CHAPTER 405: FANCY DINNER

It was hard to miss the little change in Lane and Clara’s appearances as they caught up with the group. At least for someone as proper as Damien, who always had his uniform tidy and even, with every button fastened. When they had stopped at the next location marked on the map to take Mana fluctuations, his gaze swept through the group to make sure that everyone was well and accounted for...

And it instantly stopped as it reached Clara and Lane.

That’s not to say that they were looking entirely unpresentable or anything, not at all. All they had done was fall on the ground in the bushes, after all. Among the rest of the teammates, no one really seemed to have noticed anything odd.

But Damien did. Because of course he would. Their hair was slightly messy, after all, and so were their clothes. Clara even had a leaf stuck in her hair. And Lane had a pink line crossing his cheek... The remains of the scratch from the thorn in the bushes earlier. It had already pretty much healed, but a light mark still remained.

And so did the smudged blood, because Lane hadn’t wiped it properly. He hadn’t actually even realized that his cheek had bled, he just thought that it stung a bit, that’s all.

Either way, this combined with the expression on their faces, and Damien quickly figured out that something had happened. He lifted his brows, giving Lane a long, questioning look.

But Lane only shook his head in response, mouthing, ’later.’

It wasn’t the time to discuss what had taken place. Lane couldn’t talk freely in Ethan’s close proximity anyway...

Clara also remained silent. It seemed that, despite Lane’s less than satisfactory explanations, she got the clue, and was going to be more careful with her words around Ethan.

Hopefully.

As for the rat known as Ethan...

Lane threw him surreptitious glances from time to time, but he couldn’t really tell anything. The Guide still had the same expression as earlier, half-bored, half-displeased, staying quiet out of necessity, but being annoyed about it, despite the situation being the result of his own mistakes in the first place (at least partially. Of course, he had no influence over Lane and Damien’s relationship, but the fact that he currently couldn’t, or rather shouldn’t, meddle in was his fault).

Did that mean that he didn’t hear anything? It would appear so... However, just because Ethan might have missed it, that didn’t mean that everyone else also had... If even one person had heard Clara’s question, and were to bring up the topic of Nyla when Ethan was around...

Of course, that was still explainable. Lane could just say that Clara asked simply because Nyla was his twin... But let’s be honest, that would be at least a little bit suspicious. Clara had known about their relationship for a while now, so unless something had happened, why would she ask about it so suddenly?

All those thoughts gnawed on Lane, but there was nothing he could do about it. Everyone on the team was an A-ranker, and Ethan was even an S-ranker, so Lane couldn’t solve it with his hypnotic ability...

***

The sky had long turned dark by the time they arrived at the Lakeside Villas. It wasn’t because the sun (or, well, this dungeon’s sun’s equivalent) set early, not at all. Rather, Damien wanted to cover as much terrain as possible, so he made everyone work until late...

Well, it wasn’t necessarily his fault. Five days wasn’t a lot for the Eldenveil inspection. It originally had been a four-day job, and after the dungeon had expanded, there was a lot more area to cover, with multiple new spots to take measurements in... Although the Eldenveil’s rank hadn’t been updated, it was now closer to an S-rank Gate. Initially, when Damien’s team was supposed to inspect the dungeon, it was scheduled to take a week...

But now that the Gate had been re-assigned to the A-rank team, they didn’t have that much time to spare. They only had a week together each month, and aside from the inspection, they still had the group training to complete! Thus, Damien had no choice but to push them as much as possible, to avoid any delays.

At least they didn’t have to prepare their own dinner. Although the resort had been abandoned for obvious reasons, a lot of facilities remained functional. All that the Allen Guild had to do was to restart the generator, do a little clean up, and the restaurant’s kitchen would be usable once again. Thanks to that, when the team arrived at the villas, there was a hot, delicious meal waiting for them.

As well as Gia, in a much better mood than she had been in the morning. Spending the day as she pleased made her far less resentful that she had been assigned such a boring, unnecessary task, and she was now much more inclined to act polite.

"Good evening, Team Leader Lennox! How did your inspection go?" she smiled. It was still a bit fake, but compared to her behavior earlier, it was already a huge improvement.

"It went well, thank you," Damien nodded his head at her. "All the readings are within the norm so far."

"Is that so? That’s great!" Gia’s smile widened, as she pretended to care.

Even though she actually wasn’t interested in the slightest. She already knew that the readings were fine - the Association wasn’t the only one to have the Mana fluctuation measuring devices! Such devices were readily available on the market, and they weren’t even that expensive, at least compared to other Mana equipment. The Allen Guild owned a lot of them as well, and ever since the Gates had started reactivating, they kept an eye on the Mana fluctuations in all the dungeons they owned. Of course, they didn’t conduct extensive inspections as the Association did, as it felt like a waste of time... But they had taken a few measurements before the Association’s team had arrived, and Gia took another one after arriving at the Lakeside Villas, just to stay on top of it in case any incident were to happen.

She only asked about it because it seemed appropriate. Aaaand perhaps because she didn’t really know what else she could talk about with the man who was dumb enough to date Lane without being rude.

"Please, this way," she gestured, asking the team to follow her. "We have prepared a simple dinner."

She led them to the Verdant Hall, the same restaurant Damien’s team had dined in on their trip... that is, during their inspections, the year prior. Except that now, the restaurant no longer looked fancy and luxurious as it used to, but instead had a creepy vibe... All the blood had been wiped off, at least in the former private room where they were eating, but traces of the former fight still remained, including a few shattered windows. The Allen Guild hadn’t bothered to renovate the place, because why would they? Just because they had a lot of money, it didn’t mean that they wanted to squander it on pointless things.

While the interior design was lacking, the same couldn’t be said about the dishes. Everything that the team was served might have as well come from a five-star restaurant...

In fact, it was so good that it caused concern in some of the team members.

Including Damien.

"The meal you prepared is delicious, thank you very much," he said, staring at the juicy steak on his plate with his brows deeply furrowed. "However, I need to ask... Who prepared it?"

Although he didn’t say it directly, the meaning behind his question was obvious: was the dinner prepared by civilian chefs, or the Awakened? Because if civilians... Then the Allen Guild was violating the law. No civilians were allowed to work inside any dungeons, not even the inactive ones, not even for a day.

Gia smiled once again, even though her eye twitched ominously. She could understand what Damien was asking about, and she found it extremely annoying. Just like Lane, she shared the Allen family trait of treating the laws and regulations more like a gentle suggestion rather than something that had to be obeyed no matter what.

Still, she maintained her polite facade, and clarified, "We have borrowed Awakened chefs from the Trailblazer Guild. I can take Team Leader Lennox to meet them later, if Team Leader Lennox so wishes."

Damien calmly nodded his head. "Yes, please."

Gia’s eye twitched again. She was just saying it, she didn’t think that Damien would actually be so bothersome as to want to check everyone’s licenses...

But despite her growing annoyance, she didn’t break her act, at least not completely. She COULD take on the role of a proper host if she wanted to... That’s why, despite her short temper and questionable attitude, she was still recognized by the Allen family.

Unlike Lane.

She just tightened her grip on her knife and fork, and prayed inwardly that the dinner would pass quickly, without any more irritating questions from Damien, or anyone else...