Haven Online 109 The Banquet Pt 5

With his dessert in hand, Xinya walked back to his table with a bounce in his step. Once he was reseated the smile he was holding back, broke forth. So far everything was going smoothly, but he wasn't going to jinx himself by being overconfident, he knew that many things could go wrong.

One is that he and his friends wouldn't be strong enough to handle the Tall man by themselves and die in the process. Xinya shook his head clearing away that thought, he shouldn't be so pessimistic. With their new titles, he knew they would have a good chance of defeating this monster.

Just as Xinya felt optimistic about everything, he realized something extremely important, he only had 10 health potions, he used the rest of them up in Baldahurh forest while making combat potions and he didn't think Wei or Wandering Sound had any either. 

It's a good thing he still had a stack of twenty of each combat potion in his inventory or he would have been screwed. He had meant to make some later, but who would have known that he would wind upright in the middle of another combat type quest so soon, certainly not him.

"Roaming Wind, Wandering Sound," Called Xinya, causing the two of them to stop eating and look at him curiously. "Did you two, perhaps, and please say that you did, restock your potions supply while you were out yesterday?"

Seeing the looks on their faces, Xinya knew for sure that they didn't. As he was about to speak, Wandering Sound said, "Although we didn't buy more, we still have some in our inventory, but I am low on mana potions."

"Same here I have a lot of health potions, but I'm low on stamina ones," Wei told him.

Xinya felt relieved knowing that, for some reason, he thought that they had no potions on them. It was probably because of when they got their inventories locked and was scrambling for potions that confused him.

Turning to look at Melting Snow who was gobbling down a chocolate souffle, he asked, "What about you, Melting Snow? Do you have enough potions on you?" 

"Yeah, I have tons, about 50 of each." Melting Snow replied after swallowing a bite of the souffle. "Why do you ask? Did you talk to Junipère?"

Xinya just smiled, "It seemed that I didn't have to, but we will be meeting the Mayor anyway."

"Really? How did this happen?" Wandering Sound asked. He and Roaming Wind were only gone for a while, but it looked like Drifting Cloud and Melting Snow came up with something without them. He didn't know how to feel about that.

Xinya started telling them about what Junipère said and how the Mayor would be coming over to their table later on tonight to eat cake with them. The tree suddenly became aware of why Xinya was asking them their potions now.

"When the so-called Mayor comes, what are we supposed to do?" Wandering Sound begins. "I suspect that we need to trigger a quest somehow if there is one."  

"Don't worry, I already have an idea about how we will go about doing that," Xinya said while gesturing for them to move in closer so he could whisper his plan to them. 

~     

All the guests in the banquet hall including Xinya and his party had finished their desserts. After the servants finished clearing away all of the dirty dishes from all the tables, the Mayor once again stood up.

Walking down from the table of honor he made his way to the center of the room. With his guest's eyes following him, he snapped his fingers. The cake that Xinya made was placed on a small table and wheeled in front of the Mayor by Junipère.

Junipère stood on the side of the table as the Mayor began speaking, "Ladies and gentlemen, this night is about to come to an end, but we should leave it on a spectacular note. This cake before you all is what I had custom made for this celebration. So before we part ways on this beautiful night, let's enjoy some cake and wine."

There was loud applause from everyone in the hall, and Junipère started to cut the cake, putting slices on tiny plates than placing them on the table. Summoning some servants, he said something to them before walking over to Xinya's table.

"Hello, I'm Mayor Ian Kingsley," the Mayor stated as soon as he arrived at their table. "May I have the pleasure of knowing which one you helped make that marvelous cake over there?"

"I did," Xinya replied while standing up and holding out his hand for the fake mayor to shake. As they shook hands, Xinya could feel how cold it was. Xinya knew that even if Haven Online was a game the NPCs were very human-like and when a player touches them they were always warm. 

After taking his hand away the Mayor said, "I would like to thank you for your hard work. As a reward, you may have the honor of me eating the cake you made while sitting at your table."

Xinya was speechless for a moment as well as everyone else at the table, before reluctantly saying, "Thank you very much for the honor."

"Your welcome, the Mayor said cheerfully, while motioning to a servant who was panting holding a golden chair. The servant places the chair in an empty spot at their table before leaving.

Sitting down, the Mayor once again snapped his fingers and three servants came into view holding a plate of cake in their hands. Placing a piece down in front of everyone at the table, they then left as fast as they came.  

Opening up party chat he said:

DC: Everyone knows what needs to be done, right? 

WS: Don't worry, we know what to do. 

RW: Yeah what Wandering Sound said.

MS: Leave it to us!

Everyone begins eating their cake, and Xinya wondered how he was going to begin the process of making the Mayor shows his true colors to everyone when the Mayor begin speaking.

"So my lovely citizens, what were you conversing about before I graced you with my presence?" The Mayor asked and Xinya could only smile at this perfect opportunity. 

"We were talking about the great war, between the monsters and the humans" Xinya stated.

"Oh, is that so?" The Mayor responded. "What were you discussing, about it?"

Xinya smirked at the Mayor and replied, "We were just discussing how the monsters were idiots in thinking they could ever beat us, humans."

"That's correct, young man. How could they ever beat us." The Mayor said, but Xinya saw his eyes flash red for a second and he knew the rest of his friends did too from what they were saying in party chat.

MS: Did you see his eyes change?

RW: I did!

WS: He seems to not like this topic.

DC: Than let's talk about it some more.

MS: Let's trigger him to death.

RW: Hehe.. let's!

The conversation went on like this for awhile the four of them playing off of each other. They could see their words were making the fake Mayor more and more upset, but it wasn't until Xinya said, that the only thing those monsters could do, is to be manure in his garden was when the Mayor finally snapped.

The lights in the banquet hall blew out, only leaving the candles to light up the room. The monster in the Mayor's body begins to show his true form, the creature ripped the skin that covered its body off piece by piece, revealing a black shadowy monster that was as tall as a man, with red eyes and sharp razor-like teeth. 

Screams were heard all around them and people begin running towards the exit. Only to find that the doors have been locked and they were trapped inside the room. Moving as far away from the monster as they could the NPC guest just stood and watched, hoping someone would save them.

"You finally revealed your true self," Xinya said moving away from the table with the rest of his party.

"So you knew all along and was baiting me," The tall man said while grinning evilly. "No matter, once you and everyone in this hall are dead, nobody will ever know."

[Quest Triggered!]

Chapter end