As Amane set down the four pin white ptes, leaving Silvia's and hers for the next trip, I got a closer look at the appetizer sitting on it. It really was a sad sandwich. There were two puff pastries of some sort serving as the bread slices and the innards consisted of what you'd usually see in a sad: spinach, tomatoes (but sliced), cheese (but creamy), and some spices, although I couldn't tell what.

  I stared at it for a while, until Amane brought the final two ptes, pcing them in front of Silvia, and finally herself. Before she sat down, Amane introduced the dish. "This is… a uh… appetizer. Puff pastry and sad."

  Then, Amane sat down and attempted to pick up her appetizer. It didn't go too well. A blob of creamy white goo slid out the end of her creation and fell onto her pte. Nevertheless, I too began attempting to eat the appetizer. The pastry was a little squishy, maybe from the sad's moisture, making it feel like a sponge, but I managed to compress it down, bring it up to my mouth, and take a bite.

  Not bad. It tastes like a boring sad whose entrails were scooped out one at a time and plopped onto a puff pastry. Such a beautifully delicate dissection. Then chuck another puff pastry on top. Basically, it's just a sad with two big, slightly soggy crouton-cracker-things. A little too much creaminess for my liking, but that was easily remedied by half of it falling out onto the pte.

  Partway through the appetizer eating, Silvia's dad, Wade, attempted to start another conversation with us, prompting me to take a short break and set down the food. "Got a favorite css yet?"

  Hmm… favorite css… I don't really know. What was first? Leadership? That one was… fine I guess. Can't say I care too much about being a leader. I can let Melody handle that. The team csses will probably be fun since it's with a team, but we haven't done a lot yet. Really, we haven't done a lot in any csses so I don't know if I can decre any a favorite, but I suppose none of the csses are particurly bad either.

  Fara seemed to have formed some strong opinions however, replying, "System Knowledge by far."

  "Oh?" Wade perked up, chuckling.

  "The professor is awesome, she was so animated, it just completely sucked me in," Fara began, which felt a little… out of character? Regardless, her passion continued. "And, I mean, seriously, how the hell do you make a subject as boring as history, well history at first, interesting? It's incredible."

  I don't recall my css being that fascinating. And my professor was definitely male. Barton, I think? Maybe I can swap into Fara's css? Although then I wouldn't have Melody with me… hmm… I mean, we can both swap probably. We're like the two most powerful people in the school. Things to consider…

  "It seriously makes no sense. I mean, system knowledge? We have systems! What the hell is there to know? It's literally inside of us and we always have our phones anyway. Especially the history, like I said, useless. We're in the present, not the past." As Fara's diatribe continued, Wade progressively fell further back into his seat, until a self-deprecating chuckle filled the room.

  "Well, I too love that one," Wade said as he pushed himself back up to the table. "Little different reason though."

  "Dad teaches System Knowledge at Soris," Silvia expined. Soris… one of the two sister schools to Solstice Royal Academy, all three of which are situated in the capital area. Solstice is the most central with Soris sitting north of it and Selene College, the third one, sitting south of the city.

  The two sister schools share a bunch of knowledge, sometimes dungeons, and probably a lot of research. They mainly serve the lower tiers but are still funded by the government. Those two schools are where most people living here end up. Unless they're stupid. Then they'd… well there aren't really any, uh, less-intense schools in the city. Neighboring towns 45-60 minutes away would be the closest. They could enter the workforce, I guess?

  "Oh." Fara wilted, her impassioned attitude falling away like a dead petal, never to be seen again as a winter storm takes hold over society… Anyway, Wade's chuckling had yet to cease, but the moment it did, he brushed it off.

  "Soon enough you'll see its importance." Wade moved to pick up the st little bit of his sad pastry-wich, and popped it into his mouth, then continued, mouth full of food. "I'm sure your prof will be a great help. Robinson, I assume?"

  Fara nodded and the brief conversation died down again. Over the next few minutes we all finished eating our appetizer while Silvia and Wade brought out two gsses for everyone, water, which Silvia apologized for forgetting, and Wade brought out a bottle of lemonade. Nothing fancy, but tasty nonetheless.

  Following that, Amane went back to the kitchen, returning once more with four ptes, this time carrying the main course, which looked to be a spaghetti dish of some sort. After Amane brought the dishes over, setting them down in the same manner as earlier, leaving hers and Silvia's for the next trip, I got a whiff of the smell and holy shit it smells so good.

