Kuro, Alice, and I arrived at a city on the frontier of the Arclesia Empire to source our vegetables. Despite its remote location, the town had the distinct feel of a tourist destination, though it wasn't overly crowded. It possessed a peaceful, idyllic atmosphere that I found quite charming.
"The whole place has a real vacation vibe to it," I remarked.
"This city is actually quite famous as a getaway," Kuro explained. "Since their main draws are fresh vegetables and fruit, it’s a very popular destination for travelers."
"Good food is a powerful selling point," Alice added. "Their vegetable-based dishes and fruit sweets are legendary."
She was right; a reputation for delicious food was often enough to put a place on the map. Beyond that, I had the personal impression that the Arclesia Empire was leaning heavily into its tourism industry lately.
It was likely part of Chris-san's policy. She frequently recommended sightseeing spots in her letters to me, and I’d noticed that magazines were running a lot of features on Arclesian travel lately.
"Oh, Kaito-kun! Shaltier! Look, ice cream! Let’s get some!"
"It’s your typical local fruit soft-serve, the kind you always find at these tourist traps," Alice said, her eyes gleaming. "Well then, I’ll be modest and take three of every variety."
"In what world is that 'modest'?" I asked.
Just as Alice had said, fruit-based soft-serve seemed to be a staple of these kinds of towns. They had a wide variety available. Personally, I usually preferred citrus flavors like orange, but today I found myself in the mood for grapes, so I went with the grape soft-serve.
Kuro bought a peach one, while Alice—true to her word—purchased three of all seven varieties. That made twenty-one cones in total.
Normally, just holding that many would be an impossible feat, but Alice used magic to keep the cones floating around her as she took them. It was, undeniably, very convenient.
"Mmm, this simple sweetness is great. Actually, Kaito-kun, yours looks incredible."
"It’s packed with actual grapes. The presentation is definitely impressive... It’s a little hard to eat, but they’re seedless, so it's not a huge struggle."
The soft-serve at this shop was unique. The cones were wide and shallow, serving as a base for a "decoration soft-serve" that combined the ice cream with heaps of fresh fruit. It was visually striking—they clearly prioritized aesthetics to satisfy the tourists.
"...Hmm."
"Kuro-san? Swapping those grapes for baby castella isn't going to result in 'harmony,' you know?" Alice interjected. "That would just be eating soft-serve and baby castella at the same time."
"...I-I wasn't thinking about that at all."
She definitely was. She was clearly trying to brainstorm a baby castella soft-serve variant. But as Alice pointed out, the textures wouldn't really blend; it would just be two separate snacks in one hand.
"...What about baby castella-flavored soft-serve?" Kuro suggested.
"Then it’s just soft-serve, not baby castella, isn't it?"
"Gunuuu... Th-Then, soft-serve-flavored baby castella..."
"That’s just called vanilla-flavored," Alice deadpanned.
"...Muuu."
Alice was doing a masterful job of shooting down Kuro’s desperate attempts to link everything back to her favorite snack. In moments like this, Alice was a truly reliable companion.
"...Well, I'll put the baby castella ideas aside for a moment," Kuro conceded.
"I expected nothing less," I said with a smile. "You never truly give up, do you, Kuro?"
"Kaito-kun, give me a bite of yours!"
"Hmm? Oh, sure. Here."
"Thanks! I'll give you a bite of mine in return."
Having shifted her focus, Kuro asked for a taste, and we naturally swapped bites of our respective cones. At this stage in our relationship, we weren't the type of couple to get flustered over an indirect kiss; it felt perfectly natural.
"Oh, that reminds me. Alice, can I have a bite of your orange one? I was curious about that flavor."
"Huh? A-Ah, I mean, sure, that's fine, but... Maybe I should... uh, find a spoon or something...?"
Unlike Kuro and me, Alice didn't seem used to this kind of casual intimacy at all. She was clearly overthinking it and becoming extremely flustered, but that was so typical of her that I couldn't help but let out a wry chuckle.
"Still, this place really is lovely..."
"It is. I’d love to just relax and sightsee," Kuro said, "but we’ll run out of time if we're not careful."
"Well, we can probably afford an hour or so to look around, right?" Alice suggested. "Travel is instantaneous anyway since either I or Kuro-san can just use teleportation magic."
"True. In that case, let's head to the botanical garden!" Kuro cheered.
"Why go all that way to look at plants when they're growing everywhere around here?" Alice argued. "I vote for the strawberry picking over there!"
"You just ate twenty-one ice cream cones... and you still want more food?"
In any case, both Kuro and Alice were in high spirits and got along well together, making our group outing genuinely fun. I recalled Alice mentioning once that she was open to a three-way date as long as it was with Kuro.
Since they were split between the botanical garden and strawberry picking, I decided to cast my lot with Kuro. After all, I’d just finished my own ice cream, and the thought of more food was a bit much.
Machina: "Hey, can I ask you something? Why is Serious-senpai currently embedded in the wall?"
???: "I was using her as a dart."
Machina: "...A dart? You used Serious-senpai as a projectile?"
???: "Yeah. We played a game of Zero-One."
Machina: "Zero-One? What was the target score?"
???: "1501 points."
Machina: "...Talk about overkill."