Muta could not tell whether his father was serious or not if not for the fact that the audacious man decided to walk up the stairs towards the main entrance. The guards beside the door saw Gavin moving closer towards them, but they did not make a single move. "Are they not planning to stop my father or are they just statues that were meant for display?" Muta thought.
The next second, the two guards had moved their arms upwards and transformed into a salute position. "Good morning Sir Gavin!" The voices of the once frozen guards reverberated through the air as they said greetings to the poorly dressed man. Muta stood there with his mouth gaping wide open, unable to believe what he is witnessing.
"At ease at ease," Gavin spoke with a wide smile on his face. "Oh wow. Look at how much you both have grown. If I remembered correctly, you guys were only at the intermediate level of your earthen aura when I left 7 years ago. And now you both are at the middle ranks of the expert level. Clearly, you haven't been slacking off."
"Yes, sir! We have trained hard to protect Dragoon from any unwanted customers and so far there has been no casualties sir! Please enter into the restaurant now Sir Gavin, we do not want to keep you waiting outside any longer!" The duo pressed hard again the two wooden doors. As the door moved, the ground was shaking slightly. It was easy to tell that the doors were extremely heavy and would probably need a strong expert to open it.
"Come on Muta, why are you still standing at the door? Aren't you hungry? I brought you to one of the best restaurants there is in the whole of Golgia and you are standing there scared stiff that I am kidding you?" Gavin laughed out heartily as he pulled his stoned son into the restaurant. Inside, Muta saw fifty servant-like individuals standing by the door awaiting their arrival. "Welcome to the Dragoon Restaurant!" The room reverberated as the servant spoke. Above them was a giant crystal chandelier that glistened from the natural light that shined in from the glass dome above them. Right in the middle of the restaurant was a white quartz fountain that spurted out jets of water, where a beautiful sculpture of some woman stood in the middle of it. Muta mouth had been open the entire time as this was his first time seeing something this beautiful. When the employees saw who they were greeting, their smiles suddenly turned into frowns of disgust.
"Who are these gross looking commoners?"
"Why did the guards allow them to come in?"
"Has our restaurant downgraded so much to the point where we are starting to serve any type of commoner? Look at that boy over there, there's even a hole in his shirt. They might even be mistaken for a beggar on the street."
There was a lot of murmuring going on in the background and Muta knew straight away they were not welcome here. It was then an old butler had appeared out of nowhere infant of them. Muta was once again shocked for he had not seen the old man coming out of anywhere. It felt like he appeared out of thin air. When the old man saw Gavin's unshaven face, he immediately walks up to him and bowed respectfully.
"Good morning Master Gavin. I am deeply sorry for my subordinate's attitude towards you and the young fellow beside you. They had only started working here after you left the city's post. I hope you forgive me for my untimely arrival."
"Hey Butler Lee, why the need for an apology? Even if I was one of them and I saw a person walking in dressed like me and my son, I would also immediately start commenting about our appearance. No harm is done no harm is done." Gavin laughed away Butler Lee's apology as if the group of servant's remarks previously were nothing.
"Oh, so this is young Muta. It is an honour to finally meet you. The first time I heard about you was probably seven years ago when your father disappeared. Gavin, it seems like he has gotten your charming looks." The butler's tone changed after Gavin's comment and now it seemed like he was just one of his old time friends.
"Yes yes, this is my son. I brought him to Golgia today so that he can attend the Aura testing this afternoon." As Muta's father stood to the butler, the old man had led them to their seat which was located beside the fountain. The chair and table they were sitting at were clothed with the finest of silks. The touch of the material was exquisite and something Muta never felt before. He was used to the old linen cloth that he makes use off when he learnt sewing from Auntie Nat.
"Now, Master Gavin what would you be ordering today?" Gavin did not even glance at the menu before saying out a few of the dishes. The way he said it looks like he had been to this restaurant many times before. As the butler left to tell the chef of the ordered dishes, Muta stared at his father disapprovingly.
At that moment, there was only silence and Muta's finger taping. Unable, to take the silence anymore, Gavin spoke up. "Well Muta, I'm guessing you have a lot of burning questions that you would like to ask. So why not ask a few while the chef is cooking our food?"
"Well father, since you asked, how exactly are you related to this restaurant? Why does this butler Lee treat you with such respect? Are you secretly royalty?"
"Woah Woah. One at a time," Gavin laughed at his son's barrage of questions, not really knowing where to start. "Well for starters, the reason why butler Lee has high regards of me is that of my background in this restaurant and what I did professionally for the king back then. I was one of the founders of this restaurant."
"So… You are saying that you and your comrades were given the opportunity to open a restaurant within the heavenly section, which you said that the requirements to open in this area are super high?"
"Yes, that sounds about right." It was then when Muta's jaw gaped again and was speechless of his father's background. Unable to fully process the information, Muta lifted up the resting Nix and started stroking its feathers. "So father, how exactly were you helping the king…"
Suddenly, the door into the kitchen flung open loudly and had interrupted Muta's question. A giant figure was stomping out of there with a demon-like face. It was very obvious that he was enraged by something. "Gavin! You son of a…" Right when he was about to cuss, the bulky man had flung the table that they were sitting at upwards. The cutleries were flung out in all directions and everyone at the restaurant knew that there was surely going to be a mess when the thrown object hits the ground.
However, what was even more shocking was what came after. It was a surreal moment where Gavin instantly reacted with his wind power. The man lit up with a slight tint of green and a small gust of wind had lifted all the cutlery and table back into its original position. It all took place in a matter of seconds and was as if nothing had happened just moments ago. "Hey, Grant! Long time no see!" Muta's father had totally ignored what Grant just did and simply greeted him like how he would with any other friend.
"You piece of ****! Do you know how much I had to go through with Russell? We had to answer to the king why our restaurant no longer served four of our different exotic beasts anymore! Not only that, you ran away to create this son of yours and you only brought him back here to see me and Russell after seven years? Are we not your best pals? We have been through thick and thin and have even fought against the demons together. What were you thinking?" The once angry Grant had instantly turned into a crybaby. Tears were rolling down his face as he spoke out at Gavin. It was an extremely overdramatic scene which made both Muta and Gavin smile. "Well, I am back now aren't I. No need to cry over such a small thing, big boy." Whilst talking, Gavin kindly pats the bulky man's back.
"Well, I was not at all ok. It was just the sniffles." The large Grant immediately wiped away his tears on his clean white apron and he was back to normal. He immediately turned to Muta and said. "Hello, young boy. My name is Grant. I am the head chef of Dragoon and a long time friend of your father's."
"Nice to meet you, Uncle Grant. I am Muta, the son of this irresponsible father of mine." Muta shook his hand and greeted him back. He could see that thanks to his father's sudden disappearance, both Grant and another person named Russell had to settle a lot of problems for him. It was only after a short conversation with the father and son duo when Grant left back to the kitchen to whip up several delicious dishes for his long lost friend and his son.