The War Titan, Nara Simhara, was wandering around the city after separating from the Phoenix Emperor, Zen Phylon and the Storm Titan, Valerian. He was trying to keep a low profile by appearing to blend in and appearing to mind his own business like all the others walking along the street around him. It helped when there were people from the Beast Race walking around as well, such as the cat people from the Camdra Beast Clan and the dog people from the Deigra Beast Clan.
“Oh? A person from the Simhara Beast Clan? What a rare thing to see here of all places?”
Nara was initially startled by the sudden voice of the woman he heard and slowly turned cautiously to face her. He was amazed to find that she was a person of the Camdra Beast Clan judging by her appearance, which had cat ears, a furry tail, and paws for hands. He also noted that she was quite cute, which momentarily distracted him from her next question.
“Are you new here?” She asked him, tilting her head as she looked at him with the utmost curiosity.
“Y-Yes,” he stammered, feeling a rush of nervousness he had never felt before. Then he thought to himself, “Damn! Why the heck am I feeling so surprised?”
“I can tell!” She said brightly, moving forward and wrapping her arm around his while looking keenly at him with interest. “I’ve never seen someone from the Simhara Beast Clan leave their home in the Bazaraka Continent. By the way, are you hungry?”
“Huh? What?” Nara asked, feeling both taken aback by her sudden question and confused by her question about his need of food.
“Come on now. I’m asking you if you’re hungry since it must’ve taken you a long time to get here from that continent, right?” She asked again, looking expectantly at him as if she was waiting for an obvious answer.
“Ah. Um…” he stammered once again, feeling both foolish for not handling the situation and embarrassed by appearing to be so weak. Thinking on his feet, he decided to go with the flow and quickly replied, “I guess so.”
“Then, come to our restaurant full of delicious meals for a cheap price!” She declared much to his surprise.
“Oh,” he reacted, a little dejectedly as he realised that she was just trying to bring him to eat at her restaurant.
“Oh, come on! What’s with that look?!” She exclaimed, clearly looking hurt as she made a fuming expression. She grabbed his arm and began dragging him away by saying, “Come over and eat. Trust me, you’ll be wanting to eat as much as you can after you have a bite!”
“Sure,” he replied dully without much care as he was led away by her pulling on his arm.
A few seconds later, they arrived at a small building that had the sign of food with a nameplate hanging at the top of the building. Nara did not pay much attention to it as he was led inside by her as she began calling for someone and kept calling them “sister” for some reason.
A moment later, what appeared to be an older version of the girl that led him appeared behind the counter with a sweet smile and asked, “What is it, Grega?”
“Lara! Look! We got a customer!” The girl, who was named Grega, said cheerfully to the other girl, who appeared to be her older sister.
“Oh? A customer?” Her sister, named Lara, asked while turning to look at him with a smile before looking surprised. “Oh my? A person from the Simhara Beast Clan? Here of all places?”
In his mind, Nara commented about the siblings, “They’re definitely parent and daughter,” since Grega reacted the same way when she saw him wandering the streets.
Grega led him to an empty table and told him to sit down before asking him what he wanted to eat. She showed him a paper menu containing what food they were offering, but he was not picky and told her to give him a simple meal that tastes nice. She reassured him with a smiling face, she headed around the counter to help her sister in cooking, leaving him seated at the table. He used the time to look at the people walking on the street.
“Everything looks so peaceful and no one seems to be worried or concerned for anything,” he muttered aloud with a curious voice that broke the several seconds of silence. “I wonder why people were migrating to the Floria Kingdom.”
“That’s because of the disappearances,” said Grega, who was carrying a large tray full of food.
“Disappearances?” He asked her as she laid the tray down and placed places and cutlery for him to eat with.
She nodded and wore a sombre look as Lara came over and explained, “You see, sir, there have been random disappearances of people around the capital and the many towns outside the capital. We suspected them to be related to the monster sightings because a few bodies were discovered completely mutilated and unrecognisable.”
“Oh. That is terrible,” said Nara with concern. “That explains why people must be afraid and want to leave for a safer place.” Then he got a curious thought and asked, “What about you two? Why don’t you move out? Or rather, where’s the head of the family?”
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He was referring to their husband and father, whom he did not seem to detect at all in the restaurant. The two siblings suddenly looked very saddened and glanced towards what seemed to be a poster of a person’s face drawn on it with the heading “MISSING” written beneath it.
“Wait. Is that…?” Nara asked as his mind caught up to realise who that person was.
The older girl nodded silently while Grega replied, “He’s our father. He went missing a week ago and no one hasn’t found anything to where he went.”
Nara looked troubled as he realised that he had probed an uncomfortable topic and expressed his feelings with, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
The younger sibling shook her head while the older sibling smiled sadly and said, “It’s okay. You didn’t know.”
He proceeded to ask them if they run this place for a living, to which the two let out a light chuckle.
