“Alright!” The waiter was prompt to reply. “We have breakfast sets on this page, both sweet and savory. The first ones over here come with juice and the ones on this other page have both juice and a coffee. But one of our more popular options is the club sandwich set.” As he spoke, his finger pointed out to the different parts of the page. The last part had brightly colored letters. “I’d suggest a set with ciabatta rolls, those are super soft. Also, there’s a kids’ menu. Of course, you might rather order everything separately, in which case…” The page was flipped back.
“There’s fresh fruit smoothies that are pretty good and also the rest of the hot drinks as you can see here. And, other kinds of sides that aren’t included in the promotional sets, like mozzarella chicken sandwich or vegan double deckers.”
No mention of pastries, huh. The waiter seems to be fixated on breakfast. But there’s still a few pages left to explore of the menu.
Meanwhile, Caster had rested his head on his forearms again, silently enjoying the yummy scent of baked goods.

Caster was daydreaming of the taste of bread in his mouth. However, he walked all the way over to this place for the promise of soup, and the mention of that (along with Sunny's gaze) was enough to bring him back to attention.
Thankfully for the mage, the boy doesn't even think of saying something like "who" or "that's not my name". It's more like he ignored it.
"Mhm," he replied with a little nod. "Vegetable soup? Like you promised?"

"We have soups as well, on the page before the last," the waiter offers, not missing a beat. He's doing a wonderful job at not looking confused or weirded out. Or maybe he's just used to all kinds of customers on the daily and doesn't even bat an eye. "If you need an extra bowl for the kid we can provide that too."

“Bread... fresh from the oven and soft. Not all hard and without any taste. I like it when it’s not too salty, too.”
Meanwhile, the waiter had taken out a notepad to write down the order. “Everything is freshly prepared here on a daily basis,” he said, addressing Sunny even though the reply was to Caster’s statement. “May I take the menus, or will you want to keep looking them over for a bit?”
Upon hearing that, Caster placed a hand on top of the plastic-laminated page of the menu in front of him. “I want to see mine.”

The waiter shook his head and pocketed the notepad. "No problem. Just call if you need anything else." And just like that, he turned and left to where he came from.

Now that the order was done, Caster grabbed the menu with both hands and held it up at an angle in front of himself to get a better look at what was in it. The page showed little pictures of fruits, and he could see the image of glass cups with colorful drink inside. That much he could tell. Now, there were an awful lot of letters on the page, though with numbers as well.
The top, title letters were bigger, and he stared at them.
"J....U. Ju. -I-C-E... ju-i-cee. Juice."
Oh, so, fruit juice. It matched with the pictures. Caster licked his lips, unaware that he'd been sounding out his reading in a faint whisper. But there was more on the page.
"Sssssing. Sing...le...? G...l...a.... glass."
His index finger moved to underline the part he was looking at in full concentration.
"Or-a-n-- ang. ee. Orang...e."

“Ssss…t-r…a…..”
The letters trailed off into the air.
Even through concentration, Caster is too vividly aware of the stare. He returned it with wide, expressionless eyes. Then, a blink, and the eye contact was broken on his part, sight averted.
“I’m… not good at books,” he mumbled in a sorry tone, feeling a sudden need to explain. But he didn’t know what else to say.

The menu was raised up to partly cover the holder’s face. Self-consciousness was strange to him, yet the effect couldn't be ignored: he wanted to hide. Then he heard Sunny and it didn't feel as bad anymore. So he dared to continue despite not being asked.
“…The mages tried to teach me,” Caster said sincerely as a way of explanation, but the words were hard to make out because of how he blocked his mouth. “But there's no libraries in the forest, and books are hard, and... oh...” A little sigh of anguish escaped his lips.  “And spellbooks are worse.”
Caster let the menu rest on the table and covered his face with his hands.

Caster held a little opening between his fingers to see through with one eye. He could now get a plain view of Sunny’s face, though it didn’t last long as he stared down at the table soon after.
He listened, hands clasped in front of him. With his shoulders drawn in and head tilted down, the boy looked smaller than ever. But he nodded along while the other spoke.
“Encyclopedias…” he repeated, slowly enunciating each part of the longer word slowly. “Can you… show me one later? I like pictures.”
Then he shifted in his seat. "I don't want to see spellbooks again. I don't need them now. I don't think I ever did."

((How heavy is that backpack bro 💀))

At the mention of that, Caster raised his head and leaned forward to see what Sunny was looking for exactly. As long as it's not a spellbook--and it isn't, from what he's been told--it'll be fine.

Caster's eyes widened in silent wonder as the book was presented. Soon after, he reached out with both hands to hopefully retrieve the encyclopedia from Sunny and be able to look at it better.

Book acquired!
It's now time to read. Or, well, more like look at the pictures instead. Caster did stop to pretty much spell out the title just like he did with the menu, but he didn't waste time in trying to understand every single word in the first pages he delicately flipped. He stopped upon reaching the A category and ran his finger down to the text that labeled the plant in the image.
Really, he's more focused on the pictures than the text. Maybe that's to be expected.

Caster looked content while turning the pages. Each movement was very careful, as if he were handling the leaves of a newly grown sapling.
"Do you like these?"
The question came along with the book turned so that Sunny could see the page. Caster pointed to the image of a delicate flower of pale pink and yellow with spots on select petals.
Alstroemeria.
"I never saw them where I'm from. But they look so pretty."

"Red and yellow?"
Caster turned the book back towards himself to look at the image and imagine the flower in other colors.
"Oh... I think I see. Like bugs that look like part of plants. I like butterflies, but sometimes bees sleep inside the flowers."
He was about to flip the page again, but then stopped. "I want to show you one I like. Can you find, um," Caster paused while trying to call a word back to his mind. He pushed the book back towards Sunny. "They called it fireweed, I think...? It has pretty purple flowers. I'm bad at names too."

Caster stared at Sunny like he's hearing some kind of potion recipe.