Luxy was still stunned by the view of the city. He had lived most of his life in the Dracogon Plain, which was nothing but a mere wasteland, so it wasn't much of a surprise.
The most exciting thing that happened in tge wasteland he came from was when the occasional dust whirled across the plains, kicking up dirt that would find its way into the makeshift shelter of the dwellers of the plain.
Even the vegetation seemed to have given up, and insect familiars had no option but to build their homes from either rock or dead plants.
But the city right before him now, looked like an imaginary painting come to life... at least to Ryder.
Towering structures of glass and steel reached toward the heavens... not literally.
The streets below teemed with life—people bustling about their daily routines, vehicles weaving through traffic, street vendors calling out to passersby.
The car horns playing their music, the noise from the busy passers-by, everything was literally overwhelming to someone like Luxy.
Experiencing the human settlement for the first time—even though Ryder had stayed in the city for two days since he left his village, it still weren't enough for Luxy to normalize everything.
"Look at that!" Luxy exclaimed for perhaps the twentieth time that hour, as he pointed at a street performer tossing around what appeared to be small orbs of dancing flame.
"How does he not burn himself? Aren't human suppose to be fragile? Do you think he'd teach me if I asked nicely?"
"You can do better," Ryder responded flatly in annoyance, adjusting his cloak to cover his face more. "And, you cannot partake directly in activities such as that, you are not physical, remember!."
Ever since returning to planet Terra, there was something Ryder noticed when summoning out Luxy.
Luxy does materialize, but he appear like a projected image in the air instead of a physical body capable of doing physical activities.
All he could do was experience the world while being outside Ryder's head as a projection, nothing else.
"And the smells! Ryder, there are so many smells here! Some good, some... well, that alley we passed earlier could use a good rain, if you ask me." Luxy wrinkled his nose, floating to Ryder's shoulder.
"You can perceive smells!?" Ryder asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Surprisingly, yes," Luxy responded. "And I prefer what smells good. Like whatever that is!"
He pointed his nose toward a small shop emitting the enticing aroma of spices but Ryder face was completely stoic.
He couldn't see what could faze him at this moment.
No really, what could faze a young man who buried his mother with his very own hands. And his father disappeared, possibly abducted by people he have no knowledge of?
His eyes, that was once bright with curiosity and peace much like Luxy's, were now dimmed to a flat, dull gaze that barely recognized the beauty around him.
He practically moved through the city like a husk, present in body but absent in spirit.
The thought that he couldn't even organize a proper burial for his mom. He simply buried her all by himself and left his village afterwards, not inviting or alerting anyone.
How could he explain her death to the well-wishers, when he didn't fully understand it?
"Hey, are you listening?" Luxy nudged Ryder's cheek with his head, the fur having no effect on Ryder's skin. "I asked if we could try those noodles. My stomach really want that."
"So you know what that is," Ryder muttered, referring to the noodles.
"Yes, of course, I have quite a lot of your memories engraved in my head, you know," Luxy responded casually.
"Huh, I never knew that," Ryder responded blankly and began to walk towards the shop. "Let's see how a projection eats physical food."
After heading to the noodles shop, he entered through the curtains and sat down on a wooden chair and waited.
He was quite surprised that a shop of this kind existed in a busy, developed city like this.
This design, with its warm wooden interior and traditional beautiful sculptures, felt like it belongs elsewhere, more like the eastern part of the world, the interior was designed in the typical Eastern-like manner.
Picture frames portraying images of mountains shrouded in mist of ancient Eastern dragons soaring through cloudy skies, of warriors engaged in battle with mythical beasts.
He observed through his cloak.
"An Eastern businessperson must have extended their business all the way from their country down here," Ryder observed.
"I wonder what exactly is their inspiration."
It was very uncommon indeed. Especially after knowing that the government agencies of England could mess with the business and go scot-free.
No one would do something so stupid if they didn't have a powerful "somebody" backing them up from the shadows.
