"Samuel, nice to see that you made it!" Benjamin exclaimed before the young man smiled and greeted Benjamin as well. "I wouldn't miss it. How are you?"
"I'm pretty good, thanks for asking." The old man answered before Samuel nodded. "I was told you have a few apprentices in the game now?"
Surprised, Benjamin nodded in response. "Oh? Yes, I do, but how do you find things like this out?"
"I have the best source there is, don't I?" Samuel said with a laugh, referencing a certain almighty goddess in the World of Magic before Benjamin laughed. "I see, I guess I should expect you always to know what's going on then. Anyway, do you want to eat something? My Grandson is standing in front of the grill right now, and he's the one I recommended for the game."
As the old man explained this, he showed Samuel to the area where all the food was and handed him some of his aged beer, before he stepped over to Benji, who seemed to be glad that his grandfather was in a better mood now. "Benji, this is Samuel, my friend from Prime Industries. Samuel, this is Benjamin, my oldest grandchild."
"Nice to meet you, Benjamin. Some of the first things your grandfather told me about when I met him the first time was how proud he was of you." Samuel said with a smile as he remembered his first meeting with this man standing next to him before Benji embarrassedly scratched the back of his head.
"It's nice to meet you too, Samuel. But go ahead and call me Benji, as everyone does."
"Alright then, Benji. Anything you can recommend me from the grill?" Samuel asked as he took a sip from his beer before Benji quickly nodded. "Yup, definitely. The shrimp is pretty good, and the burgers are, well, burgers. Grampa also made ribs over there, and they're damn good." He explained before Samuel hungrily grabbed a plate and happily took some of the shrimps and a piece of the ribs as well as some bread and salad.
"I guess it's time to socialize then. Ah, and introduce me to your son later as well, I'd like to talk to him for a bit to get to know him." Samuel said with a smile before he made his way to one of the tents and immediately began socializing and introducing himself to the people there.
After Samuel left, Benji looked at his grandfather with a wry and awkward smirk. "Really? You bragged about me?"
With a laugh, Benjamin then nodded his head as he placed his hand on Benji's shoulder. "Well, of course, I did, I bragged about all of you." He told Benji, while Kyle was standing next to them with his hands inside of his hoody-pocket before remembering something.
"Ah, Mr. Jo- sorry, Benjamin… Sophia came over a little while ago and told me to tell you that she 'Both hates and loves' you. I don't know why, though. She's not been letting me hang with her all day for some reason either…" Kyle said with a deep sigh before Benjamin chuckled lightly.
"Ah, I know why that is. You see, Sophia was with Kim all day, right? I kinda tried setting them up with each other, because I know that Kim is lesbian as well." He said with a smirk before both Benji and Kyle seemed to have a sudden moment of enlightenment.
"Yup, that makes sense. They did both seem to be pretty into each other, but I didn't want to assume." Benji said after a bit before Benjamin looked into the distance toward where Michael was still sitting while holding his cheek from Tony's slap.
"Let's hope that a certain someone doesn't notice." He sighed, and Benji nodded while handing the task of working the grill back to his grandfather. "Yeah, he's been shooting me all kinds of dirty looks all day. Any idea why?" Benji asked, and Benjamin slowly nodded, starting to feel angry again.
"Mhm. I'll tell you later, don't worry." He responded with a slight smile before continuing to work on the food.
Everything was all fine and dandy for a few hours, but after a while, Benjamin noticed something weird going on. Benjamin paid quite close attention to what everyone was drinking alcohol-wise because he didn't want anyone to get super drunk, but for some reason, one of the bottles of wine went missing.
He asked around to see whether or not anyone saw anything, and the one that did end up being able to help Benjamin out was Samuel. "Hm, yeah, I saw two girls walk off with a bottle a little while ago, but I didn't see where they were going, and I wasn't sure if it was real wine." He explained before Benjamin sighed loudly, already having a feeling of who it was that took it. But since he wanted to make sure, he asked.
"Did one of them have brown-blonde hair and the other colorfully dyed hair and nose and lip piercings?" He asked before Samuel thought for a little while and then nodded. "I think so, yeah. Sorry, if I had known that it was a wine, I would have said something."
"No, no, you're fine," Benjamin reassured the young man in front of him, before swiftly continuing. "I just wish I had something like my 'Truth-Seeing Eyes' skill in real life. Might make it easier to find them." He sighed with a slow chuckle before turning around, not noticing the grin that Samuel had on his face after hearing this old man say that.
But even then, Benjamin had learned a trick or two from the game, through his constant focus on specific aspects of himself or the environment. That made it far easier for him to look for Sophia and Kim before they got completely wasted.
After all, there weren't many teenage girls here beside the two of them, so their voices really stuck out if one managed to concentrate enough. And soon, Benjamin managed to hear the sounds of the two girls giggling not too far away, finding them at a somewhat hidden spot behind the house.
And the girls weren't just drinking. Instead, they already emptied the bottle and didn't have anything left to drink. Instead, the girls were currently doing something else to get rid of their boredom.
"Uhum." Benjamin coughed to get their attention, before Sophia and Kim immediately got startled and stopped making out, staring at the old man embarrassedly.
"H-Hey Grampa, what are you doing here?" Sophia stuttered, struggling to stand up but managing to do so after a little while before Benjamin looked at her with a frown. "That's what I would like to know. Why the hell did you think stealing a whole bottle of wine was a good idea?" He angrily asked as he picked the bottle up from the ground before Kim slowly stood next to Sophia.
