[Chapter 31 – The restaurant]

Inside of what appeared to be a restaurant, the pungent odor of smoke and alcohol inebriated the entirety of the place.

As Xeno passed through the door, the ringing sound of a bell alerted the various groups inside of the room. There were at least five of these aggregations of individuals, mainly composed of two kind of people.

There were middle aged celidre, with their beard a little unkempt and a long and thick cigar tightly pressed between their lips. These thugs were mostly wearing clean black leather suits or a bland white shirt. They also presented various scars over their face, while their bodies clearly weren't in good conditions, as they probably were drug addicts.

The other type of individual present in the saloon were non other than young girls. However their general complexion was a lot better than the females that Xeno had encountered at the brothel. They were wearing revealing and alluring clothes, such as tops and tight shorts.

Xeno signaled to No.1 and No.3 to follow him, as he proceeded to the second occupied table on the left. While approaching it, he fixedly focused his senses on one of the girls present at the table.

She was timidly pressing her bosom onto the arm of one of the gangster, flushing a little. As such she didn't give the impression of having experience on the matter. In truth this girl started this kind of job less than a week ago, she wasn't competent at all!

One could think that the 'entertainment girl' of the criminal bosses was a rather miserable job. However that wasn't entirely true, firstly they rarely arrived as far as the real deed and even if they were mostly treated as objects, it wasn't that bad.

After all there were jobs were you were treated worse than objects. Furthermore by putting these criminals in a good mood, these girls often received some tips.

Nonetheless Xeno was here for none other than a personal matter. If one was to look carefully to this young celidre, her facial features were very similar to the ones of an individual Xeno had deemed more important than even himself.

Indeed, she is the sister of the now deceased Inea.

Looking through her sadness and nostalgia started to flush out of the numb and twist mind of Xeno.

Suddenly an intense headache started pain the elongated brain of the fearsome alien.

'I need to get over with it, I'll give her a few coins and never see her again'

This was a problem Xeno had been affected for a few weeks already. Since he had started to search information relative to his assassination attempt by interrogating his 'specimens'. As at a certain point he was bound to get to know of Ilenia's conditions.

She was indeed attending the gymnasium and had been put under the care of a hunter, this was due to her high proficiency with the bow. Still in the end she had eventually failed the compatibility exam, thus leading her here.

Xeno had never really forgot about her, however her well being had clearly not been placed as one of his priorities.

Once he understood of her situation, a heavy sense of guilt started to assault him periodically.

He couldn't understand why, Aiduth had told him that after his awakening he was bound to hardly feel any emotion toward his companions welfare.

Yet now he was experiencing feelings for someone he couldn't certain refer as one of his servants, furthermore this was a strong sensation.

The more he thought about this the higher the pain got intensified. As such he gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.

Over the round metallic table there were a lot of left-overs, placed over white quadratic plates, glasses filled with strong drinks were also abundant.

There in total three gangsters and six ladies, exactly two for each of them. The thug in the middle was groping a girl on his left while caressing Ilenia's thigh with his right arm.

However the shadow looming over his head had already ruined his mood. Without much though, the criminal just waived his hand at Xeno, before rudely addressing him.

"Don't disturb me now! I am not selling opium nor buying any of right now!"

Apparently the kind of business the celidre had his expertise in was now pretty clear. None that this really mattered to Xeno.

Suddenly he pumped nano-energy into his tendrils, making them emit rainbow colored flashes. They explosively elongated, directly entangling Ilenia and pulling her toward Xeno.

[I owe you something, or better I did to your brother. I am here to pay him back.]

As stern and direct as always, Xeno jumped directly onto the motive he had disturbed himself to come until here.

He didn't care either about formalities or about the future of the little girl, he was here solely to relieve his 'guilt'.

Then a leather pouch appeared out of thin air into the palm of Xeno's left hand. He put down the scared Ilenia, freed her and forced her little hand to hold the sack full of coins.

It contained about two hundred coins, probably about a few months of work for the girl, if she pleased the gangsters enough.

Having finally accomplished this torture, Xeno started heading off the restaurant, hoping that his headache would now be alleviated.

At the same time the previously stunned thugs had started to realize what had just happened. How could this simpleton come here, do as he pleases and then disappearing without uttering a word? They had to put this bastard back on his place.

Yet the leader of the three was not a simple thug either, he was the boss of his criminal organization. A true ranker, having reached the rank three he recognized the identities of these three aliens.

The Xez'ets, a team that about a month ago had started an onslaught of criminals from rank two and below. Fearsome creature that were specialized in ambushes, even if few in numbers you had better not to irritate them. In fact their persistence was impressive, their will absolute, as trying to bribe them had proved utterly useless.

Yet the most valuable weapon against them had proven to be the system, these aliens didn't attack true rankers. The motive was quite obvious, they didn't have enough authority to do so.

Suren, as the representative of his organization stepped up. He knew the alien wouldn't dare to hurt him, as such the opportunity to give a good impression of him to his underlings came up.

"Wait! Ugly b*tch, what you have done was extremely rude. Apologize and compensate me for ruining my mood!"

As Xeno had reached No.1 and No.3 in the middle of the room, the thug had angrily spouted out provocative words.

With one hand he was holding onto a red laser gun, similar to that of the lizardman bandit Xeno had killed in the past, just of a bigger caliber.

At the same time he gestured to the gangsters on the other table, hinting the imminence of a fight break out.

However Xeno knew no shame, or better he couldn't feel any sense of embarrassment.

"I am… sorry. Click Click"

The monotonic and dull voice of the alien reverberated into the space of the restaurant. Raspy and unpleasant, it didn't carry an ounce of sentiment, ending the conversation with creepy clicking sounds.

Although Xeno didn't give him any sort of remuneration, no coins or item were given away. Not only because because he was quite stingy, but even more now that he only wished to get away from this place, his headache still ringing inside his head.

'Is he making fun of me? What kind of poor excuse was that? Furthermore I see no remuneration here'

While thinking this, Suren decided to proceed and make a step further. He had the cover of the other gangsters, they were fifteen against three. If not killing him, he could make his bleeding sorry ass escape from the restaurant.

Purging this monster would surely gain quite a bit of fame in the criminal world. He confidently aimed his gun at the back of the black figure that was nearing the door.

Yet he had underestimated the keen senses of the alien. The long black bladed tail of Xeno, had started glowing of a deep shade of purple.

In fact even if Xeno hasn't already fully reached the deep purple stage, however it isn't that far from it either. As such him having a quite deep purple energy isn't that strange, it is quite unrealistic that while cultivating after a certain threshold suddenly the energy completely changes. This is a gradual process, while improving his energy, this one will slowly start to change, until becoming completely deep purple.

With an incredible speed the tail slammed down, cleanly cleaving in two the shot of the gun. Then the silhouette of a deep cut presented itself on the floor and respective wall of the room, sending chills to all of the ones present in the restaurant.