's lives. Rory was on a tight budget, but Cecilia made good money working for the magic tower. She bought food from any stall that smelled decent and they tried it together.

The forest boy had never had a need to want wealth before, but he was finding a lot of reasons lately. Some of the stalls were selling shiny accessories, for instance, but they were expensive.

Cecilia noticed where he was looking and pulled him over to the stall.

"Hey, look at this? Does it suit me?"

She held up a red and silver hair pin to her loose curls.

"Red always suits you," Rory smiled, admiring the sparkling crimson glass set into the piece.

Cecilia blushed and grinned. "Then I'll buy it. My bangs have been in the way lately anyway." She coughed.

Her eyes darted over to a brass hairpin with green glass gems set into it, and picked it off the stand, holding it up against Aurelius's sun blonde hair.

The ornament glittered with a golden shine under the overcast skies. Putting anything precious on the gorgeous young man was like gilding a lilly, but Cecilia was overcome with the urge to do it anyway.

"Th-this one looks good on you."

"It's expensive though," Rory frowned slightly.

"Well, at least try it on for a second?" She pushed the pin into his hands and he shrugged, finding a spot to hook it to his hair where his horns weren't in the way.

"How is it?" he asked.

She replied breathlessly. "Try smiling."

Aurelius smiled like sunlight, and Cecilia brought her hands to her flushed face, as if to protect herself from blindness, but she peeked out between her fingers because she just couldn't look away.

Without a word she turned toward the stall owner and dropped the coins in front of him. He hardly noticed, since he was busy staring at his gorgeous maj customer just like everybody else who had stopped near the stall.

Rory looked at everyone with a hint of confusion and then frowned at Cecilia in concern. "Are you sure it's alright to spend so much money?"

"It's fine!" she insisted.

The stall owner tapped her shoulder and put the coins back in her hand when she turned around. "You tell people where he got that, and it's on the house."

"Really? Just for that?" Rory's eyes widened.

But Cecilia folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the shopkeeper. "Are you kidding? You'd have to pay us to advertise for you."

Aurelius was going to dissuade her, thinking they'd effectively been paid already by getting an expensive piece of jewelry for free, but the stall owner gave a contemplative nod and put another sack of coins in her hand.

They left that stall behind while Rory was still somewhat stunned.

"What just happened?" he muttered.

"You still have no idea how valuable your face is, huh?" Cecilia replied. She put the bag of coins in his hand. "Here. You earned this, it's yours."

Rory peeked inside the bag and saw that there were silver coins mixed in with the coppers. His eyes widened and he quickly pulled the drawstring shut.

"This much?!" he whispered.

"He'll make more than that in an hour."

Rory was skeptical, but he touted his new hairpin to a few groups of people, smiling warmly and sharing where he's gotten it, and those people migrated in droves, eager to spend their money.

'I keep telling you,' Jahre said. 'These people have never seen anyone as beautiful as you.'

'Seriously…?'

Of course, before he acted friendly with them, people still kept their distance and spoke in hushed whispers. He caught the word 'maj' tossed around several times.

'I wish they could make up their minds.'

Though really, neither the fear nor the adoration really appealed to him. Rory was having much more fun just hanging out with Cecilia.