[OANSG] Chapter 99: Discovery
[August 1, 2019]
... "This junior sister is really interesting! I support you junior sister! Here take our family"s Ming Xi!" Luis spoke up.
That earned him an eye roll from Ming Xi.
"Oh come on. Isn"t this junior sister adorable?"
"You"re family?" Feng Wu looked at Luis skeptically.
"... we"re friends. We live in the same dorm, so we"re like brothers. We have the same house... more or less." Luis"s smile became stiff for having to explain.
"Oh. I understand. You are friends. Like Jier and I are friends." Feng Wu nodded finally getting it.
(Isn"t obvious? Is it so hard to understand?) wondered Luis.
"Come over sit with us. We ordered a lot and haven"t started eating yet. Eat with us. It"s on Senior Luis. So don"t be shy. Eat up!" Gerasi called out to them.
Jier wasn"t willing. Ming Xi was nothing more than a pretty face trying to abduct his adorable little sister. Naturally he didn"t want them to be in the same place.
Unfortunately for him he was the only one in the group who felt this way. Even Pei Qing, who was nearly stabbed, didn"t mind. Pei Qing and Wind flanked him on either side and dragged him forward. Rain handled Feng Wu pulling her along.
The party of five were soon seated properly at the large table meant to seat ten.
The entire table was full of meat when Gerasi called for five more roast ducks. There wasn"t a shred of vegetable in sight.
"h.e.l.lo seniors. We"re a team with Captain Jier and Feng Wu. I"m Rain. This is my brother Wind. Next to him is Pei Qing. Nice to meet you all. Please take care of us." Rain spoke as she at, tearing into a duck leg. She was talking with her mouth full, but she didn"t care.
"What school do you guys go to?" Elena"s interested shifted to the trio teaming up with Feng Wu.
"We"re recently registered adventurers but we"re not in school," said Wind as he gnawed on a drumstick.
"Oh! I see. So did you guys come to Souya for a mission?" Luis asked.
Ming Xi didn"t partic.i.p.ate in the conversation, only listening with half an ear while eating. The glances Feng Wu kept throwing him was unnerving.
"Yeah! We are here for a mission. But it"s a secret, so I won"t tell even a beauty like you," Wind said looking at Elena.
"Nevermind us, Senior Ming Xi, you didn"t come to Souya to play around did you?" Jier didn"t like Ming Xi so he was trying to find something to argue about.
"We"re here for a friend"s wedding. It"s in two months. We wanted to come early and explore Souya and get some experience in the badlands." Ming Xi smiled at Jier"s hostility. He wasn"t the least bothered.
Rain couldn"t help but ask. "Are you attending Sir Germaine and Lady Minerva"s wedding?" The timing was right.
"Wait! Don"t tell me, you"re all here for the wedding too?" Luis and Gerasi exchanged glances.
"Of course not. We just heard about it. It"s a big deal you know. I"m sure everyone in Souya must know about it." Pei Qing replied. He stepped hard on Rain"s foot underneath the table as he did so. What was wrong with this girl? What if someone in the group was a friend of the bride or groom? Their plan to sabotage the wedding would end before it started!
"Haha. Yeah that"s exactly it." Rain cursed Pei Qing in her head. This guy! He didn"t have to step so hard on her foot. She hoped his leg broke.
Ming Xi"s group exchanged glances. These guys… their missions didn"t have anything to do with the wedding did it?
Jier cursed his pig teammates. He avoided Ming Xi"s eyes, not wanting to give anything away. As soon as they completed the mission he was going to ditch the three wierdos.
Feng Wu was the calmest in the group. Her focus alternated between two things: eating food and gazing at Ming Xi, rinse and repeat.
He wasn"t sure how he felt but her gazes made him feel like he was some kind of food.
The two groups parted ways after enjoying a wonderful meal of roast duck.
Feng Wu was more determined than ever to make Ming Xi the father of her baby, while Jier and the trio didn"t think too much about the encounter.
In contrast Ming Xi and his group felt strongly about the meeting. There was something strange about Feng Wu"s group. After they left the restaurant they contacted a friend in Zhongyang. They learned about the wedding mission and how Feng Wu"s group was working on it.
"Could it be a mission from an admirer of Sir Germaine? Or a suitor for Lady Minerva? Or some other third party who doesn"t want to see the influence of the two houses increase from the marriage alliance?" Luis was only able to come up with these three possibilities after thinking about it for a bit.
"The first is unlikely. The second maybe. There aren"t many lords who can spend two hundred thousand on something like this. The few stubborn enough to do so aren"t the right age for Lady Minerva. All the young misses and masters of the right age don"t have control of that kind of money."
There was no way such a large expenditure would go unnoticed by their families, so the odds of anyone like that posting the request at the Adventurers"s Guild was unlikely. The third possibility was the most believable.
It was just such a splashy way to do it. Posting the mission in Zhongyang increased the danger of the poster"s ident.i.ty being leaked. It was unexpected that one of the wily old foxes would act so openly.