Chapter 288 - Kiss

"Thank you, thank you! I had an incredible time today, and I hope all of you did as well! But now, I’m afraid that I have to say goodbye!" Stahl exclaimed with a clenched fist and a pained expression as he turned away from the crowd, which had grown to be quite large at this point. And not only had Stahl managed to rank his Acting skill up, but also the new ’Sleight of Hand’ skill which he got, which absorbed the ’Pickpocket’ skill.

And on top of the ’Sleight of Hand’ skill, due to some other tricks he did that weren’t exactly connected to ’Sleight of Hand’, he even got the ’Magic Trickery’ skill! He even managed to make a little bit of money because people kept throwing coins toward him as a ’payment’.

There were apparently also a few players gathering around, watching the whole scene curiously. And then, with a light smile on his face, Stahl stepped around the place, summing up all that he had done during the performance, although that was just what he was doing outwardly.

In reality, Stahl had a wand tied to his shoe, and as he was walking around, was drawing a Magic Circle to prepare for the big finale! With Evalia’s help, it seemed like nobody really noticed, because she was able to somehow conceal what Stahl was doing with her element.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Children and Elders! I truly thank you for your appearance today! We had a lot of fun, isn’t that right?" Stahl asked loudly, winking at the young child which ended up helping him get all of this rolling, before the crowd began to Cheer and clap loudly, while some even whistled to show how much they enjoyed everything.

"Then once more, I have to ask of you to spread the word around! Tell the world about he who has shown you the wonders of a world you did not even know about! The world of fantastical wondrous mystery! Of things that cannot be explained even through Science or Magic alike! This experience is a unique one, at the very least it was for me! I truly hope that you thought the same." Stahl exclaimed before standing in the center of the clear area surrounded by the crowd, which was quite coincidentally also the center of the Magic Circle.

And as he extended his hand to grab Evalia’s, the young artist smiled underneath her mask and used her element to try and conceal them, while Stahl activated the Magic Circle. And it wasn’t just any kind of Magic Circle! It was a support circle, that was supposed to help the growth of certain plants. Plants that would wither after a few minutes, but while they lasted, were incredibly beautiful and a sight to behold in themselves.

And while the whole crowd payed attention to the sudden growth of the flowers, Stahl and Evalia slipped away into the nearest alley and into the next street over, where Evalia had already changed their appearances for them.

"Now, that was quite a surprise, wasn’t it?" She asked with a laugh, and Stahl simply held his hands behind his head before shrugging, "Kind of, but mostly, it was just a lot of fun." He responded, before Evalia nodded her head.

"Definitely! I didn’t know you could do that kind of stuff!" Evalia exclaimed, before Stahl just grinned.

"Yeah, telling the girl you’re going on a date with later in the day that you spent three years learning trick magic is usually not that good of an idea, believe it or not."

"Huh, weird, I don’t get that at all..." She responded with a laugh, before scratching her cheek. "Although it’s a lot less fun if you know the tricks behind it... Like letting the candy you put back into your hat slide down the back of your shirt, or the thing with only making it look like the card was put in the center, and then pulling it out of the pile again and switching it out with a random card..." Evalia muttered quietly, before remembering something she herself was curious about.

"But how did you know the kid was going to choose Cherry flavor for the candy?" She asked, and Stahl just grinned at her. "Luck. It’s the most popular flavor at the shop we bought them at. If he had chosen something else, I’d have done a different trick with the flavors I had in my pocket and then went around to the other kids to ask for their preferences." Stahl explained, so Evalia nodded her head slowly.

"Huh... Neat..."

"Neat, indeed! Now, let’s not think about that! I managed to rank up all the skills we went into town for up to 1, except Trading, but I’ll figure that out when Komer’s back later. When we’re back on the ship I’ll figure things out with some more crafting skills before Gramps comes back, then ask for his opinion about other skills I should get. I feel like out of the Originals, he’s the one that comes closest to a ’Jack of all Trades’, so he might have some good ideas. But until then..." Stahl said with a smile and looked to the side at Evalia, grabbing her hand gently.

"We’ve got some other stuff to do."

---

"And then, my roommate actually went across the hallway and nearly beat up our dorm neightbors." Evalia laughed quietly before she continued eating her food.

It was now the evening, and after having a fun day strolling through town and shopping for random souvenirs or just sight-seeing, Stahl and Evalia made their way to a pretty High-Class restaurant, which they for some reason managed to get a table reservation for quite easily earlier in the day when they went to look for places to have their date. And now, as the two of them were sitting at a pretty quiet corner of the restaurant which was luckily quite cut-off from the rest of the restaurant and as such didn’t have to fear being seen by other players, Evalia and Stahl were using this chance to talk about some fun stories.

