The time currently was 7pm, I wanted to go back to sleep, but the damn spies had to come in every now and then just when I am about to take a nap. Why can't they all just come all together?
Suddenly there was a loud noise outside as if something exploded. I went outside to take a look to see that part of store, across me has been caved in, and there was some smoke and dust which covered up anything that was happening inside. He could hear someone saying, "Sorry about that, I saw a ghost entering your shop, I was trying to get rid of it before it caused you any harm. Luckily I destroyed it just in time. You are safe now."
As the dust cleared he saw an old man patting the shoulders of the owner of the shop, comforting him, with his lame excuse trying to cover up his inability to drive a travelling board. The travelling board laid on the floor in an unrepairable mess.
The man walked away from the shocked shop keeper as if nothing happened, before looking around, ignoring the crowd gathering around the destroyed shop. He saw my shop and walked towards it whistling, while I was watching him going in among the gathered crowds in front of my shop. No one dared to say anything due to the small badge resting above his heart on his black suit. A rose made with 10 different coloured petals, the unique symbol use to identify a commandment.
"Oi soulless, are you here? I am hungry, can I have something to eat please?" Hearing him shout out for me I sighed before walking towards the store. I could feel that a annoying fly is going to harass my shop from now on. As I walked towards the store I saw an agent walking towards the destroyed building, while tightly holding onto his wallet. So, these are the clean up unit assigned to clean up after this nutjob then.
"Are you even here? I saw the sign that the shop was open, so I came in. Feed this grandpa soon before he dies of hunger. You don't want the guilt of seeing an old man die out of hunger in front of you. I promise I will pay and not run away with the food. Come out ..."
"Can you please shut up? I am right behind you. I will cook for you so please just be quiet." I interrupted him before he could blabber my ear off.
"Ah there you are, I want 2 servings of salad soup, a beast cow and vegetable cream. I was told these are what you sell here. Here is the money, quick make some food."
"Its vegetable soup, steak and cream salad. Give me 10 minutes please." I said as I took the money of him. It was the gold notes with denominations of 100.
There were only denomination of 1, 5, 10 and 50 for up to silver currency. But for Gold there was 2 additional denomination of 100 and 500. I saw several denominations of 500 in his wallet but, he never even took any one of them. Using only the 100 denomination to pay me. I am pretty sure if it could have fit in his wallet, he would have used even smaller denominations.
I took the money to the drawer in the desk and left it there. As I walked towards the kitchen I could hear the old man climbing over the desk like a kid. "Kitchen is off limits old man unless you buy the membership."
"I wasn't following you to kitchen, I was planning to see the strength of these drawers, and how secure they are for research purposes. You see I am planning on making a new kind of appliance to increase the security of ..."
The flip I thought I could be the most annoying person in the world, turns out there are people just like me. I zoned him out as I walked towards the kitchen starting to cook. Soon I could hear the old man attempting to sneak into the kitchen drawn by the smell. As soon as he got close to the entrance, I activated the button to automatically close the kitchen door. The kitchen slammed onto his face as he howled in pain.
"I told you old man kitchen is off limits until you buy the membership. You should have just listened to me."
"Oww mi noze hrtz" I could hear him speak outside crying out of pain. This old man wants to play then I will play along with him. Lets see who can piss each other the most, before one of us gives up.
I finished cooking as I took 2 trays out to the old man who had 2 tissues stuffed in his nose to stop the bleeding. "What the hell is you door made out of? It almost broke my nose."
"Beast bones of Level 5 beasts." I replied as I set the tray in front of him.
"Who the hell uses the beast bone of a level 5 beast to make doors? Are you that concerned about your security? Then you really should think about testing out my new security system instead of putting in tough doors."
"I will think about it."
"Please do. I really need some funds for my project. My stupid sons think it is a stupid idea and won't even give me enough money. They have even started to restrict my pocket money saying that I cause too much damage, and I need to learn the value of money. Talk about the biting the hand that feeds you. Ungrateful bastards."
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I understand. Your food is getting cold old man. Hurry up and start eating before it goes cold." I replied, while nodding with a pained expression as I listened, acting as if I shared his pain, before gently reminding him of his food, with a smile.
"Oh, thanks kid, nearly forgot about this. Damn I can't even smell these, with my broken nose."
The old man took the meal to a table and sat there eating. He wanted to say something with his food in his mouth, but as soon as he took the first bite of the soup, he carried on eating like an obedient kid, while a single tear dripped down both his eyes. His solemn mood was direct contrast to what he was showing before.
