"Oh, there you are, my lord, where have you been? Late, late, you're late. Hehe."

When Xiao reaches the rendezvous point, Lars was already there, showing his disturbing grinning face as usual to Xiao.

(And there he is, how I miss Lily already.)

Xiao lets out a sigh while reluctantly walks towards Lars.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, and for the last time, stop calling me my lord, call me Xiao."

The fun and pleasant feeling Xiao had with Lily early just now had been blown away the moment he interacted with Lars, he was annoyed by how Lars addressed him so far.

"Alright, my lord. Hehe."

Xiao shakes his head as Lars responds as he thinks it was useless to ask Lars to change the way he addressed him, so Xiao just let it be and carry on.

"So you finish your business already?"

"Yup, yup, all done and done. Hehe."

"Good to hear that, so, what's the plan now?"

Xiao was waiting for Lars' answer while Lars was looking around and pondering something.

"Hmm, since Mr. Sun is setting soon, it's time to find a place to sleep, follow me. Hehe."

With that being said, Lars begins to move and Xiao follows behind, knowing that they are going to find a tavern to spend a night there.

After roughly 10 minutes of walking, they stopped in front of a tavern, the tavern's signboard was a Smile monster looking thing, loud merry voices and laughter can be heard from the inside.

Xiao followed Lars into the tavern, the moment they stepped into the tavern, which was crowded with people drinking and talking loudly, most people stopped at what they were doing and they paid attention to Xiao and Lars. The people begin to whisper among each other about Lars and Xiao, mainly because of their strange clothing that grabs their attention.

Xiao begins sweating as his trauma starts to kick in a bit, while Lars was not bothered by the attention he got as he walked towards the counter, Xiao followed behind while subconsciously covered his face like a wanted criminal.

"Welcome to Jiggly Slime tavern! Travelers, how can I help you?"

The one who was behind the counter, a mid-age looking Dwarf lady joyfully welcomed them and asked Lars as they approached her.

"2 dinners set and 2 rooms for one night please, oh, 2 breakfast for tomorrow too. Hehe."

Lars handed over some coins to the Dwarf lady, she then gave Lars 2 keys for their room. After that, Lars and Xiao sat at an empty table and waited for their dinner.

The loud merry voices return as usual for the crowd has lost interest in Lars and Xiao, loud talking and cups cheering can be heard all over the place.

Xiao got to see all kinds of people from different races coming together in this tavern to have a good time. Most of them had finished their business for today already, so they are coming here to celebrate the end of their work.

(So this is what the middle age bar looks like, another similar scene like any MMORPG I played before.)

Xiao returned to his position and was facing Lars at his opposite side, who's for some childish reason, playing with his fingers.

"So what's next? I mean for tomorrow's plan."

Xiao strikes up a conversation with Lars as he is waiting for his dinner, and he also wants to know on what they are going to go or do next.

"Tomorrow eh, let's see, let's see, what should we be doing again? Hmm....."

Lars was staring at the ceiling while pondering, his disgusting grinning expression remains, which always confused Xiao on whether he is taking it seriously or just fooling around, as it was always like this, Lars never gave Xiao any clear explanation on anything.

Tired of waiting for Lars to answer his question, Xiao fires off another question that has been concerning him since morning.

"By the way, Lars, I've been meaning to ask this, why did you hide the fact that I'm the candidate of the light hero from the guardsmen? Is there any important reason that I need to know?"

Lars looked at Xiao who has a serious expression, demanding for any answer from Lars. Suddenly, Lars lightly taps his hands as he remembers something and speaks his mind.

"Oh yes, I finally remember what we're going to do for tomorrow."

"Okay, what is it?"

Before Lars had the chance to answer Xiao's question, they were interrupted by the waitress who brought their dinner to the table.

"Oh my, lovely lovely food."

Lars shifted focus to the food as he was clapping his hand like a child, completely forgetting what he was going to do a moment ago.

"Enjoy! sir."

The waitress, who's a cat type Half Beast girl greets them with a cute smile before leaving their table.

"So about tomorrow...."

Xiao was distracted by the food and the waitress for a sec, but he quickly gets back to the topic by questioning Lars about it.

"Yum yum looking food, what should I eat first? The Dilemma, the dilemma. Hehe."

Lars ignored Xiao completely as he was busy enjoying his food, leaving Xiao who was disappointed and sighing at Lars action.

Seeing as the conversation with Lars can only be carried on once they finished their dinner, Xiao gave up asking him and looked at what they had for dinner. There were 3 slices of garlic bread, some mashed potatoes and a big roasted drumstick.

(No rice, huh.)

Xiao was used to eating rice for most of his meals back in his old world, so he was a bit disappointed to see that there were no rice dishes so far in this world.

