Ralph entered the restaurant casually, there was not much movement, and to Ralph's surprise, he was attended to by Jane.
"You work a lot, that's quite admirable." Ralph spoke with a smile.
"Hehe ..." Jane laughed bitterly and then asked:
"Do you have a reservation? During the night we only serve customers with reservations."
This took Ralph by surprise and he said:
"I'm here to meet two people ... I have no reservations."
Jane blinked and asked:
"Can I know the names of these people? Maybe they made a reservation."
"... Aoki Aoi, Aoki Sai. Father and daughter." Ralph spoke in a low voice.
Jane nodded and started to check on a notepad.
"Let me see ... hmm ..."
After a few minutes, Jane looked at Ralph with a strange expression and said:
"There are no reservations for these people either ..."
Upon hearing this, Ralph put his hand behind his head and smiled bitterly.
"So, I'm sorry for the waste of time, I'll wait for them outside." Ralph spoke in an embarrassed voice.
Jane smiled bitterly and guided Ralph outside the restaurant.
"If you need anything, you can talk to me. Even if you don't have a reservation, you are basically a regular customer of the restaurant." Jane spoke with a smile and then returned to the restaurant.
Ralph sighed and looked at the sky.
"What are you doing out here?"
A voice then woke Ralph out of the trance and he looked away.
Aoi and a middle aged man were looking at him strangely.
"Cough, good night." Ralph greeted the two.
"Good night." Aoi nodded.
The middle-aged man, who was Aoki Sai, looked at Ralph curiously and said:
"Let's go inside."
"Wait, you don't have a reservation, right?" Ralph asked suddenly.
Aoi and Sai looked at each other and said:
"Not."
"They are only serving customers who have made a reservation for that night." Ralph explained.
Aoki Sai suddenly smiled and said:
"You don't have to worry about that, I know the owner of this restaurant, come on."
Ralph sighed and entered the restaurant with them.
Jane quickly answered them, and looked strangely at Ralph.
Ralph pretended not to notice her look and waited for Aoki Sai to say something.
"Miss, you must be a new employee at this restaurant, right?" Aoki Sai asked with a smile for Jane.
Jane was a little surprised and said:
"How do you know?"
"After all, you don't know me, how about calling your manager?" Aoki Sai spoke in a calm tone.
Jane hesitated for a moment and then went to call the restaurant manager.
The manager is an old man, with a wrinkled face and gray hair.
When the manager saw Aoki Sai, he smiled widely and said:
"It's been a long time, brat."
Aoki Sai frowned and said:
"Rude as always, old man."
Jane realized that the manager really knew this mysterious customer and so she waited on one side.
"Let me guess, you didn't make reservations for tonight." The manager laughed and said.
Aoki Sai rolled his eyes and nodded.
"Come with me." The manager smiled and started walking in one direction.
The manager led the group to the back of the restaurant, where there was a table next to a small bamboo plantation. The sky was crystal clear, and there was no cover in this part of the restaurant.
"Here, you liked to come here when you were younger, little Sai." The manager said with a big smile.
Aoki Sai's expression darkened and he frowned deeply.
"Hahaha, okay, you don't need to make that face, I'm on my way." The manager waved his hand and went somewhere else.
After seeing that the three sat down, Jane asked with a little sweat on her forehead:
"Have you decided what to order?"
Ralph took one of the menus on the table and said after thinking about it:
"Bring me a medium portion of niguiri, with a small portion of teriyaki sauce. Also, I would like a glass of the best Huangjiu you have."
(Huangjiu is a traditional Chinese drink, prepared with a mass of cereals and cultures of bacteria and yeasts suitable for alcoholic fermentation.)
Jane wrote everything down but then frowned. They don't sell alcoholic drinks to minors, and it was obvious that Ralph was only 15 or 16 years old.
But then she remembered Aoki Sai's closeness to the manager and let it go.
Soon, Aoi and Sai also placed their orders.
