The group of 15 knights entered the restaurant located at the boundary of the marketplace of the Fang faction.
“Welcome!” One of the waitresses shouted as she ran towards them.
Usually, this restaurant was always filled with people, however, it’s already past noon, so the number of customers apparently decreased. There were still a lot of people but not as many at its peak.
“Let me guide you to your table.” The blonde cat girl said with a smile on her face while guiding the group towards the huge table at the edge of the restaurant.
“Thanks,” Captain Callan responded and followed her. “Of all the things inside this town, this is one of the few things that haven’t changed yet.”
As they reached the huge table where the cat girl waitress guided them, she immediately gave them the menu and stood behind them while waiting for their orders. Captain Callan and the rest of them started to give their orders, after some time, the waitress left to prepare their food.
All of the knights were sitting together at one long table that could fit even 20 people in it.
While waiting, the eyes of the knights wandered around the restaurant. From its cream-colored smooth cemented wall, gray floor, the smooth brown-red wooden chair and tables scattered around, and the ethnically diverse customers currently eating inside the restaurant.
“I’ve already been here for almost a day but I still can’t believe it. Every race really is living together in this place. Just like what I heard about the stories about this place.” One of the knights commented.
Captain Callan exhaled. “Believe me, you still haven’t seen half of it. This place can be considered as a nation due to its size and the number of people living in this place. The only reason that this place is not called as such is because there’s no public declaration of it yet, however, if their ruler decided to, it will.” He grabbed the wooden cup lying on the table and poured it full of water. “However, it will come with a price, a country with diverse races living in it would cause a huge commotion in this world. I don’t think both the entirety of humans and the demi-humans community would take it as a good thing. Maybe that’s the reason why they’re still not declaring it, despite passing all the conditions it needs to be an official nation.”
The food arrived and they started to eat while chatting with each other.
However, while they were occupied with their food, the double wooden doors of the restaurant opened again.
“Welcome!” The waitress greeted the newly arrived customer.
“Ah! I’m beat up! What food do you have today?”
“We have your favorite beef stew.”
“Really? That’s nice, that’s nice.” Then, what came next was a light-hearted chuckle.
“Let me guide you to your spot.” The voice of the waitress was full of delight.
“No, don’t bother, I’ve come here to meet someone- Oh, here they are.”
The next thing they heard was the footsteps walking towards them. And a gentle voice spoke behind Captain Callan.
“You are Captain Callan, right?”
For a few seconds, Captain Callan didn’t talk and just looked at his food with his enlarged eyes.
“How rude of me, I should know better about human etiquette. By the way, I am Casimir Kismet, nice meeting you, guys. I heard you want to talk to me. So I came here. I hope you won’t mind if I sit here with you, Captain Callan of Inizio kingdom.”
As if something pushed his button, Captain Callan cleared his throat and nodded but didn’t even attempt to look up. “We don’t mind.” He continued to try to eat and act normally.
“Here’s your food, Lord Casimir.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“We didn’t expect the ruler of this town himself would personally come for us in such a casual manner.”
“Yeah, I’m a little bit busy right now, but I managed to make some time for you.”
Captain Callan’s eyes traveled towards the hand of the person he’s talking to and saw him just casually eating.
“So, what do you want to talk about, Captain?”
“About the released slaves, are you the who released them?”
Casimir chuckled. “Straight to the point, that’s nice. Yes, I did. And I know that the kingdom of Inizio already knows about it. Tanya told me about your kingdom. So, I assume, your real question would be ‘why did I release them’, am I right, Captain?”
Captain Callan finally raised his head, but before he pointed his eyes towards Casimir, what he saw first was the terrified eyes of his comrades while looking at the person he was talking to. Their expression was full of terror with their eyes wide opened and their hands shivering in great fear.
“To tell you the truth, Captain, there is no particular reason, I just felt like it.”
Upon hearing those words, he finally faced the current ruler of the town of Agrona. And the first thing he noticed was the pair of horns in his head. 2 jet black crystallized horns with the shape of the tips of an upside-down crescent moon, just like what the descriptions of every story about it told.
By just seeing it, Captain Callan instantly froze in his position with his wide opened eyes, at the same time, both of his arms fell to the table due to great surprise.
Casimir was expressing a gentle smile on his face, but his eyes were telling the opposite. As if those violent eyes were telling him a grave warning.
Death and destruction, that was what Captain Callan could see from his pair of horrifying red eyes.
“Tanya said that you people are trustworthy enough and you have a great king. I hope this town and your kingdom’s relationship stayed the same even under my administration.” Casimir declared, ignoring the bizarre reaction of the people with him eating at the table. “I hope I can count on you.”
Captain Callan tried to use his Mana perception to analyze him, but his Mana perception couldn’t see a thing. The person he was staring at didn’t have any mana manifestation on him.
However, the most terrifying part is, Captain Callan could feel the intense power lurking around Casimir even without seeing it. He couldn’t see it, but he could clearly feel it, his instinct was telling him everything he needed to know.
The most dangerous person inside the town of Agrona.
The incarnation of nightmare itself.
A Meruem.
