Demon Reconnaissance VI

*Jingle* The bells on top of the door sounded off as they gently hit each other when Kies opened the door. "Welcome!" a voice said as he, Ammine, and Falte entered the place.

"What is this place?" Falte asked, still not knowing the answer. They had followed Kies blindly without asking anything since he said that he knew somewhere where they could talk without any problems.

"It's a restaurant," Kies told them.

"A restaurant? What's that?"

Kies looked back at Falte to see if he was being serious with his question. As it turned out, it genuinely looked like he didn't know what it was. It also seemed that Ammine had the same question as there was total confusion written all on her face. "A place where you buy and eat food," he explained simply to the two.

"Oh. Wait, did you bring money?"

"I did." Kies tapped his pocket where there was a small bag of coins sitting. He told the two demons to go upstairs while he ordered food.

"What will it be?" the lady at the counter asked Kies when he stepped up. The place didn't have many customers at the moment, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that there was no one to listen in on their conversation, but it also meant that they needed to talk in a low voice because people could hear them if they spoke loudly.

"Um... Excuse me," the lady tried getting Kies attention. Kies looked at the lady and realized that he was standing in front of her, not giving her his orders.

"Oh sorry," he quickly apologized. Kies should've asked the two what they wanted to eat before telling them to go upstairs. Oh well. "Uh, could we have this, this, and... that?" he pointed at three random things on the menu in front of him. Hopefully, they would like them.

"These three?" the lady asked, confirming if this was all they were ordering.

"Yes these three- Wait, three?" Kies looked at the three things he selected. He had accidentally chosen one for himself. Did Kies even need to eat? He had ordered them instinctively for himself and had not thought that. Well, it was too late now since he had already chosen the three items. Well, it would be weird anyway if the other two were eating and he was just sitting there doing nothing.

"Is there something wrong?" the lady asked Kies?

"No, it's nothing."

"Okay, they will be ready soon. Do you want to pay now, or-"

Kies placed a couple of coins on the counter and said, "I would like to pay now," while giving the lady a smile. She couldn't see it under the cloth that was covering his face, but his eyes probably showed it.

"O-okay... Thank you." The lady counted the coins to make sure it was enough before accepting it and telling Kies to wait upstairs.

Kies walked up the stairs to the second floor and looked around for where the two demons were sitting. He found them sitting at a table all the way to the back of the floor next to a window. Kies went over to the table and sat down. It was a table for four, but the table was barely big enough to even hold two of them.

"I hope you ordered something nice," Falte said as Kies sat down on one of the empty seats. He was facing the window with Ammine in front of him and Falte to the left of him.

"I should've asked you two what you wanted before you went upstairs, sorry."

"Even if you did, we don't know what any of the food here is," Ammine said. "And no matter what it is that you picked, I'm pretty sure that it's better than Rittle's cooking."

"Hm, that I can agree with," Falte chimed in.

"Who's Rittle?" Kies wasn't familiar with that name.

"Rittle is the person who is in charge of cooking in the village. She just throws whatever we gather all into a single giant pot and serves that. Probably not the best way to serve food, but it's not like any of us can cook either," Falte explained while shrugging his shoulders.

"That doesn't sound very tasty," Kies noted.

"Yeah, well we don't have the luxury to figure out how to actually cook. We don't have the time to experiment with food when we have so many other things to do," Falte told him. With how things were back at the village, they didn't have the chance to do something like that.

"Anyway, let's get back on task. How are we going to find a noble? From what you have told us, it doesn't look like it's going to be an easy task." Falte stared at Kies, waiting to hear what idea he had.

Kies thought about it. Since they had two demons, their strength alone would let them move around in the sewers with little to no problem. If anyone down there tried to attack them, they wouldn't stand a chance. The only problem was how they would find a noble down there. No noble he knew of would even step foot down there, even for their own safety as they would have to deal with bands of criminals and also the disgusting smell. Chances were that there were more nobles on the surface in hiding than there were down in the sewers, but they had no way of knowing where they were or locating them.

While Kies was busy trying to think of some way of how they could find a noble, a waiter arrived with their orders and placed them on the table. "Your food is here, please enjoy it while it's still hot," he told them.

"Oh, this looks great! Don't mind if I do," Falte didn't wait and immediately began to dig in. He only managed to take a few bites before Ammine kicked him in the leg. "Ow, what was that for?" Ammine glared at him and turned to the waiter and thanked him for delivering the food, and then looked back at Falte who still didn't understand what she meant with her glare.

"What?" he asked her.

Ammine sighed and apologized to the waiter, "Sorry, this is his first time at a place like this."

"What!? It's not like this isn't your first- Ow!" Ammine kicked Falte again, still not understanding how he didn't get what she meant.

Kies thanked the waiter as well for delivering their food and gave him a few coins as a tip. The waiter gratefully accepted the tip and bowed. Kies looked back at Falte. Hopefully, this would hint at what he was supposed to be doing right now.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Falte still didn't understand why the two of them were looking at him like that.

Ammine facepalmed herself and was about to apologize to the waiter again, but he simply laughed. "No worries, it's his first time here after all," he told the three. He then bowed again and politely explained to Falte, "Sir, in the future when visiting a place like this, you first express your thanks and then eat your food."

"Ah..." Falte scratched his head and then turned to Ammine, silently asking her with his eyes, 'How do you know this, and why didn't you tell me beforehand?'

Ammine just rolled her eyes, almost as if she were saying, 'It's common sense, how do you not know.'

"Well then, I'll be leaving now. Enjoy your food. Once you have finished, just leave the plates and bowls there for me to clean up after," the waiter told the three before leaving back down the stairs. Falte watched the waiter, staring at his back the entire time until he left.

"I really want to rip that human's throat out," he said after he was gone. "That smile on his face, I really can't stand it," he said murderously. Falte then turned to Ammine and asked her curiously, "So, how are you able to stand it?"

"Hm?" Ammine didn't get his question.

"How can you be so friendly towards a rat like that?"

"What? Do you think I want to or something? I'm holding in the urge to kill him just like you," she said.

"Do you really hate humans that much?" Kies asked the two, not comfortable with where the conversation was going. The two demons turned to Kies and looked at him with blank looks on their faces.

"Yes," they both answered coldly at the same time.

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