I’ll Live My Second Life! Chapter 62

(Hmmm, should I go with a filet steak? The mutton poêlé looks good too. And there are heaps of menu items that I’ve never seen before. Caviar… It’s expensive, but I sure wanna try it. Should I ask Crow-san to buy me some?)

When Fii peeked at the other tables, there were tasty looking dishes all around. Fii looked at her menu, drooling.

Glancing at Crow, he seemed to be glaring seriously at the menu for some reason.

“Hmmm. A hamburg steak…? No, but she said that she liked gratin…”

Fii inclined her head in wonder.
She recalled that Crow liked seafood. She was sure that he had said so during one of their chats.

“Could it be that you’re going to try the food that your date likes?”

“Yeah, basically,” he answered with a light nod.

Fii closed the menu and smiled at him.

“Then I’ll cooperate. Please get me the other dishes that she likes.”

If he was going out of the way to try the dishes she liked, then she must have been important to him. In that case, how could Fii not cooperate?

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!”

In the end, Fii ordered a hamburg steak and a pie stew while Crow went with a gratin.
After waiting for a while, the food arrived.

A hamburg steak covered in demi-glace and a fluffy pie stew sat in front of her. As for Crow, it was a gratin with fragrant cooked cheese.

“Wah, it looks yummy!” she claimed with glittering eyes.

Crow smiled.

“Sorry you couldn’t eat what you wanted.”

“Not at all. I love hamburgs and pie stews too!” she answered with a smile.

Seeing this, Crow thought again that she really was just Heath.
Any of the girls he’d dated might have sulked about it or become dejected instead. Some girls would become flat-out angry, while others would hide their emotions with a smile. They had all kinds of reactions.
But he could tell that Heath was happy from the bottom of her heart.
None of the other girls had ever shown such a reaction.

It was at that point that he suddenly stopped his thoughts and shook his head.

(No, no, to begin with, this kid is a guy, not a girl, so…)

For some reason he just naturally compared her with the other girls. Perhaps it was because she just appeared so natural in this look.

“Crow-san! Can I start eating?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

With that, Fii picked up her fork and knife and began eating the hamburg steak.
Cutting them into small pieces, she placed them into her mouth.
It was different to the hamburg steaks from the dining hall. This one smelt fantastic. The meat was soft, and each bite would cause the fine sauce to spread throughout her mouth.

“Yummyy~”

As expected of a famous restaurant, perhaps you could say.
She liked eating the hamburgs in the dining hall too, but this hamburg steak was delicious in a different way.

Perhaps she had eaten even finer foods during those parties and gatherings.
But this was the first time since she had begun paying attention that she had eaten something so high cla.s.s. Plus, back as a princess, she had always eaten alone.
Right now she had Crow-san with her.

“Is the sauce, or the flavour of the wine too bitter?” asked Crow as he watched the happily eating Fii.

“No, it’s fine.”

The sauce on the hamburg had the alcohol carefully evaporated out of it, and she couldn’t taste any of its flavour or bitterness.

Once Fii finished her hamburg, she began working on the pie stew.
After breaking open the still warm, fluffy pie crust, her fork met with a milky stew.

After she gave it a taste, Crow asked her for her opinion again.

“Are there any capsic.u.ms in there?”

“No, not at all?”

“It looks like the carrots are sliced up thinly, so it should be okay.”

“Yes. It’s all been stewed together well, so it’s delicious.”

While Crow asked her about the ingredients in the stew, he went through the stuff in his gratin too.

“Hmm. There are sh.e.l.ls in here, so maybe it won’t do…”

It was obvious how much importance Crow was putting on the date just from the way he was carefully examining everything.
But Fii had a small question.

(Aren’t this girl’s tastes a little childish?)

It was generally children that ordered a hamburg or gratin in an expensive place like this. Usually adults would go for something a bit fancier.
Not just that, but having trouble eating capsic.u.ms and carrots just sounded rather childish.

After dinner, they had a walk around the high cla.s.s shopping district for a little bit before heading back to the castle.
The oil street lamps were now far away with only the dim lights from houses and the moon to light their path.
The large castle they were headed to was lit up brightly on the other hand, and from its surroundings it almost looked like stars in the night.

Because it was so dark, in the end Crow continued to escort her.
Their two bodies were huddled together as they strode down the dark path.

By now, Crow was treating Fii just as normal, with no signs of the silence he had earlier.
They simply headed back together hand-in-hand as they chatted about things like her life at the dorms.

But as they were happily talking, they stopped when they noticed people up front.

“They’re waiting to ambush us, aren’t they.”

“Seems like it.”

The two of them exchanged words in a whisper.

Right now they were close to one of the more dangerous blocks in the city.
Although they hadn’t actually taken a step into it, perhaps the darkness of the night encouraged these thugs to wander a little further.

“Heyy, Mister. On a date with your cute little miss? What a lucky guy.”

“Quite a beauty, ain’t she. I was thinkin’ that I’d have some of your money, but maybe I’ll take her too.”

“That’s how it is, so be good and give us your gold and the girl. If you do, we’ll let you go home in one piece.”

Three nasty looking men were standing in their way.
Although Fii was about to transition into a pre-emptive flying kick, Crow held her back in a hug.

“Crow-san!?”

Fii’s eyes widened in a little surprise.
Crow just smiled gently in return.

“You stay out of trouble this time. After having this princess accompany me all day, it’d shame my name as a knight to make her fight. Plus, you might trip over if you fight in those heels, yanno.”

Given that she wasn’t used to them yet, it was certainly possible.

(Muu…)

Since she couldn’t help it, Fii obeyed.

“Oh? Ya wanna go three versus one, huh?”

“Acting a little too cool is only gunna give you pain, boy.”

Hearing these ruffians caused Fii to let out an astounded sigh.

(The ones in for some pain are you guys…)

It only took an instant for Crow to knock them all out.
The men were sprawled on the ground, unmoving.

Since Fii knew how strong he was, it wasn’t a surprise at all. This was simply the natural result.
Fii didn’t think she could win against him even if she had a sword, to say nothing of these three hooligans…

“I’ve kept you waiting, Princess,”

said Crow as he tried to act cool by giving an impish smile under the moonlight.
The thing was when Crow did it, he really did seem like a knight out of a fairytale.

“Well done. As a reward, I allow you to continue serving as my escort, Lord Knight,”

she replied. The two of them looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter, holding hands again as they continued making their way.

“Somehow it’s nothing but trouble when it comes to dates with you. At least it wasn’t boring.”

“Was this a date?”

“Nah, I don’t really know. I mean, I was with a guy the whole time,” Crow replied.

“That’s true. It’s not a date with two guys, is it,” said Fii, before giving a teasing smile.

Making their way down the night road, they continued to talk merrily as they headed home.