Emperor's Reckoning

Rayus twitched his eyes. The young man quickly found himself inside the devastated restaurant. He wiped the droll out of his lips whilst his brows furrowed. He noticed his other two friends had their faces faced down against the table with their bodies heaving up and down.

"What happened..." Rayus muttered as he felt a mild sting inside his head. "Tch!"

He gritted his teeth before a flavorful delight scent whisked at his nose.

"Good morning, young master," said a noticeable middle-aged lady.

Rayus turned and squinted his eyes before recognizing who the woman was. It was the owner of the restaurant that they rented for the whole day. "I-I..."

Rayus panicked. He knew what had happened. His teacher was the single unit responsible for the mess. Though he hardly recalled the event details, he knew what his teacher did. He frantically looked around for the man responsible but found not a single trace of him. Suddenly a thud was heard Rayus hastily looked at the center of the table. A first-class breakfast was served.

"..." Rayus was at lost seeing the beautiful breakfast. He gulped his hunger for the delight in front of him as he darted his attention toward the smiling owner. "I'm sorry...?"

Reinhard's nose twitched before he snapped back into his senses. "Woah,"

He instinctively grabbed the food he could grab with his hand and the others with a readily available fork. He put everything edible into his mouth.

Rayus's face darkened. His friend just worsened the situation, the very first thing the latter did after he woke up.

"Oi, Reinhard! Read the situation!"

"Ugh? Ugh!" A chunk of food stuck inside Reinhard's mouth. He slammed his own chest a few times like a gorilla about to fight for territory before he grabbed a wooden glass of water and force the food down. "Puah! What's wrong with you?!"

"What?! What's wrong with you?! Don't you realize what's going on?" asked Rayus.

"I... oh..." Reinhard blinked a few times as images of last night returned. He shivered, "Damn, he went nuts."

"Man, can you guys keep it down," said Noah as he pulled his head up and looked at both of them with eyes squinting. He scratched the back of his head before his lips gaped open. "Oh shit."

Rayus sighed.

"Ah..ha.." the owner smiled awkwardly. "Perhaps there is some misunderstanding?"

Noah turned and bowed his head, "We're sorry, our teacher did this."

"Oh no, no, it's fine," said the owner. "In fact, I want to say thank you."

"What?" the three students raised their brows at her response. Their ears were ready for some reprimand but they were unprepared for gratefulness out of her. Something was off.

"I... are you saying 'thank you'?"  asked Rayus.

The owner nodded, "and rightfully so, though, I'm a bit sad indeed that my restaurant is disheveled overnight, however, what your teacher give me is something more than I can afford in my lifetime. This destroyed place can be refurbished, in fact, improved!"

"W..What?!" Reinhard furrowed his brows, "I'm totally lost."

"Wait, did teacher give you a sum of Second Heaven Token?"

"A sum is an understatement," the owner blushed so much that she had to held her cheeks with her hands. "I wonder if he is interested in me..."

The three students had blacklines over their heads as they heard her mutter. However, everyone knew where the Second Heaven Token came from.

"Where is he now?" asked Noah.

"The last time I saw that handsome face was when his lady carried him toward an inn," said the owner.

"Ah! There you are!" a shout of a man was heard from the entrance.

All off them turned their heads and noticed that it was someone familiar. It was the contact that they were supposed to meet in the original plan, Lenu.

"Hey! Watch your tongue!" said the owner.

"Sir Lenu!" exclaimed Reinhard.

"Oh! Is he your friend? Please pardon me," said the owner as her voice turned soft, "I will leave you with your friend and breakfast, don't worry, it's on the house."

The three students were astounded at the leaked attitude that the owner was hiding. However, the matter at hand couldn't make them contemplate deeper on that.

Lenu eagerly approached the three of them. "I haven't seen Refl since last night, do you know where he is?"

"No?" Rayus furrowed his brows.