"Sorry Mister Joyce, it was my idea… I shouldn't have-" She said, obviously a lot soberer than Sophia, before Benjamin raised his hand a bit to tell her to be quiet.
"Yes, you shouldn't have. But it doesn't matter whose idea it was because both of you did it. Sophia, come inside with me and lay down for a while before your father sees you." Benjamin said, stepping behind the girl before he tried to lead the girl to the front door so that the guests couldn't see Sophia drunkenly stumble around.
But it seemed like Sophia herself had another idea. "No! Let him see me like this. I don't care anymore… I don't want to keep hiding who I am…" She muttered out with slurred speech before Benjamin sighed loudly and shook his head.
"Mhm, if you still think like that tomorrow morning, I'll help you tell him, but not now while you're like this. It's only going to make the situation worse." Benjamin told his granddaughter, who continued vehemently shaking her head.
"No, now!" She yelled as she ripped her arm away from her grandfather's hand and began running toward the party, while Benjamin immediately ran to follow her together with Kim.
"Sophia, stop!" Benjamin yelled out before the girl herself got somewhat startled again as if she just hadn't been paying attention to what she was currently doing.
And so, she quickly lost balance and tripped over her own feet, slamming right into the ground and scraping her knee open. Concerned for his granddaughter, Benjamin then kneeled in front of her and took a look at her slightly bleeding leg. "Damn it, Sophia, what are you doing? Be more careful." He said with a frown and helped Sophia up after making sure that she was alright, taking a look around to make sure that nobody noticed. But it seemed a bit too late, and the one that Benjamin wanted not to see this the most was, of course, the first one that did.
"What's going on here? Sophia, what's wrong?" Michael asked as he ran up to them, taking a look at his daughter swaying left and right before noticing the bottle of wine in Benjamin's hand. "You didn't drink this, did you?" He yelled out, for the first time since getting there completely losing his cool publicly as he ripped the empty glass bottle out of the old man's hand.
Beginning to be scared, Sophia stared at her father and didn't do anything else, worried at what was going to happen. Before, she was saying things like this all wouldn't be an issue, but in the end, she didn't really manage to stand up to her father. So, Benjamin tried to get her out of this mess.
"No, she didn't. Someone else left the bottle on the ground here, and Sophia tripped over it. She's just a little dizzy, so I would like to bring her inside and let her rest a bit."
"The hell you will!" Michael answered immediately, hitting Benjamin's hand away from Sophia and pulling her over toward him. "I'm not going to leave my daughter anywhere near a freak like you. Sophia, we're leaving." He said as he began to make his way toward the street where his car was standing, pulling his daughter after him as she was looking at Benjamin in confusion.
"W-Wait, what do you mean?" She asked, trying to get her father to let go of her arm. "You're hurting me, please let go!" Sophia asked before Michael ground his teeth and continued walking, only grasping her arm tighter.
"No, I won't let go! We're leaving immediately! That man, you were just standing next to is a disgusting creature. He's one of those Bi freaks!" As Michael yelled this, something seemed to snap inside of Sophia, and she angrily pulled her arm away from her father, who had gripped her hard enough that she began bleeding from the scratches that formed from the violent movement.
"Don't you dare talk about Grandpa like that!" She yelled out in the loudest and most angry voice that Benjamin had ever heard her use, for the first time in her life standing up to this man in front of her. But he wouldn't have any of it.
"What do you think you're doing? Are you really on the side of that thing right there?!" Michael asked with a nearly shrieking voice, before Sophia ripped her eyes open in even more anger, visibly holding herself back from attacking her father at this very moment.
"What the fuck do you mean 'that thing'? Grandpa is a goddamn person, and a better one than you will ever be!" Immediately after she said this and some of the other guests started paying attention to the ruckus, Michael gripped Sophia's arm once more. "Don't you dare talk to your father that way! Your grandfather is an abomination of nature; doing such things isn't natural! A man and a woman, that's the only pair that God accepts! That thing-"
"Shut the fuck up!" Sophia yelled, turning around as she once more escaped her father's grasp, stepping up to Kim and immediately pressing her lips on the other girl's in front of all the onlookers before looking at her father and pulling Kim closer toward her. "Are you saying that I'm a freak too? That I'm unnatural? Are you fucking saying that?" Sophia defended herself as Kim's face turned a bright red out of embarrassment before Michael stared at his daughter as if his world just shattered.
"You… you… That's your fault! You've infected her, and now she's like this, right?!" Michael screamed out as he stared over at Benjamin, who stared back with a calm expression, so quiet that one might mistake him for being asleep. Ignoring everything else, Michael stepped up toward Sophia and raised his hand in preparation for something that Benjamin would never forgive.
And so, Benjamin stood between the young girl and Michael, doing what the latter had planned to do to his daughter to him instead.
As the surrounding grew completely silent, Benjamin raised his arm and with a swift motion, he slapped Michael with all the force he could muster, causing the man to stumble backward in a daze before dropping to the ground unconscious.
As everyone was shocked and directly staring at what just happened there within a split second. Benjamin felt a pain stronger than anything he had felt in the past few years since his arm was completely ruined by the burning hot coals in his forge and couldn't resist as the muscles in his arm began to tense up in a way that seemed to crush his bones.
No matter what Benjamin's mindset was, in regards to his health, in the end, he was still a broken old man after all.