Chapter 16. You hear that?

“You hear that? He’s Tea Rex” Benjamin repeated what Tea Rex had told him causing Samuel to roll his eyes. They continued to walk back home until Samuel grabbed his shoulder, the drool on his face was apparent. “That’s the wrong way.”

Benjamin looked at him in confusion, did Samuel not know how to get home?

Samuel hurriedly pointed in a different direction away from home, the location he was pointing at was towards a local restaurant. The moment Benjamin saw the restaurant further ahead he could only click his tongue at Samuel in displeasure as he followed along.

The restaurant had two floors; the lower floor was for most of the people whereas the upper floor was for those who are willing to pay extra for a quieter meal. Another thing the restaurant provides is that those of the upper floors can bring in their own ingredients for them to prepare.

This was the reason why Samuel decided to take a detour before heading home. He wanted to prepare some of the meat at the restaurant for lunch and then bring the rest home for Angel to make dinner.

Upon entering the restaurant, they were greeted by a hostess, a pretty young woman in her mid-twenties with minor freckles on her face. “Hello, welcome to Popina, first floor or second? She asks, with Samuel replying, “Second floor please, we’ve brought our own ingredients.”

Nodding her head knowingly she led them up the stairs at the center to the second floor, they were seated next to a window with a clear view of those on the first floor and outside of the restaurant.

A moment later, a petite waitress in her early twenties almost a head shorter than the hostess came out to retrieve their ingredient. However, she didn’t expect to see an enormous piece of meat she couldn’t lift before her. Noticing her plight Benjamin swung his arm downward on the piece of meat, cutting a slice and handed the slice to her.

Samuel gave Benjamin a dejected look as he wanted more than what was cut to be cooked, but Benjamin ignored him and placed a small portion of the mushroom too on the carrying tray before sending the shocked waitress off. Samuel could only shake his head; he knew couldn’t eat too much for lunch either as Angel should have something prepared for them once they return.

Looking down below at the loud outspoken and drunk townspeople being merry and having a good time, Samuel smiled in satisfaction As the Governor this town one of the things he’s most proud of is making it so peaceful and worry free.

“My lord, I sense a weak resonance coming this way.” Benjamin whispered breaking Samuel out of his happy satisfaction. He replied “Oh, is it Red or Cyan?” color resonance was different for hair and eyes.

“Red, tier 1 resonance, entering this restaurant.” Benjamin replied.

Seeing Benjamin’s response Samuel felt relieved, a tier 1 resonance means that the person either just became a red-haired power user, or one who couldn’t improve after becoming a Red, most likely at this time a dropout.

Putting on his own brown wig, Benjamin continued “They’re too weak to sense me, but I’ll have to hide my hair since we don’t want to spook them.”

The door to the entrance was opened as five guys in their early to mid-twenties walked in. The one in the center seemed to be the leader, he had a dull red colored hair and brown eyes. A hint of annoyance could be seen on his face as he completely ignored the hostess and walked straight to the second floor sitting at the table closest to the staircase.

After getting a closer look at each person there was one other person besides the leader with powers. Magenta colored eyes the ability of Telekinesis, a different resonance to Benjamin’s Empathy so he didn’t sense it.

“Benjamin, what can you sense?” Samuel whispered. Benjamin’s Cyan eyes of Empathy allowed for him to keenly observe a person and understood them.

“Seems like Red here failed to attain tier 2 to become a practitioner, considering his age this was probably his last chance. I can feel his rage, depression, and hopelessness. He’s capable of anything if provoked right now.” Benjamin specifically stated the major points of what the other person’s feeling right now.

Samuel nodded his head and continued to whisper “Magenta?” Benjamin glanced at the person and continued “You would expect Magenta to be as annoyed as Red considering they both failed; however, I sense that he’s still optimistic about his life, seems like he’s optimistic about coming here.”

“Besides, tier 1s are all just Students, Telekinesis that young are only capable of sending small objects flying, so he wouldn’t even be able to do anything to us.” Benjamin replied nonchalantly. Samuel gave him a weird look considering Benjamin was around their age.

A short moment later a waiter slightly taller than the hostess walked out to take their order before returning.

Once the waiter was gone, one of the three without powers began to complain. He had a buzzcut with a noticeable scar on the right side of his face. “Fuck man, I thought you heard Tea Rex had over 25 kilograms (55 pounds) worth of the Empire’s meat.

“H-he did! He even said it was just sold out.” A scrawny guy with a long face retorted.

“It was 300 silver coins per kilogram, are you telling me he mother freaking sold 25 kilograms, 7,500 silver coins worth of meat in a day!?” The buzzcut with a scar couldn’t believe it. The total amount those 5 had was enough for just 3 kilograms and they were quite well off.

“Tell me, who the hell in Rouge can afford all 25kg of the Empire’s meat without feeling the pinch? We came here as fast as we could through the damn mountain village and its crazy savages and got nothing for it!”

“I don’t know, maybe you should’ve asked him when we were there!” The scrawny guy was annoyed at his friend for blaming him.

“It was probably the Governor." The third friend said while cleaning his glasses.

“Why the hell did the Governor have to buy all of it today! Couldn’t he have spared some? He’s a freaking Exotic of a higher tier, the energy from the meat wouldn’t mean shit to him! Gah." The scarred man continued to complain.

“Enough, what’s done is done, either we go to the Governor and ask if we can buy some of the meat, or head to the Tillowisk Empire and get some ourselves.” Red interjected, stopping his friend from continuing.

