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With that, I got off the carriage first. Elaine followed, looking puzzled.

"Follow me."

I started walking.

"Are we going back there?"

Elaine\'s question was filled with bewilderment. It made sense. The place I was heading to was a lower district.

"Yes."

"Now is not a good time…"

Her voice trailed off with a troubled expression. It wasn\'t hard to guess why she was concerned. She must have made up a hasty excuse to her father to follow me, now worried about running into him.

But after all, that wasn\'t what I wanted either.

"I understand your concern, but it\'s fine. Just follow me."

I kept walking, and she reluctantly followed.

After a while, her expression relaxed. She must have realized we were heading in the complete opposite direction from where Turk lived.

"But why here?"

Elaine asked. I am a noble. An incredibly wealthy one at that. The filthy, smelly lower district streets were the last place someone like me belonged.

"Just because it\'s close."

I answered nonchAllently. Of course, that wasn\'t the real reason I chose this place.

\'One should choose a place considering the person.\' A fancy, upscale restaurant? In most cases, that would be the better choice. But not for Elaine.

"Hmm, I heard it\'s around here."

"What is?"

"The skewer grill that\'s famous around

here."

I pretended to be lost. In the game, I had visited so often I even knew the owner\'s face, but this was my first time here.

"Ah. There."

"Hmm. Do you know it?"

Elaine confirmed with a peculiar expression. Coincidentally, it was one of her favorite places.

"Come on. I\'ll lead the way."

Elaine took the lead as if there was no time to waste. I followed her. Shortly after. We entered a small shop in a corner of an alley. The smell of grilled skewers hit my nose.

"Oh, Elaine, you\'re here?"

A middle-aged woman with a strong presence greeted us warmly. She was the owner of the skewer grill.

"Hello, ma\'am."

"Oh? But who\'s this? A friend?"

"Yes… That\'s right."

Elaine\'s face changed color as she reluctantly agreed to the term \'friend.\'

"You brought a man… and he\'s a friend? Ho ho, you\'re at that age."

The owner chuckled with a knowing look. I wouldn\'t mind being set up, but she certainly would. Elaine\'s brow furrowed involuntarily.

"It\'s not like that."

"Ho ho, don\'t be shy. I\'ll keep it a secret from your father, so don\'t worry."

"It\'s really not like that!"

"Alright, alright, I get it. Sit down, and I\'ll prepare something quickly."

I passed by the flustered Elaine and took a seat by the window. She sat down opposite me, resigned to the situation.

"Is there only one menu?"

I asked, looking at the wooden menu board. I already knew everything, but what could I do? I had to start anew here.

"…Yes. The fastest service of the best dish, that\'s the owner\'s motto."

"That\'s nice. It smells good."

It was an honest impression. It was my first time actually getting to try it. The delicious smell made my mouth water.

"Who told you about this place?"

"Who knows. Probably one of my friends. But why do you ask? Do you think I don\'t fit in here?"

I spoke bluntly. Elaine thought for a moment, then nodded slightly without denying it.

"That\'s right."

"Well, I understand. But isn\'t it the same everywhere? If it\'s delicious, it\'s delicious if it\'s not, it\'s not, whether it\'s in a rich or poor neighborhood."

I summed it up neatly. She seemed taken aback. Because it wasn\'t something that \'Max\' would say.

But if I get flustered by every little thing, there will be no end to it. I may be \'Max,\' but I\'m not \'that Max.\'

A moment of awkward silence.

Then the skewers were served.

"Eat up. If it\'s not enough, just let me know," said the owner with a wink as she placed the skewers down, seemingly cheering on our youthful spirits. But that wasn\'t it at all.

Anyway, I picked up a skewer. I was hungry, and the delicious smell was irresistible.

Crunch.

Skewers made from pork hind leg meat. A cheap cut mostly consisting of tough muscle. A cut that nobles would hardly ever eat.

But. Tough meat has its own chewing pleasure, and with the right seasoning, it can become a delicious dish. That\'s exactly what these skewers were.

"Delicious."

I muttered to myself, thinking that the meat-loving elf Hiresia would go crazy for this, when…

"Who are you?"

Choke, cough…

Caught off guard by Elaine\'s sudden question, I choked. She seemed not to have expected such a reaction, her eyes wide as she pushed a wooden cup of water towards me.

After my coughing subsided a bit, I slowly drank the water she offered and managed to calm down.

"Haah… I\'m alive. Why would you say such a weird thing and make people panic?"

…In truth, it was a piercing remark.

But I couldn\'t admit that, could I? So I raised my voice on purpose.

"Sorry, it just slipped out…"

She apologized, perhaps because the thought had inadvertently popped out of her head. But even as she apologized, she seemed confused, narrowing her eyes and fiddling with her hair using her fingers.

Then finally,

"But it\'s strange. No matter how I think about it, it\'s strange!"

She openly expressed her inner thoughts. It seemed she was too frustrated to hold back any longer.

As her voice grew louder, the owner looked over from the other side, but she just smiled, probably thinking it was a common spat between friends of the opposite s*x.

"Wait, wait, you\'re not drunk, are you?"

I calmed her down first. Otherwise, all the customers in the store would start looking our way.

"I sobered up a long time ago. Are you saying that I\'m the one who\'s strange now? Am I strange? Is my head having strange thoughts?"

"No, it\'s not necessarily that…"

I backed off. They say it\'s scary when a genius loses their mind, and she seemed to be on the verge of doing just that.

"Is it you who\'s normal? Or am I the crazy one?"

…Look, it\'s scary. Isn\'t the choice of words itself a bit strange?

"I understand, I understand, you."

I said hastily. What was needed here was empathy. I don\'t know why I suddenly have to soothe her like a sulking girlfriend…

It seemed her genius mind couldn\'t

understand the situation and was cracking.

At times like this, care is needed.