The Insider System -
Chapter 56: Everybody’s Best Friend
Chapter 56: Everybody's Best Friend
Getting to Millie's door, Lake saw it was already open. He still knocked though. "You can come in." Lake heard Millie yelling from the kitchen so he knew the food wasn't ready just yet. Lake walked in to see Nia and Solomon sitting in silence. Nia was giving Solomon the stink eye and he was just looking at the ground.
Both of these things stopped once Lake walked into the room. Lake had told Nia and Millie He didn't think Solomon had been the one to break into Millie's room. Then Millie had gone and invited him back to lunch and that was what caused the current situation. It was clear Nia still thought it was him, and Lake wasn't willing to prove he could tell when someone lied so it was just going to stay this way for a while.
Lake hoped Nia would get over it eventually because it made lunch a little uncomfortable. The only person who couldn't tell was Millie. Lake was 99% sure Millie had a crush on Solomon, so him being back made her too happy to notice. Lake was pretty sure it had made her food better though so in the end it was worth it.
Millie probably subconsciously thought if her food was good enough Solomon would fall in love with her. Lake just hoped she didn't get any strange ideas like making Solomon fall in love with her. "Solomon I'm surprised you were early, Nia's always here first and I would think you would want to minimize the amount of time you two were alone."
This joke was at both of their expenses and it clearly stated he wasn't going to pick sides if one of them wanted to start an argument like had happened yesterday. Millie hadn't told Nia Solomon was coming yesterday like it was good news and wanted to surprise her, and it had led to Nia yelling at Solomon and him refusing to defend himself.
Lake found Solomon's behavior very odd and almost impossible to read, so if he was actually hiding something it was the right choice. It also fit with the behavior Lake had seen from him two days ago when he pretended that nothing was wrong until Lake asked about it. Lake realized he was doing it again, trying to analyze Solomon was impossible so he needed to stop.
The only thing he had on him was the one time he felt a dangerous vibe come off of him for a split second. If Solomon was actually dangerous Lake should have felt something similar when Nia was yelling at him yesterday. "Millie, I invited a few people today!" Lake had asked if it was ok yesterday and she had said it was fine, but it was still polite to tell her so she wasn't surprised when she came out of the kitchen.
"Who'd you invite?" Lake wasn't sure if Nia only cared so she could know who she would be yelling at but he still told her, and he said it loud enough that Millie would be able to hear. "I invited a guard I'm friends with named Joy and Guild Leader Lucas." Nia didn't seem to have a problem with either of these because she didn't say anything.
Lake could tell Millie was coming out of the kitchen though and he guessed she had something to say. Lake wondered what the odds were on it being about Joy and not Lucas. "Master Lucas has tried my food before, why is he coming?" That was not what Lake had said. "I didn't say he was coming, I said I invited him."
This seemed to be enough for Millie because she went back to the kitchen. Lake had also noticed that the real reason she had come out here was to look at Solomon and with this action Lake changed the 99% to 100%. If Millie did a good job on the cheese today he might just make her dream come true.
In Lake's experience it was pretty easy to get a guy to date a girl, it was only hard the other way. All Lake would have to do is make Millie look good and then throw her at Solomon. One of the things Lake had noticed about this world was everyone seemed to be attractive, even the older people were still looking good. Lake didn't know why, but it probably had something to do with magic.
"Knock knock." Lake heard someone say knock knock with their mouth and turned around to see Joy was here, or at least who he thought was joy there was no way to tell because she was still wearing her armor. "Joy, I was expecting you to change." Lake guessed she was just going to take the helmet off long enough to eat.
"I did change." Lake could see joy was yet to try and walk into the room because no one had said she could come in so he said. "You can come in." After she came in Joy stood at attention like she was at a guard post. Lake rolled his eyes and said. "Joy, I order you to act like you're not at work until the meal is over."
After Lake said this Joy reached up and popped her helmet off and said. "You know if you said something like that earlier I could have worn normal clothes." Lake was pleasantly surprised when he saw her face. He was starting to think she might be disfigured or something, and that was why she never took her helmet off.
He had seen a few guards that didn't even wear their helmet so it seemed to be up to the person, but Joy always had hers on. "Sorry, I thought ordering you to lunch was already pushing it. Oh I should mention Guild Leader Lucas might come today." This seemed to make Joy a little uncomfortable, and Lake understood he might not want to sit at the same table as his boss either if he was as far down the totem pole as Joy was.
"If he says anything I'll vouch for you." Lake just went ahead and reassured her it was an easy way to make sure she ate the cheese. The last thing Lake wanted to see was her get up and leave now. If Lucas did end up coming he would get to tell three people that they had just eaten milk and not just milk, rotten milk.
With three at once there was a good chance someone might barf. This wasn't actually mean because cheese was good, so this was just a harmless prank. "Master Lucas." Lake heard one of Millie's servants greet Lucas so he knew he had just arrived. Everyone else stood up out of respect. Lake hadn't been ready so he missed the cue.
"What, you think you're too good to show me respect?" Lake could tell from the tone Lucas was actually making fun of everyone that had stood up. "That's right, it won't be long till I'm the guild leader." Lucas laughed after Lake said this, and everyone that had stood up sat back down except for Joy.
"Joy it's fine, you can sit down." Lake said this to make it clear they were friends, and she wasn't just a guard right now. "Joy huh, You were the guard with Lake when he got attacked." Lake was happy Lucas remembered this because it would make it much easier for Joy if they were able to have a conversion to break the ice.
"Yes, but we only won because Lake punched through two people with his bare hand." Joy looked at him as she said this, and they both started laughing. This was a bit of an inside joke because Joy had asked him why he needed a sword yesterday which had led to a funny conversation about the fight with Nelg.
Lake had asked why Nelg seemed to hate her and she had told him that while Nelg had been hiding in the Alchemist guild he had asked her out and she had rejected him because she thought he was a creep. Lake had said that was what caused him to turn on the guild which was clearly not true because Nelg had used a false name to register, but it was still funny to picture Nelg crying while running to the Assassins guild for revenge.
Seeing Joy was now comfortable sitting next to Lucas, Lake moved on to Solomon. He was clearly never going to talk if he wasn't forced. "So Solomon, what do you plan to do in the future?" This was a perfect time to ask Solomon about what he planned to specialize on. With Lucas right here, and the fact that Millie was the new golden child, Solomon would try to make himself seem important even if he had to reveal some of his secrets.
"That's the problem, I still can't decide." Lake felt some negative emotion in Solomon's voice; this was the only time since the first that Lake had gotten anything from Solomon and it was about the same subject specialties. Lake bet Solomon had just been jealous the other day, and that was the threat Lake had felt.
A better way to put it was Solomon had seen Lake as a threat which had made him feel like he was going to be left behind by the new guy. With this mystery solved Lake looked around at all the people at the table and thought, if it wasn't for the fact that the Demon Lord controlled half of them he would probably stay here in the guild indefinitely.
Of course Lake didn't know that for a fact but it had been like that when the Mage guild had collapsed and Lake could feel another such occurrence brewing. Lake saw the potential pun in that thought, but decided not to say it out loud because it would be weird and from nowhere. "Foods ready." Lake heard Millie call out from the kitchen, and put his eating mouth on.
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