The crowded and rowdy atmosphere had already gone from the tavern, there were only a few left who were either too drunk to leave the place or people who were still drinking.

Xiao sat at one of the empty tables, a moment later, the Half Beast waitress who served Xiao his dinner just now came to his table.

"Hi sir! What can I get for you? Apple ale?"

Although it was already midnight, her voice was energetic and cheerful as before. Now that Xiao takes a closer look at her, she was wearing quite flirtatious clothes, sleeveless pink button shirt that shows her belly button, black hot pant and high leather boots, the waitress has a cute bob cut hairstyle and also wearing some kind of perfume that gave out the scent of a flower.

(Lily did say that the Half Beast race are more daring and adventures, she REALLY knows a lot.)

"Sorry, I still consider myself underage to drink alcohol, I will have one warm tea please."

Xiao politely presented himself as he made an order with the waitress.

The waitress was confused by Xiao's words and asked him back:

"Huh? Underage? But sir, no matter how I look, you're over 16 years old already, right?"

"Yes, I'm 17 years old now."

Xiao politely replied to her, while also looking confused at her question.

"If that's the case, you're already passed the age to drink ale, at least in our country, did the Kingdom of Dong still consider below 21 years old as underage?"

The waitress asked Xiao curiously while Xiao was surprised to hear some new information from her.

(It's been bothering me ever since, why is everyone here assuming that I'm from this so-called Kingdom of Dong? Even Lars used this as my make up story and it worked perfectly.)

"Ye...yeah, about that, I'm not from the Kingdom of Dong, I'm from a place.....far from here. Hahaha!"

Xiao chuckled lightly as he cleared the misunderstanding the waitress had on himself because he thought it's best not to reveal too much of his origin, and he didn't want to represent the image of the Kingdom of Dong when he didn't even know where it.

"Hmm... I assumed that you're from the Kingdom of Dong, based on your hair color and your facial features. And I assume that you have your reason for not saying where you are from, right?"

(I see, so the people from the Kingdom of Dong have black hair and Asia build physique and facial feature, no wonder everyone here assume that I'm from there, and judging from how they lack the information of the culture of the Dong Kingdom, I think it's quite far away from here, even the language is the different.)

The waitress inspects Xiao from his feet to his head with her big brown eyes, while also showing a sign of suspicion on what Xiao had just said.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Xiao clumsily scratched his head while making a light chuckle as to indicate he has his reason for hiding his identity.

"No, no, it's totally fine, I'm just curious, that's all, and don't you worry about me exposing your identity, we waitresses are known to keep our customers secret to ourselves, unless....someone paid us for your information that is. Hehehe!"

The waitress does a mischievous smile while doing a money sign with her hand.

"Is...is that so? Haha...."

Xiao chuckled in worry as he kind of regretted his decision for not lying to the waitress of his origin.

"So, one warm tea, right?"

The waitress returns to her professional attitude and reconfirms Xiao's order.

Xiao pondered for a while before making changes to the order.

"On second thought, cancel the warm tea and give me one apple ale instead, since I'm in this country already, better follow the standard of it."

Thinking that his concept of an adult no longer applied here and he will not be returning to his world, he thinks it's better to start getting used to the rules and norms in this world. And besides, he also became curious about the taste of ale.

"That's the spirit! Alright, one apple ale that is. By the way, the name's Mina, please meet you!"

The waitress, Mina, made a wink to Xiao while introducing her name, to express her cute, confident and energetic personality.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Call me Xiao, nice to meet you too."

Xiao replied back with a calm smile.

"Alright, Xiao, I'll be right back with a tasty cup of apple ale."

With that being said, Mina walks away from Xiao's table, leaving Xiao to wait for his drink while enjoying the cozy atmosphere at this tavern.

Xiao was looking at the back of Mina as she was walking away, her tail and ear that were similar to a cat had caught the attention of Xiao.

(I wonder what mechanics were behind those ears and tail, but still, she was quite a cutie too. Adding the tail and fluffy ears are like the icing on the cake, Mr Monkey will kill me out of jealousy if he finds out that I'm living in his dream now.)

Xiao thinks back of his friend, the guy with a monkey-like face, as he always speaks out his desire to Xiao on how he wishes a girl like Mina existed in the world, and he would beg her to marry him or something like that.

"But that was already in the past, now he probably doesn't want anything to do with me."

Xiao makes a faint smile as he remembers the time he had with his friend and was saddened by how it turned out in the end.

