The wave of chatter and gossip filled the air within the bar located at the outpost town of Libertas. Patrons overflowing with a wide range of emotions. Some being joyful and others grumbled on the tables of Criken Bar with its clear distinction of a well-deserved reputation. All kinds of patrons of the bar consisting of people from different walks of life gathered around. Merchants talks about their trades, locals chat about their daily activities.
The bar owner, Kesh notice another call from one of the patron across the room. With a nod, he starts writing it down. Finally moving from his counter, Kesh stands up as he tore a piece of paper.
"Alright, ten servings of desert roast coming up!"
Kesh turned towards a doorway to his side. He walks with the paper in hand as he stood by the entry frame. His thick beard which obscures his facial expression could not stop his face from making a smile.
"Boy, another ten servings of desert roasts for table three."
Within the kitchen, there is only one staff preparing the dishes for several tables at once. Kite is the chef and also the waiter of Criken Bar, currently finishing the preparations as diligently as always.
Despite being a young 15 years old, he is skilful at the culinary arts and the master of speed which many of the patrons consisting of the regulars to the bar will often highly recommend the dishes he is well-known for to fellow travellers. Kite stops for the moment and looks at Kesh bewildered at another request that he wasn't expecting.
"Eh? Hasn't the guy at table three ordered five servings already. Rather, won't that guy alone just about to drain our supplies dry."
"He has paid for his meals in advance. The best part of all is that he lets us keep the change."
Kite is surprised, with the amount he has done for table 3 alone had rivalled the combined total of the other tables. The payment does balance out the quickly depleting month's worth supply of food. The bar isn't big to begin with but Kesh have turned the place into a traveller's to do list just with experience, planning and dedication towards his work.
"But he doesn't look that wealthy."
"Don't be rude to the customer! Thanks to him, we won't be having problems improving this worn-out bar."
" If you are talking about that expensive bed, you should get it for yourself. I already said I'm fine with a regular bed. On a side note, I do feel happy that person enjoys my cooking."
"That's the spirit. Now don't keep the customer waiting there, boy."
"Yes-sir!"
Kesh is glad that Kite is happy and returned to his post. Kite is now slightly disturbed at the abnormal amount of food drained by a single person braced himself on another round of cooking.
A few hours later, Kite is heading towards table 3 till he sees another fellow staff. Maria, the poster girl of the bar and also the head chef and waitress. With a bright smile, she greets Kite as he walks towards her.
"The man by table three is almost finished with his meal though it doesn't look like he plans to stop."
"Ugh, at least these are the last dish we can provide. There isn't much left available till the next resupply."
"Cheer up, Kite. At least we get some reasonable compensation for all those food he ate."
"I think he already went past by the hundreds. The more at look at him, the more bizarre it is since he doesn't look too big. Somehow all the food I made went into his stomach."
"Haha, let's bring those dishes together now. Once for a long time, we will get a month's worth of free time."
Kite agreed with her on that matter. Despite being an outpost, Libertas is a big town and is a popular trading hub between continents, especially for the eastern and western sides. Free time is a luxury they could not afford till this month.
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Both of them walk towards table 3 with dishes at hand. Sitting there is a man with metallic white-hued hair and eyes with sky-blue iris and cyan rings around the pupil. Covering half of his face is a half mask that seems metallic yet somehow allows the man to continue devouring his food without taking it off.
The man's appearance alone would already imprint onto Kite's memory let alone the amount of food served for one person. Kite note on the remains of scarab kebab he served earlier is already gone from the table. It is the biggest dish they served at an astounding 12kg yet the dish that was meant for several people had disappeared within the last 6 minutes when it was served for the man at table 3. Its made from the flesh of the Rock scarab, its a roundish looking giant of 1m in diameter where it sports 2 pairs of claws and 5 pairs of legs.
The meat itself was particular hard to cook as it has a high heat retention but is also the meat that has the easist cooking time to monitor.Both the staff hand over the last dishes of the day down onto the table.