Before Ryder could drift into his thoughts, a certain movement suddenly caught his eye.
A young woman approached his table, in a worker's uniform and a clean white apron with red embroidery along the edges.
"What would you like to order, sir?" She spoke in a foreign tone, making it clear that, English wasn't her first language.
"I'd like a bowl of noodles, wi..." Ryder's eyes suddenly fell on the embroidery crest on the apron—Thunderwhisker Koi. The emblem reflected a red koi-like fish with whiskers that had crackles around it, positioned as if swimming in an endless circle.
Although Ryder rarely left his home in the village, his family still had a small number of gadgets, such as a radio and others, that could help him attain awareness of the latest news in the country and of symbols... that one should respect.
Apart from that, he was not completely caged, he did leave his house once in a while, so he had general knowledge, especially about summoners society and guilds.
That crest, it is the crest of the Red-Eastern guild.
He had some information about this particular guild. They had been overdoing things and making a big contribution to the country, enhancing its growth in the process.
Due to that, they made some connections with some of the higher-ups in the country, including a good number of mid tier guild and even the overall governmental guild in this united states.
'Now I get it, they have the backing of the Red-Eastern guild or rather,' Ryder realized. 'The people running this shop shouldn't be just any ordinary people, they must be very closely related to the Red-Eastern guild or worse... tge guild very own member.'
Such unfortunate luck for Ryder to have. Of all the places in this vast city, he had wandered into one connected to one of the most powerful organizations in the country.
Wait, that aside, why noodle? Such a big guild with so much power, settling to sell noodles. No way he was buying that.
But... What exactly was their aim?
He didn't know why, but he felt it in his gut that this is the wrong place to be.
"What would you like to order, sir?" the lady asked again, noticing that her customer was lost in thought, snapping Ryder back to consciousness.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Any of your best delicacies should be enough, cheap one I mean." Ryder spoke, trying to show some emotion, but his tone, unfortunately, was still flat.
"As you wish, your noodles are on their way now," the waiter said with a customer friendly grin once again before walking away.
The lady hadn't walked five steps away when the door at the inner of the shop opened and another waiter came out from the room, holding a bowl of noodles on a tray for Ryder.
"How did she hear me from so far away?" Ryder's eyebrows raised. "This is not ordinary for just any ordinary summoner, except... they are really powerful ones."
"I knew they Red-Eastern guild guild was strong, but I didn't realize they were so strong that they are assigning powerful summoners to sell noodles."
Summoners are humans with the ability to forge contracts with creatures from the Astral Shadow Plain, gaining enhanced abilities and special affinity as a result.
Weaker familiars could barely cause any significant general enhancement, while powerful ones could make a person seem superhuman.
The sharp hearing of this waiter was simply superhuman.
The waiter dropped the bowl of noodles on Ryder's table, then walked off without another word.
The steaming bowl emitted an aroma that made Ryder's stomach growl from hunger, but still hesitant.
A delicacy indeed, and anyone could tell by its smell, but still, there was one sure fact Ryder knew: these people weren't in the city without purpose.
"I wonder, maybe there is a relation between them and what happened at my house," Ryder wondered as he picked up the chopsticks from the tray, right beside his bowl of noodles.
Still at alert, he raised the bowl and held it in his arm, then gobbled up all the noodles extremely fast.
"Hey, wait for me! I am the one hungry not you!" Luxy quickly dug his head into the bowl and hurriedly fill himself before Ryder could exhaust the bowl.
Seems like Luxy projection could eat too, surprisingly.
The especially loud clacking sound the bowl made as he returned it to his table made heads turn towards his direction.
The waitress who had spoken to him earlier returned to his table with her usual smile on her face.
"Seems like you are enjoying your meal," she said as her gaze flicked briefly toward the bowl. "Would you like to pay now, or order a new bowl?"
Ryder took a moment of silence then dug his hands inside his cloak, he pulled out four silver coins.
At that moment the realization hit him, causing him to clench his fist, he stared at the lady, then at his coin, then at the lady again.
