>Chapter 24<

The boys talked in the room together for a bit before a knock came from the door.

*Knock*

The boys looked at each other and one of them responded.

"Come in."

Opening the door was none other than Albert. His expression was still the same stoic face he had earlier today. He looked at the boys, who up until now were discussing the offer, and announced.

"Dinner will be served shortly." He bowed slightly, less than when he greeted Caedis. "I was commanded to bring the guests to the dining hall."

The boys, who were still dressed in their clothes from earlier, got up and followed after the butler. They started to feel hungry now that they had been reminded of it. All the stress from today made them forget one of the most important things.

They were actually happy that they get to unwind and eat some delicious food. I mean, it has to be delicious, right? They're in a castle, after all. So they continued on their journey with small smiles on their faces.

However, as soon as they go to the dining hall, their smiles twitched when they saw that they wouldn't be dining alone. What greeted them was a sight of Caedis, sitting at the seat on the other side of the long table.

Albert then walked to the seats that were on the right side of Caedis and motioned for the boys to come and sit. The five teenagers could only accept their fates and smiled to the best of their ability.

Caedis was just smiling in his seat. He was enjoying looking at their forced smiles. The boys had a sudden urge to punch that handsome face, but controlled themselves. It's not like they could even touch him in the first place.

"Good evening, I trust that there are no problems with the living quarters we have prepared for you?" Caedis leaned back into his chair gracefully.

"No, no, everything's been good so far." Timothy waved both his hands to show that they were okay.

"Is that so? Then I'm glad." Caedis casually replied. He then clapped his hand once. "Albert, you can bring the food now."

Albert just bowed and walked away.

The boys realized that he must've waited for them to start eating. It made them even more suspicious as to why he was so respectful to them.

Victor Caedis just smiled at their questioning gazes and then crossed his legs, one over the other, in a noble way.

"We can talk after we finish eating, do you not agree?"

The boys just nodded quietly and soon the food arrived. They have never seen anything so delicious-looking before. It looked even better than anime food and there were tons of it!

They didn't know how to describe the food they were looking at. It was some meat that looked like chicken, beef and others, though they weren't quite sure if something like a chicken existed in this world.

"Eat at your own pace, no need to hold back."

Seeing that the boys were hesitating, Caedis decided to give them a little push. He sliced into a juicy steak and ate it. The boys were dazzled by the level of gracefulness that radiated from every single of his movements, before literally devouring the food in front of them.

After filling their stomachs to the brims, the boys leaned back into their seats and took a quick breath and let their bodies do the rest.

Caedis didn't look stunned at the amount of food they ate either. It was like he had already expected this beforehand. After all, they had eaten close to five times of food than that of a normal person of this world.

Deciding that it was time, Caedis tapped on the table. All the servants, who had been in this room up until now, quickly turned and walked away and now, there were just the six of them in this dining hall.

"I take it you have come to a decision?" He asked with confidence.

The boys were briefly stunned seeing his confidence, albeit now, they could confirm their suspicion about him spying on them when they were in their room. They had discussed this earlier. How did he know that they had already woken up when they did? And, even now, when they were basically finished with their talk about the offer he had given them. Now they knew that they have to be careful with what they say, else this stalker will get to know all of their secrets.

Not like we can hide anything from him anyway, the boys thought.

"Yes, we have." David responded.

"So? What is your answer?" Caedis questioned with eagerness.

(We're really doing this, right?) David asked the others boys with their telepathy.

The four other boys just responded with a nod, which confused Caedis.

"We… we accept your proposal…" Patrick finally voiced out their final decision.

You could basically see the flowers blooming from Caedis's smile. Even the tense atmosphere from earlier became a little bit warmer. But something unexpected happened that Caedis never expected to happen, at least, not this early.

"But… we want to know how you and Albert can speak out language."

The moment they said this sentence, stillness assaulted the room. You could probably even hear a feather fall.

The boys actually noticed this inconsistency earlier. The first person they had met seemed to not understand their language at all. They thought that the reaction of the man greatly differed from the normal response of the man. So they had two choices. Either the man was short-tempered or didn't understand what they had said at that time.

Now they had basically confirmed their suspicion when they heard Caedis and Albert speak. At first, they had thought that they just spoke the same language, but they had noticed that the men's lips didn't say their actual words. It was as if their lips were saying one thing, but the actual voice was completely different.

Caedis just sat there for a while. They couldn't see into his eyes because some stray strands of his hair were covering. To be honest, it looked pretty menacing. This atmosphere was amplified by the fact that a blood-thirsty laugh came out of his mouth.

"Hahahaha~"

They were stunned to see the personality of this kind-hearted do a complete 180, but it's not like they didn't expect this either. Something just had to be fishy. The knowledge came straight from reading novels, after all.

"I didn't expect you to find out this early." He said as he swiped the tear from the corner of his eye. "Though, I will not complain. It is a good thing, after all."

He watched the boys' stunned expressions and chuckled. The group of friends was bewildered. How could someone laugh so much without their throat hurting too much?

"Alright, alright, I will not keep it a secret from you. You will need to use this technique if you want to stay alive in another world." He again straightened his back.

The group was bewildered. How can someone switch between personalities so smoothly?

But then, another thought hit them.

"Did you just say another world?"