Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 29: a lunch with the imperials

As soon as Yunan caught up to Debauchery, he was surprised to find the emperor and his guardian were at his heels, he thought they would take a few minutes going on formalities with director Joey, but it seemed they had different priority at the moment, they were anxious and visibly disturbed, pendeling between action and inaction, once again when they decided on action, their fire was doused by a stupid statement from Debauchery.

"this lass is so shy, she can not even say her own name, so cute, so fluffy, i want to die" master Balin was poking at Dustan to put the little girl down and into arms reach. "it's because she is afraid of your overfamiliarity, you uncivilized molesters" Bai retorted from behind Dustan giving his bum a kick. Fae noticed the arrival of Yunan, Leol and the emperor, and stopped trying to reach her hands and touch the little fluffy tail "hey emperor, what did you name this princess, if it is not cute enough be prepared to change it" she shook her fist at the stunned emperor, the guardian still had enough mental power to answer Fae "Reina, her name is Reina","not cute enough old fox" Balin stepped in with his own contribution, which prompted Bai to step in once again " what do you know about cute names? you are a dwarf, your settings does not include cuteness by default, so don't talk about cuteness when elves are a round". "hold it right there human rat, how dare you say i know nothing of cuteness? have you ever heard a dwarf name as cute as balin? they are all brutish, mine is an exception, besides what is so cute about elvish names, they all mean fairy or green or flower, it is not cute if all the races naming sense is the same".

the dwarf did have a point thought the guardian and the emperor, but before the confrontation between Bai and Balin could keep going, the voice of Leader, who was holding hands with Lucian in an obvious attempt at consolation, sounded from the front of the group, "no fighting we are about to eat, Bai if you have a problem with them being over familiar come and help lucian grief, Balin, if you think the name is not cute enough call her tails, you seems to like them so that is that, and Fae, don't even think about about punching the emperor, he can name his daughter whatever he liked, if you feel like punching, Dustan needs a good slogging for hogging tails to himself". although Leader never looked back she knew her compatriots well enough, emperor and guardian did not even notice Fae coming closer with clenched fist since their attention on the farce between Balin and Bai. the target of physical abuse changed to Dustan once it was pointed out he was taking his sweet time. Yunan felt obliged to explain something to emperor who now had a vacant look in his eyes, probably he never seen such obscene party before, so he said "they are always like this, they just have fun and that is all they do, i have only seen them serious once and that was when they were talking business with you, so just give it up and enjoy the show, it is fun if you don't think too much", "but my daughter" before he could continue Leol chimed in " she is the safest one in this group, so relax, besides she is a child, soon she will start laughing at them, same as we did, i can see it, she is holding herself back, because the idea of fun is not well taught in royal families, and she must behave decently, if you relax and have fun she will too". emperor looked at his guardian who nodded at him and went ahead to walk beside Leader, who was trying to choose a good restaurant based on which smelled best to Lucian's nose.

soon they found a suitable old restaurant, that smelled just right for both beast-men, and the party practically invaded the small restaurant and started moving tables to accommodate all 11 of them in the same big table that took over half the space in the dining hall of the restaurant, and Leader went ahead and ordered 5 of everything they had on the menu, which put a smile on the owners face, soon the kitchen started pumping out dishes and the unholy sight of Debauchery eating was shown to the world. pick whatever you feel like from any dish on the table, feed half of what you bitten to the one you think will enjoy it, pile the good food before Leader, pass Dustan all the food you don't like, the last piece of something good is fought over by rock-paper-scissors, pass the soup bowl by throwing it at whoever wants it, drink from the closest glass, does not matter who drank from it, feed the little princess, keep the emperor from stealing her away and letting her eat by herself. all in all a debauchery of a lunchtime.

Yunan and Leol were ignored during most of the lunch, so they conversed with the emperor who seemed to loosen up a bit, Reina was laughing at whatever antique Dustan and Balin were talking about, and the guardian was matching Bai a drink for a drink, a fool if you ask Yunan who never even seen Debauchery drink before, but hey, he was having fun and it was rude to tell him about how it was a bad idea to engage in any activity with any member of Debauchery. Yunan found out that emperor was named Hoshi and guardian was named Hatsu. according to the emperor, every generation, they use divination to decide who is sent to the dungeon, Hatsu was the previous generation, as per the rules once a new chosen enters the dungeon the current one inside has to leave to become a guardian of the imperial family, sometimes the divination chooses more than one from the family, sometimes even a whole party of 10 at once, this year Reina was the only chosen. and in 5 years she would enter the dungeon while the current explorer leaves. the guardians are allowed 3 months per year in the dungeon, so as to never stagnate, as well as guide the current explorer to advance faster.

there was not a dull moment in the lunch time that spanned almost 4 hours, the party kept ordering food and drinks and sweets, all the time. once emperor finally accepted that Debauchery will never act as within expectations he asked Yunan and Leol who were sitting beside him "are they like this all the time?", "yes" answered Yunan "they are like this all the time i am with them, just having fun no matter what they are doing, they choose to live, that is what Leader told me, when death is at hand at all times you either live without regrets or die inside while waiting for your demise", Leol also added his own insight "it is more understable from the viewpoint of us children, if we do not have fun and play, we get cranky and mischievous and dull, so we prefer to play around, that simple". although emperor Hoshi was not completely sold on Debauchery, seeing his daughter laugh so much did put a smile on his face. by the end of the feast, Dustan had guardian Hatsu in his arms while Balin was carrying Reina on his shoulders, they were fighting away the molesting hands of Fae. Lucian and Bai were singing a drunken chanty, Leader locked arms with emperor Hoshi, and were leading the party back to the dorms in the academy.