-=Biff’s beef, Plush Pov=-

“Oh dear.” Said the receptionist’s brother while guiding us through the restaurant.

“Oh dear? Oh dear what?” Asks Shiona slightly nervously.

“Sorry to say fellas, but I don’t think we have any free tables left.” He responded sheepishly.

“Really?” I ask. “What about that table over there then?”

As I said that I pointed at a large square table, it was large enough for eight people yet there was only one occupied seat.

The occupied seat in question was being used by a woman with skin that had the same color as the inside of a tree, she also had long dark brown hair as well as a leather jacket and pants the same color as her hair.

“That’s a little problematic, you see she’s a huge benefactor of Biff’s beef, she brings us a ton of ingredients and in exchange we give her vip service.”

““...””

“... Also I think boss Biff has a soft spot for her…”

““...””

Shiona then crouches down to me and whispers:

“Hey, doesn’t she look kind of familiar?”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing, I just haven’t been able to understand why...”

“What about that spell you came up with yesterday? Maybe that’s show you something.”

“Alright, It’s worth a shot I suppose...”

I then create a fairly simple two circle spell in my hand, the first having the symbol for illusion magic, namely a vertical eye, and the second having the symbol for break, a symbol which looked like a cracked window.

Since it was a two circle spell it was shaped like two circles connected by a line, you know, like a pair of glasses? I then put held the spell right in front of my eyes, again just like a pair of glasses, and looked at the woman once more

“Huh.” Was all I could say.

“What? Gimme.” Said Shiona, grabbed me by my arm and help my hand in front of her face so she could see through the spell.

“Huh.” Said Shiona.

“I know right?”

“Yeah…”

When I had looked through the spell the woman’s skin which looked like wood had turned into, well, wood, while her hair and clothes turned into bark.

In front of us sat the dryad that had forced Buddy onto us, and she was eating various meat dishes with great relish.

“Hey dryie!” I shout to the dryad while waving my arm.

“How do you know her name? Oh wait, are you acquaintances?” Asks the guide.

‘Wait, she actually went with the name ‘Dryie’? I just said that because it sounds like dryad…’

“Yeah, we’ve met before.”

“Alrighty then, you guys can go sit down next to her, when you decide what you want just wave someone over okay?”

“Sure.” I say, our guide then leaves us and we walk to the table where the dryad is sitting.

“Hello Dryie.” I say while sitting down on the opposite side of the table from her.

“! D-do you want something?” Says the dryad panickedly, only now even noticing that we’re here.

“I was just wondering if we could get to share the table with you, there’s no other open spots see?”

“I-I see, w-well it can’t be helped right?”

Although the dryad said this her face clearly distorted into an unwelcoming face, though she probably doesn’t realize it herself.

“Exactly, so it’s fine then?”

“S-sure.”

‘She’s acting like she doesn’t know us, is she pretending since she’s disguised right now or…?’

Either way we all sit down around the table, Ronnie and Lizz not having any idea who the woman actually is since one of them never met her before while the other is to busy thinking about food.

The dryad across the table is eating considerably slower than before, most likely due to her hand suddenly shaking.

Ronnie, Lizz and I start looking through the menus, Shiona soons joins in after putting Litly and Buddy down on the table next to Lizz.

“Hey, are you fine with this guys being on the table?” Asks Shiona the dryad.

“Sh-shouldn’t you ask that before putting them on the table!?”

“Anyways, is that a yes or a no?”

“Don’t ‘anyways’ me!”

Then without waiting for further response from the dryad Shiona starts looking through the menu with us while the dryad started getting teary eyed.

I wasn’t sure if the dryad was only acting this way due to being in disguise or whether she was acting last time we met and that this was how she was normally, but right now her image in my mind was crumbling rapidly.

“Nununuh! There’s so much good stuff, I can’t decide! Dryie was it? What do you recommend?” Asks Lizz while flying over to the dryad with the menu, still not realising that she’s actually the dryad.

Suddenly the dryads eyes sharpened and she seemed to regain some composure.

“The buffet.” She answered shortly.

“The buffet?” Responded Lizz.

“yes, if you don’t know what you want then try the buffet, take a little bit of everything and see what you like. On the other hand if you like-”

The dryad then kept giving us all advice on what we should order, and twenty minutes later she finally calmed down enough for us to wave over a waiter.

“Yes? what would you like?” Asked the waiter while smiling and holding a small notepad ready in his hand.

Shiona starts off.

“Two number nines for these guys-”She points at Buddy and Litly. “And a number nine large for me.”

“I’ll take a number six with extra dip.”

“I’ll take another number seven, on a separate tab please.” Said the dryad.

“And then two number forty-fives, one for me and one for her.” Says Ronnie while pointing and Lizz.

“Make mine extra cheese!” Said Lizz.

“Very well, anything to drink with that?”

“I’ll have another large soda please.” Said the dryad.

