Convinced by his own rhetoric, Alnea followed the example of the girls, and pulled a chair out for himself.
“This is the Blood Hall’s canteen,” Martha said as Alnea took his seat. “All Blood Halls have one. And they are always open. Of course, until you gain qualifications to enter the inner city, you can eat only in the Blood Hall you are registered in. But it does not really matter where you eat. Other than a few dishes special to each Blood Hall, all canteens basically have same food.”
“…What is the city’s obsession with Blood?” Alnea mumbled, glancing around himself. “Does everyone in the city likes blood so much? Or is it a personal preference of the creators of the city?”
“…You should not presume anything about the city. Or even your clan may not be able to bear the consequences,” Martha said in a solemn tone, as if reprimanding him for doing something foolish. Alnea was ready to defend himself, but she did not really care whether he listened or not. Maybe even that reprimand was more of a conditional reflex rather than a well intentioned advice. In any case, not giving him any chance to explain himself, Martha turned towards the back of the hall, and pointed at the counters with all the food.
“You see the food counter over there? That is where we get our food. You just fill your plates according to your preferences, and come back to the table to eat.”
“Is the canteen not going to charge us?”
“What did you think swiping your Blood Card at the doors of the canteen was for?” Martha said. “Every time you enter the restaurant, you will have to pay two Blood Coins. In return though, there is no limit to how much you can eat. As long as you have enough capacity, you can even clean the entire Lost City, but the restaurant will still continue making more food until you are satisfied.”
“…Speaking of Blood Coins, how exactly can we know how many Blood Coins we have?” Yuri said, taking out her Blood Card, and brushing her thumb over the strange symbols. “We cannot understand anything that is written on the card.”
“That is because the symbols are part of a lost language,” Martha said. “And people do not usually go around learning lost languages for no reason. Not that they could learn them even if they wanted to. These languages are said to be lost for a reason. What we know of most of the lost languages comes from records, and records of records handed down from the Age of Gods. Gleaning the meaning of a few symbols can be achieved by comparing the languages to their records, but understanding complete languages…
“Without the help of the race which used these languages as their primary language, understanding these lost languages is very difficult. One can even say that it is almost impossible. Except for the language used in the city. The symbols used on your Blood Card belongs to a language that still lives in the city. From your Blood Cards to the buildings, Blood Arena, and even the Blood Halls, everything in the city works on the basis of this language.
“Naturally, since the city belongs to the same era as the language, it also holds the key to learning the language. You just have to pay ten Blood Coins, and the Blood Hall will teach you how to read the language. Separately, of course. And the city will also ensure that you will not be able to pass on the language to anyone else. Still, quite a low price, considering how you will be learning one of the ancient languages from the Age of Gods.”
“…Is it so simple?”
“Things are often deceptively simpler than they appear to be.”
“…Can we have this discussion later? I am starving.”
“…You are right,” Martha said, withdrawing her smile the moment she heard his voice. First reprimanding him, and then scowling at him… From the moment they had met, the woman had been nothing but rude to him… Did he give her a wrong impression?
“You must be hungry,” Martha said, turning back to Yuri and Cecilia with a smile. “Go, get some food.”
“What about you?”
“I will hold the seats for you.”
“Is that necessary?”
“You will be surprised by how many people prefer to eat at the canteen. Especially at this time of the day. If we do not reserve a seat, we might have to eat while standing.”
Alnea wanted to ask what was wrong with eating while standing, or if they could eat while sitting on the ground, but from how the woman had been reacting to him, he decided not to needlessly invite trouble for himself, and simply got up from his seat. That he was a bit wary of the woman though, did not mean that Cecilia was wary of her too. At least not as much as they had been some time ago. The woman was helping them by going out of her way after all.
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“Are you sure?” Cecilia said, only to receive a reassuring nod for the woman.
“I will go get my food after you bring yours, so it will not really make too much of a difference. Stop worrying, and just go get your food.”
“…Okay,” Cecilia said, and got up from her, gently placing Forne back on the chair. “I will have to trouble you to look after her till then.”
“No worries,” Martha said. “Take your time.”
Nodding to show her appreciation, Cecilia joined Yuri and Alnea, before going towards the food counter. A long table, with all sorts of dishes being served in sink sized containers that not only kept the food fresh, and warm, but also made it look more presentable.