“Let’s go ask the Governor first since we’re here already, then go to the Tillowisk Empire afterwards.” The guy with the glasses replied.

The scrawny guy kept glancing towards Samuel and Benjamin’s direction and whispered to his friends “Hey, aren’t they servants from the Governor’s estate? We should ask them about the meat and see if the Governor had bought it.”

“Let’s ask them later, it’s rude to interrupt people’s lunch.” The man with the glasses reasoned. Red and Magenta nodded their head at his response, however buzzcut scar face was ready to rush over and ask.

A wonderous scent of freshly prepared meat and mushroom with well-seasoned herb and spices was carried out by the petite waitress. Her face was full of desire as she walked over to Benjamin and Samuel. However, as a professional she could only place the plate down before rushing back into the kitchen to avoid the enticing smell that’ll make her do something shameful.

The scent of the meat also caught the attention of the group of five as they all turned their head over. “Isn’t that the meat? Didn’t we hear people say that it smelled heavenly!?” The scar faced young man was about ready to hop out his chair. The other people eyed it as it was placed before the two.

“Why are the servants eating it?” The scar faced continued to question before an idea formed in his head. A sinister smile can be seen crawled on his face as he got up and sauntered over.

Samuel who was already digging into the cubed-up pieces of meat and mushrooms didn’t even noticed the scar faced man’s arrival until Benjamin tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hm?” Samuel looked up to see the towering guy beside his table.

“Hey, I’m sorry for intruding but is that the Tillowisk Empire’s meat?” The scar faced man asked as he eyed the plate and the bag containing the rest of the meat beside them.

“Yeah, what of it?” Samuel replied, he was annoyed that his lunch was being interrupted.

“Does the Governor know you two servants are eating the meat?”

Samuel was about to say he was the Governor, but Benjamin stopped him. It’ll draw too much attention and Angel couldn’t find out that Samuel snuck some food for himself.

Collecting himself Samuel replied, “Yes, he does.”

“Oh, then what if I go tell him? Will you be as confident as you are right now?”

Sweat began to trickle down Samuel’s forehead. Shit if he shows up Angel will find out!

“What is it that you want?” Samuel replied.

“I want 5 kilograms of your meat” The scar faced man said before continuing “Of course I’ll pay for it, 300 silvers.” The smug look on the scar faced man can be seen.

“Y-you!” Fuck this guy! He’s freaking blackmailing me! Samuel was ready to destroy the fool in front of him. However, Benjamin stopped him again. Ticked off Samuel could only glare at Benjamin through his sunglasses, before agreeing to hand over 5kg of meat for a measly 300 silver.

Seeing Benjamin take out the 25kg of meat from the bag the scar faced man eyes grew big in delight. “You wanted 5 kilograms of meat, right?” Benjamin asked for confirmation.

“Yeah, yeah 5 kilogram and you’ll get the 300 silver and I won’t tell the Governor you’re secretly eating his meat.” Seeing his response Benjamin nodded his head “Alright, do you want the whole 5kg or 1kg slices?” Benjamin looked over at the other 4 who were sitting at the table watching the process.

Looking over at the group of friends behind him sitting and waiting for their meal the scar faced man replied “1kg slices, and don’t skimp out on the weight.”

“Alright, 1kg slices it is.” Benjamin replied. As the scar face man prepared to hand over the knife for Benjamin to cut, Benjamin continued “Here’s the first slice”, Benjamin’s arm vanished before a perfectly cut slice of meat was separated from the whole.

All 5 people watching the process was shocked. Dazed at what had just occurred the scar face man couldn’t say a word before Benjamin continued. “Here’s the second slice” his arm vanished again before the second slice separated away from the chunk of meat.

“Here’s the third slice” Benjamin repeated once more, however the scar faced man shook awake from his dazed expression and shouted “STOP!” Alas, this did not stop Benjamin’s arm from vanishing and another slice appearing beside the others.

“Hm?” Benjamin looked at the scar faced guy in confusion. “What’s wrong? I think these are perfectly sliced.” He continued. Everyone from the other table rushed up beside the scar faced man as Red stepped in and said “Ahaha, sorry about my friend here, he didn’t mean it.”

“You don’t want the 5 kilograms of meat anymore?” Benjamin asked with a confused look.

“No, no it’s okay we don’t want any of the meat, sorry for interrupting your meal.” Red replied while shoving his friend’s head down to bow in forgiveness.

“Oh? What if I sell it to ya? I already cut up 3kilogram of meat, don’t you want it?” Benjamin’s words made them stop to consider. Their need for the meat was more important than the scare Benjamin gave them.

After some deliberation the they agreed to buy the meat. “H-how much?” Red gulped hoping it won’t be too expensive.

“Just 300 silver per kilogram.” Benjamin replied honestly. The value of the meat made the five sighed in relief, that was the price Tea Rex was selling it for.

“Here’s all we have, I’m sorry about our friend’s behavior again.” Red handed Benjamin the bag of coins.

“Don’t worry about it, I won’t tell the Governor, it’ll be our little secret.” Benjamin waved them off before sitting back down.

The five members immediately took the meat and rushed out of Popina after tossing some coins for the food they didn’t eat.

“Ahaha, that was brilliant! Did you see the look on their faces, but why did you not make it extremely expensive?” Samuel asked, Benjamin could’ve easily made it double or triple and they’d still have to pay the price.

“Oh, right. I should’ve done that.” The look on Benjamin’s face made Samuel unsure if he was telling the truth or not. However, he didn’t care much longer as he returned to his plate and began devouring the food.

“Sho delicious~”