  The spaghetti, which I could now tell had shrimps and scallops, smelt so fresh and ocean-y, and, gah, I don't know! Garlicky kinda, but not very strong, maybe a hint of lemon? It smelt fancy, that's for sure. And I want to eat it right now. Gotta wait for Amane to get back. The ptes have a cool blue spirally design along the edges though. That's cool. Feels like an old people thing. But pretty.

  By the time Amane finally returned carrying the st two ptes, she introduced the dish. "This is… shrimp and scallop spaghetti, with, uhm… garlic, some herbs, olive oil, some peppers, and lemon, and basil, and white wine… sauce."

  Blushing, Amane sat down into her seat and began eating the pasta. Before the rest of us began however, Silvia spoke. "There's more if anyone wants seconds."

  After that, the eating began. I shoved my fork into the pile of spaghetti and twirled it around then took my first bite. It tastes good. Insanely good. Like, almost as good as Melody. I need to eat her more often.

  Anyway, the lemon was stronger than I expected but it definitely freshened the taste of the oils. And then the shrimp was delicious of course, squishy and juicy. The scallops were pretty good, maybe a tad chewy, but the fvor was there along with the peppers and basil and things.

  As we all worked on our food, Silvia's dad started the conversation yet again. "Y'all pnning any more dungeon dives?"

  "Not yet," Silvia said immediately, then gnced toward Melody. "I assume we're waiting for the academy ones next week."

  Next week, already? Melody did mention there's only a week after the first css for people to form teams. Well that'll be… fun, maybe? Our first dungeon raid was kinda fun. None of us got hurt which was what really mattered. I can't imagine it'll be fun if we go to deeper floors. And if we go to deeper floors my abilities might actually matter which means I could very easily fuck everything up. Although Melody will command me anyway.

  It'll probably be fine.

  "Yeah," Melody replied. "Unless anyone wants to go on one sooner. I can always get us a dungeon."

  Money is crazy. How much was that first dungeon again? Seven hundred and fifty credits, so like, 750,000 monies. Because the government keeps buying credits up for some reason I still don't understand. Expensive.

  I wonder if I can use my X tier status to get an answer to that question about credit value? Actually, BDSysteM do you know why the government buys credits?

  Yep. BDSysteM replied unhelpfully, like always.

  Care to share?

  Care to beg?

  Yeah, fuck you too. I need a way to punish this unhelpful little annoying kinky alien dumbass. I didn't want to know anyway.

  Uh, huh.

  "Always good to get more practice," Wade commented. "Still remember my first dive, broke a leg."

  "Literally?" Fara questioned after finishing her st forkful of spaghetti.

  "Yeah-huh," Wade continued, also finishing up his st forkful of spaghetti. I'm scking, I still got a pile. "Hadda rush to the hospital, wasn't a uni dungeon. Expensive too. Got no doubt y'all'd be fine though. Tiers higher than I coulda dreamed."

  "What tier are you?" Melody asked.

  "Stuck with grimy old C," Wade chuckled. "C tier scout. Silvi's leagues better, an don't 'chu forget it."

  As our main course came to a close, Amane headed back to grab one more, a desert. A dessert. A desert dessert. That's all she said. Desert dessert. At the same time, Wade excused himself. "I'm gonna head up, gotta get some work done."

  We all said bye and then Amane returned with five ptes all at once. The desserts were much smaller than the other dishes, which let her overp the ptes a little. Smart Amane.

  Once all the ptes were passed out, we dove straight in, Amane offering no expnation. Each pte had a slice of cake with frosting dyed to look like a desert. On top of the frosting were a bunch of small yellow sprinkles acting as sand, although the color match wasn't perfect. Regardless, I think this can indeed be called a desert dessert. As for the taste, well, it tasted like a normal, pretty sugary, pretty sweet cake. Nice and fluffy and squishy and tasty like boobs and yeah.

  "Your dad's also a scout?" Melody asked Silvia.

  "Yeah," Silvia replied, her voice quieting as she continued. "We go hiking a lot, so…"

  Melody nodded along. "Both of you love looking at nature?"

  "Yeah." Silvia smiled.

  "Born to be scouts, then."