"This is bad, I have a bad feeling," said Lenu as he took a cold breath with his teeth gritted. He put his hands on his waist before furrowing his brows. "What happened here? This place is a total mess."

( You just notice that now? ) thought Noah, "Well..."

Noah proceeded to explain what happened yesterday night. The huge food that Selena made was as bad as it looked. The dish was surrounded by an aura, a type of dish that even chefs couldn't believe it could be made. The charred meat was horrible to taste. It was their first time wasting so much money on something that they doubt it would change shape after scrolling down their stomach.

However, Lyon started acting weird after the first bite. They thought that he was poisoned by the food that was served, then again, what forces did they have against Selena? Soon the students felt the same sickness that Lyon experienced and each of them tried to survive with their grunts before their bodies collapsed. With their consciousness hanging in the balance they briefly saw Lyon force himself on the food like it was the only thing that could keep him alive.

Selena was beyond delighted that his husband finished the meal. She suddenly left the restaurant with a smile on her face, leaving Lyon to be the last one standing among them. In one blink, they saw Lyon eagerly enter the kitchen. With another blink and their eyes could hardly make out the image of Lyon talking to himself and laughing at random things before throwing things in a random direction.

Lenu had his jaw slightly slacked as he heard Noah's story. He gulped, "That's bullshit."

Noah shrugged his shoulder, "Believe it or not, that's not our problem really."

( These kids ) thought Lenu as he was annoyed. He sighed, "Alright, fine, fine, supposed that one to be true, where is Teacher Lyon?"

Rayus answered, "We haven't visited him yet, the owner said that he and the madam were at an in— Oh no..."

Rayus's eyes trembled before he gulped.

"W-What's wrong?" Lenu asked.

"I... I remember, Sir Refl was... here," said Rayus as he looked at Lenu with fear accumulating in his thought.

"Th-Then? Spit it out!" said Lenu.

"I think I saw something ridiculous," said Rayus. "The broken furniture, Sir Refl played a part not just our teacher, and somehow, he accidentally broke a Returning Jade Stone in the process as he tried to stop our teacher's ridiculous act."

"That's even more bullshit than before," said Lenu as he shrugged his shoulder with furrowed brows.

"I mean, look above, that's a hole!" said Rayus as he pointed at the ceiling.

Lenu and the other two looked above and saw the clouds passing by in the sky. Lene had tried to fathom the possibility of Refl being caught by the Burgeon Swan in a hidden operation, but not this one. It was too unbelievable for his mind to believe that this kind of thing would happen. The possibilities were too small for it to happen, it would take a degree of bad luck to even occur.

Lenu contemplated before saying, "We need to find Teacher Lyon, if he doesn't possess the Returning Jade Stone mentioned, then..." he sighed, "I don't... I don't even know at that point."

"A-Alright...? But can we finish the breakfast first?"

...

Meanwhile inside the deluxe room of the inn.

Lyon's face was greeted with the rays of the sun as the sound of the pulled curtain was heard. His eyes twitched before fluttery opened up. He immediately saw a woman dressed in a cultivation robe standing by the window.

She was smiling at him as a newlywed would.

"Selena..." Lyon pushed himself up and leaned on the headboard. He looked down and noticed that his torso was open. He peeked inside the blanket and raised his brows. He didn't wear anything under either. He looked up at Selena before saying, "Selena, did we..."

He gestured whilst pointing at her and himself back and forth, "You know... make love?"

"Well, what do you think?" Selena asked with a wink.

Lyon furrowed his brows before raising one, "Well I think we should do it again because I don't remember a single thing."

Selena chuckled, "I'm just joking, we didn't do a thing last night but sleep next to each other."

"Then I think we should do something right now just because!" Lyon grinned as he put his hand on the edge of the blanket ready to flip it open.

"Teacher! We have an emergency!" said Reinhard as he banged on the door several times.

"Oh Fuck off!" Lyon cursed.