Henzelheim country, Werewolf Continent.
On the streets of Sevenclaw city’s Merchant district, Lucas was wearing a disguise as he walked towards a restaurant.
The restaurant was a small one and hardly had any customers. It was located on the outskirts of the merchant district and generally people were sparsely present in this area.
The restaurant was called ‘Ducky’s treats’ and on its signboard was a middle aged man wearing an apron, a chef’s hat, a plate of food on one hand and a white duck with yellow beak wearing a chef’s hat on the other.
The restaurant had one entry gate beside which were glass panels and behind those were a variety of dishes put on display for the others to see. Walking in, one would enter a spacious dining area. There were many chairs and tables present in the dining area and instead of a brick wall on one side, the restaurant had a transparent glass wall.
Looking through it, one could see a small pond with many ducks swimming in it, as well as a small garden with many more ducks roaming around. Not only that, there were a few ducks roaming around freely in the dining hall. Some sat at the table, others on chairs, some on the floor beneath the table, and others on the laps of customers.
The ducks were smart; if picked up by a waiter and put down from the table or chair, the ducks wouldn’t go up on it. They were trained well and thus they generally didn’t bother the customers much. It was a lively place, themed around ducks, but only lacked a bit of customers.
Lucas walked inside the restaurant and sat on a chair at one of the tables present. There was a duck sitting on the table and Lucas petted the duck instead of putting it down. A waiter soon arrived and saw Lucas petting the duck. He looked at Lucas and asked politely,
“What would you like to order, sir?”
“A glass of orange juice and a kids meal with no peas in it.”
Lucas replied to the waiter without looking at him while continuing to pet the duck.
The waiter felt weirded out hearing Lucas’s order. Which adult would order a kids meal like that and that too with no peas? So picky. He, however, still had a good impression of Lucas as he was playing with the duck on his table. The staff in the restaurant liked all the people who liked ducks, and the waiter was no exception. So even though he felt weirded out, the good impression of Lucas was retained.
Noting down the order, the waiter said, “anything else, you would like to order, sir?”
“No.” Lucas said in a neutral tone.
The waiter nodded his head and walked to the kitchen to give the order. There was just one cook in the whole restaurant who was also the owner himself. There were also three helpers supporting him. Because the restaurant was small, it was only natural that it lacked the financial means to hire more employees, and thus only employed a small number of people.
The waiter walked to the counter and rang a bell. The cook, who was also the owner, walked to the counter and looking at him arrive, the waiter repeated Lucas’s order, stating,
“One glass of orange juice and a kids meal with no peas in it.”
The middle aged owner’s eyes widened as he heard this order and had his eyebrows raised in shock and surprise alike. He rushed out of the kitchen counter and held the waiter’s shoulder and asked, “who is this? Who is this person? Take me to him now!”
The waiter was shocked after getting such an exaggerated reaction from the owner of the restaurant. It had been many years since he was working here, but it was his first time looking at the calm and collected owner react like that. He quickly pointed towards where Lucas was and said hurriedly, “table number 4, sir.”
Lucas looked at him with a neutral expression and said, “sit down. I know what you want to ask, and I am here for just that.”
The owner nodded his head and seated himself in the chair opposite to Lucas and stared at him in anticipation.
Lucas looked at him and said, “I know this meal was your daughter’s favorite food. She hated peas and thus brought home a duck one day as a pet and whenever she had peas in food, she fed that to the duck and avoided eating it.”
The middle aged owner’s eyes became moist as he heard about his daughter from Lucas. He controlled his urge to cry and continued to stare at Lucas, waiting for him to finish what he was speaking.
Lucas continued, “I was roaming around Kinzo islands and found a black box. Inside it was a letter and a spatial ring. The letter stated your daughter’s life a bit, and that’s the reason I know.”
A drop of tear fell down the owner’s eye as he heard this from Lucas. He covered his mouth and closed his eyes to control himself from breaking down. A few more drops of tears fell down his face as he tried to control himself from crying out loud and embarrassing himself in front of Lucas.
Lucas didn’t interrupt the man as he knew what he was going through. He was out on a vacation with his wife and daughter in Kinzo islands. They were then suddenly attacked by some local bandits, but because the owner was weak at that time, all three of them had to flee from them.
The owner did everything he could to keep the bandits at bay long enough for his wife and daughter to flee. Though the man was able to stall the bandits, he was unable to do so for all of them, as two bandits broke free and chased the two women.
The wife, noticing this, took her daughter and ran near a cave. She took out a paper and a box, and wrote a letter in it for her husband, hoping that he could read her last will. She placed her ring inside the box along with the letter and threw it in the opposite direction of the cave. After that, she ran away with her daughter.
The black box got buried into the ground along the passage of time and beside it grew a small plant. The black box was always present beside the plant as it grew, and after many years, it got instilled into the plant, which now became a tree and became a part of it.
The tree had been untouched for many years until Lucas arrived near it a few hours ago and set fire to it for the black box. His plan was to acquire the assistance of the restaurant’s owner in exchange for this item that his wife had dropped before she and their daughter went missing.