Johnny "Viper" had never imagined that one day he would stare slack-jawed like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world, watching someone "eat"-if it could even be called eating.
When he humbly explained that he had ample supplies of fine ingredients and wine at the gang's headquarters, enough to satisfy all of "Lord Aaron's" needs, and offered to send someone to fetch them immediately, Boer merely waved a hand without committing himself. Soon, several burly men from Hamlet Village carried in an enormous, tall tin pot. Thick, milky-white fish soup bubbled inside, mixed with tender mushrooms gathered in the hills and dark green kelp knots, its savory fragrance filling the air.
Next, villagers came in carrying baskets on their backs filled with coarse wheat bread, while others worked together to carry a heavy wooden chopping board piled with large chunks of roasted Sea King meat, sizzling and glistening with fat.
The food was respectfully laid on clean banana leaves spread across the open ground in front of Boer. Then Johnny witnessed a sight he would never forget.
A faint light seemed to flicker in the mysterious "Lord Aaron's" eyes. Then the food-the piping-hot fish soup, the soft bread, the large chunks of roasted meat-
As though controlled by invisible hands, it flew through the air at a furious yet precise speed, traced smooth arcs, and plunged straight into his mouth! There were no pauses to chew, no delays to swallow. The whole process flowed seamlessly, yet carried a ravenous hunger like some sort of energy conversion that devoured everything.
Within a few short minutes, enough food to fill more than a dozen burly men disappeared without a trace, as though cast into a bottomless abyss. Not even a drop of soup remained.
Johnny swallowed instinctively, feeling his own