Lunchtime Delights Restaurant
####### City
##### Country
AD 3101
Earth V
"Hi there! Should I get you your Tuesday usuals?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Okay, one chef's special salad with grilled chicken and a side of sweet potato fries coming up!"
The cashier's cheerful voice rang out as she quickly noted down the familiar customer's order, before communicating it with the kitchen staff.
"I'd also like a dressing with the salad too; balsamic vinaigrette. And a strawberry parfait as dessert."
"Oh, no Honey Mustard today?"
"Nahh…wasn't feeling like it."
The woman replied as she tapped her card on the payment terminal, completing the transaction and collecting the buzzer from the cashier.
"Your order will be ready shortly, Miss Kristine."
Right after that, the cashier temporarily left the counter to inform the kitchen of the little change to the usual order; after confirming there were no other customers, of course.
"This girl…how many times do I have to tell her it's 'Mrs'."
The woman, Kristine, sighed softly as she made her way over to a cosy corner table to wait for her lunch, pulling up her phone and looking through her schedule.
"I don't have anything planned for this afternoon…great!"
She locked the screen after confirming she was free for the remainder of the day; her appearance now being reflected on the phone's blank screen.
Her platinum blonde hair cascaded down to her shoulders in soft waves, framing her youthful face which was graced with a smile at the knowledge of her free time.
But the smile on her lips quickly transformed into a look of shock as she casually glanced out the window of the restaurant and caught sight of someone casually walking through the street.
It was a black-haired woman donning a pair of similarly coloured suit trousers and a casual shirt over black heels.
She had a long white jacket draped across her shoulders, reaching just below her knees and her hair was tied into a fairly long ponytail.
The woman's golden eyes seemed to twinkle with the light of stars, catching the attention of many passers-by as they could not help but stare.
But for Kristine, she was staring for a different reason entirely.
In that instant, the woman suddenly turned in Kristine's direction and the hazel-eyed woman quickly tilted her head to the side, acting as if she was trying to search for something else outside.
**BZZZ!!
The buzzing sound called her attention back into the restaurant and she casually stood up to get her order, acting like normal, but when she turned her back, she could not help but feel cold sweat running down her face as she thought.
'What the heck is a goddess doing on this Earth??!!'
It wasn't every day one got to see a god walking among mortals, so her shock was quite natural.
"Ah, Kristine, there you are! I just got an update on the case we have tomorrow. It seems the rumours were true. The Chief Judge would be the one presiding over it."
The voice of one of her colleagues snapped her out of her shock, an expression of displeasure adorning her face as she replied to him while the two of them made their way back to their office complex.
As she moved towards her office on the last floor, she was noticed by a lot of the employees in the building due to her catchy appearance, and they all offered her greetings with smiles on their faces.
She greeted a few back and cautioned the two newbie attorneys who were running through the halls with their gowns and wigs, chuckling as she remembered that she was once like them.
Just when she was about to finally enter her office and enjoy her meal, her secretary suddenly asked something strange.
"Madam, you're back. Should I send in your guest now?"
"Huh? What guest?"
Kristine, who had confirmed she was free for the rest of the day was naturally confused but her secretary only looked at the system in front of her and spoke.
"The one you have scheduled by 3 pm today. You sent the notice to me yourself."
"What?"
Dropping her meal on the table, the woman took a glance at her secretary's monitor and saw that there was indeed something fixed for 3 pm, and it was apparently added by her.
'But I didn't put anythi-!'
Her thoughts were cut short the instant she touched the monitor, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she realised how her schedule was altered.
'Faint magic traces…'
Kristine took a deep breath and hoped her premonition was not true, telling the secretary to send them in when they arrive before entering her office.
Walking over to her desk, dropped the stuff in her hand on it, toppling the nameplate in the process.
"Hmm?"
She picked up the item and flipped it back to normal, revealing the words inscribed on it: 'Kristine Bourne. Managing Partner'.
It was then that the door of her office opened and she looked up, barely keeping her poker face from breaking as she thought.
'Ah, she noticed me after all.'
Unfortunately, her earlier premonition had come to pass as the 'guest' who her secretary led into her office, was the same golden-eyed woman she had seen on the street mere minutes earlier.
"Well, for starters. How about you have a seat?"
"Thank you."
"Oh wow, common courtesy coming from a goddess of your rank. Now that's something I didn't expect."
Kristine replied as she took a seat of her own, her words bringing a surprised expression to the face of her 'guest'.
"I expected you to at least play dumb for a bit…"
"The fact that you're here means you've already seen through me, so no point hiding it."
The platinum blonde-haired woman shrugged her shoulders in reply, before taking a deep breath and speaking.
"So? What brings a Highest Rank goddess like you to this part of the Universe? goddess of Evolution."
Kristine asked with an emotionless voice, her hazel eyes now gazing coldly at the goddess in front of her, the same goddess who was responsible for reincarnating her son into another world; not that she was aware of this though.
"Nothing much. I was looking for someone who was snooping around where they shouldn't and ended up tracking them to this planet.
Too bad I lost track of them, so I decided to enjoy myself since I was already here."
Artemisia replied nonchalantly, taking a biscuit out of the half-opened pack resting on Kristine's desk, while the other woman's expression changed to mild surprise.
"To think there's someone that can make even a 'Main Entity' lose track of them…"
Kristine's surprise was only natural, as she was fully capable of discerning the power of the goddess in front of her, and she could still sense the residual law energy of Traceability on her.
