The waiter brought in four glasses of Malty Mirage beer, it was not a popular beer among common people, but people with a high resistance to alcohol usually took the wine due to its high alcoholic content. The taste was also too strong for some.
But without the waiter seeing, Noel added some "Flavorings" to four glasses and quietly left back for the toilet. If anyone asked, he'd call it an 'enhancement'—to the flavor.
The small white crystals quickly dissolved as if they did not even exist. And the waiter, who did not even see anything amiss, served the specially flavored glasses of beer.
Noel swiftly got back from his "toilet visit" and checked the bill that was placed on his table, Two sen, five nen. He pulled out his brown, leather-finished purse and took out two one-sen notes and another, smaller five nen note. Not to appear cheap and also as a habit, he also pulled out another one sen note as a tip.
He then put the bill on the table and picked up his suitcase as if he was leaving, be just as he reached the knights, he stopped to watch them for a few seconds, just enough to get their attention.
"Huh! What are you looking at? Never seen knights drinking?" The brawny knight turned to look at him.
The man in a grey frock coat smiled inwardly, "My apologies" he tipped his flat hat and said, "I am a tourist, I came here to see the famous Drakonis palace and the city they rule. I was astonished at the beauty of this place which is so different from my hometown. So, I was wondering if you could say anything about inside the palace since a commoner like me cannot get inside."
Noel made himself appear like a talkative and cheerful person in order to ease the knights from any suspicion.
"Well..." The lean knight besides the brawny one was the one to answer, "I think you've come to the right place. Sit down here, you need a drink? It's on you though."
"Thank you valiant knights, but I had my fill, it's not appropriate to drink again. So I will just take a seat and listen."
Noel put down his smooth iron suitcase and sat down, his coat hanging down the stool.
"Let me think where to start, The Drakonis halls? A maze so twisted that even the rats carry maps!..."
Sounds like they should just install signs for the poor rodents. Noel lampooned inwardly, but continued to listen in.
"Haa! What fools," Noel was happy because he had just gotten more than he needed, he now knew the rooms as well as the shift times of the guards indoors. He just needed to check if there were any anomalies within the palace yesterday, but the return was more than that.
Sitting on top of a clock tower's roof, Noel was again checking his watch. He looked at his wife and then closed the watch, a shadow formed on the ground near him and he threw the watch inside it.
A mask popped up and was lifted to his arm by shadow tentacles. Slowly, his hand caught the plain, black mask with no features. Suddenly, two purple glows appeared where his eyes should be.
Lucifer, who was endorsed in the actions of this man, suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of fear when he watched the eyes from the side. It was as if his body was screaming to bow in front of his presence... no!— that existence.
It's the same as that woman in bandages who met Satan!
Judge hugged his sister tightly, not because he wanted to, but because he had no other choice but to do it.
After a long while, she let go. "I'll be back in a year, but I will write to you. You should do the same," She looked at Judge who nodded out of desperation, and then she turned to her other brother whom she less dotted on than Judge. "Heard that, Liam?"
Liam, who could care less, gave a slight nod. "I will only say that I'll write, not how much, so expect a short letter."
Amber did not start a fight over the length of the letter, she just moved her red hair to the back of her ear. She had a half-up, messy ponytail, there were a few strands of wavy hair at the front that were brushed to the side.
"Come here Liam," she motioned for Liam to come forward, to which the always unconcerned Liam responded and came closer to both of them.
Once she got both her brothers within her grasp, Amber hugged them both tightly again, like it was the last time that they were gonna see each other. "I am gonna miss you both so much. So..." She pinched Liam's ear.
"Don't make me feel lonely and write letters properly, okay?"
"Yeah Yeah," both Liam and Judge said monotonously.
"Okay?" She repeated, but with a little louder.
"Good." She let both of them go and headed to the cloud weaver docked at one of the ports.
It was Late October, and it had already started snowing. Judge watched as his father and sister climbed the steps to the giant ship that had a huge envelope with machines on the back.
Judge took his watch and looked at the time, 6:02 in the evening, haa it's getting cold!
He rubbed his hands together to produce warmth. The ship let out a loud whistle as it took up into the air, the unnecessarily ornated big gangplank was removed, and the anchors were let loose.
Anchors were the ropes used to tie cloud weavers to the port, unlike normal ship anchors. And in the late October 31, on 6:02, his sister left their house for the first time in her life.
Wait for me, sis! I will leave the house one day too when I am ten. Judge thought inwardly as he watched the ship be devoured by thick fog, he held his hand out and caught a few snows in his hands.