After 15 minutes he finished 2 servings, while his body started to glow with quite a bright luminosity, he closed his eyes at this time. So that's what happens when you eat 2 serving in a single round. The area around his nose flushed red, as I understood that his damaged nose was being healed. After few minutes of silence, he opened his eyes as he spoke to me in a deep voice "Kid give me 2 more servings." This time four denomination of 500 flew to my desk, I took it and I nodded as I went back into the kitchen. After 5 minutes I came out with the 2 trays, as I placed them on the desk.
As soon as it was placed on the desk, it flew towards the old man who started eating. Admiring the huge capacity of the old man I watched as he kept on glowing. After a while he stood up and came up to me. His earlier playfulness was replaced with a very serious attitude a eyes. "I understand that, to bring my own ingredients that you need a membership." I nodded
"How much for the membership then?" he asked
"I see that you are planning to buy the membership and not just asking for the sake of it. So, I will inform you of the conditions for the membership. There are two conditions to acquire membership here: 1. Complete a request I assign you and 2. Pay the price for membership. The price for the membership is 10000 gold. Along with that you will have to renew your membership once a year, by following the same condition."
The old man gazed sharpened hearing the conditions. "What kind of request?" Ignoring the fact that I raised the price of membership by 10 times and about the membership renewal, he asked me the important question.
"It varies from person to person, and my mood, my need and wants at the time. However, if you are up to the task, the mission to acquire membership this time is simple. Convert all my money into plat chips and bring it back to me before this time tomorrow. If as much as 1 copper is missing from the money I give you or you don't arrive here on time tomorrow, not only will you never get a membership here, but you will be blacklisted as well. Do you agree to this?"
The old man nodded "Deal". I smiled as I gave him all my money amounting to about 50 plat chips, in a small bag.
"Also convert you membership fee into plat chips as well, as I believe you failing the mission is next to impossible considering you are a commandment."
The old man nodded as he walked out with the bag. While Ez's smile slowly crept into a creepy grin as he left the exit.
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The old man arrived at the gate of the palace as he saw the guards were on full alert and that Smith, was anxiously waiting outside.
"Did he run away again?" The old man eased his serious expression, as he talked to Smith.
"I don't know why Tom even informed me in the first place, if he was going to help his highness run away."
"Do you know where to?" Hearing the question, the butler had a unhappy expression
"Not far this time. To the restaurant." This time it was the old man who had a change in expression.
Seeing his expression change as soon as he mentioned restaurant and bag in his hand the butler asked, "What do you think about him?"
"He is a really crafty guy. I think he was able to either predict the reason I was there for or he is an extremely patient person, as he was capable of perfectly adapting to any situation I presented to him without crumbling under my intimidation and sudden change in behaviour. He even tried to annoy me with a request."
"What about your personal opinion then?" Smith asked him
"In my personal opinion, I think we should remove him out of the equation as soon as possible. Although using my experience he doesn't seem that dangerous, but something tells me he is one of a kind of dangerous person I have never met and never wanted to meet.
Think about it, he even fooled you for 10 years, this means he is not just patient but extremely clever to the point of planning everything. And how old is he to do all of this? And how old was he when he started planning all of this?
I have a feeling that he is not simply a puppet controlled by someone, but rather the puppet master, who wants his puppets to think they are in control. Therefore, I suggest you and his majesty to start taking him seriously. If I am right then I fear that him being a soulless, and untalented in magi, was just fates way of saying, 'I have done as much as I can, stop him while you can' "
Understanding the seriousness of what Albert just said made the butler panic. Albert was often whom they sent to understand their enemies, as his behaviour and acting will fool even the most experienced of person, if not it will even lower their defence for a few seconds for him to understand them. Although his analysis of their enemies hasn't always been right, but his intuition was something else. It has never been wrong.
"It is too late for taking him out now." Smith moaned disappointedly.
"I know, I saw the number of agents surrounding the restaurant after causing the commotion. Although they tried to blend back in as soon as possible, but it was too late."
"What do you propose then?"
"To be honest, I have simply no idea. Like I said, I have never met someone like him, so I have never been in a situation like this. It feels almost as if we are playing into his hands no matter what we do." Albert looked up into the night sky, before walking back home.
Suddenly he turned back and asked "Can you change these money into plat chips please? Although I don't like being near him, I love his food, and still want to go there for more."
Seeing him turn back abruptly made Smith think there was something important only to be disappointed. He wanted to curse him saying 'Can't you read the mood you idiot?'. But he sighed knowing the old man was back into his usual self now. "I am not even going to ask why?"
"Oh, that is simple. The story goes like this I went into his shop to eat some food..."