Looking behind him, Arthur saw a tall man glaring daggers at him. The boy flinched for a moment, thinking that he got caught. However, the man’s next words put him at ease.
“We need you at the goddamn furnaces! Now!” The man yelled as he started dragging Arthur back through the busy corridors. “You took your sweet time begging that stingy bastard for a raise, huh? Well, time to work now!”
‘Furnaces? So they cook the meat here too?’ Arthur thought to himself as he let the man drag him wherever he was going. He didn’t want to raise any suspicion yet and decided to simply see how things would go for now. He knew chaos would come at some point.
Eventually, the two stopped in front of closed doors. Then, the man pushed Arthur inside the room. “Go and take your spot! Now!”
“Yes, sir!!” Arthur made a military salute before he turned around and entered the room. Immediately, he was hit with a strong wave of heat that almost made him stumble back. Looking inside, all he could see was steam and countless workers moving around in a frenzy as if they lost their minds.
Large furnaces were aligned on the other side as intense flames burned inside of them, slowly cooking the meat. The atmosphere was intense and extremely hot.
‘Wow… Is this a depiction of hell?’ Arthur didn’t know whether to cry or smile at this sight.
“Did you get the meatloaf out yet?!”
“Two more sausages!”
Slowly walking through the kitchen, Arthur listened to the loud noises and cries of chefs and workers. He was fascinated at how perfectly chaotic it was. There was not a single thing going on in there that seemed remotely organized. Yet, in that chaos itself, they seemed to have found order, ironically.
“Where have you been, man?! Help me here! I’m struggling!”
One of the chefs yelled at Arthur from the other side. The boy turned to look at him. “I’m sorry! I had some stuff to deal with!”
“I don’t give a damn about that! Come help me!”
Arthur pursed his lips and approached the furnace, the heat coming from the fire hit his face but it only felt pleasant on his skin as he had been standing in the freezing cold weather for a long time now.
However, the same can’t be said for the other people as they were sweating profusely and trying to keep wiping their faces with tissues.
“Get the meat out when it’s cooked and put the next batch in!” The man said before he walked away.
“Hmm Ok… Sounds simple enough.” Arthur muttered as he peeked into the furnace, seeing the meat being cooked slowly. Then, he saw the large peel next to him. So, he grabbed it and slowly moved it inside the furnace to check the readiness of the meat.
*Cling*
That was when Arthur’s arm hit something extremely hot next to him. ‘Ouch!’ He quickly yanked his arm away and looked at the source of the heat. There, he saw a small iron tube protruding out of the wall. The tube seemed to be connected to the furnace, supplying it with fuel for the fire.
‘Interesting…’ Arthur thought to himself as he curiously touched the tube again. But, the searing hot temperature made him retract it again. He couldn’t even handle that heat with his strong skin.
‘This is such a dangerous placing of such a thing. Do they want to burn people?’ Arthur thought to himself as he turned around and looked at the other people. No one seemed that bothered by the red tube as they all worked quickly to finish the orders.
At that moment, Arthur heard a ringing sound in his head. Looking up, he saw that he received a notification from the group chat.
Herculia: “I’m in. This place is so full of guards! Is this some kind of military base? I can’t really drag all these idiots out.”
Danny: “We’re almost in. Where are you?”
Herculia: “I’m struggling to stay hidden and find the perfect position to create some trouble.”
Arthur read the conversation with a cold expression. He was already aware that they might really come across many guards and that further proved that they were indeed in the right place. But, he also understood that Herculia could only drag so many guards out before they realized something weird was going on and retreated back into the building which would only cause them more trouble.
‘It seems we underestimated how dangerous this place is…. Tsk, I need to help him.’ Arthur thought to himself as he looked around him. If he could only grab the attention of some of these guards and then use that opportunity to get Herculia out.
‘What should I do…?’ He hummed to himself, squeezing his mind for any devious ideas. That was when his eyes fell on the gas tube again and for a second, a devilish idea struck his mind. Slowly, Arthur drew a smile on his face.
‘Maybe…’ He looked around him. ‘They all are too busy to notice. I can do it.’
Arthur: “I think I can help.”
Emmy: “… What are you thinking of, Arthur?”
Arthur: “Just trust me, ok? I know what I’m doing.”
He knew this was a very stupid and reckless idea. But, to truly do what he wanted, unpredictability was needed every now and then.
So, taking a deep breath, Arthur slowly moved his hand toward the tube and put his hand on it. The horrible pain assaulted the palm of his hand again. But, he bit his lip through the pain and then slowly channeled a very small amount of mana to his hand. He didn’t want to catch anyone’s attention on the off chance they were very sensitive to mana.
Then, he activated Frost Flame around the palm of his hand. The fire quickly appeared and vanished, turning into ice around the extremely hot tube. The ice created a small, thin sheet of ice around the hot metal, quickly starting to cool it down.
‘I learned this in physics class… When you rapidly cool down an extremely hot metal…’
*Crack*
‘It becomes brittle and easy to crack.’ He thought to himself. Due to the extreme temperature of Frost Flame and the extreme temperature of the tube, the two powers clashed strongly. However, it didn’t take a second for the stronger element to come victorious… Ice.
‘Then… All I have to do is just crack it.’ Seeing that the part he froze had completely cooled down and started cracking, Arthur put his hand on it then with a simple squeeze.
*CRACK*
The entire tube crumbled as large amounts of green gas started leaking out. Seeing that, Arthur took a deep breath.
“THERE IS A GAS LEAKAGE!!” He yelled at the top of his lungs, catching everyone’s attention.
“Huh? Gas leak?!”
“What?!”
“Everyone! Get out! Hurry!”
The workers were all terrified beyond words as they stopped everything they were doing and rushed out of the room. The protocol had taught them what to do in case such a thing happens.
Arthur watched the scene and quickly followed after them, not to raise suspicions. Meanwhile, the gas continued expanding everywhere, covering the entire kitchen. It slowly approached the burning fire around it.
Then, all it needed was a small park before…
*BOOOOOOOM*
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3