"Your roommate seems pretty hot-headed..." Stahl responded with a wry smile and a light chuckle, and Evalia nodded her head. "She was, yeah, but she was really cool anyway! She didn’t even seem to care about who I am, and just treated me like any other bitch out there, and I was really glad for that." Evalia explained, so Stahl couldn’t really say anything bad against her. "I get that. Well, I don’t really get that, I’m only well-known in my high-school... I do hope my roommate in college is going to be chill though." Stahl admitted, and Evalia shrugged.

"I’m sure they’ll be fine. If you can’t deal with them, you can always complain and request a change, or just come play the game and chill with me to cool off." Evalia suggested, before Stahl nodded his head and smiled.

"Sounds absolutely lovely." He responded as he smiled back to Evalia across the table, before looking to the side, like many other times during the past few hours. And now, Evalia finally asked him what was up with that.

"Is there a mirror somewhere you’re looking at yourself through, or what the hell are you doing?" She asked with a laugh, before Stahl looked back at her with a wry smile.

"Sorry, I should be paying attention to you, but... I got this notification here, and it says that I’m ’Getting closer to one of the Two Paths’, and all I can think of with that is-" He started to explained, before Evalia looked at him in surprise.

"Eisen’s Demon title?" The artist asked and Stahl simply nodded his head.

"Yeah, but from the explanations that we were told, Demons are supposed to be ’Unique Beings’, and most of the time it’s that way outwardly. But all I did was perform in front of a bunch of people, and I was dressed up like a goof, but it was pretty obvious that I’m a Human, so I don’t really get it."

"I mean, maybe... that kind of Trick Magic isn’t really a thing here?" She asked, and Stahl lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "What do you mean, Magic is an every day thing... The lights here are just a type of magic, probably through enchantments, but it’s still a magic."

"Yes, but what you did wasn’t ’Magic’. There was no mana involved in the slightest except for the end where you made the flowers grow, was there? And because everybody can use mana, with exceptions like Brody, it’s natural to use Mana or Magic for that kind of performance. But you didn’t, and I’m sure that at least a few of the people there noticed that. Maybe that’s why it’s a start toward getting a Demon title?" Evalia suggested, and Stahl slowly nodded his head.

"I guess so... I mean, maybe I can figure out a way to turn myself into something different with my element as well. I mean, you can do that, right, Evalia?" Stahl asked, and the young artist scratched her cheek with a wry smile.

"I mean, I guess so... Although it feels weird to be able to become a demon that easily. I mean, when the first ’Artificial’ becomes a Demon after Eisen and tells people how to get there, I’m sure there’s going to be a bunch of players deliberately trying to become Demons. So maybe it would be a good idea to try and get it out of the way before that happens." Evalia muttered and Stahl nodded his head.

"Seems like a good idea. Especially when people figure out that my Gramps is one... There’s tons of people on forums trying to pick everything apart, and now that they have new knowledge via the Streamers, there are already some people wanting to figure out how exactly Gramps could turn into that figure." Stahl explained, before leaning back in the chair and shrugging.

"Anyway, sorry for staring at the notification all the time. I’m all yours now." The young man said before waving the notification away and looking back at the woman on the other side of the table.

"Good!" Evalia replied and smiled brightly, before the two of them continued eating and talking about different things, and at the end of the Dinner, Stahl swiftly payed for everything and the two of them made their way out of the restaurant, although Evalia was planning on putting her mask and cloak back on.

"No no, you’re not doing that. We’re going back to the ship without that stuff on." Stahl exclaimed, before Evalia looked at him with a frown. "There’s still lots of ’Artificials’ around, you know..? Should I change our appearance again or something?" She asked, but Stahl shook his head.

"Nope, I have a way better idea, so come with me." Stahl suggested as he held out his hand toward Evalia, who grabbed it with a loud sigh, as Stahl lead her not toward the Harbor, but surprisingly to nearest gate leading outside the town.

"And what exactly are we doing out here now?" Evalia asked confused, before Stahl just smiled at her. "Well, we’re at a Harbor-Town, and I heard a little rumor about a nice beach. So I thought we’d use this chance to finish the evening off in the most cliché way ever and go for a walk on that beach." Stahl said with a smile, before Evalia looked at him with a wry smile.

"Really? You know that the beach is annoying as hell, right? And there might be monsters around as well, so..."

"Just don’t worry about that. I’m sure we can deal with a few random monsters." Stahl answered with a wink, before continuing to lead Evalia along the different roads directly outside of town toward the beach, where the two of them went for exactly the kind of cliché walk that Stahl was talking about before.

They took their shoes off, went through the wet sand with the sun just breaking through the surface of the ocean at their side, while they continued talking about different random things.

And then, at the end, just before the last light of the day disappeared, the two of them kissed for the first time.