"Beef stew soup noodles for two, here you go!" The restaurant owner placed two bowls in front of them, exhilarated and gleeful. He even gave the table another quick wipe. Apparently, he believed that the arrival of the martialist had enlightened his simple premises, for Garcia was, after all, a celebrity in the apartment.

"Thank you. Can we also have a fried egg, please?" Roland drew out two sets of chopsticks. "One for each."

"No problem!"

"If I were you, I would definitely not pick this place to eat breakfast with a lady." Garcia rolled her eyes. "No wonder you're still single."

"This is slander!" thought Roland. If he wasn't such an honorable man and above flirting with the G.o.d's Punishment Witches, they would have taken him long ago... 

"Um, Zero has to go to school later, and I need to bring her breakfast. If it's too far..."

"I understand. That's why I say this shouldn't be regarded as an example." Garcia interrupted him. She split the disposable chopsticks and mixed the green onions and beef together. Soon the soup noodles turned an appealing brownish red color. She first blew on the noodles to cool it down and then slurped them as if they were long, flowing ribbons.

The slurping sound made Roland's mouth water.

"Wow." Roland twitched his lips. "You know how to eat fast food pretty well. I thought you weren't used to this kind of street food."

"That's just your a.s.sumption." Garcia shrugged. "I've been here for almost 10 years and have tried every restaurant around this area. It's just basic manners for a host to pick a relatively decent restaurant. Plus, I don't like being stared at by strangers all the time."

Roland now noticed that not only did customers in the restaurant look in this direction from time to time, but random pa.s.sersby as well. Apparently, Garcia's distinctive gray hair and toned body attracted a lot of people's attention.

"Oops... I forgot about that."

"So let's get down to business." Garcia cast him a cold glance. "Why did you suddenly need to see me? The Martialist a.s.sociation won't help you with anything illegal."

Roland wondered why she was so alarmed. He had just returned from the headquarter yesterday and did not do anything illegal. Was there anything more illegal than the hunting license?

Roland hesitated for a while before answering Garcia's question. "I want to meet your master. Can you book an appointment for me?

"Huh?" For a moment, Garcia did not follow him.

"Your master... Ms. Lan." Roland soon made an excuse. "I feel regretful for bailing on her last time, so I want to apologize to her in person."

Garcia studied him with great interest as if he were a stranger to her. Then she waved away Roland's request and said, "Really? Now you know how important to have my master as a reference. Save it. She won't see you anymore."

"Perhaps Ms. Lan doesn't hate me as much as you imagine."

"Do you want to tell me that she was nice to you at the orientation? " Garcia said carelessly, "Get over with yourself. You've missed the chance I once gave you. My master will never waste her time on a person who doesn't even abide by the basic etiquette of punctuality, not to mention meeting them."

"Regardless, make a call first." Roland insisted.

Garcia seemed to notice something. "You... you don't really want to make an apology to her, do you?"

"If I can learn some training methods for martialists from her, that would be even better." Roland managed to keep a straight face.

Garcia twitched her lips. She was about to dissuade Roland from pursuing such an unrealistic idea, but she, in the end, picked up her cell phone.

"By the way, what's your master's number..."

"You can't get through anyway. You have to get a SIM card from the a.s.sociation to connect to the headquarter." Garcia gestured him to keep silent and then spoke to the person at the other end of the line, "h.e.l.lo, it's me..."

But she hung up within three minutes.

"I knew it."

"You knew what?"

"That she would refuse! She even reproached me for calling her again." Garcia grunted. "She's completely disappointed in you. Her tone dropped by at least an octave when she heard your name."

Roland was surprised at the unexpected result and did not understand why. Based on the att.i.tude of Lan toward him at the orientation, she had seemingly not been very angry with him for standing her up for the first appointment. Instead, she had thought quite highly of him. Roland had felt her use of a hidden language was a demonstration of her excellent skills of applying the Force of Nature, so it did not surprise him that Garcia knew little about it. Now he wondered if he had been hallucinating.

At first, Roland had not been very eager to solve the mystery. Even after he entered the Dream World, he was hesitating, but the little defeat just now made him decide to get to the bottom of it.

"Oh, well." Roland took a small sip of the soup. "So when can we visit the headquarters again?"

"After you can deal with the erosion yourself and officially become a martialist. You're as green as gra.s.s at the moment."

Roland thought this requirement was reasonably straightforward to meet, but he managed to not reveal his thoughts. "I'm looking forward to that day. By the way, do you still remember the opening speech of Ms. Lan when we arrived at the underground hall?"

"What about it?"

"She said the Battle of Divine Will is around the corner. What does that mean?"

"Well, that..." Garcia replied resignedly. "My master is very fond of a book written 50 years ago, by the name of 'Raison d'être.' She recommended it to me, too. The book develops some theories on how a civilization emerges and evolves. The author calls it the deity's choice. This deity isn't a personified character, but actually a rule, or rather the purpose for the continuity of everything. But these theories are too abstract for people in this world, and they have nothing to do with us. As the book is only circulated in the Martialist a.s.sociation, few people know about it."

Garcia's answer alarmed Roland. Without a doubt, it was a book he had never seen before, which meant it was a creation of the Dream World itself.

"Can I take a look at it?"

"The book is in the headquarter. I can borrow it from the library next month when I report my work." Garcia glanced at Roland curiously. "If I still remember."

Noticing that Garcia was starting to be suspicious of his motives, Roland wolfed down the noodles and excused himself.

He breathed a long sigh after waking up from the Dream World the following day.

Everything in the Dream World seemed to be normal when it was not a.s.sociated with the Martialist a.s.sociation, but anything that involved the a.s.sociation appeared to be sketchy.

Although the investigation this time did not go well, it was not wholly fruitless. One big success was that the G.o.d's Punishment Witches, who had waited for so long, had once again been able to gain various physical sensations in the Dream World. Seeing them have a good time, Roland felt the trip was worthwhile.

Roland was about to take advantage of his recovery to have a few more trips to the Dream World to get things moving faster when Lightning suddenly flew into his tent with a swallow-tailed eagle under her arm.

"Your Majesty, your express mail." The little girl mumbled. "It's an encrypted letter from Neverwinter."

Directly from the Western Region? This isn't a short trip. Did anything happen in Neverwinter? 

To save on messengers, regular mail such as reports on governmental affairs were typically sent to the old king's city by water and forwarded by Theo and his men to him. A swallow-tailed eagle was the largest among all the animal messengers, and it required the highest power. The good thing about using a swallow-tailed eagle to deliver mail was that the animal was at the top of the food chain and it was relatively secure. The drawback of this method was that it would consume a significant amount of the witch's power. It was relatively hard for Honey to control such a fierce bird, due to the energy required for a swallow-tailed eagle was three times that of a gray eagle.

Roland stroked the limp animal messenger and took the sealing ring off its claws. He stood rooted to the ground the moment he unfolded the letter.

"The Demons' army has appeared in the Barbarian Land?" This was earlier than he had antic.i.p.ated!