Yui barely had time to concentrate on the food, which was excellent, let alone the other customers eating a table or two away.

Half of her attention was on the dishes and the cutlery, while the other was on Ryoma's hand, which was holding her own for quite some time now. None of them wanted to let go and concentrate on their food completely, which made it a bit harder than she would have expected.

"Uh, perhaps we should eat first and then … " she stopped her sentence mid-way, not exactly sure what they should be doing afterwards. Holding hands again? Cuddle? More than that?

'No, no no, let's go about these things slowly!' Yui told herself but couldn't hide a blush.

A lot more experienced than Yui, Ryoma just laughed and slowly released her hand.

"Yes, let's eat the food first, we have all the evening and night for other things."

They returned their attention to the food for some time, before picking up the conversation again.

"What do you want to do with your life Yui?" Ryoma asked a question Yui had a hard time answering right away.

"I'm not sure. I guess having a family is nice."

"A family?" Ryoma got curious now. Did this family include him? He was just a commoner, or at least had been before Yui gave him various titles.

"Yes, you and Miyuki and Tora. I never had any family before."

"Neither Miyuki nor I really provide you with any benefits. You could easily marry some prince of a powerful nation." Ryoma pointed out carefully.

"Why would I want that? I'd rather stay with you and Miyuki and then the story ends with 'they lived happily ever after' , you know."

"They lived happily ever after? I've never heard of this phrase, but it sounds rather nice." Ryoma was amused by this simple way of looking at things.

"I'm just worried that you might change your mind and regret your decision later on."

"Don't be silly, I will not change my mind about this." Yui took the glass of wine in her hand before putting it back down again after she figured out that hiding behind a glass was rather pointless.

"What about yourself? You've had a wife and …"

"Shh, that's over. There is this lovely girl here now who for whatever reason seems to like me. How could I still hold on to the past like this. I loved my wife, but this does not mean that I will hold back loving you just as much."

"You love me?" Yui asked, more to confirm his words once more rather than really questioning him.

"How could I not?"

"Would you marry me?" she suddenly asked while watching his expression change from surprise, to happiness.

Ryoma had a hard time following their conversation. It was rather uncommon for a marriage to be decided in such a strange way, especially as she was the one bringing it up, but he was happy, nonetheless.

"Yes." His answer seemed simple, but it made Yui's smile all the more brilliant.

"Well, we don't need to have the wedding right away." she mumbled after a moment, still feeling rather young and having a hard time thinking about marriage at her age.

"Whatever you like. Does that mean I can call you fiancé now?" he asked with a mischievous grin.

'Where did he get that attitude from? Tora is ruining all his good morals!'

"Mhm, you can. Miyuki calls me mommy already so there should not be any changes there."

For the first time since coming to the restaurant, Yui felt uncomfortable and noticed all the people glancing at them. One of the girls seemed to be outright staring at them, barely even touching her food, as if she was watching some show.

"Let's go home." She whispered to him and he just nodded.

When Harue noticed that the two had paid for their meal and wanted to leave she quickly turned to them.

"Miss how did you like the food?"

Everyone else on their table wanted to hide in embarrassment. How could their princess just call out to these strangers in such a way?

Yui did not think too much of it though.

"It was really good. Better than anything I could cook at home. Though I really miss good cake."

"You cook? What's cake like?"

Yui looked at the young woman, who seemed to be about the same age as herself quite surprised about being caught up in a conversation, just when they wanted to leave the restaurant.

"I do cook yes, I might make some cake at some point too. It's a sweet pastry usually made with a lot of sugar or chocolate or cream."

How did one describe cake? Wikipedia probably had some nice description, but she had no clue what it might be like. Sweet pastry was all that she could really think of. After all, there were so many types of cakes.

"That sounds delicious. May I know who you are and where you come from? This cake doesn't sound like something that I have ever seen around here."

Yui was both surprised by the blunt and energetic young woman as well as quite amused. In a way she seemed to Yui like a puppy wanting to get attention, making her relax somewhat in the otherwise high-class atmosphere of the restaurant she wasn't really comfortable with.

"I'm from an island quite far away where cake is quite common. If you stop by the Earthly Treasures Pavilion after the shop closes in the evening, I can show you how to make cake. Just ask for Yui."

