"You don"t have to worry about that; no woman should have to suffer what you just went through," said Maria, her words caused the woman to smile."Even if you say that, I still feel that I must compensate you somehow. Oh, how"s this? I heard news of this popular bakery shop that just opened up in town. How about I treat you to some delicious desserts?" offered the woman. Maria"s ears perked up once she realized both her and this woman were heading towards the same place.
"We were just heading there. How about we go together, Ms...?"
"You can just call me Cordelia."
"Okay, Cordelia!"
"Now..." Cordelia hooked arms with Maria, shooting the younger girl a charming smile. "How about we name all our favorite desserts? I am a big fan of soufflés. How about you?" From afar, both Shirone and Kuroka watched their ojou-sama happily chatter with the beautiful and mysterious woman.
Kuroka regarded Cordelia with a contemplative gaze as her mind flashed back to that large hostile presence she sensed seconds before she interfered. "There is something about that woman that is not normal."
"I sense the same thing, but as long as she proves to not be a threat to ojou-sama, we will not interfere. But just in case, we should keep an eye on her," said Shirone.
The group continued towards the destination and before long they were standing in front of this extremely adorable dessert shop called Bonbons Ange. The interior was very creative with every piece of furniture made to resemble some type of dessert. There was a macaron chandelier and a display case that resembled a five-tier cake filled with an a.s.sortment of pet.i.t fours, soft flaky and b.u.t.tery croissants, cream-filled iced éclairs, and of course Maria"s favorite dessert, macarons!
Those were just some of the desserts the shop offered. "Ojou, look, they do sell religieuses!" exclaimed Kuroka, pointing towards the case of religieuse desserts.
"Should I order some to go along with anything else that you may like?" Shirone asked though Maria was too busy awing and drooling over all the cases of desserts to answer. Seeing her actions, a voice giggled.
"Maa, she truly is adorable." The voice who said this belonged to none other than Cordelia. When it was their turn, both Maria and Cordelia made their order to the person standing behind the counter. They packed the two orders in this cute pastel pink box packaging, which they handed over right after the order was paid for by Cordelia.
"This is me showing my thanks for you coming to my rescue, little rabbit," Cordelia said to Maria once they exited out Bonbons Ange.
"You really didn"t have to do that, but thank you anyway. I"m glad that I got to meet you." Maria expressed her sincerity, only to be caught off guard when she was embraced in a tight hug.
"Aww, you"re such an adorable little rabbit~!"
"Ah, she reminds me a little of okasama." Rather Maria was talking about the way Cordelia was affectionately hugging her or the woman buxom breast remained unannounced. While Cordelia was hugging Maria in the middle of the street, a woman searching for someone or something caught sight of the pale blonde woman and made her way towards the two as her eyes brightened.
"So this is where you"ve been. I"ve looked everywhere for you." Maria"s face was being smothered, not allowing her to see the face of this new stranger. Eventually, she was no longer inhaling Cordelia"s flowery scent perfume as the woman had instantly let her go, excitedly rushing over to the other woman.
"Darling~!"
Cordelia rushed forward, a love-struck look in her eyes, seconds later clutching a shorter woman"s arms to her chest. Maria couldn"t help but notice the embarra.s.sing light dusting of pink that covered the tan woman"s cheeks. She had long symmetrical black and white hair with many tiny bells and Maria noticed the two gun holsters attached to her waist.
"Darling, you would never believe what happened to me. I was on my way to Bonbons Ange, you know that cute little bakery shop I was telling you about earlier. When all of sudden this sleazy drunk started hara.s.sing me out of nowhere. It was so scary until little rabbit here ordered her cute maid to step in and save me. She"s my little hero~!" Cordelia retold the whole scenario that happened earlier today.
"You were scared, huh?" Cordelia"s "darling" shot the taller blonde a discreet look that was returned with an innocent pout. Seeing such an expression, the woman shook her head and introduced herself to Maria.
"Thanks for saving this drama queen over here. The name"s Paige."
"I"m Maria~!"
"Though I like calling her little rabbit!" piped in Cordelia.
"She does remind me of a rabbit. We best meet up with the others; I just got my hands on a quest offering a hefty reward. The rest of the party are waiting for us at Bay Tavern," urgently addressed Paige. Upon hearing the words "quest" and "rewards," Maria couldn"t help but ask,
"Wait... Are you two adventurers?"
"Yep! I"m the leader of the adventurer party, Outlaws." Paige introduced herself.
"Wow, a real adventure!" Maria had always heard of them of many fantasy genre anime she had read back in her old, but this was her first seeing on in the flesh.
Cordelia and Paige exchanged a few more words with Maria before both became aware of the time and made a hasty exit, though not before addressing Maria.
"It was nice meeting Cordelia"s savior. I hope we can meet again!" said Paige.
"See ya, little rabbit~!" Cordelia blew her a kiss and winked as Maria waved them good-bye, watching as they disappeared down the streets.
"It seems like I made two new friends today. Today was nice~! Now let"s head back so I can try out these religieuses." Maria ran off ahead with Kuroka and Shirone distressingly yelling out to her as they ran to catch up.
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"This Paige seems really interesting. I think I have heard that name somewhere before... Hmm on well! Hey, Maria wants to hear how your mother"s mom first met you dad?" Once back at the manor, Maria sat next to her mother, sharing her dessert as they talked. Spending some quality mother and daughter time together.
"Sure!"
"Yay! You see unlike your father, I did not attend the academy. I was home-schooled by teachers sent to my home and was trained by your grandpa. When I was still training, your grandpa sent me out on a mission. A mission I was determined to succeed if a certain smarta.s.s hadn"t gotten in my way back then. Now I love your Papa, but when we first met, I thought of him as nothing more than an arrogant smarta.s.s that I despised."
Maria was shocked by her mother"s blunt confession, unable to believe that there was actually a time where the sweet overly affectionate woman felt such contempt for her father. Especially with the way those two were always acting so lovey-dovey with each other by constantly showering each other with affection in their own individual ways.
"Your father attending the academy when we first met, and students from the academy tend to not leave behind the best of impressions. Then again what do you expect from a bunch of rich spoiled brats, not that my adorable Micheal and Maira are anything like that." Maria sweatdropped at the way her mother proudly defended her children.
"Mom, that"s favoritism."
"You see, while the academy doles out missions to their students, none of them are life-threatening. The academy is filled with children from n.o.ble cla.s.s families who have no problem raining down h.e.l.l if their child"s life is in danger." This was something Maria could understand, having witnessed the behavior behind the children at the academy and the majority were spoiled rotten.
"Only guilds receive a highly dangerous request. Now don"t get me wrong, no matter how much I dislike the thought, there will be times when you will come back from a mission injured but never will it be life-threatening. The academy has a last resort item, issued out to students once they enter the Middle School Division, stopping this from happening."
Listening to her mother, Maria was reminded of the words her grandfather concerning the students only taking mission from wealthy and not the poor. She realized how the academy coddle the students, their enrollment as Diamon Academy student was nothing more but a trophy with no real achievement behind it.
"Oh, look at the time! Time for someone to get to bed as me and you are going on a shopping spree tomorrow, but not before getting brunch and-Oh! Maybe we can even get mani-padi"s!"
Listening to her mother list out all the plans she had in store for them tomorrow, Maria knew that tomorrow was going to be a long day.