Chapter 189 189: Council

The Carriage Driver was free to do whatever he wanted with the money he received. He could spend it on anything he wanted. Moreover, since he was free for the entire night, he didn't have to worry about anything. Atlas told him that he could take the night off and meet them in the morning.

As he was a human, he also needed some rest. He couldn't stay up for days without resting.

Leaving the man behind, Atlas entered the restaurant with the others. He had no idea that rest was the last thing that the Carriage Driver wanted.

He had received two gold coins. He was so elated already that he wanted to flex the money. Instead of resting inside the carriage, he left in search of a brother to spend the night as he was free.

****

The restaurant was already very crowded with guests, leaving no seats vacant.

"This is problematic. There are no seats," Atlas smiled wryly.

As soon as they entered the restaurant, they were informed that they needed to wait since other guests were eating.

After telling them to wait, the waitress went back to work.

"Should I convince them?" Lilith asked Atlas. "Waiting is stupid."

"I'll do it." Atlas took the lead. He walked to the person managing the restaurant.

"We need a table for four." Atlas didn't ask the man to provide the table. Instead, he basically commanded the man. It had been a long time since he used his compulsion.

This time, he used it on the manager, trying to see just how much he had improved over the time.

The compulsion worked, and the manager made sure that Atlas got a place to eat. Since all the tables here were filled, he took them to a special room that was reserved for the special guests.

The private room had only one table, and it had complete privacy. The room couldn't even be seen from the outside, whereas everything outside could be seen from the inside.

"I'll bring the menu." The manager left the room to arrange other things.

Atlas and the others took the seats, waiting for the man's return.

"So they did have a nice table available. They lied." Lancaster summarized. "This place..."

****

The manager left the room and approached a waitress, telling her to serve Atlas' table. The waitress was slightly surprised as she heard which table he was talking about.

"Sir, didn't you say that the table was reserved for today... By... them?"

The manager didn't seem to care as he was still under compulsion. He forgot about everything else.

"Do as I say!" he snapped. "Don't make them wait!"

"If you say so." The Waitress could only agree, even though she was still surprised. Until recently, the man was saying how the guests coming today to the special room were very special, and everything needed to be perfect for them, and now he gave the room to a bunch of strangers instead.

Unfortunately, she had no authority to question him. She just went with the flow, wondering if the real guests had canceled their plans. That would explain why this might happen.

She picked up a menu and went to the private room to take the others.

****

Outside the restaurant, another carriage stopped. But this carriage looked slightly more luxurious than the carriage that Atlas traveled in. Surprisingly, the carriage also had a symbol on the doors... The symbol that most people didn't know a single thing about, but the ones that knew... They understood just what the worth of that symbol was.

It was the Symbol of the Blood Council!

The doors of the carriage opened, and two people stepped out, one being a woman in her mid thirties and the other being a man in his late forties. Both of them had extremely pale skin as if there was not a shred of blood in their body.

Atlas also had a pale skin, but even his skin wasn't as pale. His skin was somewhat in between a human and a Vampire skin, which made it slightly hard for people to make sure that he was actually a Vampire.

Unlike Atlas, these people had a completely ashen faces. No one had any doubt as to what they were.

"Ri, did you inform them we would be coming?" The man asked the woman beside him.

"Yeah. I informed the owner of this hotel that we would be coming here after resting for a little. I also received his acknowledgment that he would have some nice fresh treat ready for us." The woman licked her lips.

****

Atlas had just sat down when he heard some strange noises. It was barely audible for an ordinary person, but for him, it was very clear. It was as if someone was crying.

He looked in the back, and noticed that there was a door there—a door which was different from the one they took to get here.

He stood up and walked to the door. At the same time, the waitress came with the menu. She placed the menu on the table.

"What's behind the door?" Atlas asked the waitress, even though he already had an idea.

"Behind that door? I believe that's the storage room. I don't know much more than that," The waitress answered. "But sir, I would still advise you not to open that door. Even I'm not authorized to open the door. Only our manager can."

The waitress claimed that she didn't know what was behind the door. She claimed that she didn't check, but the way she talked, it seemed as if she had a General idea of what was behind that door.

Atlas tried to open the door, only to find that it was locked.

This time, he applied his extraordinary strength to push the door open. The door easily opened now as the lock broke.

The opened door revealed exactly what was on the other side. There appeared to be around five young children who weren't even ten years old. All five of them had clothes that made them appear as if they had no family or home.

In the storage room, he could also see some bags of blood kept in reservation.

Atlas glared back at the waitress. "So you don't know what was here?"

The woman lowered her head. "Sir, I knew it. I saw the kids being brought here, but I have no control over it. And I believe you shouldn't get involved in it either. If you do, you might end up dead. Don't create problems for everyone."

Lilith slapped her forehead in response. Even Luna looked at the woman weirdly. He might end up dead. Over this? They couldn't believe how naive the woman was.