The tension surrounding the table was shattered by the appearance of a waitress placing the dishes Eric had ordered onto the table, Jackson didn't recognise half the meals that'd been placed in front of him but simply the smell alone caused him to start drooling as plate after plate of aromatic food was brought to the table.
"Grey Deer meat! Lucy you always did know the way to my heart." Eric said with a wink to the waitress as she finished placing the last of the plates onto the table, "Just eat and go you pervert." She replied, giving him an icy stare before flashing a smile to Jackson and Cecilia and leaving back for the kitchen.
"Well then, dig in!" He brushed it off like he hadn't heard a thing, pulling the closest plate towards him and dug in. Cecilia was a little hesitant as she grabbed one of the smaller plates; it seemed she wasn't sure if she could have any of the food, Eric quickly said something in Spanish when he noticed this which made her forget her hesitation entirely as she picked up the knife and fork and began to slowly pick at the mix of meat and vegetables on the plate.
Jackson on the other hand didn't need another word, he was already devouring everything on the plate closest to him without a care for what he was eating. Savoury or sweet, he was assaulted by a mix of flavours that blended together as they went towards his stomach.
He heard a soft chuckle from besides him as he was shovelling food into his mouth, he turned to see Cecilia trying hard to hide her laughter as she suddenly turned her head to look down at her food.
"Hey Eric?" Jackson asked after swallowing another mouthful, "Mm? What is it kid?"
"Can you ask her why she's following us? Not in a rude way, just I'm wondering why she's helping me out like she has." The question had been on his mind for a while but he hadn't had the chance to ask himself, or the language skills for that matter.
Eric nodded and began to talk to Cecilia in Spanish in-between taking bites out of the roasted leg of some animal, a boar maybe? It was hard to tell with the sheer variety presented to them. Eric and her talked for several minutes as Jackson waited patiently, he was confused when Eric burst out laughing and Cecilia broke out into a blush turning her pale cheeks a red hue but both of them refused to tell him what they'd spoken about.
"Quite the Hero aren't you lad?" Eric said after a few more minutes of talking to her, "It's her talent - it's like an amplifier of her intuition would be the best way to put it? She saw you following them back to the city and got the feeling you were the reason they escaped with their lives."
"A talent huh?" He said under his breath as he took a glance at Cecilia, "Shouldn't someone like her be as far away from the fighting as possible then?" Curiously he asked.
"Of course not! Do you think every city is as stupid as Mayson? People with Sixth-Sense type talents are the most sought after just before a battle begins!" Eric shook his head as he spoke, Jackson faintly picked up him muttering under his breath something about 'morons' and 'waste of talent' before he took another sip of his beer.
"Anyway reason she's following you," He started nudging his drink in Cecilia's direction, "Is because she owes you her life. She was looking for a way for her party to survive and the only way was for her to sacrifice herself to save the rest, whatever you did stopped her from doing it."
He didn't seem too keen on prying in on whatever Jackson had done as he didn't even try and bring it up, something he was thankful for, although he could tell that Eric was the kind of guy to wear his heart on his sleeve and say what he thinks no one who could reach A Rank could possibly be that pure or an idiot, simply keeping up in battle would require his intelligence to be pretty high.
He wouldn't exactly be able to explain himself without exposing his talent as well and he was still far too weak to protect himself from being used to expose it to the world, especially considering he wasn't strong enough to use his talent to its fullest against stronger opponents, like the White Wolf his knife was too weak to penetrate its fur even if he had a full second to inflict damage on it.
It was only by stabbing it through a soft spot, it's eye, that he was able to escape with his life - if it'd been something bigger or maybe even a beast that couldn't feel pain? Anything was possible, if he wasn't strong enough to face it then so what if he could freeze an enemy much stronger than himself? He'd simply have another second to wait for his death.
"Oh yeah, here's the key to your room." A key was suddenly thrown to him, its's on the second floor - biggest room in the place, don't say I'm treating you badly." He chucked over a plain metal key with a wooden tag engraved with the number '9' attached to it. "Oh and kid?
"Yeah?"
"If you're not interested, let her down slowly alright?" He said with a glance at Cecilia, "Wait- what?!"
is he about to lose his verginity?