Raphtalia was mulling over all of this over and over again in her head, until someone finally came to snap her out of her thoughts.
"Raphtalia-san?" a voice called out to her. She turned to see the person she'd been waiting for, Eclaire. The pink-haired woman drew attention from the passersby as she approached, even more so than with Raphtalia.
Even after all of these years, she wasn't fully used to the stares she would get sometimes. Often, they were not ill-intentioned, coming from young children who eagerly tugged at their mother's sleeves while pointing to her. Alright, it was rude to point, yes, but she could see why they did so. Or it would be old ladies, mystified by her strange features. Of course, there were also some stares from creeps. People would approach her for no reason other than that, again, most of the time quite well-meaning, but not always.
Eclaire stood out even more than she did, so did she also deal with these same problems?
Then again, Eclaire was nearly always at Melty's side and dressed up in a business suit - looking like an elite bodyguard, save for her hair. She doubted that anyone would dare mess with her.
That said, she wasn't dressed like that today. It was the first time, as a matter of fact, for Raphtalia to see her dressed in casual wear. It was nothing out of the ordinary - a blue cardigan sweater over a floral shirt and tan skirt, but it complimented her perfectly.
If she didn't know any better, Rapthalia would've thought that Eclaire looked like a pop idol star given the way she was dressed. Then again, Eclaire was still all business as she approached Raphtalia.
"I hope you didn't have any problem finding this place," Raphtalia said.
"None whatsoever," Eclaire said. "I know a bit about the rest of the area, and I can show you some places that are quite interesting."
Both of them were standing at a popular street crossing and had met up to essentially take a relaxing day together. The two of them had hit it off rather smoothly when they had met earlier, though that had also been part of official work and little had been done in terms of relaxing at the time.
"Thank you for agreeing to this," Raphtalia said.
"What're you saying? This is supposed to be a relaxing day for both of us, isn't it?" Eclaire asked.
"Yeah, but I mean to say…" Raphtalia began, unsure how how to word things. Eclaire looked like the kind of person who never took a vacation and would spend their day off visiting their workplace just to 'see how everyone was doing while I was away.'
However, Raphtalia wanted to say that in a way that would be less likely to offend Eclaire. "I mean, I thought that on your day off you'd be training or something…"
"I always train, everyday," Eclaire said. "But, I need a break from work."
"Oh? I guess even someone like you must get tired…"
"No, I meant that as in I was required to take a break," Eclaire sighed. "Apparently, I had spent so many hours working for Melty-sama that it technically broke several Japanese labor laws and I was forced to take some time off. And here I thought that the working conditions in Japan were supposed to be harsh…" She said the last phrase with a bit of a dejected air.
"So… you're here because you were forced to?" Raphtalia asked.
"Ah, no, no, I didn't mean it like that," Eclaire said waving her hand. "I really did want to be here, I mean, I have to do something on my day off, and I couldn't think of any other better way to spend it than here!"
"Right," Raphtalia said, and then something occurred to her as she leaned in closer to Eclaire. "Um… you didn't bring your um… gun with you did you?"
"Eh?" Eclaire asked. "Of course I did." Her eyes than flashed to her purse by her side. "Don't leave home without it- mainly because I have enough firearms at home. Why?"
Raphtalia sighed. She had expected it, but it still slightly disappointed her to learn of it. "Nothing… there's nothing wrong.. it's just… I thought we were here to relax, right?"
"And I am quite relaxed knowing that I have a weapon by my side," Eclaire said.
"That's not what I… whatever," Raphtalia said. "Are you really that worried about being attacked?"
"Hmm? The odds are low," Eclaire admitted. "But when I'm with Melty-sama, I need to be prepared at all times. A bodyguard has to be vigilant constantly."
Raphtalia's mind flashed back to her earlier life. Back when there had been some unrest in her country, and the swarms of people that always surrounded her and her family.
"Has… anything ever happened?" Raphtalia asked.
"To Melty-sama? No, not as far as I can remember," Eclaire said. "Ah, there was this one time when she got 'lost' when she wandered off to get something, and we took some time to find her. Other than that, no major instances." She paused. "As a matter of fact, that time we ran into those thugs was the first instance where I think I saw that much action in a long time…"
"Ah… that was my fault, sorry…"
"It was not your fault, it was theirs," Eclaire said. "How have things been on your end?"
"Oh, well, you know, same old same old," Raphtalia said. "I'll be graduating soon, so I'm looking for what to do next…"
"Oh right, you're in high school," Eclaire said. "Sorry, I see you with Naofumi so often and the two of you look the same age so I got confused…"
"I'm actually a bit older than I would be," Raphtalia admitted. "Though not by much."
"So what are you thinking of?"
"I haven't decided yet," Raphtalia said. She then shot out a few things she had come up with, though nothing was really to her liking. "How did you know what you wanted to do?"
"Me?" Eclaire asked. "I'm not sure if I'm the right sort of person to ask that question, because my father also worked for Melty-sama's family and I kind of just followed what he did. That, and I always loved action movies as a kid!" She then formed a finger-gun and pretended to blast bullets around. "It sounded so cool, and I always knew I wanted to do something like that as an adult. Real life though, is rather boring, let me tell you that. Ah, I guess for Melty-sama's sake, that's actually a good thing."