Chapter 54: Chapter 53: A Chance Meeting

Tess smiled as the waiter brought their food. She had come to find that, though many of the ingredients differed from what she was used to, most of the time restaurant food was remarkably similar to what was on Mael. There were a few common plants, and farm animals, but there were also a bunch of other new things to try as well.

But the menus still tended to end up with various assortments of salads, sandwiches, soups, and…well, if you could find it back on Mael, you could probably find an analogue somewhere in the Outlands.

So it was that she had ordered a sandwich with a few things she hadn’t tried yet on it. The waiter placed their food and retreated, and Tess began to eat.

“Is that…Tess?!” Tess turned to find that Maven and Amara were passing by, presumably being led to a table by the waitress that was standing next to them.

“Maven? When’d you come to the city? I mean, I just…didn’t realize you were here already, I guess. I sorta thought you’d come here when we officially started working together.”

Amara smiled. “I was bringing her here to get her settled into living on her own for a bit before she really got into things.”

Alice gave the waitress who was waiting near the two an understanding look. “Why don’t we have those two sit with us?” She said. “I’ll cover their meal, so don’t worry about that.”

The waitress gave her a relieved look and nodded. “I’ll fetch a couple of menus.” She said, and scurried off towards the back of the restaurant.

Maven grabbed one of the empty chairs at the table and sat down across from Tess. “Thank you, Lady Reshi. That’s very generous of you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Alice said, waving a hand. “Have you two met Ellie before?”

“I met Ellie earlier today, actually.” Amara replied. “But I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of meeting this young man before.” She gave Jacob a nod. “I’m Amara Sarlienne, what’s your name?”

“Um…Jacob Ernest.” Jacob said. “Nice to meet you.”

“And I’m Maven Sarlienne, her lots-of-greats granddaughter.” Maven said, standing up and giving a small curtsey. “It’s nice to meet both of you.”

“Right, I’m Ellie Los, though I’m guessing you knew that already.” Ellie said. “Nice to meet you as well.”

You are reading story The Outlands at novel35.com

Maven nodded. “If you would forgive my asking, what are you all doing here? I thought you still had school for a couple of weeks?”

Tess nodded. “Yeah, there was a bit of an…incident, and today we ended up leaving early. Jacob’s a friend from school, and we began to introduce him to…well, everything after.”

An understanding look filled Maven’s face. “I see.” She said, turning to Jacob. “How are you holding up, then? This must be quite overwhelming for you.”

“Um, fine, I guess?” Jacob replied. “I’m probably gonna need more time to really…process everything later, but for now everything’s good. But…um, ‘Lady’ Reshi? Is Alice some sort of noble or something?”

Alice chuckled. “Nothing of the sort. I just happen to own a decently large business, that’s all.”

“Decently large is…one way of putting it.” Amara said, smirking. “But, yes, the whole ‘lady’ thing is just a way of being respectful, nothing more.”

“And, speaking of that, please just call me Alice.” Alice said. “Same with the rest of my party. We’re going to be working together in the future, so it’s going to get frustrating if we’re all standing on ceremony all the time. So, really, just don’t worry about it, we’re not going to care.”

“I see. I’ll do that, then.” Maven said. “Might I ask what your plan for the rest of the day is?”

Tess shrugged. “We’re playing it by ear. We were just showing Jacob around the Outlands, and we came to get food after dungeon raiding. We don’t really have a plan for what’s next at the moment. All depends on how Jacob’s feeling, I guess.”

“Um…I think I’m ready to go home.” Jacob said. “I’m going to need to shower, and I still have some homework to do, so I can’t be out all night. Plus, my parents are probably gonna get worried if I’m gone for too long, since I only said I was gonna be hanging out with you guys for a little bit.”

“Understandable.” Ellie replied. “We’ll take you home after we finish eating, then. If you want to come back here, just let us know and we’ll bring you back.”

---