‘They have soda!?’ I thought, and looking at Shiona’s face she thought the same thing.

We then all ordered a medium soda each and finally let the waiter leave to pass the orders onto the chefs.

“You’re really enthusiastic about the meat here Dryie.”

“Yeah, it’s just so good I can’t help myself!” She answers with a wide childish grin.

“Not very characteristic for dryads you know?” Says Shiona.

“!”

You could almost hear a loud crack coming from the dryads face as her childish smile soon turned as rigid and rugged as broken stone while sweat poured from her face.

‘Wait, if she’s a dryad and made of wood then can she even sweat?’

Regardless of what I thought there was a distinct dripping sound coming from the table right below the dryads head.

“Wh-wh-wh- I-I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about-”

While the dryad was saying that Buddy stopped playing with Litly and walked up to the dryad.

*touch*

Buddy was holding one of his arm-leaves (or whatever we decided to call them) on the dryad like a parent trying to tell their child they did good enough.

‘Shouldn’t their roles be reversed though?’

“Uhh…” Started the dryad crying.

‘Wait, don’t tell me this is what the dryad is actually like? But how!? With the way she acted last time we met her…? Where the hell did the arrogance and general dislike and hatred for every living thing that’s not a plant go!? Did she seriously fake all that!? How the fuck!’

While I was in the middle of having my internal meltdown over what the hell was going on with the dryad a waiter came around with our orders stacked on a cart.

Once the waiter put the dryads order in front of her she immediately perked back up again before looking back at all of us and suddenly blushing.

“Say…” Starts Shiona. “... eating meat wouldn’t happen to be taboo for you dryads right?”

“!”

All the signs of stress and anxiety that the dryad had shown before suddenly came back in more than full force

‘Oh boy, and I thought she was sweating hard before.’

“N-n-”

“No? Really? Because I remember you acting very differently towards us last time we met, so if it’s not because we just got some prime blackmail material then I have no idea why you would be acting so differently.” Says Shiona while shrugging her shoulders.

‘... Wow.’ Was all I could think as I saw the exchange between them.

“Now I would love to continue and ask you some questions, but our food has arrived and talking while eating is just rude.”

And with her queue all of us started eating, though it took a while for the dryad to get her hands to stop shaking first, yet despite all this she was still the one to finish first.

* * * *

“Hah…” Went the Lizz and the dryad blissfully.

“Now that that’s done-”

“!”

Once Shiona had started talking again and reminded the dryad of her presence the dryad once more started shaking like a chihuahua.

“Why don’t you come with us back to our inn, that way we’ll be able to discuss without anyone listening in.”

“...” The dryad responded simply by nodding her head.

Then suddenly a menacing grin spread across the dryads face.

“Oh and remember this guy?” Asked Shiona while pointing at me.

I wave to the dryad.

“Yeah, I remember him.”

“Well do you remember how he phase his body and go through almost anything?”

The dryads smile disappeared.

“Meaning!” Continued Shiona, despite the dryad clearly having understood what she was going to say. “Even if you kill all of us to try and quiet us down you won’t be able to kill Plush, so if you do anything he’ll just find the other dryads and tell them about what you do here.”

I wasn’t really on board with how easily Shiona talked about her own death, however looking at the dryad it seems to have done the trick as she has now straight up started crying.

“We’re staying in the Chessie inn in the noble’s district, come around in the evening alright?”

Again the dryad only nods her head in response, though this time despite us waiting for a short while no defiant or menacing grin appears on her face.

“Good, then it’s decided. Waiter, check please!”

Shiona finishes the conversation with the dryad and calls for a waiter, a minute or so later we all leave the dryad in her seat while we go on to do a few other things in the town.

‘A few other things…’

“Say Shiona what is it even that we need to do in the town now? Just go sightseeing or…?”

“Pretty much, or can anyone else think of anything we need to do?”

“No.” “Not really.” Responded Lizz and Ronnie.

‘Actually, what about you Cy? I there anything you’d like us to do in the town before we leave?’

‘Oh yeah, the mind reading magic I was thinking of might just be wishful thinking but who’s to say I can’t find that teleportation magic that Alexander uses?’

“I actually have a few things I’d like to try and test out with magic, but I can wait with that until the dryad comes and visits later.”

“Alright, so no special plans for anyone?”

“Nope.” “None.” “No.”

This time Buddy even joined in by making his tail glow red for a moment.

“Well then let’s go sightseeing!” Cheered Shiona.

“And trying new foods!” Continued Lizz.

“... I wonder if there’s anywhere I can try fighting people…” Went Ronnie.

‘Oi oi! Didn’t you guys just say you didn’t have anything you wanted to do!?’

And so we spent the rest of the day until the evening walking around the city, seeing the sights, eating the food, and, according to Ronnie’s request, fighting the fights at this fancy arena and earning some prize money before heading back to the inn at dusk.