From bone broths to sizzling innards served in a gravy of brain juices, and even special mix of precious herbs, and all sorts of organs like hearts, livers, and even brains, all put together in steaming red stew, there were so many choices of dishes that Alnea was having a hard time choosing between them. In the end, he simply picked up a plate, and a couple of bowls, adding a little of all the dishes that he could, until his plate was full.
Nodding to himself in satisfaction, Alnea returned to the table with the girls, who had also filled their plates to the brim, allowing Martha to go get a plate of her own. And as a show of courtesy, and respect, they began eating only after Martha returned with her own plate, just as overcrowded as their plates. But they did not find it odd. She was a True Wanderer. Eating more food than them was given for her.
However, neither Alnea, nor the girls were ready lose against Martha in terms of how much they could eat. They may be just False Wanderers, but they trained much harder than most, if not all of their peers. Not to mention how they trained with either Divine Grade Arcanas, or an Art of equivalent Grade. They consumed much more energy than their peers. And they naturally needed to eat much more than their peers to replenish their energy. Besides, the food was also quite in line with their taste. Even Forne had woken up a couple of time in its sleep, taking a few bites from everyone’s plate except that of Martha.
Thus, by the time they were done eating, they had already wolfed down around nine to ten servings. And those servings were all of Adolescent Stage Oren Beasts. Enough to keep them satiated for… a day. The stronger they got, the more energy they consumed in their daily practice. And till the time they learned how to derive their sustenance from the Origin Sea, they could only look for supplementing their energy by consuming Oren Beasts.
For the moment though, their stomach was filled, and they had other things to do. Following Martha’s lead, they went back to the main lobby of the Blood Hall, and walked to one of the smaller counters in the lobby. It was a little towards the inner depths of the hall, somewhere around forty to fifty paces away from Martha’s counter, and had a grumpy man keeping watch over the counter. Literally.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here? The great Martha Orwen herself!”
“Shut your mouth, Inas, or I will do it for you.”
“Do you still think that you are the heiress of Mount Orwen?” the man said with a sneer. “Without your brother, your clan will not even—
Brown, red and yellow lights surged out from Martha’s body, and gathered around her hands as she urged her Aspects, and—
“Tes’ beard!” the man behind the counter said, losing all his grumpiness and disdain for shock, and fear. “Crazy bitch! Have you forgotten the rules of the city?”
“Have you forgotten what happened to the last person who dare to speak nonsense about my brother?”
“…How can Mount Orwen have a crazy heiress like you?”
“Are you going to shut your mouth, or will you have me do it for you?”
“…What do you want?” Inas said with humiliation, indignation, and loss written all over his face. But Martha paid no attention to the man’s expressions.
“Three language spars.”
“Three?” Inas said, before glancing at Alnea and the girls, looking at them with weird gazes. “They do not look like they are from Mount Orwen. Why are you helping them?”
“It does not concern you. Just hand them a language spar each.”
“…I will get the language spars. Now, can you withdraw your Aspects.”
“Not until you hand over the spars.”
“…Origin above! I must have been cursed by Optah, or Oronir, when I woke up today,” Inas mumbled, but did as he promised. Turning around, he picked up three greyish black crystals from the shelves carved in the wall behind the counter. He did not immediately give them the spars though. Instead, the man placed the spars next to the black box on the counter, and turned towards Martha.
“You know the rules.”
Martha nodded to the man, before turning towards Yuri and Cecilia.
“You know what to do.”
“…We do,” they said in unison. Except Alnea, of course. He did not point out her blatant favouritism though. After all, he did not know what kind of grudge the woman had against him. And at the moment, the woman was helping them. Even though she had a hard attitude—seemingly, only against him— he could not deny that she was one of the only few people who had been kind to them in the city. In her own twisted sense.
Besides, it was not as if Alnea himself had never been a beneficiary of blatant favouritism. Allowing the girls to have their moment did not seem to be too bad of an idea. Following Cecilia and Yuri, he scanned his Blood Card on the black box, and received his language spar. A greyish black crystal, roughly twice as long as his Blood Card, that was a little pointy at both ends, but thick, and circular in the middle. Almost like two cones joined together at their mouths.
“I will tell you how to use the spars later,” Martha said, withdrawing her Aspects back into her body. “Let us get out of here first.”