Expectation

Jason let out a small grimace as he walked back to the guild house. He could overhear the wolves talking about the delicious food that was served there. Jeffery especially jumped around Miles's pack telling all of the newcomers about how delectable the food Jason made was.

Boops remarked with a small chuckle at the begging of his words

"just a tiny bit of pressure eh?"

Jason replied sarcastically

"yeah, I just need to impress this group of wolves and live up to the title of "best snaokes in the world" given by Jeffery.

Jason rubbed his brow, trying to figure out what he should do.

He needed to impress these wolves and hopefully gain some points in the process.

Jason quickly went through his memories of times when he prepared food for a large group of people and came across one in which he set up a massive barbeque for the entire rose knight training camp.

"you know what" he muttered to himself as he got halfway to the silver wings house.

"screw it let's do that"

Jason assured himself abruptly stopping and reaching into his inventory for 6 portable grills, some convenience store tongs, some seasoning, and a few precut rabbit meat from the rabbits he hunted earlier in the tutorial, and some regular steaks from the grocery store.

Jeffery was the first person to notice what Jason was taking out. The moment Jeffery saw the portable grill, the wolf instantly realized what it meant. Jeffery turned around to face the ember wolf and its pack with a bit of drool running down its mouth.

"AWWWW YEAHHHHHH WE GETTINGS SOME SERIOUS SNAKOES TONIGHT"

Saying that Jeffery took off running towards the silver wings house to grasp the rest of the humans to get the feast ready.

Jason looked around the place he had stopped at.

It was in an open plain, with no real obstructions except a few boulders and the occasional bush. The edge of the forest was visible at the edge of the silver wings' property.

Jason let out a chuckle and nodded to himself.

"This is a good place," he said to himself lining up the grills organizing them in a small semi-circle.

Within a few minutes, the grills were already emitting smoke. It was at this time that Jeffery came back with a horde of silver wings members. The wolves were sprinting towards Jason attracted by the delectable smell while the guild members ran over excitedly chatting among themselves.

Jason quickly dropped perfectly cut marbled slices of meat onto the grills. The moment the steaks touched the grills they let out a loud sizzle.

Jason repeated the process making sure to season each of the slices of meat perfectly.

Jeffery walked over to Jason and sat down next to Jason lifting up its snout to sniff the air happily.

Jason pet Jeffery absentmindedly as he watched the silver wing guild members arrive carrying chairs and utensils.

Most of the young guild members Perseus had recruited from the bandit camp walked together carrying chairs, while the wolves next to them carefully balanced plates and utensils on their backs.

Natalie and her group of helpers emerged from the garden carrying baskets fulls of fresh vegetables and fruit. The silver wing members already at the barbeque spot welcomed them with loud cheers and waves. While they were all slightly terrified of Natalie she was the silver wing guild's mother and everyone couldn't help but love her.

Natalie smiled and tucked her brown hair behind her ear as she lead the group towards the barbeque place. The delicious smell of steak started to slowly fill the air, her son Adaran ran around her legs his expression growing in excitement and joy as they got closer to the barbeque spot.

Adaran could already see his friends waving towards him on the back of a wolf that had generously let them climb aboard.

Natalie quickly looked behind her, just to check on the rest. Most of the women and young children were walking behind her, she wasn't sure if she could take care of the sudden influx of helpers. But they all proved to become valuable assets, some under her careful tutelage took care of the garden, while others who were skilled in weaving and sowing sat back and worked on creating clothes for the entire guild. In fact, the shirt that the guild master Perseus was wearing was sown by Natalie herself.

Natalie also saw the garden and the barracks on the left side of the silver wings guild. Her pride and joy stood there, a magnificent garden full of tall strong plants that bore fresh delicious fruits and vegetables lines of neatly tilled soil, and small seedlings sprouting from the dirt.

A small chuckle escaped from her lips, the vegetables and fruits in their hands was actually one of the first harvests of the plants she had grown at the very beginning of the silver wings guild when it was just an empty place with just Jason, Perseus, a few wolves, her and her son.

Loud cheers erupted again from the group of guild members already at the barbeque place.

Figures emerged from the forest, hulking strong figures that steadily walked towards them.

In the light of the midday sun, you could see a large group of men with a bald serious-looking man with scars covering his body and two twin axes strapped to his side.

He carried a log on his shoulder along with a few other helpers.

John Bunyan let out a small smirk as he noticed the loud group of people gathered. He smelled the scent of meat cooking and spotted the basket fulls of colorful fresh vegetables and fruit that Natalie and her helpers held.

He turned to the men who were also carrying large logs that they had just cut down.

All of the men had huge grins covering their faces as they beheld the sight of the people gathering. Some even had a few tears well up in their eyes.

This was the first time most of them had ever seen a gathering that was a positive joyful one. The entire concept of a potluck was brand new to them. Before when they lived as slaves when people gathered it meant that some of them would disappear forever, or a new set of commands would be given to them. Not a feast with kind, warmhearted people waiting for them.

Paul wiped away a small droplet that was forming on the corner of his eye and said to the men next to him with a loud voice

"come on boys! Let's join them!"

With a loud cheer, the men dropped the logs at the edge of the forest and ran into the guild house.

A few minutes later they emerged carrying the large circular tables from inside the guild house. The tables were so large 3 men had to carry them together.

Jason let out a light laugh as he gave John a small wave as they brought the tables to the spot.

Boops alerted him of the state of the steaks to he quickly grabbed his tongs and started to flip them. Natalie who had already arrived at the spot walked over with mixing a bowl of salad in her hand as she grabbed a spare set of tongs and started to flip them.

Jason gave Natalie a nod of thanks to which she replied with a small smile.

Together the two of them flipped the steaks and prepped the salad.

Suddenly a large group of the young guild members let out an excited yell at a group of 6 people walking through the forest. Their silhouettes were small like children's and the one in front, the shortest of them all lead them.

Jack along with his friends emerged from the forest path.

Jason's eyes widened in surprise. Jack's aura felt completely different. He also looked physically different.

He was a bit taller than before, his eyes gave off a sharp look and his hair seemed to glisten as he walked down the path. He wore tight black rouge clothes that were easy to maneuver in and the belt that Jason had gifted him. One of the equipment drops of the enemies in the rose knight trial was wrapped around his waist.

And hanging off of that belt was a dark blue crystal dagger that Jason had never seen before. Jack and his friends who were now fellow commanders of their respective ripper territories walked towards the barbeque spot.

Jack was faster than the rest of the group and within a few minutes, he had already reached Jason.

Jason smiled and gave a small wave to Jack.

"I thought you were going to stabilize your territory and stay at your home base?"

Jack shook his head handing Jason a bag full of gold and silver coins.

"This is my home base, sir, though I may be a ripper executive now. I am first and foremost a member of the silver wings guild."

Jason laughed and stretched out with his hand.

"I'm glad I picked you up, Jack"

Jack smiled and took Jason's head. The two shook hands. Jack grinned back

"I am eternally grateful sir, eternally grateful"