Giving a little wave of her hand, Ryoma and Yui left the restaurant, leaving a smirking Harue behind.

"I'm totally going to learn how to make cake!" she announced to her friends and attendants, making all of them groan.

"Your highness, you can't. Cooking isn't something someone of high birth like yourself should do." One of them argued.

"But, she's doing some cooking too! Do you want to tell me that something an empress would teach me can be low class?"

While the attendants were clamoring about proper etiquette, Tsuchiya Yumine had a thoughtful look on her face.

"Your highness, you mean this was the shop girl?"

Harue just nodded. "I might not be the best when it comes to behaving like a proper princess, but I'm not dumb. There is just one Earthly Treasures Pavilion and from the looks of it, she's exactly the owner of this shop."

"Which would also make her the sovereign of their territory." Yumine now understood the remark about an empress.

As weird as it was, it seemed like their princess would yet again cause her family's reputation to drop like a free-falling stone. She could already imagine the rumors and uproar when it became public that her highness princess Harue would be cooking, making a foreign sweet pastry called cake.

"I need some vacation time." Yumine mumbled, already dreading the next few days.

-

When Yui and Ryoma arrived back at the pavilion, it was unusually quiet. Rinomi and Tora were obviously leaving them to their own devices and Miyuki was already sleeping.

"Why don't you stay in my room for the night?" Ryoma asked with a smirk, not expecting a positive answer, but having fun asking anyways.

"Sure, but no funny things." Yui agreed right away, blushed and then explained her boundaries some more.

"We can read a book or something and cuddle."

He looked at her kimono and she quickly understood the meaning.

"We can change into our pajamas first."

"Pawhat?" Ryoma had never heard of something like pajamas.

"Uh, I guess you can just keep your underwear on. I go grab my pajamas, that’s some sort of nightwear."

"Alright. I will wait for you then."

When Yui came back from her room, having changed into a rather fluffy set of red and black Earthly Treasures Pavilion pajamas, she did her best to slip under the blanket of the bed quickly, not looking at Ryoma directly. As much as she liked him, it was still rather embarassing and new.

He joined her a bit later, still not sure what she would include with 'cuddle' but decided to just lightly embrace her and watching her read the book.

"Usually I read a story to Miyuki, today I read a story to you."

"As long as I can hold you, I won't argue, no matter how bad the book is."

"It's not that bad. It reminds me of those classics back home. They a were also written in such a weird way."

"Oh? What was it like there?" As Yui had never mentioned where exactly she came from, Ryoma was curious.

"Well, you see, I come from a different world."

Yui waited for some big reaction, like shock or outrage or confusion, but Ryoma didn't even move or let go of her.

"Tora brought me here when I became the master of the Earthly Treasures Pavilion. It is not just a simple shop, but a powerful spirit artefact."

"I guess that makes sense." He finally replied, taking all of this much better than she did in the beginning.

In the end, ascending to another realm, or moving to a different dimension for storage and various other purposes was all too common in their world. Having Yui tell him that he came from a different world with the help of a powerful artefact was not very hard to believe. At least it did not bother him.

"I already mentioned that Tora is not really my sister. She is the artefact spirit of the pavilion."

"This would explain her experience and power. A strong artefact spirit would know of many things that would usually be limited to the divine realm"

"My homeworld is very technologically advanced, but as the spirit energy is too thin there, there are no cultivators or spirit beasts. There are machines that help humans to fly in the sky, carriages that drive without horses on their own and many other things."

Yui talked quite a bit about her world, trying to explain it in a way that he would be able to understand what it might be like.

"Why would you leave such a place where even commoners had such high-quality food and living arrangements and come to a simple world like ours?"

"I'm not sure. I guess I was just lonely."

Her sad voice made him embrace her even more.

"Don't worry, I'm happy that you're here now. I will not let you become lonely ever again."

Yui happily snuggled up to him, the book already forgotten.

"Say, why did you offer to teach the princess how to make this cake?"

"The princess? Oh so that's the princess. Well she seemed nice and why would I not teach her."

Yui was only half aware of their conversation now, she seemed drowsy and ready to fall asleep any moment.

"I see."

Not wanting to disturb this quiet moment any further, Ryoma stopped his questions. He didn't explain to Yui that it was rather strange for a noble born to cook, he just silently held her in his arms until she was fast asleep not much later.