"You look nice," I said; she has her signature pink hair cut to her shoulder and a white spaghetti dress that looked beautiful on her. 

"You are not bad yourself," she replied, and little awkward silence filled the table.

"So, how have you been?" She asked after a minute of silence, "Good," I replied in one word as no other word came into my mouth.

I wanted to talk, but no word is coming out of my mouth; there is not just awkwardness but also a decade of distance, which is hard to overcome in just a few minutes.

"I have read your information, the things you accomplished are really amazing, and you did that without getting any help from your mother," She said. To that, I smiled; she is one of the few people who knew about my mother not teaching me anything about fighting.

Most people reason all my accomplishments before joining the Academy to my mother. Annabel Charleston was quite famous before that accident of the two and half decade before.

The Championship had laid bare my personal life in front of everyone, and seeing who my mother is; they thought much of what I had accomplished is due to her, which is true in one perspective but on the other.

My mother did not teach me anything related to fighting, but the value she taught me made me the person I am today, which is far greater than anything battle-related she would have taught me.

"Well, my life is quite opened for everyone to see, but yours is like a closed book; even will the money we offered, we could get more than snippets about you," I said to her, hearing that a smile appeared on her face.

"There is no much about me; after we left you, mother had accepted the offer from the Pyramid, and I has been mostly training in their facilities, and ruin's since then," she said.

"They must be quite amazing to give you such strength," I said and bringing out the real smile on her face.

"You are the one to talk; you have survived the 'I' Ruin for a whole cycle, Ive read about it Pyramid's Archive know how dangerous it is," "Nobody had survived there in the past three thousand years, except for you," she said while eyeing intensely.

I wanted to say something light about my experience there, but I found my tongue stuck. What I had experienced there is nothing less than hell there, and my heart would not let me make a light out of it.

The appearance of the waiter saved me from the answer. It took few minutes for us to choose what we wanted; the list was too long and very expensive, really expensive, but I could afford it; the Academy will pay for all my expenses.

"Your father is quite an illusionist; I had nightmares about it for quite a while," I said as I  waiter left. First, Clair did not understand, but soon she did, and the expression on her face changed greatly.

"I am sorry for my father; he sometimes tends to go extreme," she apologized for her father.

"You know, I had no idea about the real strength of my parents; I used to think they are just regular bank workers," "When I entered the central continent and come to know the real strength of my parents, it was quite a shock," She said.

"Really?" I asked back, though I had expected her not to know everything about her parents; we were quite close as children, and children have a hard time keeping secrets, especially from their good friends.

Its quite surprise me that she did not have any idea about her parent's real powers or the place they are from.

"What do you expect my parents to tell me everything? My parents were in quite a dive when they had accepted your mother's offers; it is not only your mother who was hiding from the Central Continent," Clair said back.

She is right; my mother had told me her parents were hiding from something big when she had made a request to seal the poison inside me. I had asked a teacher about it, but she did not tell me anything; she just said it is fixed since they accepted the job from the Pyramid.

Soon, the waiter came back, bringing the food, and it smells heavenly, a level above my mind. Seeing the food, we both stopped talking and took a bite of our food.

"Ummm!"

A sound couldn't help but escape from my mouth, its really good; I will have to reach the four-hundredth recipe to reach this level; only professor and teacher had reached that level.

Teacher surpassed the five hundredth recipe two days ago; she had told me herself two days ago. The reciepes above five-hundredths are on a completely different level; she told me recipes till Five-Hundredths are most basic ones, the real challenge start when one reached above five hundredths.

She described the process 501st recipe, and I got completely by just hearing the description; the level of recipes is far above mine; it requires a very high level of Physical, Soul, and Energy control, and not everyone could cook it.

The below five hundred recipes could be learned by anyone as long as one is above Knight, but those five-hundredths above require one to be Emperor. Teacher said I have enough soul power to match the Emperors, so I should be able to learn them while I am a king.

I don't think so I would be able to learn them while I am a King. I would need a year or more to reach the Five hundredth recipe; by that time, I will already be an Emperor if everything goes right.

"Micheal, you did not tell me about anything yourself, and yes, I had read your info, but I like to hear from you," she asked.

I wanted to say something noncommital, my life had not been much interesting, though I had my fair share of adventures, who hasn't? But seeing the genuine expression on her face, I begin to talk about my life since she had left.