We went back to the kitchen and I found the girls waiting for me in front of the lift.
It seems like only Ries had finished eating her fish while the others still had a little bit of it left.
And for some reason, Ries looked like she had just lost something precious to her.
Amber immediately rushed towards me, "Tera! Are you ok?!"
I raised an eyebrow at her, "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"
"We thought something happened to you when I couldn't feel your presence anymore!"
Feel my presence? Did you put a tracker on me or something?
"I just went to get the organic ingredients from their storage," I explained.
Amber pulled me over to her while giving Steiner a suspicious look, "You didn't do anything weird to her, did you?"
The older chef didn't even look offended and simply sighed, "I'm already stuck trying to figure out what I should be doing with the life that I had apparently wasted… Doing anything to her would be the last thing on my mind."
"Hmph! Like I said, you could be thinking about kidnapping her for yourself!"
"Please, I at least have some self respect remaining not to do something as pointless as that. I am just some idiot fiddling around with machines, she is a literal miracle given form. I am lucky to even be allowed to witness this."
Fucking hell, Steiner… It's really not that serious. It's not even too late for you to learn how to cook properly right now.
I was just about to suggest that to him when I felt a soft tug on my arm from the side.
I looked down to see Ries looking at me with teary eyes, "Te… Tera? I… I ate the fish you made…"
Err… Ok? What's wrong with that? Were you not supposed to or something? Why are you looking at me like that?
Before I could ask her that though, she let out a soft sob and tightened her grip on my arm, "No more fish… The fish is gone…"
I looked at the other three girls to silently ask them what got into her.
"She really likes fish," Lea immediately answered, as though she was already expecting something like this to happen from the start.
Ok, yeah… The cat girl likes the fish I made for her… I guess I should have expected something like that.
I grinned at her, "Don't worry, I took a lot of their fish so I can make more of it for all of us later."
Her hood actually shifted upwards slightly which I suspect must be from her ears perking up underneath them.
"Really?! You'll do that?! I will follow you for life, Captain!!!" The Maochatte cried, hugging my waist tightly.
It's just a fish guys, you are all overreacting right now…
Amber seemed to have noticed me thinking about cooking up another batch of fish just for them since she quickly tightened her grip on my shoulders and started moving back while pulling me with her.
"Alright! It's been a long day so… No wait, it's not long yet! What I mean is that we've had a very satisfactory dinner tonight so now we're going to go get drunk so if you would excuse us!"
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Amber was in the midst of pulling me towards the door when the whole kitchen suddenly turned dark as the lights shut itself off, plunging the entire room into darkness.
Their emergency lights kicked in and the room was bathed in a dark red hue, right before an alarm sounded throughout the kitchen.
"What… What's going on?" I asked.
Steiner frowned, "That's the alarm that would sound if someone is breaking into the food storage below…"
Several eyes landed on me, who still had the box of organic food I took in my hands.
I blinked, "I certainly hope you aren't suspecting me because I was given the green light to take everything if I wanted to… So why would I try to steal when I could just take them?"
Amber also growled, "And are you suggesting that we would stoop that low and steal your stock as well?"
The ones who had been looking in my direction quickly averted their gazes.
As if on cue, the kitchen doors slid open and several armed guards rushed inside with their weapons raised.
"Everyone down on the ground!"
I obeyed, quickly dropping the box of organic food in front of me before laying myself on the ground with the rest.
"Clear!"
"Move up!"
The squad carefully filtered into the room, scanning the area for threats before piling up in front of the lift.
One of them spotted the box of organic food that I dropped in front of me and immediately levelled his rifle at my head.
"You! Where did you get all this?!"
I didn't even get to answer before Amber reached forward and pulled the gun barrel away from my head, "Don't point that at her you bastard."
Woah, woah, woah!! Amber!! What the hell are you doing?!
The man tried to yank the gun free from her grasp, only to realise he could not.
He yelled out a warning and a few of the other guards turned back and pointed their guns at her, all of them aimed at her vitals.
"Wait! I got this from the head chef as a gift! I didn't steal it! The head chef can vouch for me!"
The guards didn't seem to care about words and advanced on Amber, their guns still pointed at her.
Amberrrrr!! What are you doing?!!!
It looked like they were actually going to fight when the door that led to the lift slid open without anyone near to it.
The guards quickly turned around to point their weapons at the door, revealing boxes upon boxes of organic food stacked on top of each other.
Standing in the centre of the lift was a single person who looked a little familiar even though I don't really remember where I've met this person before.
The guy seemed to be surprised to see the guards there and everyone was just staring at each other for a good second or two.
"That's the one! Shoot him!!" One of the guards shouted.
The guy unsheathed two glowing blades from his waist and I instantly realised this was the guy I saw back at Mara's clinic who cut his arm off when he got himself caught by Amber and Mara. Looks like he has both his arms again.
The guards started firing and he swung his swords in a flurry which deflected the bullets away from him.
Two of the guards at the very front had their bullets returned back to pierce through their heads while three of them were hit in their chest and abdomen.
Fuck! They're even stealing the organic food from this place?! How did they even get in there?! We were just inside the place a few minutes ago!
The thief's figure blurred suddenly and he disappeared, reappearing above the guards.
Unfortunately for the guards, they weren't able to see where the thief went from where they were standing and did not realise he had moved above them before he dropped down on top of them.
Two more guards were cut down by his blades before they could even react and he tossed one of his blades at another guard, the blade piercing directly through his head.
He then spun around and pulled one of the corpses up, using it as a shield to block the bullets of the other guards to retreat back to his thrown blade to pick that up.
Then the body he was using as a shield fell backwards without warning to reveal the thief was gone again.
This time I only found where he was when a gurgle of pain came from the side and I turned to see him letting another guard that had his throat slit fall onto the ground.
The remaining three guards started shooting again and this time the thief merely blocked all the bullets before all three guns clicked empty.
The thief leapt forward and slashed the first guard vertically in half, literally. The second guard raised his arms to let them transform into blades, only for the thief's swords to cut through them easily before slicing up the poor guard into pieces.
The last guard reached for his sidearm and only just managed to raise it up before the thief sliced the hand of the guard and let the limb drop onto the ground.
The guard opened his mouth to say something but the thief pierced his blade through the guard's throat and silenced him.
The guard struggled against his killer for a moment before his body went limp, the thief kicking the corpse off his blade and allowing it to drop onto the ground to join his comrades.
He then slowly turned towards us and his eyes instantly locked onto the box of organic food that I had dropped.
Ah… He wants this too… Well he can--
"Fat chance, fucker, fuck off."
I turned to see Amber standing against him with her arms crossed, blocking him from reaching the box.
Amberrrrrr!!!