"Alright! One fresh apple ale!"

Xiao was too focused on his thought that he didn't realize Mina had brought his drink to his table.

"Thanks, Mina."

Xiao politely said thank you to Mira and took a look at the drink.

It comes with a big wooden cup, the design was similar to a hand size small barrel, there were also some droplets forming around the cup, indicating that the drink was icy cold. For the drinks itself, the foam was bubbling out at the top of the cup and the liquid was in golden yellow.

"You're welcome, Xiao. By the way, where's your other companion?"

Before Xiao was excited to take a sip of this tasty looking drink, Mira's sudden question stopped his action.

"You mean Lars? No idea, I may be traveling with him, but I completely have no clues of what's in his mind. Speaking of him, where did he go after he finished his meal?"

Mira looks up as she was recalling the scene early.

"Hmm... I think I remember seeing him returning to his room right away after he finished his meal. He was wearing this grinning expression constantly, which kind of caught my attention. I'm sorry to put it this way, but your traveling companion kind of creeped me out."

Mira has a difficult expression as she thinks back on how Lars presented himself the whole time, which makes her feel disgusted by it.

"It's okay, no offense taken, and you're not the only one that got creeped out by him."

"Looks like you have your reason for traveling with someone like him, you have my sympathy. Hahaha!"

Both Xiao and Mira laughed at Mira's comment before Xiao was going to say something, and someone called out Mira.

"Mira my love, 3 more apple ales please!"

The voice was coming from a table across the other side of the room, 3 men were sitting at that table, judging from the amount of empty cups on their table, they had been here for quite some time already.

"Well then, I better do my job, enjoy your drink, Xiao."

Mira makes one last cute smile to Xiao before going to serve the table, Xiao reacts by making a polite smile too.

(Alright then, this thing should blow away all my worries in my mind. Well then, here I go!)

Xiao picked up the wooden cup, as he looked at the content of it, which was the golden yellow apple ale, he questions his morality as he was about to intake alcohol for the first time, even though he's still underage, but then he strengthens his will once more as he need to get used to the norms and culture of this world.

Once Xiao made up his mind, he took the first sip of the apple ale and put down the cup to slowly experience the taste of it.

(Sour, bitter....and taste.....refreshing, hmm.....not bad, in fact, it's a pretty tasty drink!)

Xiao took another sip without thinking much and this time, he fully savored the taste of the drink and enjoyed the experience, not only because of how tasty this apple ale is, but also the fact that he had become an adult as he took the first steps towards it, the feeling of maturity.

"Hey, you still remember, right?"

There were 2 dwarf race old men sitting at the table behind Xiao, they were talking in secret, which caught Xiao's attention. It seems like they didn't notice that their effort of speaking in a low voice was futile as Xiao still managed to hear their conversation.

"Yeah, although it has been too long, and his looks had changed so much, there's no mistake, he was the one, what the kid says had confirmed my speculation."

(The kid? I think he meant me, and confirm, confirm on what? Don't tell me....about Lars.)

Xiao kept paying attention to the two old dwarfs as they continued.

"But still, why is he here? I thought he got exiled from the empire already."

"Who knows, maybe he wants to take a look at the next generation heroes band, you know, the heroes assemble ceremony is coming soon."

"Now that you mention it, but since he got exiled already, is he not scared of being caught by the guards?"

"Don't ask me, I have no idea how a lunatic's mind works. You know, right? They said he had gone mad after that."

"Yeah, such a sad sight, nobody would've believed that he was the previous leader of the heroes band, the hero of lightning, Lars Leo."

(WHAT?!)

Xiao nearly spilt his drink the moment he heard what the old dwarf had just said. Most of the facts mentioned by the two dwarfs was shocking enough for Xiao to taste nothing in his apple ale.

With some information about Lars suddenly coming to him, Xiao finished his drink in a gulp, he got up, left a piece of coin on the table and headed to his room.

"Oh, going to rest up already? Well sweet dream, Xiao."

Mira noticed Xiao was leaving and said good night to him in a cheerful voice.

"Thanks, don't work yourself too hard, Mira."

Xiao tried his best to sound cheerful as he replied to her, and after that, he quickly gets into his room and immediately falls into his bed.

(That bastard never tells me anything at all.)

Although Xiao's mind was concerned about Lars, with his body having already reached the peak of fatigue and the ale starting to kick in its effect, he slowly falls asleep without him realizing.