Silas stared at the dishes on the table.
Everything seemed to draw him closer with each second.
But he chose to hold back, composing himself.
"Why aren't you eating?" Auranova asked with raised brows.
"Nothing," Silas replied, flashing a smile at her.
She looked at him for a moment before shrugging it off.
She looked towards the tray of glistening oysters topped with tiny translucent green-gold beads.
Picking one up, her head bent backward and she poured its contents into her mouth.
Silas shifted on his chair, the scene making him a little nervous.
He could not help but wonder how someone could swallow something like that.
"Try it," she said, pushing the tray closer to him.
Silas gulped as he took one himself.
Mirroring Auranova's previous action, he downed the white slippery thing that slid out of the shell.
Slowly, he set it down, looking at Auranova with a nod.
"Maybe it is not just for you," she said.
"There's a toilet over there," she added, pointing towards a corner.
Silas smiled, mouth still unsettled from the taste.
He walked hurriedly towards the toilet the moment he stood up.
"To think someone does not like finger lime oysters," she muttered, taking another piece.
Silas came back in less than two minutes, still cleaning his hands with a napkin.
"Can you eat bread?" Auranova asked, almost teasingly.
"Yes," Silas replied quickly.
"Wattleseed damper, try it," she said, pushing the bread and a small bowl of butter towards him.
Silas broke off a piece of the bread and spread the butter with the knife placed beside it.
After a long bite, Silas finally stopped chewing.
"I can do with this for tonight," he said with a smile.
The bread tasted as though it were chocolate, but just as soon as Silas made that conclusion, it tasted like a special kind of nut, then coffee.
Everything seemed to intertwine into a single flavor.
"There are other things to try here," Auranova said, letting him finish the piece in his hand before pushing a plate of finely diced, oily meat towards him.
"Kangaroo tartare," she said.
Silas looked at the meat.
The thought of the oyster he had just eaten surfaced in his mind.
'Never knew a day when I would be scared of food could come,' he mused as he pulled the plate closer.
He took a cube with the fork that accompanied the plate.
Chewing softly, Silas could not help but let out a low sound of approval at the tenderness and sweetness.
The flavor was not too heavy, just moderate enough to taste good.
Looking at the remaining dishes spread before him, he could not help but reconsider.
'Maybe I should not give up on food just because of one that didn't end well,' he thought.
Time passed in a blur as both of them worked through every dish — well, except Silas and the finger lime oysters.
"Ahh," Silas groaned, rubbing his stomach with his palm.
Auranova looked at him calmly.
Although she had eaten an equal amount of food, she did not react to it the way Silas did.
Silas looked at her with raised brows, but said nothing.
He looked at the half-filled pale gold, fizzy wine beside him.
'I am sure this cannot match the taste of the one from Nova Mall,' he mused.
Since tasting that wine, Silas had always felt there would certainly never be a sweeter one.
He took a sip.
The wine tasted like green apple — sweet, but not sweet enough.
'Well, I can always get this anytime,' he mused.
"Okay, let's talk," Auranova suddenly said, leaning closer to the table.
Silas looked away from the wine and leaned back in his chair.
"Master Sebastian asked us to choose the mission on this war planet," she said, a holographic projection flaring to life on the table.
"Aren't you scared that people would find out if you display it like this?" Silas asked.
"No, this is my place. Everything you see here is a robot," Auranova said with a carefree tone.
"The planet is about 3 months away from our Milky Way," she added.
The map zoomed in, displaying their current position and how far the place they were going was.
"What is a war planet though?" Silas asked.
She stopped for a moment, her brows twitching in what felt like annoyance.
"Didn't you attend an awakening academy on your planet?" She asked.
"I did," Silas replied.
"And you weren't taught the different types of planets?"
Silas shook his head slowly.
But it made sense.
A backwater planet like Veritas did not have such grand ambition as to explore the wider world — it was even obvious from the fact that they were only just restarting space exploration after such a long hiatus.
Auranova shook her head slowly.
"A war planet can be one of the following."
She paused at that, taking a sip from her wine.
"Close to the inter-racial battlefields, although this is rarer since the Empire prefers to keep battles as far away from residential spaces as possible; a planet that has been colonized by other races; or a planet dominated by void beasts. This last one is the most common type."
She looked at Silas, as if to confirm he was truly listening.
"War planets are divided into 7 levels depending on how bad the situation is."
She stopped.
"There are other types of planets, but you can find those out by yourself."
"Thank you," Silas said with a nod.
"That's 100 points," Auranova said, still drinking her wine.
Silas's eyes widened.
"Was I meant to pay for it?" He asked.
"Young man, this world is not as simple as it seems. To receive, you must always be ready to give — that includes knowledge."
She smiled lightly.
"There is only one exception: unless the person on the receiving end is stronger than the person giving, in which case it is based on the receiver's choice."
Something seemed to open up in Silas's mind as he heard Auranova's words.
"Your account ID," he said.
"That was a joke. Don't worry about it."
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