Dinner With The Female Lead's Parents

I scratched the back of my head, stumped for what to do.

“I really want to try out my healing magic, though.”

Mia was about to speak up, probably to say that her joke about cutting me could be a serious option, but I raised a firm hand against it.

“And I’d like to use it on someone else. Not on myself.”

I had to make that clear.

Mia pursed her lips, as if to say I was no fun, before turning to Ophelia and August while tapping the hilt of her dagger.

“Do any of you ladies want to volunteer for the role?” she asked them.

Ophelia rocked her head, cowering behind her mage staff, while Augustina stared at Mia with mild annoyance.

“No,” she said. “And I thought you said you would not make those sorts of jokes anymore.”

“Oh, you’re right. Sorry~” she giggled.

Augustina sighed. She was clearly fed up with Mia today.

It made me feel as if I had to bring the mood up.

“Oh well,” I said, stretching my hurt arms. “It’s not that important to me right now.”

The sun was making its way down, casting a pretty shade of orange on every building and person.

“You’re right,” Augustina said. “It’s almost evening now. We should call it a day.”

“Agreed,” Mia said.

Ophelia and I nodded as well.

“I didn’t realize we were even out for this long,” I said.

“Mm,” Ophelia nodded. “Though we did do a lot of things today.”

I thought about it for a second.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I said.

We all walked away from the tiny hill. It was a quiet but sad goodbye, at least for me. That place was the perfect spot to just lie down and relax, but I couldn’t do either.

Better make a mental note for next time.

The girls said that they were heading over to Mia’s house to have dinner with her family.

I knew they were good friends, but I didn’t think they were so close that they had dinner with her family every week.

I've got to say, I was a little jealous. I never had that sort of friendship back on Earth, though I never put that much effort into a friendship to even get to that level.

For most of my school years, I kept to myself or hung out with a classmate during lunch, but never outside of school.

“So, Tai.”

“Hm?”

I looked over at Mia and realized that all three of them were staring at me as if an interrogation was about to start.

“What’s up?” I asked, a bit nervous.

“We were wondering where you were staying for the night?”

“Oh, well, I—”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. My body stiffened at the harsh reality of my situation.

“I don’t have a place to stay…” I said stiffly.

“Oh no,” Ophelia said, covering her mouth while staring with an empathetic gaze.

Augustina looked at me in the same way.

“Really?” she asked.

My shoulders dropped as I said yes. I had never felt so defeated in my life. This was worse than the time I had to walk home after school and explain to my mom that I got a D on my report card.

But at least then, I had a bed and pillow to lie down and cry on.

“Do you want us to walk you over to an inn?” Mia asked.

“No thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I don’t have any gold on me…”

“Really?”

“Mhm,” I nodded, pulling my pockets inside out to show the proof.

Why couldn’t I have spawned ‌with a bit of cash?

This sucks!

I wanted to cry.

“I hate to ask this of you guys after all you’ve done for me, but…is it alright if I stay at one of your ‌places for the night? You can have my portion of gold as payback once we go on quests…”

I bowed to the three of them and kept my eyes glued to the ground.

I hated this. I hated begging people for something so extreme. Especially since we’ve known each other for, what, half a day?

I was about to stand up straight and take it all back, maybe even play it off as a weird little joke until I saw Mia awkwardly scratching the back of her head.

“If you really don’t have a place to stay, then I’ll ask my parents if you can sleep there for the night.”

“R-really?” I asked, raising my head. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard.

Mia nodded.

“I’ll ask,” she said, “but it’s not guaranteed that they’ll let you stay.”

“That’s fine!” I yelled. “I appreciate ‌you’d even do something like that for me! You’re a saint! Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

I bowed to Mia again and again. At first, it seemed like she was going to crack a lighthearted joke, but she started getting clammy to the point where she had to turn away after seeing each bow of gratitude getting stronger and stronger.

“Y-you’re welcome, but you don’t have to put on these theatrics. I haven’t even asked them yet…”

She awkwardly scratched her cheek, peering at me.

Still, I thanked her anyway.

***

To no one’s surprise, Mia’s mother wasn’t happy when her daughter introduced me and my situation, asking if I could stay for the night, or at least, that’s what I thought at first.

She was mad, don’t get me wrong, but for a different reason.

“If I had known earlier, I would’ve cooked some more.”

She had her hand on her chin, looking troubled.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Mama,” Mia said.

I nodded.

“I already ate today, so—”

“Oh, quit that nonsense, boy! If you’re in my house, you eat my food! Now come on in, everybody! Mia’s father is waiting at the table.”

Mia’s mother waved for us to enter.

The house felt cramped, but it had this cozy feeling about it, as if this was all the space a family could ever need.

“Come on now, kids, take a seat at the table!”

The table she referred to was a short one in the middle of what seemed like a living room, right in front of a well-lit fireplace.

The parents sat on the floor in front of the fireplace, while I sat at the side of the table where I could be alone.

Everyone clapped their hands together for a prayer. Not wanting to be disrespectful, I did the same.

“Now, dig in everybody!” Mia’s mother exclaimed.

“Finally!” her father said, reaching for a piece of bread.

That was all there was, bread and soup with bits of fish, but man did it smell nice. And the steam coming from the soup was enough to get my mouth watering.

“Thank you again for your hospitality, mister and missus….”

“Maya,” Mia’s mother said after finishing her bite. “There’s no need to add the missus.”

“And I’m Frank,” her father said with a mouthful of bread.

“Right,” I said, bowing. “Again, thank you so much for taking me in for the night on such short notice. I swear I’ll pay the two of you back once I make some money.”

“Oh, really now?” Frank said, smiling at the thought of getting some money out of this. “How nice! You really are a good kid, y’know! If you want to know how much to pay us back, I’d be glad to put the price at 500 gol—”

Before Frank could finish saying gold, his wife—Maya—clasped her hand over his bread-filled mouth.

“Mmph—mmphhhh!” Frank tried speaking, but was muffled by Maya’s push against his face.

“Don’t listen to him, Tai,” she said with a smile that masked her mild annoyance towards her husband.

Mia and August laughed, and I could tell why.

It was Maya’s smile. It was as if she was saying, “My husband’s an idiot. Please don’t take what he says seriously.”

“We used to be down-on-our-luck adventurers, just like you, when we were younger, so we understand the struggle you’re going through,” she said. “Though, if you still want to pay us back, 100 gold would be all we need.”

My eyes lit up. I’m glad they didn’t let me stay here for free. I’d feel so guilty. It’d be like taking advantage of an old couple out of their retirement money while I laze around and do nothing all day.

…

Okay, that’s a bit of an extreme example, but it’s not far off from what I was doing right now.

“Thank you!” I said, bowing to Mia’s parents once again. “I’ll pay it back in full!”

And maybe some more if I had the money…