Chapter 119: Dinner and training

Felix Sythias' POV:

The restaurant was great. Lots of grilled meat, sauteed meat, smoked meat, dried meats, all in large quantities. They had chicken, beef, various edible monsters, pork, and my favorite of the list, griphon. The restaurant was new, which is why I hadn't been able to visit them yet. I had a feeling I'd be coming back here sooner rather than later.

As I had sort of expected, someone had been waiting outside to greet our group. I had thought they would guide us to the back side of the restaurant, or to a specific table. But to my surprise, the restaurant was empty aside from a single table in the center of the room—all other tables stacked away to the sides. There were four comfortable looking chairs, three of which were of the lizardkin variety with holes and supports for their tails, and a luxurious rug.

I shot a look at Tiki as we all sat down and ordered our drinks. "You really went all out, huh? Not that I'm going to complain, but isn't this a bit much?"

She snorted. "Don't worry about it. This is the least I can do, the least our family can do after..." she trailed off, then shook her head. "Nevermind that, let's not ruin the mood. Just enjoy the evening, eat as much as you want, drink as much as you want." She turned to the rest of the group. "That goes for everyone, by the way."

There was cheering at that, and I smiled. When I glanced back at Tiki though, she still had this uncomfortable, guilty expression staining her face. I frowned at that. It hadn't been her fault. I didn't blame her, and I knew Alex didn’t either. I'd have to talk with her about it later, after dinner. I couldn’t stand her looking like this, but now was not the right time.

In the meantime, I wanted to make sure she knew what she was getting herself into.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I eat a lot more than you'd think. I'm still refilling my reserves."

She turned back to me, doing her best to suppress whatever she was feeling and put on a smile. It mostly worked. "I am. And if it makes you feel any better, most of the food will be paid for by the left-overs from Alfred's wallet after his restitutions. You'll both be getting a chunk of that, actually. You'll probably receive a letter sooner or later."

I slowly turned back to the menu with renewed interest. Well then, if Alfred was buying, I certainly wasn't going to hold back any. My eyes fell on the most expensive item on the menu. A full griphon leg. Usually a meal for a full table, with a price to match. My smile turned into a toothy grin. I'd take two. To start with.

---

The food had been so much better than what I expected. I was pretty sure they had a very high level cook in the kitchen. One with talent, and not just the right Skills. They knew what they were doing, that was sure. In the end, I had eaten four griphon legs, several racks of ribs, more than a dozen different monster steaks, a chicken or two, and some pork. And that wasn't to mention the various juices, and the desert we'd had.

I was stuffed. Even the bullshit powering my stomach couldn't deal with this much food at once. I looked down at my stomach, seeing it bulging a bit from the sheer volume of food. When was the last time I'd eaten so much? I couldn't remember. I might have overdone it—the prospect of turning Alfreds remaining wealth into sustenance being a hair too tempting.

I hadn't quite needed to waddle back to the dorms, but it had been a close thing.

"Thank you all for the fun evening," I told the group, giving them a hug each.

Alex hummed his agreement, following with hugs of his own. He would've thanked them as well, but he was practically asleep on his feet. A long day combined with a food coma—he'd taken to eating with almost the same gusto I had.

The group said their goodbyes, and Viggi and Sekara left—Viggi flying her home. I did ask Tiki to wait while I helped Alex get to bed. He all but fell into bed, and I pulled a blanket over him. He'd have to deal with sleeping in his clothes, though. I wasn't going to risk upsetting him by undressing him. We weren't at that stage of our relationship yet. One day, though.

Then again, this was anything but sexual. I'd ask him tomorrow what he'd want me to do, should something like this happen again someday. Not that I expected it to be a regular occurrence.

Tiki was still outside the room, like I'd asked, worry painted on her face. I gestured to her to follow, and we tip-toed outside, careful to not make too much noise. Though, with her shadow elf heritage, that was hardly a challenge for her.

"How's your leg?" I asked once we were far enough away from the building as not to bother anyone.

Tiki blinked, then looked down at her leg. "It's getting better. I'm still training up my new muscle memory, and it will be a while until I'll be able to move like before. But the physical therapist with his Skills is speeding things up a ton."

I nodded. "That's good to hear. I'm sure you'll be sprinting around effortlessly again in no time at all."

We sat in silence for a bit, having reached a small bench moments earlier. It was a little awkward. I knew what I wanted to talk about, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up. What was I supposed to say? 'Do you blame yourself for Alex and I getting trapped underground?' Terrible idea.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Did you know I visited my brother after he got arrested?" Tiki asked after a while of us staring up at the stars. "I'm not sure why I did. I guess I just wanted to yell at him. Or maybe I hoped he could somehow explain it all in a way that made sense."

"From your tone, I'm guessing neither of those happened."

She snorted. "Even behind a heavy, locked door, he believed he was right for what he did. The guards were very pleased with how easy he made proving his guilt," she said, shaking his head. "Lunatic. No, I didn't really get a chance to yell at him. It was really mostly him yelling when I told him I wasn't going to get him out."

"He's not escaping his punishments, then?" I asked.

She snorted without any humor to it. "Not in a thousand years."

"Then, can I ask why you still blame yourself? He's made it pretty clear who's fault it was, no?"

