Even though I already knew where the cafeteria was according to the map I read several hours before, I still could not bear my urge to try the arrow glasses and to see how the glasses works myself.
Apparently, aside from showing arrows which would direct us to our current destination, the glasses would also acknowledge if the wearer was the same as its owner or not because when I tried it, a notification showing a green small sized words 'ENS Burners confirmed' showed up on the upper left of the left lens.
This led me to assume that if someone was to use an arrow glasses which does not belong to him or her, then the glasses would not show up any arrows and thus it would be just like any other ordinary glasses.
When I arrived at the cafeteria, the place was already crowded with many soldiers from cadet to officials, all lining in a neat two-line row towards the chef to receive their dinner. I guess most of the men in this base had already came here several minutes earlier before me because when I entered the line, there was not even a single person lining up behind me.
I waited about ten minutes before it was finally my turn to get my dinner, and just my luck – most of the meals were already completely clean except for three pairs of toast bread, two portions of omelet, and three portions of salted potato starch. Since there was no one lining behind me until the time I get to get to my dinner, I took all of the portions.
At first, I thought that the cafeteria had two floors just like the rest of the other parts in the wing, but it turned out that the place had three floors – the first floor for the cadets, and non-commissioned officers; the second floor for the commissioned officers; and the third floor for senior officers ranking from Commander and above.
Since I was categorized as a commissioned officer, I went for the second floor and look for a table there – which was unexpectedly easy since no other commissioned officers were there at that moment.
Just when I was about to sits down right after I put my plate on the table, I saw Captain Quentin walking down the stairs in a hurry with other four senior officers. I intended to approach him, but he looked at my way first and quickly nodded, then went down the stairs again in a hurry towards the exit of the cafeteria in the direction to the eastern wing.
I finished my dinner in about three minutes, and was about to walk down the stairs and leave the cafeteria when a commotion happened at the first floor. I took a look and apparently there was a cadet – a Chinese–American cadet being bullied by other four well-built cadets. I rushed down to the first floor, and approached them to stop the bullying.
"Hey! That is enough!" I said towards the other four cadets. "You better have a good reason for doing this stuff!"
"Yeah sure we do, Sir." said one of the cadets. "I believe that each the tables here are already divided evenly for each of the air force, navy, marines, and army, yet this one little guy came to ours suddenly and ask to share dinner as if we are pals or something!"
"I... I was just meaning to get acquainted with some air force men!" said the Chinese-American cadet. "And besides, the rest of the tables were already occupied then."
"Well, that is your problem, dwarf!" said the other cadet.
"Come on, stop it." I said as I tried to stop the bullying. "You are here to train together with the other fellow cadets. You guys are just embarrassing yourself and the air force if you keep this up."
"With all due respect, Ensign," replied the bullying cadet, "You are not my superior officer, and therefore we have no obligation to follow your order."
As he grabbed the Chinese-American cadet by the t-shirt, another voice suddenly heard.
"You have had your orders, cadets." said a tall, built young man with a heavy voice.
"Sir!" the four cadets gasped and immediately stood up straight.
While the young man was heading towards our direction, I helped the Chinese-American cadet stood up.
The name written on the young man's uniform was "Xavier", and based on the insignia that was shown on his uniform, his rank was 1st Lieutenant in the air force. He was a tall built man with a red faux hawk hair, and if I had to assume his height he must be at least around 6'3" with weight of around 174 pounds. His physical appearance somehow reminded me of that movie about killer robot disguised as a human called 'Terminator', but he was still considerably thinner and obviously with a darker skin.
If there was something quite unusual about him, it was his voice. From his appearance, one can almost be sure that he was African-American, but as he spoke, one would hear a heavy Russian dialect from him.
The Chinese-American cadet, on the other hand was the definite opposite in physical traits. He was a skinny teenager with about 5'5" in height and maybe just 110 pounds in weight. Even though he was a Chinese-American, he speaks English without any Asian dialect.
"I believe this is the third time this incident happened, right before my eyes." Lieutenant Xavier continued. "And I also believe that I mentioned my warning to the three of you as well. Such a shame that it happened right after the joint training has just begun"
The four air force cadets just stood still, unable to give any respond and the bullying cadet even let out sweat when Lieutenant Xavier finished talking.
"All four of you are to be in my office, now." said Lieutenant Xavier before he turned and left the cafeteria.
The four cadets then followed him right after. Soon after they left the cafeteria, the crowd started to talk about what just happened, and I heard one of them saying, "Man... those four guys never learned do they? Once Jonathan Xavier found out you have done any violence against fellow military personnel, you are done for."
'Huh... so his full name is Jonathan Xavier.' I thought to myself.
"Thank you so much for helping me, Ensign Burners!" said the Chinese-American cadet whilst saluting me, "My name is Ryan Ming. I just joined the army as a cadet yesterday and then some of us were transferred here for a joint training."
"Well... you are welcome, Ryan." I said as I salute him back and patted him, "But enough about it, I believe it is best for you to rest after what just happened."
"Yes sir. Will do." He replied before leaving the cafeteria on his own.
Not long after Ryan left, most of the people in the cafeteria were also leaving and thus I also did the same, and headed back towards my barracks.