He was in deep trouble.
Four silver coin isn't even close to the price. He foolishly forgot to check the price tag that came with the bowl.
#6 Gold Coins.
The city's higher prices had depleted all his money more quickly than he predicted within the last two days, and now he found himself unable to cover even this simple meal.
"Seems like you are having trouble paying, eh, young man." The waitress's faltered to reveal something harder beneath he never would have imagined such cute face could produce.
"I believe you saw the fee on the tag. The cost for our cheapest bowl of noodles is six gold coins," she said, as her finger tapped the table lightly.
The prices listed there made his blood run cold—not just expensive, but beyond what he anticipated.
Ryder slammed his four remaining gold coins on his table. This money was the remainder of the money left in his life.
His entire family savings was what he had been spending in the last two days in the city, and now it was exhausted.
"I am so sorry, but I am out of cash," Ryder said. "Is there any other way I can compensate you?"
"You seem to know you place, so I'll pardon you with something light." She smiled now, though the expression made it clear to Ryder it held no warmth. "There is some domestic work you can do here, especially in the kitchen."
"You will be working here for the next two hours."
"I have no objections." Ryder stood up. "Lead me, please."
"Sure," replied the waiter, before walking toward tge door leading to the inner private section of the building.
"Since when did a waiter have the privilege to make such decisions without the permission of the head of the shop?" Ryder couldn't help but question inwardly.
In his limited experience with establishments like this, such arrangements would typically require the approval of someone higher like a manager with the authority to waive part of a debt in exchange for labor.
As they entered the staff section of the shop, Ryder instantly understood why he've had a bad feeling about this place these while.
The atmosphere of the room was intense, and all the people in the room did not appear to be chefs at all.
It was made up mostly of men—muscular with chiseled muscles, some had scars, even a few had tattoos.
With a sneer, they all turned to stare at Ryder with sharp gazes.
They were all powerful summoners. There was no doubt about that now, because there was no way hulking men of this nature would just mere chefs.
While summoners were being enhanced by their familiar, they sometimes developed incredible physical characteristics depending on the nature of the familiar they had contracted with like enhanced musculature, unusual eye colors, colored hair, and so on.
Upon reaching the unattended vacant work area, the waiter decided, "This will be your job; you'll be washing dishes for the next two hours."
After that, she walked away, concluding, "Better get to work now so you can leave in time."
Ryder stared at the pile of bowls and other utensils piled up. Soap and sponge could be seen, already prepared.
'Sigh!' Ryder squatted and flung his cloak backwards. 'To think that I'll have to do this after being the strongest summoner in the modern age.'
Picking up a big bowl from the ground, he observed, "There is no water in it, and I need some."
Turning around to stare at a source where he could get water, he noticed it.
The gazes of the nearby workers were fixed on him. The moment he turned to them, they all turned away, acting as if nothing had ever happened.
Ryder narrowed his gaze at them before turning toward the tap he found by the side, unfazed.
There was someone already there, so he had to wait.
"Wanna fetch some water?" the worker asked, his tone suggesting that the question was not carrying genuine concern for Ryder, but was a fake and an attempt to start a conversation with him.
"What does it look like?" Ryder retorted in a calm, emotionless tone. "I believe we all have eyes."
"Oh, you are quite disrespectful despite being poor." He spoke and then smirked. "You need to be taught a lesson."
"EVERYBODY, THIS TRASH OVER HERE IS BEING RUDE, HE HAS INSULTED MY DIGNITY!!!"
The moment his words were heard, a wide grin appeared on everyone's face. They had been waiting for this opportunity and now they got it.
Everyone left their tasks at hand and walked towards Ryder, some were cracking knuckles, some cracking necks—in all, they had only one intention, and that was... quite apparent.
They were all prestigious members of red eastern guild with very powerful familiars, and being forced by they guild into working as chefs have been really boring.
The urge to throw their fist have been lingering in their hearts for way too long.