Mathew opened his eyes slowly, he looked at the ceiling for a while, his vision still blurry.
"What happened? Where am I?" he muttered in confusion.
"Woah, easy there, Mathew" he heard Valerio's concerned voice near him. Mathew rubbed
his eyes and everything came back to him. He got up.
"Mr Valerio, I'm sorry. I wasn't able to protect them. I even let Lucian out. Sorry to let you
down" Mathew said in a sheepish tone trying to avert Valerio's gaze.
"Don't worry Mathew. It's alright, the twins are also fine. I heard about every single thing you
did. If not for the seal weakening, you could have taken them out yourself" Valerio replied in
a calm town, with a faint smile.
"But I'm unable to forgive myself for what I did back then, I will get back to training right
away" Mathew said with a frown as he tried to get up from the bed.
"No, you should just rest. You were completely out for 3 days. I don't think you should
overwork yourself and worry about what happened" Valerio said as he placed his hands on
Mathew's chest, preventing him from standing.
"Thanks, Mr Val, I don't know what to say" Mathew replied, feeling emotional.
"Wait, what did you just call me?" Valerio asked with a smirk.
"Oops, sorry Mr. Valerio, I was just hanging out with the kids too much, so I guess I picked up
their habit" Mathew replied, scratching his head in embarrassment.
"It's fine Mathew, Mr. Val sounds a lot better than Uncle Val," Valerio said with a sigh.
"Really?" Mathew asked.
"Yeah," Valerio replied with a nod.
"Then, thank you Mr Val" Mathew said with a smirk. Valerio just shook his head with a sigh.
"I hear them coming," Valerio said with a smile.
The twins arrived at the underground facility and found that Mathew was awake. So, they
delightedly ran towards him.
"Manager, you're awake. Are you alright?" Lyra asked in concern. She was worried since the
manager didn't wake for the past 3 days.
"We were worried about you, Manager" Kael also said in concern.
"I'm alright you two. Sorry for worrying you" Mathew replied. He felt very guilty confronting
the kids after the incident with Lucian. But the twins didn't mind about that and interacted
with him as usual.
"No apologies between us, we're just glad that you're okay" Kael replied.
"I'm happy to hear that" Mathew replied with a smile.
"The renovations should be over in a couple of days and we'll have ourselves something
new, haha" Valerio said with a laugh.
"Mr Val?" Mathew asked curiously.
"Yeah, they told me-" Before Valerio could reply, Kael interjected as usual
"What? 'Mr Val'??" Kael asked curiously. Since when did they start using nicknames?
"Since when do you call him that manager?" Lyra asked with a smirk. She thought of various
weird things in her head.
"We just decided on that just before you arrived," Mathew said with a smile.
"Yeah, I think Mr Val has a nice ring to it" Valerio laughed with a nod.
"But 'Uncle Val' is superior" Kael replied with his head high.
"Of course, I am superior haha" Valerio kept laughing like a madman.
…
Raven's burger renovations are finally complete after a week. The regulars as well as the
workers missed the shop the past week.
Valerio, the twins, Mathew, Arthur and Ruby entered the shop and looked around the new
improvements in amazement. The table and chairs have been changed to provide a more
modern and sleek look and also a new area has been added.
"Looks good" Valerio nodded in satisfaction. Now his only job was to make sure no fights
happen inside the shop.
'Should I set up a teleportation seal so that, any time combat is initialized they will be
automatically teleported outside the shop?' Valerio thought seriously.
"Omg, we have new coffee machines now," Kael said in amazement.
"Woah, that's amazing," Ruby said, her eyes sparkling in excitement.
"Hereafter, we are gonna be a fast food joint X cafe," Valerio said with a smile.
"I love the sound of that" Lyra replied with a nod.
"One of you should learn to handle the coffee machines for the time being," Valerio said with
a smile.
"Sure. Anyway, let's get to work, it's almost opening time" Mathew said with a clap.
"Where are our aprons? I've missed them a lot" Arthur said as he went into the store to
retrieve the aprons.
"Everything's back to normal," Valerio said with a sigh.
"For the good" Mathew replied with a smile.
The customers started to arrive in anticipation after a week and the shop became more
crowded than usual.
…
In the mind realm,
"Ayo, what's gotten into Piers? I told you all he's been possessed. Why does he keep calling us
like this?" a silhouette with bright orange Nova asked.
"If this keeps repeating I'm just gonna go with Piers being possessed" a dark blue silhouette
replied.
"You both are behaving like kids, you that. Anyways, where's Piers and Orion?" a pink
silhouette asked.
"I was informed that Piers will join shortly, but I don't know anything about Orion" a brown
silhouette replied. As they were conversing, one more figure appeared in the mind realm. It
was Piers.
"Sorry, it took me a while and -" before Piers could complete the bright orange silhouette
asked in shock "Piers, where is your arm???"
In the mind realm, they couldn't see each other clearly and could only see the basic body
structure. Most of the time they couldn't even differentiate between gender. But a missing
arm can be noticed very easily.
"What happened, Piers?" a dark golden silhouette asked with a frown.
"Well, where should I start..?" Piers said as he started to narrate everything from the meeting
Orion in the bar to losing an arm.
"So.. you're saying that Valerio has an acquaintance who is in the possession of one of the
12 divine fragments? And he killed Orion. Is that what you're saying?" the pink silhouette
asked in a dark tone.
"So, he is starting to make a move huh?" a violent silhouette asked.
"Whose fragment does Valerio's companion have?" the bright orange silhouette asked.
"His name is Mathew, and he has the fragment of the Archangel Michael" Piers replied.
"Ahh, that's troublesome indeed. But both of you going on your own, ignoring orders and
engaging in a fight with Valerio is a troublesome matter, and you know that Piers" the dark
Golden silhouette said seriously.
"I'm sorry, I regret doing it. I lost an arm but for Orion, it cost him his life" Piers replied with a
sigh. He felt really lucky.
"If something like this happens again without my knowledge, the next thing you will lose your
head, remember that" the dark golden silhouette warned.
"Yes sir" Piers replied with a nod.
"This applies to every one of you," the golden silhouette said as he looked around
the table calmly. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Now that he has taken one of us, it's only right that we respond. So now, listen carefully to
what I have to say-" The golden silhouette started to plan the next move.
…
The shop was busy as the crowd didn't seem to decrease.
"Arthur, take the salad to table 2 and this smoothie to table 5," Ruby said in a hurry as he
handed the items to Arthur and she took orders from the other table.
"Got it" Arthur replied as he moved towards the table to deliver the items.
"Ruby, can you bring me the fries from the kitchen" Kael shouted.
"Can't you see I'm taking the orders?" Ruby replied in an annoyed tone.
"I'll get it Kael," Arthur said as he ran into the kitchen after delivering the orders to the table.
"The manager just now completed the fries" Lyra informed Arthur as she came out of the
Kitchen to deliver the order for another table. Arthur nodded at her.
"Here, catch" Mathew handed the container that had the fried to Arthur who stood near him.
"That smells delicious," Mathew said as he looked at the fries he just handed to Arthur.
"Yeah, it does and I wanna-" Arthur's voice trailed off as Mathew instinctively caught the
container Arthur was holding.
"Arthur?" Mathew called out dumbfoundedly.