Soon it was lunch time and we headed back to our garrison. One of the good things by being a guardsman was that we would be given free lunch. It wasn’t any special food just the regular basic stew and porridge followed by a piece of bread. The bread was super sturdy that it could also be used as a murder weapon. I don’t know if this was a bread that tasted like a brick or a brick that tasted like bread.

The garrison had its own cafeteria I took my food and took a seat in a corner away from the crowd. It was pretty noisy here as people were having the time of their life. It was a good thing that half of the squad were sent to the next town otherwise, these place would have been overcrowded.

Just when I was having a peaceful meal,

“There you are!”, shrieked out, Bruno.

“We were looking for you, all over! Let’s lunch together.”, he said cheekily and sat my opposite direction.

I guess it was time to use the sturdy bread to bash someone's head.

“Can’t you guys ‘eat together’ on another table? Because this table is occupied.”, I replied back with my irritated tone straightly intentionally showing my displeasure.

If the three of them wanted to eat together, they could do it in another table and exclude me out of their group.

Thalia took a seat beside me and William sat beside Bruno.

They both just ignored my sentence altogether.

“You are wrong.", replied Bruno with a very smug look on his face, "Just take the word ‘together’ for example. If anyone letter went missing from the word it will remain incomplete."

"Your point?", I asked.

"Exactly in the same way if you don’t eat with us, then it won't be eating 'together' at all. We are a team after all”, he added with a big smile.

What’s with all these cheesy lines?

“That is so… Gay!”, I replied.

Suddenly William got angry,

“Hold your tongue! You insolent- blah blah”

Not his ranting again!

To cut off William’s ranting and with his mumbling ruining my meal’s taste, I changed the subject quickly.

“So what do you guys think about the announcement earlier?”, I asked them.

“Don’t you try to change the subject!”, butted in William.

Earlier, the announcement was actually a bounty being placed on a group of a mysterious band of bandits who said to have stolen some kind of relic. The soldiers were strolling all around the town looking for them. The Relic was stolen from the capital and they had sent soldiers even to the neighboring towns.

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That’s the only information I could get summed up from the soldiers' announcement and from the locals. If our squad was able to capture those bandits and return the relic, we would be sure to rise in ranks and get awarded handsomely. There was also the risk of my identity to be revealed in the public but I might come up with something.

“Good thing...*nom* you asked it... I wanted to… *nom* discuss that thing.”, responded Bruno with a serious look as he was busy munching his food and speaking at the same time. Some of the crumbs were being spewed on my face as he opened his mouth.

“Could you please not eat and talk at the same time!”, I replied while I maintained my cool persona. I cleaned my face with my handkerchief.

It seemed Bruno and the bunch had bought along with lunch boxes from home. As soon as they opened their lunch boxes. The aroma of the meat steak started to tickle my nose. Fuck!

That looks incredibly delicious.

“Oh, you want a piece?”, asked William with a taunting smile.

Oops, I started to stare at their lunches by mistakingly.

William cut one of a small piece of his tender meat steak and lifted it with his fork. Instead of eating it he started to waver it in mid-air,

“Who wants a juicy piece of tender steak of the high-quality meat; You commoner would need to spend your entire month's expense for just a 100 grams of a piece. Haha.”

Fucking Asshole! I wanted to beat the shit out of him. He was just baiting me, I shouldn't fall for his provokes. I calmed my nerves and continued to eat my vegetable stew that tasted not so good.

For some reasons, Thalia was eating a box of salad.

I ignored William,

"What’s with the salad? Are you on a diet?”, I asked Thalia.

“Yes, kind of. A girl has to keep her body in shape.”, replied Thalia with a smile.

Wow! This was the first time seeing her smile like that.

She already had perfect voluptuous curves. What more does she want?

“Here boy! Here! Here!”, called out William as he extended his hand with the fork pierced with a piece of meat.

It seemed he hadn’t eaten that same piece of meat and continued to brag about it.

“How about you get down on your knees like a good dog? Then I might let you have this juicy piece which people like you can never fathom.”, he said with a proud smile.

This time he was the teaser and I am the victim.

“Oh, you are so kind Mr. William. If you say so...”, I replied with an enthusiastic smile.

“Huh?”

I stood from my seat and stabbed the big chunk of meat slab from his lunchbox and lifted whole the meat. Then quickly took a big bite of the juicy meat and sat back on the seat.

“Thank you *nom*... William… *nom”, I thanked him while chewing the meat simultaneously.

It happened so quickly that William was just wondering what happened with holding the fork with the small piece of meat.

That's what you get for picking a fight with me.

“You runt! How dare you- blah blah.”, screamed William. I ignored him and focused on eating meat when.

*Thump*

*Smack*

Thalia gave me and William a smack in the head.

“Stop fighting and listen to what master’s saying.”, she said in her usual calm tone.

“Please begin master.”

“Well, thanks for your help, Thalia. So then let me begin…” and hence Bruno started to explain about the recent events happened in the capital.

His family had a direct connection with the royal family so of course, he was well informed.

But the small piece of meat was stuck on his cheeks which was making it hard to focus on the real topic.