"Wait a minute, it won't be long before your orders take too long." Jane spoke with a smile and left.
A silence fell over the place, with Ralph internally nervous but with a natural expression.
"Hmm, Ralph-san?" Aoi suddenly spoke.
"??" Ralph looked at Aoi.
"The documents ... Can you give them to us?"
"Oh! Sure, here they are." Ralph handed over an envelope full of documents.
"I didn't have time to search, so I took all the documents." Ralph explained.
Aoi looked at Ralph and sighed.
"You did well, in fact, that way it won't be easy to find our real target."
Ralph thought for a moment and agreed.
"And then? How was it?" Aoki Sai suddenly asked with a slight smile.
Ralph blinked a few times without understanding.
"You know, the fight. I got the information that you hurt the two Aura Masters in the building." Sai spoke again.
"Well ... I was lucky, they didn't seem to have a transcendent sense strong enough to aim accurately, or else I would be full of holes." Ralph smiled bitterly.
"Hmm, you were really lucky. Most Aura Masters don't have the opportunity to fully develop the transcendent sense. Do you know the reason?" Sai looked deeply at Ralph.
Ralph shook his head.
"It turns out that most have practice manuals that are either defective or incomplete, thus hampering their practice." Aoi explained with a solemn expression.
Ralph twisted the corners of his mouth slightly. So do you mean he was lucky to get 'Aura Flow'?
"The manual that I ... that my father gave you, despite being very common and basic, is complete and is enough to guide an Aura Master to-" Aoi said but was interrupted by Sai, who said:
"Anyway, don't get it wrong, I don't want to charge you for the manual or anything, since I gave it to you willingly."
Ralph nodded and then said:
"Okay, Aoi, did you bring the book you mentioned?"
"Are you already more interested in paying for the mission than in this book?" Aoi asked in surprise.
Ralph was silent.
Aoi took a book and a small bag from her bag and gave them to Ralph.
"This book is about historical figures in the world of Aura Masters, it should be useful for you. And your payment for the mission is in the bag." Aoi spoke.
Ralph's eyes lit up when he picked up the book, which appeared to be made of high quality material.
He then opened the bag and looked inside.
-A stone?
Ralph was surprised.
There was a stone in the bag, common in all ways.
Ralph looked at Aoi doubtfully and asked:
"What is it?"
"A stone." Aoi replied with a slight smile.
Ralph contorted the corners of his mouth. This is just ridiculous, the stone is certainly unusual.
"Don't do drama, Aoi. Explain to the boy about the life stone." Aoki Sai sighed slightly when he saw Aoi's attitude.
Aoi rolled his eyes and explained:
"This is a Life Stone. It is found in the veins of vitality of the earth. It serves to help an Aura Master to increase the sensitivity with the Aura itself, it is extremely valuable and useful for those who are at the beginning of the practice like you. And it is used as currency in the world of the Aura Masters. "
Ralph took a deep breath when he heard Aoi's explanation, and after a few seconds, he said:
"As little as I know of you, you are saying this to attract my curiosity, what do you want?"
Aoi clicked his tongue and spoke disgruntled:
"You know ... It's not cool to be so blunt at times."
Ralph snorted and then looked at Aoki Sai, the man was simply listening to Ralph and Aoi's conversation calmly, with an indifferent expression.
Sai noticed Ralph's vision and said:
"It's no use, boy, she's problematic anyway, she won't tell you anything unless you do what she wants."
Ralph rolled his eyes and then smiled.
"I can ask these things to other members of Gray Gate for free, so don't try to sell that information to me." Ralph spoke with a disappointed expression.
Aoi smiled slightly and said in a magnanimous tone:
"You just draw too many conclusions too quickly. But you are right about the fact that I want to sell this information to you. But I changed my mind, I will give you this information for free with a sign of good faith."
-Bullshit.
Ralph cursed internally.