As for what she meant by 'Main Entity', this was simply a title that gods on Artemisia's rank were called.
When Evan had asked the goddess how strong she was, she had replied that she was 'around the middle stages of the highest-ranked gods'.
There was no lie in this statement, however, Artemisia simply didn't mention that these 'Highest-ranked gods' also called 'Main Entities', numbered no more than a dozen.
Putting it in terms of something readers would be more familiar with, she was basically like one of the 'Twelve Olympians' of 'Olympus'.
So, her being in the 'middle stages', meant she was among the top 10 most powerful gods in the universe, and among the top 20 most powerful beings in general, hence, the reason for Kristine's surprise upon hearing Artemisia's words.
On a side note, number one on the second list was naturally the ETOD, with a gap so wide that number 2 didn't even bother dreaming about closing it.
"Still, to think there were people in your Existence Realm on this decoy Earth, working as an attorney for humans"
"You say that like I'm not a human myself. Besides, it's nice and quiet here, away from the rest of you 'troublemakers'."
"Although I don't particularly have good feelings about most of them, it's still quite off-putting to have my race called one of 'troublemakers'."
"It's not far from the truth, though. Don't forget the Orithyia Galaxy incident."
"…it's annoying that I can't refute that."
Artemisia replied with a semi-pouting expression, before sighing and continuing.
"Anyway, though you appear to have the same capabilities as my target, your energy signatures are different, and besides, I know I'm after a man so it's definitely not you."
"The law of Traceability is as frightening as ever."
"It's not much by itself but when combined with Karma, and Knowledge, it's quite the combo. I'm also checking if you may have any Karma with the person I'm after though."
"Yeah, I noticed."
The two women chatted a bit about law energy combinations for a while until Artemisia suddenly looked at the clock and got up.
"It was nice talking with you but I must take my leave now. My favourite show's gonna be airing in five minutes."
Leaving that farewell message, Artemisia teleported right out of the office, leaving behind Kristine who was asking herself how long this goddess had been on the planet.
'And at least use the door. Now I have to alter my secretary's memories so she doesn't find it weird you suddenly vanished.'
She then silently cursed at the person who attracted the goddess' attention to Earth-V in the first place, not knowing that the person in question was her husband.
◇ ◇ ◇
At around the same time, a young teenage boy was casually walking through his school hallways, an ear pod in his left ear and a single book in his hand.
He was quite handsome and fairly tall for his age, possessing styled black hair and dark grey eyes and properly dressed in his school's uniform.
The boy seemed to be quite popular, given the fact that he was called out to with a greeting by a lot of people in the hallway.
Just when he finished talking to someone, he looked up and saw his principal walking across the corridor with a bunch of men in black suits, showing them around the school.
'Better take off my pod…'
He did as he thought, closing the book which his phone was hidden inside, before greeting the men with a light bow.
When he passed by them, he glanced at their faces, recognizing two as fairly popular businessmen he had seen on the news once or twice.
As for the third, he nearly dropped both his jaw and the book in his hand due to shock but barely managed to compose himself and walk away as quickly as possible.
'How can one person….?!'
All humans on this planet possessed some level of supernatural energy but said energy levels were only comparable to Bronze, sometimes weaker Silver Level existences.
Nevertheless, they could not use them for a variety of reasons, the number one being that they didn't even know these energies really existed!
'But that man!'
The teenage boy shuddered when he thought about the energy he sensed coming from the third man in the group of six he just walked past in the hallway.
'I bet he's even more powerful than a Sovereign!'
While he was thinking this, he did not notice that the man in question had stopped and turned to look at him, prompting the principal to call out to him.
"Is there a problem, Director Bourne?"
"Yeah, what's up Vincent?"
"…Nothing. Just saw a peculiar kid."
The man replied with a shrug before turning around and re-joining the other men, while the boy quickly made his way to the restrooms.
For a fraction of a nanosecond, the world around him turned monochrome when he opened the door but the time was so short that the boy's cognition could not pick up on it.
He quickly shut the doors, having already sensed no presence in the area before dropping on his knees and breathing heavily.
'What a suffocating presence!
How can such a being exist on this planet?! Since I've been reborn here…'
"…it's the first time I've seen someone with so much magic energy."
"As I thought, you really did perceive my energy."
A chill ran down the boy's spine as he heard that voice suddenly come from behind him, his body instantly reacting as he turned around and jumped backwards to take distance.
The spot he stood a second ago, was now occupied by a suit-wearing man with black hair and grey eyes just like him, but that was where their facial similarities stopped.
"Don't be so scared, I just wanna ask you a few questions."
"h-how did y-you get h-here?!"
The teenager asked with a shaky voice, tinged with fear in response to the man's sudden appearance, but the one he questioned only replied with a carefree tone.
"Oh, that? I simply paused time and left a clone in my place before coming over here to talk with you.
You should relax a bit kid; I have no intention of harming yo-ACHOO!! Hmm? Is someone talking about me?"
The boy stared at the man in silence for a few seconds, collecting himself and taking another step backwards as a precaution, even though part of his rational mind told him it was pointless even if he did.
"Anyway, I'm Vincent. Vincent Bourne.
What's your name, kid?"
Silence pervaded the restroom as the two stared at each other in silence, a carefree smile on Vincent's face and a wary expression on the boy's.
"My n-name is…"
He took a deep breath to calm himself properly, before parting his lips to complete his reply to the man's query with one word.
"…Evansen."
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