Although that's what Xiao thinks, he is not picky with food, he will eat anything that brings onto his table, as long as it's not something that tastes too bad. Xiao started by eating the big roasted drumstick first as he was concerned about what kind of meat this drumstick is. To his knowledge, the chicken he knew doesn't have the size of this drumstick, so it's not chicken.

Xiao took the first bite of the big drumstick, and took his time to slowly chew and feel the meat inside his mouth.

(Crispy skin texture, sour taste in the inside, it tastes...not bad at all, this is some good food here, I wonder what meat is this, maybe Lily will know about this dish.)

While Xiao was enjoying and analyzing the food he was having, Lars spoke up without warning.

"We're going to meet his majesty and the other heroes' candidates."

Xiao was stunned for a while before he managed to reply to Lars with a shocking expression.

"What?!"

"Yes. Hehe."

Lars was chowing down his food without care of manners while Xiao stopped eating and proceeded to question Lars.

"By his majesty, you mean the king? And the other heroes' candidates...is this what I thought it is?"

"Yes, my dear precious lord, tomorrow, we're going to the Heroes assembly ceremony. Hehe."

Lars casually confirms Xiao's thinking, which Xiao was shocked by it, as he was not mentally prepared yet for this upcoming event.

"Well, to put it in more detail, we're going to meet up first before the ceremony starts, which is another 3 days from now. Hehe"

"Then why are we meeting up with them tomorrow?"

Xiao asked Lars in a worried expression.

"You know, break the ice, let you guys know each other and stuff. Hehe."

"And I assume we will be going to meet at the palace, right?"

"Oh yes yes, you are very smart, my lord. Hehe."

"You should tell me the plan earlier so I can mentally be prepared."

Xiao was furious by Lars's plan as Lars did not mention anything to him ever since he brought Xiao to this world, so Xiao was blindly following Lars around without knowing what's going to happen, until now.

"Oh my, oh my, don't tell me, you're too shy to meet with the other hero's candidates and the king? Hehe."

Lars did not care about Xiao's feelings, he further annoyed Xiao by making fun of him, grinning and smirking in the process of doing so.

"Shut up."

Feeling tired and fed up by talking to Lars, Xiao finished his dinner quickly and leave the table.

"Hmm? Where are you going? My lord. Hehe."

Lars was curious by Xiao's action and asked him about it, he still hasn't finished his meal yet.

"Sleep, I'm tired."

"Is that so? Well, sleep dream, my lord."

Xiao did not reply to Lars as he was mentally tired to deal with him, plus the news of the plan for tomorrow has further increased his exhaustion. So right now, he just wants to lay on his bed and sleep.

Before he moves upstairs, he remembers something and turns around to asked Lars one more question.

"One last thing, why did you hide my identity from the guardsmen?"

Lars looked confused at first when Xiao asked him, he pondered for quite some times before bursting out in a funny pose.

"Oh, that? Well, it was to give a surprise to everyone of course, that the Light Hero candidate is here too. Tadaah!"

(I should have known it was some stupid reason like that.)

Tired of dealing with Lars anymore, Xiao did not respond to Lars' funny pose as he moved to his room, unlocked the door with the key provided by the counter lady, opened the door and stepped into his room.

When Xiao steps into his room, he inspects the objects inside the room, which include a small bed, a wooden chair and a table and a small wardrobe. The room was lit up by two candles that hung on the wall, covered by a glass flask.

(I suppose there are no things like a fan in this world since it's so freaking cold at night, not to mention the air conditioner.)

"Well, nothing else to do, and I'm so freaking tired, guess I should sleep now."

Xiao looked at the bed, which was a simple-looking comfy bed, he took off his shoes and falls to the bed, before slowly adjusting his body to a comfortable sleeping position.

Xiao closed his eyes and tries to hypnotize himself to sleep, but he kept thinking about what Lars said about the upcoming ceremony, according to what the guardsmen said on the number of people that will come to witness the event, just imagine the scene was enough to make Xiao's body trembled in fear.

Xiao quickly forced his mind to think of something else, other than the Heroes assemble ceremony. Xiao reminisces about the time he spent with Lily, as it was the most enjoyable and fun time he had for such a long time, the innocent smile and kind personality makes him calm down and forget about the upcoming ceremony he was going to attend.

Time was ticking slowly while forwarding, Xiao's mind was still thinking of something else, making him too restless to fall asleep.

(I can't sleep.)

It was already midnight, and Xiao has been laying on his bed for quite some time, it was not because of the bed, for Xiao has no problem sleeping on different bed or places, even when he is in another world.

"No point lying here when I can't sleep, let's get some fresh air and clear my mind."

With that in mind, Xiao gets up from the bed, opens the door and moves downstairs.