The Descended Mountain Villager Is The Supreme Commander

Chapter 5: The Servant's Number

The dining room was so quiet you could hear the clock on the wall ticking.

Joseph stood frozen with his phone still pressed to his ear. Lisa had stopped halfway to the door, her designer bag dangling from her elbow. Mira was leaning against the doorframe with her mouth slightly open.

All three of them were staring at Darius.

Darius did not look up. He picked up another piece of steamed fish with his chopsticks, placed it in his bowl, and continued eating like nothing in the world had changed.

"Darius." Joseph set his phone down slowly. His voice was careful now, like a man stepping on ice he was not sure could hold his weight.

"How did you know the banquet was canceled? The announcement only went out fifteen minutes ago. Even I just found out."

Darius chewed, swallowed, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. Then he looked at Joseph with the same calm expression he wore for everything.

"Because the banquet was for me. Harvey was throwing it to welcome me into Whitemoor City. I told him I did not want it, so he canceled it."

The silence lasted exactly three seconds.

Then Lisa let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a bark. She pressed her hand to her forehead and turned to Joseph with wide, pitying eyes.

"Joseph. Joseph, did you hear what just came out of this boy's mouth? Harvey Whitfield threw a banquet for him? For this?"

She gestured at Darius from head to toe like she was presenting a piece of evidence in court. "This penniless, plain clothed, no name orphan who walked in here without even a decent pair of shoes?"

Mira covered her mouth and giggled. The kind of giggle girls make when they hear something so ridiculous it circles back around to being funny.

"Dad, I think his brain got damaged up on that mountain. Seriously. Whatever that crazy old beggar was feeding him, it messed with his head." She tapped her temple with one finger and made a little spinning motion.

Joseph sighed. In truth, if Darius had simply said he heard the news through some contact or some connection, Joseph would have been impressed. He would have thought the boy had grown up smart and resourceful.

But this? Claiming Harvey Whitfield canceled a banquet because Darius told him to? This was not resourcefulness. This was delusion.

The boy means well. But he is going to embarrass himself if he keeps talking like this.

"Darius, listen to me." Joseph sat down and put his hand on Darius's arm, his tone gentle but worried.

"You do not understand how things work here. Tonight's banquet is extremely important. We went through a lot of trouble to get an invitation. Do you know who attends events like this? The top businessmen in the city. The heads of the biggest families. Judges. Politicians. People who could change our lives with a single phone call."

Joseph leaned forward, his eyes earnest. "If we could take this opportunity to get acquainted with even two or three of these influential individuals, our pharmaceutical business would reach a completely different level. This is not something to joke about."

Darius set down his chopsticks. He looked at Joseph for a long moment, reading the hope and worry on the older man's face.

"If that is what you need, then I will have Harvey host the banquet again."

He said it the way someone says "pass the salt."

Lisa's head snapped around so fast her neck cracked. Mira dropped her phone. Joseph blinked like he had just been slapped.

Then Lisa started laughing. Not a polite laugh. Not a surprised laugh. A mean, full throated, from the belly laugh that filled the entire room and bounced off the marble walls.

"Oh my God. Oh my GOD." She wiped tears from her eyes, smearing her mascara. "Joseph, your adopted son is going to give me a heart attack. Have Harvey host the banquet again? Like he is ordering takeout? Just call up the richest man in the city and tell him to rearrange a multi million dollar event because poor little Darius snapped his fingers?"

She turned to Darius and leaned down until her face was level with his. Her smile was gone now. Her eyes were cold and hard like two polished stones.

"You were such a sensible child when you were little. Quiet. Obedient. You knew your place. How did you turn out like this? What did that lunatic old man do to you up on that mountain? Did he stuff your head with straw and call it a brain?"