Unexpected Guests II: The Wooden Plate

"What was that dear?" asked a serene and melodious voice that immediately brought shivers to the spines of the three males as their faces shakily turned towards the source of the voice. It was a beautiful middle-aged lady that somewhat resembled Shino who currently had both her eyes closed as she let out a smile that did not display any sense of happiness with her head slightly tilting to the side.

"Nothing at all dear!" old man Sato spoke in a clear voice as his back stiffened into a straight position.

Not a single reply was heard from the old man's wife for a few seconds before she turned around and simply walked off in the direction of the two kids, the same expression staying on her face.

The moment she left, the whole situation seemed to suddenly intensify as Riku, Isao, and the old man all looked at each other with a defeated nod before all mumbling out, "Women…"

They then all turned to face Shoma to say something to him but before they could even say it, they were met by Shoma and Shino who had suddenly turned to face them, they were both staring at them with completely serious expressions as a series of croaks and crows followed from the sky where Vom could be seen circling the campfire.

As soon as the crows and croaks were heard, the far side of the campfire that was directly opposite the group seemed to quiet down suddenly and the sound of hooves clicking on dirt could be heard before coming to a stop.

Hearing the strange silence, the elder immediately knew that something was off and he immediately went to go and check it out.

At the entrance to the village centre, a middle-aged man in black robes with a very strong build had just gotten off of his horse. As he did so, all the people behind him also followed suit and all dismounted their horses.

"Looks like they are having a celebration tonight," the man spoke as a smile appeared. He saw kids happily eating as they sat next to the campfire while some kids were still queuing up while scanning around the campfire for their ideal seating spots. And a little farther around the campfire sat all the rest of the adults who were happily chatting with one another.

"What a happy-looking village," Yasu mumbled as he was touched by the sight in front of him. They had already been travelling for two weeks and gone through other villages, but none seemed as happy as this.

"Hahaha! Remind me of home!" Nen suddenly laughed out loud with a hearty smile, causing the attention of everyone on their side of the campfire to suddenly turn towards them.

In that instant, the whole village seemed to grow a tone quieter as everyone's focus suddenly towards the group that had just shown up out of nowhere. Initially, confusion appeared on the faces of the peasants but as they saw the clothes the arrivals were wearing they immediately all bowed down hurriedly as they all greeted, "Greetings, Lord!"

As everyone bowed down, a sense of discomfort washed over the middle-aged man.

"My Lords!" the voice of the old man sounded out as Haruto ran out with his whole upper torso bandaged and he immediately bowed down as he got near them, "I am Haruto Sato, the elder of Komichi. I humbly welcome you to our little settlement."

"I am General Ken Mago, I'm on a trip to the North and wanted to take a rest here for the night. I'm here with some of my men and children," the middle-aged man replied.

Hearing him introduce himself, a sense of realisation appeared on Haruto's face as the aura around him immediately became more friendly.

"Absolutely sir. That will definitely be arranged. Please join us for dinner, we have just started," Haruto answered back with a bright smile as he tried to direct them towards the queue of children.

"That would be lovely. But please let everyone eat in the same order that they would've, don't let us disturb you," said Ken to everyone as a smile appeared on his face.

"Thank you for your kindness," Haruto thanked as he bowed before urging them towards the seating area near his house, "Please bring your horses and follow me this way, I'll take you to a place where you can all sit."

Ken lightly nodded as he and his men began to follow the elder around the campfire, the scene still tense.

Feeling uncomfortably guilty about causing the scene in front of him, Ken loudly told the villagers, "Everyone! Please rest easy and go back to whatever you were doing. We do not come with ill intent."

It was following this statement that the whole village seemed to relax a little bit as everyone began to slowly go back to talking and the atmosphere began to revert back to its original state.

"Okay, people! The next group, teens and young adults come up!" the hunter shouted out and immediately all the young adults in the village began to make their way to the queue as they collected their own plates.

Ken gave a slight nudge to the boys behind him and they began to follow the crowd, getting lost in the queue.

"Do you smell that?" Nen asked excitedly as he caught a whiff of the delicious aroma of meat, "I can't wait to get a taste of that!"

"I can smell it. That smells so much better than anything Uncle Kiiro cooks," Akito commented as he subconsciously took in a big gulp of saliva.

"Haha! At this point, anything that cooks is better than Uncle Kiiro's meals. I've eaten that way too often now," Nen joined in complaining as he stared forward at the queue which was quickly getting shorter and shorter.

'Almost there, any closer now and then I will get to eat this exquisite delicacy,' Nen's mind practically screams internally. He was a massive foodie back at home and had a huge appetite and this habit had even slightly infected Akito as he also grew to be somewhat of a food connoisseur himself.

And as the serving table finally became visible, there it was. The meat!

Its nice smokey flavour containing crust seemed to reach out to Nen, begging him to eat it. The carved-out pieces of meat and their beautiful brownish-red hue lay there letting out steam as the juice slowly trickled out as it was placed on the wooden plate.

Wait…?

Huh?

Nen immediately looked at his hand and realised something.

His face dropped as he dejectedly turned around to face the other two boys, "Akito… Yasu… I think we seem to have forgotten something?"

"What could that possibly be?" Yasu asked with a completely clueless expression.

"OUR PLATES!" he suddenly shouted out loud as he realised that he had forgotten to take a plate.

However, the panic that was visible in his voice did not seem to transfer to the faces of Akito and Yasu. Instead, a smug look appeared on both their faces. In that instant, a horrendous sense of foreboding splashed over Nen as he shakily looked down at their hands.

There was a somewhat oval wooden plate and in that instant, he felt extremely betrayed…

His shoulders seemed to have dropped as his face darkened and his posture became slouched.

Dejected and embarrassed, he slowly made his way backwards to the back of the line to pick up his plate.

Meanwhile, the crowd of villagers that had gotten to witness this horrendously embarrassing scene were all trying to hide their laughter as they all had their hands over their mouths.

This scene was even witnessed by the village elder and Ken Mago as they were now both sitting down next to each other with the rest of Ken's entourage sitting next to him on the opposite side of the elder.

"Quite a loud one, eh?" Ken asked with a light smile.

"He seems to be brimming with confidence, sir," Haruto replied with a smile, "He reminds me of how I used to be when I was young."

"Haha, don't they all," Ken nonchalantly replied with a light laugh, "Tell me, Haruto, what kind of celebration are you having tonight? It is not every day that a village has a feast."