Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Simon arched his brows, he had never met a peculiar person who liked to cosplay as them and hence he discarded such thoughts from his mind and turned around.

"What's wrong Eight? Why did you suddenly stop?" Eleven asked gazing at the counter. Though it was a surprise; No an astonishment to see customers here, it was still not a valid reason for Eight to freeze his steps all of a sudden.

"It's nothing. Let's go up" Eight said before climbing up the stairs to the next floor. The way they acted, seemed like they were not new to this establishment and had visited it quite a few times.

"Old man we are going up, prepare the same food as usual" Eleven commented following behind eight.

Right after the two disappeared, the old man came out of the kitchen and gave the two new customers a sidelong glance.

Putting two bowls full of food that they ordered, he brought two more plates and passed them to Simon and the young boy sitting beside the counter. 

Looking at the food that was passed to him, Simon first scrutinised it with the eyes of a connoisseur. From the presentation of the meat to the piping hot broth wafting with a delicious smell, was something that would evoke the appetite of anyone looking at it.

Added with the toppings of different kinds of sliced vegetables gave the food a unique kind of charm. The Pinecore Bread looked like any other loaf of bread with the exception that when eaten a different kind of taste that gave the bread its uniqueness came out. Pinecore, perhaps a common fruit or a nut of this world that he had never eaten before.

When Simon who was immersed in tasting the food lifted his gaze, he was met with the questioning eyes of the old man. His aged eyes seemed to be asking 'How is it brat?'.

Simon only had praises for the culinary skills of the old man. To be truthful, he did not expect this level of food when he entered this rundown shack. He opened his mouth and the first thing that came out of his mouth was "It's delicious".

Hearing that, the old man laughed and got up from his seat to bring the beer that Simon ordered from the drawer. TAK… he put the mug of beer on the table in front of Simon and gestured with his chin.

How many minutes passed by? Simon and the young boy he met accidentally in an alleyway focused on devouring their food silently. There would be chewing and gulping sounds coming from time to time.

With a satisfied burp, Simon kept his mug back on the table and glanced at the old man who was currently sitting at his chair playing a board game that he had never seen before.

"Thanks for the food old man" he said patting his stomach.

"It's just business, you don't need to thank me. Well, in any case, I'm glad that you liked it" the old man said without tearing his eyes away from the board game he was playing.

Curious, Simon leaned his body closer towards the other side of the table and watched the old man playing. At a glance, the flat board and the pawns on it looked just like chess. However, there were many unusual pieces and the whole game itself only had a tiny resemblance to it.

"It's called Blender and is a very famous game in Viridian Empire" after moving a piece that looked like a mixture of a horse and a wyvern, the old man looked at Simon and explained.

Simon nodded his head and appeared calm on the surface nevertheless, he was burning with curiosity inside.

"You look like you have some question for this old man. No need to bottle it up, just ask".

His intention being seen so plainly, Simon gave an awkward laugh before asking in a straightforward manner.

"Old man how can you still run your shop with so less customers? I mean the appearance of the establishment is one thing, but even its location is in a very obscure corner".

The old man was silent for a while before releasing a sigh "Young man you don't really hold back do you? Haah… I am very much aware of the public opinion of the shop that I'm running, there is no way I wouldn't know".

"However, just like every human has their own reason to keep struggling till the bitter end, I have my own reason to keep the shop open. Whether I get any customers or is secondary".

Simon nodded his head at those words and stopped probing. He then glanced at the seat adjacent to him before jolting in surprise. The young boy who was supposed to be seated next to him, was nowhere in sight.

'Did he just dine and run?' he thought internally, he knew next to nothing about this young boy so it was only natural he would think so.

Seeing Simon's confounded face, the old man while keeping his attention on the board game, said "If you are looking for the boy then he sneaked upstairs".

"What?!" Simon was surprised not at the fact that he was unable to detect the boy sneaking onto the floor upstairs but because the old man was able to do so when even he failed to notice it. A kind of suspicion that the old man of this dilapidated establishment, wasn't an ordinary person rose within his heart.

"Is that alright? Aren't those two people upstairs your regular customers?" Simon inquired to which the old man simply shrugged it off.

"What regular customers? These two are just troublesome kids coming and going out of my establishment every day as if they own the place hmph".

Looking at the vexed attitude of the old man it didn't seem like he saw the other two as his important customers which made his previous words all the more believable.

"Who are those two anyways, their garbs and masks make them look quite the chary person" Simon nonchalantly asked, he was not expecting any reply particularly; however, the old man blurted whatever he knew as if it was not his problem.

"Well, you are not wrong. These two have been coming and going around this shady corner quite a lot. One look at their behaviour and I can tell that they are up to no good. Well, as long as my shop is not at the risk of getting destroyed, it doesn't really bother me much".

'Aren't you indirectly also calling this shop a shady place?' Simon wanted to retort but held himself back. He remembered the moment when one of the mask-wearing guy was intensely looking at him.

Was he right to suspect that one of them knew him from his familiar gaze? While he was internally debating something, the young boy stealthily stepped down the stairs leading to the floor above.

He had a bratty smile plastered on his face as if he had done something mischievous without getting caught.

"What were you doing there?" When Simon asked him, the boy simply smiled saying he heard something interesting. The notorious intention that he had in his eyes was apparent.

Well, whatever he did was none of Simon's concern and thus he got up from his seat and asked the old man what his bill was.

"One Braised Pygmy Drumette, Two Pincecore Bread, a bottle of Innewi Beer and one honey mushroom pud. Let's see the grand total comes to three silver coins".  The old man took out something akin to an abacus and started calculating.

"W-wait a minute old man… what do you mean honey mushroom pud and two pinecore breads?" he stopped the owner midway and asked.

The old man gazed at him with confused eyes before pointing at the boy next to him and said "Those were the food ordered by that boy that came along with you".

Simon glanced at the boy smiling embarrassedly at him and clarified "Old man it seems you are mistaken, we are two different customers, the boy will pay for the food he had eaten himself".

The boy scratched his hair and seemed somewhat troubled, he opened his mouth a few times before squeezing out a few words. "Um, I did not bring money with me".

Simon eye's twitched when he heard that, who goes inside a restaurant and orders whatever they want without having money with them? It was unrealistic, from the appearance of the boy, he didn't seem poor then what was the reason that he was not paying for his own food?

When the boy saw his disbelieving eyes, he couldn't but lash out as if he was accused of something he was not.

"Hey what's with that look of yours? I don't carry such trivial things on me, there are already people there for such kinds of menial jobs".

"Oh? Then why don't you tell all those people to pay the bill for you" Simon commented, from the words of the boy, he understood that the latter did not even have a single copper coin with him. What was even more intriguing was his attitude towards money as if it was something extremely inconsequential and he had never had a shortage of it.

'What is the background of this boy? He couldn't be a prince of this kingdom could he?' Simon thought internally.

"Um… can mister not pay the money for me?" the boy asked tilting his head. His clueless behaviour and appearance seemed to suggest that he was still too naïve about how the world works. If Simon had to use an appropriate word for him, then it would be sheltered.

"Why should I pay for you? We don't even know each and have only just a while ago" he asserted trying to see what the boy will do next.