Chapter 168: Night Party
———Orrel———
<5: 56 pm>
“What the hell happened to her?” Gregori asked with a small chuckle while his face showed a bit of concern. Indeed, it’s not often that one would see Emmie slumped down and unresponsive like that.
“I have no freaking clue, she is like this when I visit her.” Karra said before putting her down on a nearby sofa. “She’ll wake up eventually. I don’t think there’s gonna be any problem long term.”
“That’s good to hear.” Useph said, clearing his face of any worries he had earlier. “Hmm… Is anyone missing?”
“From the looks of it, everyone is here. I doubt we have another case of someone mysteriously disappearing again.” I said while looking at where Jennla is at, looks like she didn’t overhear that. “Unless I mistakenly count the extra face who acts as today’s security, then nothing is amiss.”
“That’s good. The food is about to roll in and they’re not gonna stop.” Useph said with a grin. “Alright everyone! Make sure to get comfortable because the party ain’t gonna end until we’re all snoring!”
“It’s just a buffet and a jukebox, no need to be a hypeman.” Gregori chimed in while leaning back on the sofa and looking up at the ceiling.
“Hey, I think we should all be a bit excited. This kind of fancy party doesn’t come up often, you know?” He said with his arms crossed. “Or what? You think this is gonna be worse than what comes up in two days? They don’t even have nearly the same variety of food!”
“I never said that.” Gregori said dismissively. Useph is being quite passionate today. Probably because this is meant to celebrate the new year as well as the buffet being quite fancy, but he should tone it down a bit.
“Quiet down, you two. I would like this rather dark comfy setting to actually reflect in the silence.” Jeyst said while laying down on the other sofa, hogging the entire thing for themselves. The place isn’t fully lit up, and it has a slightly melancholic tone to it, but also a few neon lights in the background. Not too much to make it look like one of those dance parties.
“Is she going to wake up by the time the food arrives?” I asked, seeing that Emmie is still unresponsive. Seriously, to a normal person it probably looks like she’s dead.
“She’ll be fine. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.” Karra said, sitting down not too far from her. Where did she even find her, exactly? Her location at any given time could be said to be set to random, and if she was like that when Karra found her…
“Hey, is having a security person who doesn’t look all that strong kinda isn’t the point?” Jeff suddenly asked. Kinda rude to say that, isn’t it? I don’t think even Gregori would make that kind of comment.
“Don’t worry about it. He’s plenty capable, my parents have hired him for a lot of stuff and he has never missed.” Useph confidently said. Speaking of that man, he looks quite peculiar with that blue hair and pink eyes, and the somewhat unusual clump of hair on both sides of his head.
“...You’re lucky he’s not hearing you right now. You can’t just say that kind of stuff to a guy just doing his job.” Karra chimed in, also shaming him.
“H-Hey, I was just saying… Nevermind.” Jeff said before looking to see if the guard heard any of that. Doesn’t look like he did. “Okay, I won’t talk about it anymore.”
“Yeah, let’s not.” Gregori said while looking at the direction where they start carting in the food. “Looks like it’s starting already… That’s one hell of a fountain.”
First thing to show up is a giant fondue fountain that has no business being as tall and wide as it is with all kinds of fruits and candies accompanying it.
The other foods are being carted out with the other staff members coming out in droves and decorating each station step-by-step. It’s a lot to do, but Useph’s parents probably pay good money for this performance.
“Alright everyone! The food is here! Time to pig out!” Useph said loudly once they finished setting up everything. A rather crude thing to say for something of this caliber, but he is the one organizing this, everything is on his rules. “Go wild, and don’t hold back if you’re extra hungry!”
“Don’t mind if I do then.” Kenni said before waltzing over before the others could even get up. She immediately goes for the more exotic and weird stuff, piling it on her plate without caring that much about stuff getting mixed together.
Everyone else also stood up and started getting their food, which also includes me.
“By the way, Jeff. I don’t know if you forget it entirely, but power suppression is a technique that exists for a reason. Maybe he can do something like that.” Gregori said once everyone got their food and sat down at the main table. “It’s not as if we’re the only group of people to know about something to that effect, as you should know.”
“Yeah yeah, I get it.” Jeff said before he starts eating his plate filled with a lot of meat and crabs.
“Hey, Kenni, so how did the fight go? You barely say anything in the group chat.” Jeff asked while still eating, looking rather messy.
“That woman packed quite the punch. I think that’s the strongest enemy I fought up to this point.” She said before she starts eating, making it clear she isn’t all that interested in retelling everything. That sort of talk should be done after everyone finishes their first plate anyway.
No one else has anything to say as they keep eating, but Karra did look at the lone security guard suspiciously. His appearance is quite striking, always sporting that look since the first time I laid my eyes on him.
Some of us certainly have a bigger plate of food than others. Emmie over there had… When did she even wake up?
“Gregori…” Sixson said in disgust seeing Gregori stacking a bunch of pizza slices together before eating it. He always pulls a stunt like this whenever we have a buffet like this. It’s not as if the others don’t have their own oddities, but his is by far the most shameless.
“Typical” Karra said before she continued eating her sushi and other cold foods.