Tiki's head snapped to me, then she sighed. "I guess I do blame myself. I just know I could've done more. Maybe if I'd talked to him again. Paid a little more attention. Maybe even asked my parents to retrieve him home. Something. Then maybe it wouldn't have happened. Then all those people wouldn’t have gotten hurt, and you two wouldn’t have been stuck underground for weeks. He's my little brother, and I'm responsible for what he does. Why wouldn't I blame myself?"

I mulled her words over for a minute before responding. "I won't deny that you maybe could've done just a little more. But really, what difference would it have made? We both know your brother is more stubborn than is good for him. I don't think talking to him again would've made a change. Besides, how could any of us have known he had gone off the deep end like this? Don't beat yourself up over it. You did what you could. As for the second thing, Alfred is his own person. He made those despicable choices himself. That's not your fault. At a certain point, it's unreasonable to take such a load onto your shoulders. I think we both know it's well past that point."

She looked contemplative. Unsure. Not believing what I was saying. That was alright. I hadn't expected a few words to fix anything. But hopefully it would help her on the road to forgiving herself for what her brother had done.

I continued. "If it's any comfort, know that Alex and I don't blame you. That burden lies with Alfred. Though, have you considered talking with a counselor about this? I think it'll help."

She nodded slowly. "I am already doing so, but it's been difficult to find one that fits well. Thank you for your words, though. They mean a lot, coming from you.”

I smiled and gave her a hug. "It's alright. Thank you for listening," I said. "Do you want to continue watching the stars for a bit?"

She yawned and shook her head, standing up. “I think it’s about time I went to sleep. Some other time, maybe.”

She gave me one last hug, and went back inside. I stared after her for a moment, feeling a little restless at not having been able to help more. I stayed until she was safely back in the dorms, then stood up and flew home. Tomorrow was probably going to be a long day.

---

I picked up Alex early in the morning. To my suprise, he was already awake. I had expected to have to wake him up, since the sun hadn't even risen yet, and I hadn't had a chance to explain how the morning alarm enchantments worked yet.

I raised an eye-ridge at him. "You're up early. Couldn't sleep?"

He shook his head with a tired sigh. "The damned System woke me up about an hour ago to let me know the percentage dropped again, and I wasn't able to fall back asleep."

I frowned. "Is there a way to turn it off? You need to be able to get your rest.”

He shook his head. “I tried already, but it doesn’t work that way. Or at least, I haven’t been able to figure out how to do it. Besides, it’s important information. We want to keep a close eye on the timing, right?”

“Right,” I said with a nod. “Then maybe you could catch up on your sleep later? I'm sure we'll have some time during lunch."

Alex waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine, I've done more intensive activities with less sleep. Probably. I'll be okay," he said. "But let's get going. I don't want to leave your dad waiting too long."

I gave him a quick look-over. He looked tired, but there was an excited energy beneath his scales. He could hardly keep his tail still. I sighed and gestured for him to hop on. Not a moment later we took off, arriving at the training field within minutes. I landed, taking a look at the small crowd already waiting for us.

"Good, you're here!” Dad said as we walked up to the group. He looked even more tired than Alex did, with bags underneath his eyes and a slight slump to his shoulders. He hadn’t slept since learning about the node, has he? Dad continued, interrupting my thoughts. "So, here's the deal. Alex is critical to finding a solution to the problem at hand, which will almost certainly involve fieldwork. And I don't see Felix staying behind, as much as it frustrates me. But one of you is low-leveled, and the other doesn't have a level to begin with. You two also don't have a lot of experience with combat, exploration, and survival. So, we will be holding a month-long bootcamp to get you up to speed.”

I felt a small stab of betrayal from dad broadcasting my secret in front of such a large group of people, even if they all probably knew already anyway. But I crushed the feeling. I recognized most of the people in the crowd. They were professors, high-ranked hunters, and trainers. It was obvious why they were here, and that meant no secrets. A known weakness could be shored up with training. A secret could not. Still, I knew I’d have to talk with dad about this. Just because I understood didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. He could’ve at least warned me.

Dad grimaced. “There is an issue however, as neither of you are full members of the Academy, and can’t actually go on expeditions. Nor is it usually allowed to spend so many resources on so few people. Thus, as much as it pains me to do, I’ll be acting under Polaris’ Emergency Act, Tim’s Dire Circumstances Act, and a great number of loopholes. Until the situation has been resolved, the laws and limitations are… flexible.”

I blinked. Dad… was actually bending the rules? It seemed the situation was a lot more dire than I had thought. Dad always followed the rules, to a fault, even. Not even when the laws were hurting me did he bend them. No, dad only changed the laws through proper channels. So for him to bend the rules to this degree… Alex and I had calculated we’d have a little under a year until the stability of the node hit zero, so even assuming a wide margin of safety, we had a few months to deal with the issue. Now I was wondering if that was true, if time for bureaucracy was too much.

Dad gestured to the group. "This is part of the group that will be training you over the next month. We'll start today with getting a thorough understanding of your capabilities and experiences, then spend the remainder of the morning stuffing your brains with knowledge, occasionally doing some exercises. Then in the afternoon, there's a field assignment to put your new new knowledge to use in a real scenario. This pattern will continue for two weeks, after which we'll begin focussing on your general power and level. Do either of you have any questions?" We both shook our heads. "Good, then let's begin."