Another few days passed in a flash, and Max's body had recovered a lot. Over the past week, Max had followed a strict schedule of waking up early in the morning and heading off to work, having some snacks and a glass of milk at Café Entwine as breakfast and beginning work.
His work involved setting up the tables, cleaning them, taking orders and delivering orders. On the other hand, Old Man Uxas would prepare ingredients, take orders from Max and prepare the food before handing them to Max to deliver. All Max had to do was to get from point A; Old Man Uxas, to point B; the customers' table, as quickly as possible without damaging himself or the food.
Good thing Max was good at this; being fast.
The breakfast rush was considerable, but slowly people would trickle down until the even larger rush for lunch came. Thus, mornings were the time that Max and Old Max Uxas were the busiest. After the lunch rush, the Café would be closed and Max and Uxas would have their own lunch and clean up the place, before reopening around 4 pm for high-tea and finally dinner.
Max also had to eat and extra meal before reopening around 4 pm in order to improve his malnutrition, which was compulsorily shoved down his through by Old Max Uxas even if he was full.
After having dinner for themselves, and cleaning up, the two closed down the restaurant, and return home, chatting about each other along the way. By the time they would reach home, walking the whole way, it was already considerably late at night and the two would go to sleep.
Max finally had enough strength to confidently explore the outside alone, and since today was Monday, the only day of the week that the Café was closed, Max took it up with the old man and was able to get himself a day off to explore.
Before leaving, Max asked the old man.
"Hey Old Man, you do know the streets are not a place for a child like me right?"
"…You are already 15. Although you look only 10 by your height, you are already 15. That is plenty."
"But I am too weak."
"…that you are."
"So, do you have a weapon I can use to protect myself from harm?"
"…" Old Man Uxas did not reply for a good minute while staring down at the boy who he had essentially adopted off the streets. He ultimately did not say anything and instead just turned around and went to his room.
From his location, Max heard a door opening, and instantly knew it was the only cupboard in his room being opened since he had heard it too often by now. Then he heard some shuffling of clothes and finally he heard a creaking sound, dissimilar to that of a rusted joint creaking, and more similar to wood being torn apart by brute force.
Then he heard a deep thus as though something fell to the ground, and immediately Max assumed the worst, that someone had broken into Old Ma Uxas' room and rushed in on impulse. H did not know what had cause such a reaction, but he knew that he needed to go in. What he would do facing another adult who was inside with his weak body… he did not know. But he knew that he needed to enter, so he did, grabbing the door handle and turning it with enough force that he knew something broke on the inside of the handle.
However, the scene inside was completely different from what he had expected. His racing heart almost immediately calmed down as he finally realised what he had done.
'Damnit… It seems I have become attached to this old man. Just what is this? It has barely been a week since I met him, and even if he took me in, I should not be so easily attached to another, and even less swayed by such emotions to rush into his room blindly.'
It was only now that Max's attention finally fell on the object on the floor that was the source of the thud. It was a wooden crate, with its cover opened and placed to the side. Inside was an array of nearly arranged… weapons.
From what Max could see, there were all sorts; short knives, pocket knives, cooking knives, butchering knives, throwing knives, even a machete-looking thing that reminded Max of a certain moustached actor.
The weapons included various tools like hammer and chiel, saws, tweezers and countless other things that would make someone be reminded of those 'interrogation' scenes from movies where a villain spends an exorbitant amount of time explaining each tool to the hero, only so give the hero just enough time to escape without even a scratch.
Among these weapons was a considerably unique one. A sword, but its entire blade was black in colour, with red lines all along it reminding someone of veins. And the worst part, the moment he looked at it, Max felt as though the veins throbbed for a moment. Almost instantly Max felt a sense of fear from deep within his mind, but that feeling instantly vanished as the box was closed by the old man, who only sighed at the white face and petrified expression Max was currently making.
Discretely however, the old man also noticed that Max had not fainted from freight, and only been scared stiff despite it being his first time coming into contact with that sword.
The Old Man carefully put away the box and closed the cupboard behind him along with the door of the room as he took Max out of his room and into the living room, seating him on the couch.
After a while, Max was finally able to recover and noticed the old man's serious expression. He felt a feeling of guilt wash over him at this expression as he could only look down without saying anything.
A long moment of silence followed before the old man took in a deep breath and began speaking.
"Next time, knock before barging into someone's room unless they are your children."
Max just nodded, not knowing why he was feeling this guilty just kept silent, many thoughts swirling through his mind as he tried to understand what exactly was influencing him in such a way. Was it the old man himself? Or was it a Beyonder he did not know about? Or worse, was it one of those unspeakable whose very knowledge will corrupt you?
"Anyways, you have two options now Max. One is that we forget about everything and move on in life, living it to the fullest. The other is that I explain about that sword you saw there and about everything behind it. But this will likely put you in a particular amount of danger. Tell me, what do you choose."
With the help of these words, Max finally snapped out of his thoughts and answered without thinking much.
"If you are talking about the superpowered people, then I already know about them from my life before coming to this city. I know that there are weak superpowered people and super, super strong superpowered people."
Hearing these words, it was now Uxas' turn to be unable to make sense of the situation and being frozen for a second at the unexpected answer. Only after a long moment did he return to normal and continue to speak.
"And what exactly were you doing before coming here? And how did you get here?"
Both Max and the old man had been avoiding this conversation for nearly a week due to various reasons including the tight schedule they had as well as their reluctance to talk about it. But now, it was finally time for the truth to come out.