It’s certainly a bit odd for everyone to be quiet even for just a moment, but talking and eating would simply lead to choking.
“Some of you guys really ought to be less modest, you know?” Kenni said after finishing up her plate that is full of food that is hard to come by, then standing up to go get a refill.
“Her tone isn’t exactly something I agree with, but she is right.” Useph said before also standing up to go get another batch.
“By the way, Emmie. Where did you go to end up in that state?” Gregori asked after some time had passed and most people finished their first plate.
“Who’s to say?” She said before she continued eating her plate of cheese and crackers alongside a cup of tea. It’s an odd set of food for a buffet full of all kinds of high quality meals.
Gregori’s face contorted a bit in frustration, knowing full well that it is a sign that she isn’t going to disclose anything about the event.
Expecting her to explain everything in detail is a fool’s errand anyway, but I’m sure he knows that to some extent. At least with Kenni, if she thinks it’s extremely funny she might explain it in excruciating detail, or if she just suddenly feels like it.
“By the way, I’m pretty sure the woman I fight could’ve ended up destroying an entire state if she kept going. I think I did a pretty good job getting rid of her.” Kenni casually said after eating her collection of shellfish for a while. That is certainly a rather morbid thing to say, considering the scale. Now whether or not she was exaggerating is another matter. She isn’t one to always say something with absolute clarity.
“What a scary thought…” Karra said somewhat sarcastically before she continued eating.
“Kind of a crazy thing to say. I know that frog lady was all over the news not too long ago, but it sounds like she had been lazing around in that wrecked city for a while.” Gregori remarked.
“Oh, I’m not saying she’s gonna do it, just that she can, and she probably will if left unchecked.” Kenni said while looking at Gregori straight in the eyes while eating her black pasta.
“Is there any concrete evidence for that at all?” Gregori asked before munching down on one of the breads.
“I mean she beat the shit out of me for about the first half of the fight. Honestly if she wasn’t such a meathead it could’ve gone quite badly.” Kenni answered. If she wasn’t so strong that probably wouldn’t hold that much weight.
“That is quite impressive, if not exactly something I couldn’t also do.” Emmie suddenly chimed in after silently enjoying her meal for a while.
“Hey!” Kenni said in mock outrage.
“Can we stop talking so much for a bit? I’d like to eat in peace for a while without an argument breaking out.” Mreak suddenly spoke up after just silently enjoying his food for a while.
“Well, at least it’s not Malk and Qyunda arguing, that could last eons.” Gregori remarked while looking at the pair who are oddly quiet today.
“I care more about food than arguing.” Qyunda replied before she resumed eating.
“By the way Emmie, weren’t you planning on fighting someone strong like me today, why are you in that state while I’m not, huh?” Kenni suddenly brings up something Emmie never told us in the group chat. Oh dear.
“Unlike you, I actually choose to fight someone on my level. You might say that your opponent is about as strong or even a bit stronger than you, but the lack of intelligence from your opponent gives you a considerable advantage, doesn’t it?” Emmie snapped back with quite a long argument.
“What the hell? You’re gonna say the one you fight is both strong and smart? That’s how you’re gonna go about it?” Kenni said, gritting her teeth and looking a bit irritated.
“Indeed.” Emmie said with a small smug smile. “It’s like if one were to fight an animal of similar strength, both of you have a gun, and that animal cannot use it while you can.”
“That’s way too extreme of a comparison!” Kenni yelled back.
“Alright, shut the hell up already!” Jennla yelled out, having stayed quiet and looking stuff up on her phone while eating. Their argument had gotten quite loud and annoying.
“...You, me, tomorrow at the school’s stadium.” Emmie suddenly declared before she resumed eating. I think I can hear Jennla flinched momentarily after processing what that meant.
“Jeez, chill out.” Karra said while in the middle of eating. “Let’s relax and don’t cause any incident here. Think of all the employees here probably scared shitless of us. I think some ought to hear some of the stuff we did.”
“...Fine then. Just to be courteous, we’ll leave it at that.” Emmie replied while Kenni looked a bit irritated still.
She then stood up and walked to the giant chocolate fountain and started making many skewers of chocolate-covered treats.
Karra is quite right to be so concerned. I think at this point at time where it felt like anyone could happen, even just playing things up would’ve caused a lot of concerns for the onlookers.
“Well then? What have you guys been doing today? Got anything interesting to say?” Useph asked just so there’s something to say without resuming that peculiar topic.
“Not much going on today to be honest.” Qyunda said while shrugging her shoulders.
“Been grinding on the new year celebration event in a game I’m playing.” Jennla said while still looking at her phone. Guess that’s what she’s doing right now?
“Just a simple dungeon run.” Karra replied.
“Running around the town, nothing impressive.” Mreak said.
A few more people chimed in which started to drown out the conversation itself. At least it is quite lively and doesn’t have the somewhat awkward atmosphere there was earlier with those two.
“I wonder if Wiina is gonna show up randomly again.” Jeff suddenly said once everyone started to quiet down. She did do that last time a big gathering happened.
“I doubt that.” Jass said, being the first thing he said in a while.