"Here are your ten servings of desert roasts, sir."
*munch* *munch*
The man still chowing down at the last grams of scarab kebab looks towards them. He politely responds by first swallowing the food in his mouth as he notices them. With a loud audible gulp, the man's sharp-looking eyes are filled with a satisfactory expression.
"Ah, thank you. You can place it on the table."
Kite and Maria look at their fellow Terran in front of them who continues with his meal. The 500 grams of roast quickly disappeared into the man's unseen jaw, Kite is both amazed and disturbed by the fact that the man ate 500 grams of meat in one bite or rather that he somehow ate it with his mask still attached on his face.
After pondering about it, Kite concluded it must be a magic device like the stove he uses in the kitchen. In this world, it is not strange for wonderful and exotic products to appear on the market especially crafted by the hands of the Fiara, commonly referred to as the beast people. The number of emptied plates,bowls and mugs increases as time went on.
As Kite and Maria start clearing the empty tableware, Kesh peeks at the clock. It is already time for their operating hour to end. He gives an announcement to the patrons that the bar will close until further notice.
Meantime, everyone is allowed one more drink before leaving. As people aren't thrilled about ending it too soon, many quickly placed their last request for the day. Soon with a heavy heart, the last of the alcohol that customers can drink disappear from their mugs. They soon start rising from their seats and leave as per routine though something caught their attention.
A few Terran, with rowdy appearances approaches Kesh. Their clothes consisted of old and worn waistcoat, long pants tied with a sash and shoes made of cheap leather clearly mainted poorly with some slight tear. Hanging by their waist is a sword of average size yet one can see the slight rust and cracked chips through its tattered scrabbard.
They seem to surround Kesh. One person approaches him, likely the leader of the group made an unpleasant smirk on his face. Every other patron recognizes this group of men where many of them made a displeased and disgusted look. These people belong to the bandit group, Praedam which appeared three weeks ago.
This group is notorious for its constant attempt at robbery. Most infamous of all is that they could not be dealt with by normal means. It is due to the group being able to overwhelm the population of the outpost even with help from fellow travellers whom have plenty of combat experience.
Attempts to find and headhunt these bandits had failed as they are quick to flee from the scene. Worst still is that they have a fortified encampment which makes it hard for authorities to subjugate them because of both the location and distance of the camp.
Their camp is close to the outpost and trade routes. Still, it is far enough within the desert away from the nearest enforcers which take two days at their best to arrive at the outpost.
That gap leaves plenty of time for the bandits to do whatever they wished before escaping. Many have tried to get the guards for help trying to deal with them. The guards could stop the bandits from killing people but is completely powerless if they want to initiate a town massacre.
Typically the guards will try and prevent the bandits from entering the town but being outnumbered leave plenty of patrol routes exposed resulting in situations like these.
"Haha, well mister. It's time for you to pay up today's protection money."
"Here, just take it n-"
A fist was thrown towards Kesh, knocking him down onto the board floor. Many patrons are upset but tried to withheld their anger least they want to endanger everyone else. Kite however rush towards Kesh.
One of the bandits saw Kite trying to help Kesh. He just laughs as he kicks Kite, sending him crashing towards a table.
"Hah, brat. Worry about yourself more instead of others. Rather if you don't, hehe the consequ-"
Before he finishes his sentence, a mug went flying towards his face. The impact causes him to flip backwards twice before he falls flat onto the floor.
Everyone else in the room looked towards the source of where the flying mug came from. They see Kite, on the floor staring at someone. It was the man with the mask now donning an outback hat with a small feather sewn in it. With an expressionless gaze, he looks at the other two bandits. They both looked at each other before staring back at the man. They look at the man before them in clear annoyance.
"Seems someone has a death wish."
"Do you think you can play hero in this to-"
The man puts his right hand up, which later formed a pointing gesture facing up and moves it to his face. Then he utters a single phrase that sounds as silent as his demeanour giving a strange chill to people around him.
"Shhhhhhh"