"You must be very curious about the veins of vitality ... They are basically the channels that carry vitality from the surface to the center of the earth, where the core of the earth is and also where the essence of the planet's Aura is." Aoi started to explain.
"You must know, but the Earth borders between something alive and something dead, and this is reflected in the planet's Aura, which gives rise to various types of treasures and useful materials for the Aura Masters."
"There are countless veins of vitality. But there are different levels. The veins on the planet's surface are called mortal veins, those in the outer and inner mantle are called earthly veins, and those in the core of the planet are called original veins."
"Deadly veins are usually below 100 meters deep in the earth, which is why they are difficult to find, which makes Life Stones, which are just products of the planet's vitality slowly merging with normal, very valuable stones. "
Aoi then sighed, as if he had released extremely valuable information for free.
Ralph was very interested in this new information.
-This world is really amazing and different from my original world, so many interesting things.
"Err, excuse me, your orders are ready." Jane came to the side of the table and said as she took the orders from the tray she held and placed them on the table.
"Have a good meal, if you need anything, just call me." Jane spoke with a smile and left.
"Itadakimasu." Ralph spoke in a low voice and started eating.
After taking a sip of Huangjiu, Ralph smiled.
-Delicious.
The teriki was delicious too.
Aoi and Sai also seemed to like the food.
While eating, Ralph and Aoi talked about various things, whether about school or about matters of the Aura Masters world.
Ralph learned that their world has a nickname, Deep Sky.
Who started calling the world of Aura Masters Deep Sky is unknown, but today it is a widely accepted name.
Externally, Ralph seemed very calm, but internally he was very nervous, since he received some deep looks from Aoki Sai.
After they finished eating, Jane removed the dirty dishes from the table.
"Dad, it's getting late, and Ralph and I have class tomorrow, I think we better get going." Aoi looked at her father and suggested.
Aoki Sai was silent for a moment and then looked at Ralph.
"Okay, but first I want Ralph to answer me."
Aoi looked doubtfully at Sai and Ralph.
"Can ask." Ralph spoke with a light expression, but a troubled heart.
Sai's fingers began to tap the table, and he looked deeply at Ralph as he asked:
"What did you do there?"
-Dammit.
Ralph cursed internally.
"What you mean?" Ralph asked as if in doubt.
"Boy, am I being kind enough already, do you really want me to use force?" Pressure began to emanate from Sai, choking Ralph.
Aoi's expression changed and she looked at her father paralyzed.
"You know, boy, at my level it is very easy to detect the intentions of a weak person like you, and whether they are evil or not. The only reason I did not torture and interrogate you is because I clearly feel that you have no malice. directed at my family. "
Ralph swallowed his own saliva when he heard that.
"But that doesn't mean I didn't want an explanation, what are you doing there? Don't try to lie in front of me, it's useless." Sai's eyes seemed to pierce everything and he spoke in a dignified tone.
"I ... I just wanted information. I had no evil intention." Ralph sighed and spoke.
"What information did you want?" Sai asked.
"I didn't know anything, about anything ... I thought I could understand something about Aura if I went there. But all I got was a book with basic information."
Sai was silent, but the pressure he emanated was substantially reduced.
"I didn't keep the book, and just took pictures of the pages. After that, I left without doing anything else, without any other intention." Ralph continued to speak.
After a few moments, Sai closed his eyes and said:
"Seeing that you really didn't have any evil intentions, I'm going to let this one go ... But keep in mind that if you do something like that again, things won't be simple."
Ralph nodded and sighed.
"What are you talking about?" Aoi asked with a confused expression.
Sai and Ralph exchanged looks, and the latter sweated cold.
"... You don't have to worry about that, let's go." Sai said and stood up.
Ralph was relieved to see that Sai would not speak to Aoi about the matter.
Aoi looked irritated and looked at Ralph, who looked away and stood up.
Gritting her teeth, Aoi snorted and also stood up.
After paying the bill, they left the restaurant.