“Actually, this was opened by our parents, and we just subsequently took over as dad begun doing other work to earn a living for us,” explained Lara with a soft smile.
Nara nodded silently in understanding before he felt a doubt and began to ask, “So, your mother is…?”
He stopped just in time to see the siblings’ expression change to that of great sadness. Their expression made him want to hit himself for not being tactful enough to realise the obvious. It was clear that after their mother passed away, the father lost all interest in the restaurant and began to do odd jobs around to earn a living while his children took over and tried to run the restaurant as best as they could.
“I’m… sorry…” he said weakly, to which the siblings wore bitter smiles.
“It’s okay. You didn’t know,” said Lara lightly. “Anyway, please have your meal before it gets cold.”
He was impressed by the level of toughness that these two siblings have developed to cope with the loss of both parents. It made him feel great empathy for them and made him wish he could help them somehow. However, he knew that it would have to wait because he had more important matters to take care of.
So, he picked up his spoon and was just about to take a piece out of food when the doorbell rang as the door opened and someone entered. Instantly, Nara knew something was wrong because of his battle instincts triggering an alarm, alerting him of a dangerous presence within the premises.
Sure enough, as the siblings went over to greet him, the person ignored them and walked right up to where Nara sat before asking in a cold smug voice, “Fancy seeing the War Titan in a shabby place like this.”
His statement told Nara everything he had to know, that he knew whom he was dealing with and furthermore, he came prepared to fight judging by the battle energy radiating from him. This made Nara understand that this was a person related to the enemy they were seeking and there was no longer any way for him to keep a low profile anymore.
“Sorry, Zen, but looks like there’s no point in trying to stay low now,” he thought to himself with a chuckle. Then he addressed the person by asking, “By knowing who I am, I take it you’re related to the big bad guy that I’m after?”
“Hmph!” The person snorted disdainfully. “Your pathetic method to sneak into the capital to find us is stupidly bad, not to mention splitting up. It just makes you an easier target to hunt individually.”
“Is that so?” Nara asked, trying to act cool while preparing to fight at any sign of an attack. “So, your boss ordered you to find us and take care of us?”
“You catch on quick for a meathead,” the man said with a chuckle, clearly trying to encourage Nara to break his cool by using insults. “I always thought you people from the Simhara Beast Clan spoke with your fists and didn’t seem capable of putting words together to form sentences. This is an eye opener for me.”
Nara smiled and replied, “Careful now. We’re much better at putting our fists to good use rather than our ability to use words. But of course, you seem well aware of it already. Must be from some past experience. It must’ve been humiliating.”
This made the man breathe a sigh in clear exasperation and said, “Amateur. No wonder the boss sent us to deal with you instead of taking care of you by himself.”
“Is that why your boss sent you to me as a warmup exercise before you take me to see him?” Nara asked coolly.
There was a momentary pause in which the enemy suddenly looked frustrated. This lasted only for a brief second before he seemed to return to his cool demeanour before making a reply.
“Yes. I’ll take you to him… after you’re dead!”
With that shout, the man pulled his fist back and gathered energy in his fist and unleashed it directly at Nara. There was a sudden impact that caused the wind to blow wildly in the restaurant, causing damage to the interior of the place.
The assailant was smiling confidently when his smile faded only to be replaced by shock as he exclaimed, “Huh?!”
Nara had remained in the same spot as before and still held the spoon in his right hand to pick a piece of the food. His other hand, however, was busily holding back the man’s fist by holding a fork against it.
“W-What?!” The attacker exclaimed, looking stunned as his attack was blocked and held in place by nothing but a fork that his enemy was pressing against it.
“I guess you had a run-in with my clansmen in the past, but this is probably your first time dealing with a War Titan like me,” said Nara with a smile. Then he cut a piece and took a bite out of it with the spoon before telling the seemingly terrified sisters, “You were right, Grega! This is really tasty!”
As both of the sisters reacted with happiness and fear, the attacker snarled, “Don’t try to act cocky!”
Nara eyed the man coldly before using the fork to move the fist away and then click it against his jaw. There was a powerful impact of steel against the man’s jaw before he got blasted upward. He broke through the roof of the restaurant and continuing flying up until he was nothing but a spec in the sky.
The War Titan quickly ate all the food on his plate and finished with a deep sigh of satisfaction. Then he rose to his feet to pursue the attack when he suddenly paused and turned to the siblings.
“Any damage that happened to this place, I’ll be sure to repay it full with interest as well!” He told them with a smile and added, “Also, the food you two made is really great! I mean it! When I come back, I want to have more of this. Is that okay?”
“Uh. Y-Yes,” replied Lara bewilderedly while Grega’s mouth hung open in amazement.
He smiled at the two before surging with power and kicking off the ground to fly after the enemy he had thrown into the sky through the restaurant’s roof.