"If you have failed in your missions, go to straight to the dining hall," the masked woman announced.
With shame, a few of the scouts shuffled off to the left. Axel being among them.
The dining hall had several rows of tables, and with much more seats than scouts.
'Are there more workers that I don't know about?'
There was a single line which all scouts lined up in, and only one thing to grab. A yellow plate, with something that looked loke rice, with an eyeball and a squid tentacle.
Grabbing a plate and sitting down, Axel staired at his plate. He was hoping that him staring at it would somehow turn it into a peanut butter sandwich, but no luck.
Alex almost grabbed at his fork to start eating, almost. Right as he was reaching for the fork, he noticed that no one else was eating.
Sure, scouts were still trickling in from the main hall, but even as the hall became fuller and fuller, no one reached for their utensils, no one ate.
Some came from other hallways, they probably worked around the castle.
After a time, all of the scouts had sat down, all with full plates of food. Some began chatting.
"I noticed that you didn't complete your assignment," a scout who sat next to me whispered, "Couldn't be me," he continued.
"Hush," Axel replied, "Your talking will cool your food faster," he told the other scout.
The sound of footsteps echoing could be heard.
"yOuR tAlKiNg WiLl CoOl yOuR fOoD," the scout repeated in a silly voice.
The footsteps began to get louder and louder. A hush blanked over the cafeteria.
Looking over to where the sound of footsteps was echoing, Alex saw the shadow of something odd, before the thing casting the shadow came into view.
It was a short demon with red skin and three claw like fingers on each hand and foot. Instead of hair on her head, she had a dark blue hand covering most of her face, with the exception of one eye.
"The Emperor has eaten," she announced to the scouts, "You may feast," she concluded.
Several hungry scouts immediately picked up their forks and began to eat. Axel being one of them.
He started with the rice, it being the only thing he recognized. As Axel put the food into his mouth, he noticed the texture was off.
It was kind of hard, the flavor was off and much more pronounced than usual, and it wasn't good.
'What is this, because it sure isn't rice'
Looking around to see if there were others who didn't like it, he noticed about everyone in the cafeteria putting something on their food. Spice, Sauses, and occasionally some leaves
'Well, maybe next time I can put something on top'
———————————————————————
Getting up and placing his plate where the others had been stacked up, Axel remined himself to spend a few snails on some spices.
'Maybe I can find some human food somewhere'
He then looked around, noticing that all the scouts weren't leaving a particular way.
Axel picked one scout and started to follow them in hopes that he could get more information about what's happening.
The note he lifted from the first scout just said 'Crash' so Axel was running in blind.
As he followed the scout, Axel noticed that everything seemed so symmetrical. Posters and doors on one side had there double on the other.
There were few exceptions, one of them being the destination of the scout and the one following them. The library.
The scout that Axel was following then picked a book from the shelves and took a seat. Axel following suit.
He grabbed a book a with a title he found interesting, History of the Boiling Iles, and sat down to have a read.
'If all goes well, no one will know I'm new, and I can integrate easily'
"So," the scout said lowering his book, "Your new around here, aren't you?" they said looking at Axel.
"Hmm?" Axel responded.
"Let me guess, you were following me to fit in or wait! You were following me to see what happens at this time of the day, am I right?" the scout asked.
'Crap, being new shouldn't be that suspicious, but what if?'
"How did you know?" Axel asked.
Godless witch or not, an audience member was an audience member, and if Axel made a mistake in his acting he would like to know how to improve.
"I've been here, let's see," the scout said.
They began to tap their hands on the table while counting to themselves.
"Dang, fifteen years," the scout lamented "I need a better hobby than reading," they concluded.
"Ok?" Axel responded, confused.
"Anyways, I've worked here longer than some of the coven heads, I know who's new and who's someone I know," the scout told Axel.
"What if there was someone you knew that wasn't new?" Axel questioned.
The scout then looked around for the nearest scout.
"That guy," they said, pointing at a scout working the front desk of the library, "That's Lettuce, he's quiet and prefer to be alone," the scout explained.
"Huh, who names their kid Lettuce?" Axel asked.
"Well, if you'll remember from the orientation," the scout began to explain
'The orientation that I totally went to'
"Sharing names isn't exactly something that the Emperor's Coven likes among its scouts, so we call each other by the things we put on our food," they explained, "You can all me Tomato Paste."
"Intriguing," Axel commented.
"If you will, what's your hocus focus?" the scout then asked, "Mines Construction."
"Illusion, nothing major though," Axel said.
With a flick of his wrist, a small plastic ball appeared in his hand.
"Oh, interesting," the scout replied, "Well I ought to be going, got the night watch at my tower and I'm going to need the sleep," they said picking up their book.
"Alright then, night," Axel replied.
'Shame they were born a witch, we could have been good friends'
Axel then began to dig into the book he had just taken; it was weird that the earliest time that the book went into still had the Emperor, then he realized something.
He still needed a place to sleep.