The crowd behind me cheered as I opened the double doors of the newly opened restaurant. I gave them a hand gesture to come inside.
“Enjoy your meal,” I announced.
With excitement in their eyes, the people gathered in front of the new restaurant and walked inside to try the food inside. But the people tagged along with me were already munching something.
Misha ran towards me and handed me grilled boar meat in a stick that I immediately accepted. However, what took my attention was what Leo and Mehrad were eating. I could see the huge eyeballs in the sticks they’re munching on with smiles on their faces.
Don’t tell me that’s the grilled boar eyes Karoon was referring to?
“Do you like some, boss? I will buy you one.” Leo said while happily eating the eyeballs on the stick he’s holding.
I shook my head. “No, I’m good.”
“How many times do I need to tell you, I don’t want it.”
“Ehh?”
Tanya exhaled as she dodged the stick of boar eyeballs Karoon gave her. “No is a no, Karoon.”
Karoon’s mouth pouted as she stared at the 2 sticks in her hands. “Fine then, I’ll just eat these myself.”
Mehrad approached me. “This is the last one inside the vicinity of the Fang faction today. The next one will be at the Marionette faction.”
“Yes, are you coming with us?”
“I don’t have many things that I need to do, so I guess I’ll go.”
“I see. By the way, we have a training session tomorrow, right?”
“If you are free, then we have.”
“It’s already scheduled, so I’m free.”
He nodded. “I see, let’s meet at the same place and time tomorrow.”
“Big bro Casimir, eat your food, it’s delicious.”
I looked down at Misha and found her looking up at me. There’s some sauce on her face. I brought out the handkerchief from my back pocket and squatted in front of her.
“Is it delicious?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I rubbed off the sauce on her cheeks and after all the sauce was gone. I took a bite from the barbecue stick on my hand.
The sauce was sweet and it’s perfect for the slightly hard boar meat.
I chuckled. “You are right, it is.”
I stood up and held her hand. As I stared at Mehrad, he’s staring at me with a smile on his face.
We remained standing until we finished our food and after we were done, I faced Mehrad.
“Should we go to the next location now?”
“Let’s go then.”
As I opened the carriage, what greeted me was the sour face of Tanya while trying to swallow one of the boar eyeballs in the stick she’s holding. On the other hand, Karoon was no longer holding any stick in her hand. Tanya was the only one still eating inside.
“How was it?”
“It’s fine. Better than I expected.”
“Really? Your face says the opposite.”
She handed the stick near my face. “Oh well, perhaps, you want to have a taste of it?”
I stared at the stick, there was still 1 eyeball in it and every stick had 3. However, before I could react, she immediately took it back.
“On second thought, I don’t want to share it with you.”
I chuckled. “Doesn’t the sauce make the floor of your elegant carriage dirty?”
“I would rather have my floor stained than to let everyone see me eating this.”
Heh.
“Leo, I will be the one next to the window this time.” Mehrad declared as he walked inside the carriage.
“Ha?”
“You had your turn earlier, it’s my turn now.”
“What a pain.” Leo moved in the middle of the seat to give way to Mehrad.
Following her was Misha who went back to her seat next to the window. The moment Tanya finished her food, I immediately hopped in and sat in my seat.
“Leo, don’t move too much, your body is so hard, I’m getting crushed,” Karoon complained.
“Ha? When it’s Mehrad who’s crushing you flat it’s alright, but when it’s me it’s not? Aren’t you a little bit biased?”
“Mehrad doesn’t have a boulder for a body.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at them. I didn’t know that the 3 of them were this close. Or maybe, I just didn’t notice it.
We journeyed towards the marketplace of the Marionette faction, and as we arrived, Leal greeted us as we walked down the carriage.
His eyes slowly narrowed the moment he saw how many people were fitting themselves inside the carriage.
“Leal,” I said.
His eyes dwelled on the people behind me. “How’s your trip?” He asked me, but his eyes were on the other things.
“I think my body got crushed, you are heavy, Leo.”
“You are just fragile, that’s what happens when you don’t have any muscle in you.”
“Don’t worry, I will have those muscles, just wait for it, you will see.”
“Dream on, hyper girl.”
“Greetings, Lord Casimir!” All the people in front of the establishment bowed their heads.
I nodded at them and stared at the new establishment in front of me.
This time, it’s a metalwork facility focusing on steel crafts, mainly building materials like steel bars and steel wires. Because we’re planning to open more mining areas, I thought another metalwork establishment would be very handy because in this world, creating even a single piece of steel bar would take a lot longer since all the operations here were manual. There’s no machine here, just hammers and powerful arms.
The ceremony occurred as I led the opening of the new establishment. Everyone showed their delightful smiles as they walked inside the building and checked out what was inside. I mean, all the things inside were a bunch of blacksmith’s stations.
As the program ended, everyone started to say their goodbyes.
After all, all of them had things that they needed to do. Especially Leal, who was currently working on the request I made him do.
But, the sun was still up, I still had some spare time for the day.
“Karoon.”
Karoon who’s about to hop on the carriage immediately looked back at me. “Yes, Mister Casimir?”
“Wanna go somewhere? I’ll treat you to some food shops around here.”
A huge smile emerged on her face as she skipped towards me and gently tapped my arm. “Ehh? Are you asking me out?”
I smiled. “Yeah, sort of, but Misha is coming with us. Are you okay with it?”
“Of course.” She sat in front of Misha who was standing beside me. “We’re going out! Do you like the sound of it, Misha?”
“Just don’t get your hopes up though. We’re just going to eat some street food and walk around the area.”
She jumped out and faced me with an unfading smile on her face. “I know a lot of beautiful places with good food around here. I will tour you around!”
“Oh, nice, you just saved me the trouble. Let’s go to those places then.”
I shifted my gaze to the carriage and found Tanya expressing a subtle smile on her face.
“Do you wanna come?”
She shook her head. “No, enjoy yourselves. I’ll just send a carriage to pick you up after.”
“Do you hear that, Tan-Tan? Mister Casimir asked me out!”
“Yes, I do. Just go home before sundown.”
“Yes, we will,” Karoon replied.
It’s just a little thing. I just want to thank her for her hard work.
