Woo, Chapter 50! Have to admit, it crept up on me, but I managed to get an interesting thing planned for it!
Erosdeath, I know your ships have been all over the place, but bear with another one added!
If anyone has questions or criticism, please review or PM, and enjoy chapter 50!
David awkwardly stood next to Kirche,arms crossed and sighing as she attempted to communicate with an outdoor shop owner. It seemed that, oddly enough, despite her being best friends with Tabitha and being fluent in Tristainian, she didn't know a word of Gallian. Odd considering how similar the two languages were.
After spending several moments watching the tramp making overly exaggerated hand motions and speaking very slow Germanian, he groaned and uncrossed his arms, walking beside her.
"Okay, I'll order." he told her. "You have no clue how to pronounce any of this, do you?"
She looked at him, before sighing and looking at the ground in defeat, her arms hanging to her sides. "Germanian uses completely different symbols…" she admitted. "And...Tabitha usually reads Tristainian writing for me…"
David tilted his head. Was Germanian not the equivalent to German in his world? He made a mental note to ask later. "Fine, I'll order instead…" he replied.
Kirche blinked. "You speak Gallian?" she asked, and he laughed and nodded.
"Yeah. When I first came here, Louise tried to fire a silencing spell at me, and it backfired and now I can speak any language. Plus I know a bit of French...that's my world's equivalent to Gallian."
Kirche blinked. "Ти розумієш мене?" she asked, and David nodded. She blinked again, before nodding. "...That's freaky, I've never heard of a spell that can do that."
He shrugged. "I've gotten used to it by now. Anyway, what are you trying to get?" he asked, looking into the shop, where the shopkeeper was looking curiously at them.
He sighed and shook his head. He hadn't thought of Kirche as one to wear jewelry, yet here she was at a parlor selling all kinds of necklaces and rings and such.
"..." He sighed again. "Which one do you want?" he asked, and Kirche blinked.
"That one." she replied, pointing to a small gold ring, embedded with a round emerald that was engraved with the pentagram symbol that marked a mage.
He nodded, looking at the ring's label for a second, before turning to the shopkeeper. "She was asking for the Elvish Pentagram ring." he said, and the shopkeeper nodded, bending over to take the ring out from the display.
"She has a good eye, this one's elf-made." she told him as Kirche watched with excitement, and he blinked.
"Elf? I thought elves were considered bad." he said, and the shopkeeper laughed.
"It's mostly the nobles in the northern countries that think that way." she replied. "Commoners are more lenient usually, and here in Gallia, especially here in Versailles and the capital city Lutèce. Of course, you don't usually see elves outside of Nephthys regardless of what kingdom you're from."
David nodded. "Eh...how much is this?" he asked, to which the shopkeeper smiled.
"15 gold. That particular ring hasn't sold in months, so it's pretty cheap." she replied, and he nodded, reaching to the pouch of money Henrietta had given him as a backup during the last mission.
Kirche, seeing the motion, stopped his arm. "I can pay, I just needed help reading!" she told him, and he blinked at the grin that played on her face. "But thanks for offering!"
She's oddly excited… he thought to himself. Oh, right, this is supposed to be a date...I completely forgot.
Come to think of it, this was the first date he'd ever been on. He had never been interested in romance even in his world, so this was a foreign concept to him...though luckily, it so far seemed to be going as a typical anime date would.
Wouldn't that be ironic, having the final ship be with Kirche, the person he least cares about?
As Kirche paid for the ring, she chatted with the shopkeeper, who naturally had little idea what she was saying, before turning to David, grinning as she set it on her right index finger...a location that probably held some sort of meaning, but David knew absolutely nothing about ring etiquette, so he couldn't imagine what it meant.
"How does it look?" she asked, and he blinked.
"It looks good." he said. "Fashionable...I think."
Kirche laughed as they thanked the shopkeeper and walked away. "You boys have no idea how fashion works, I bet your exes got annoyed sometimes."
David shrugged. "Never had any, I haven't had any reason to learn." he replied, and she stared at him in surprise.
"Really...you've never had a girlfriend? How is that possible?!" she asked, and he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Why is that surprising? Do I really seem like the kind of person who would care about that sort of thing? Besides, back on Earth, I wasn't all that popular."
Kirche shook her head in disbelief. "You're the most well-known commoner in Tristain at this point, that's just too hard to believe that you would be ignored! Does your world not appreciate your music?"
David laughed, waving his hand. "In my world, guitars aren't rare. They're used in many of the genres of music I listen to. On Earth, my skill is only a bit higher than the average band student."
Kirche's expression was so hilarious that he had to cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing, before his mood suddenly fell, and he frowned, his tone much more serious as he spoke.
"Hey, why did you call on the favor now?" he asked her, and she blinked, before sighing, crossing her arms, her expression turning grim.
"So you noticed." she said, and he nodded.
"I get that you'd want to call it at some point, but it's too strange of timing to not be suspicious. It's about Tabitha, isn't it?"
She hesitated for a few seconds, before nodding. "Yeah, I was hoping to use this as a distraction for both of us, but I guess the cat's out of the bag now...So, let's talk."
