The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 36

The trip to the mess hall was way more eventful than I thought it could be.

 As it turned out, this stronghold was nothing like the first Void base I had been to; both were underground, but that's where the similarities stopped. Instead of dozens of twisting, claustrophobic passages, the Chaos base looked like a modern-day work complex. There were lights everywhere, the hallways were huge, and everything had been built in an orderly manner. It was a pretty compact base, but it was easily able to hold a thousand troops.

Most important of all, I had been welcomed here. Everywhere I went, soldiers in their black Chaos uniforms greeted me friendlily even though I was a stranger they had probably never seen before, and even though they probably knew everybody in the base, which upped the suspicion of being a stray Void soldier even more.

However, I soon realized the soldiers in this base weren't just soldiers; most of them were also trained diplomats, which made sense since they were on enemy soil and everybody needed to know how to defuse a volatile situation. So they weren't being overly friendly to me—that was their normal personality. But I was shocked at their behavior when an annoying person came their way.

Like Psi.

Psi was famous, but not in the way you think. Unlike Rosaline or Jessica, he wasn't in a hard-to-get position that needed extreme skills.

Instead, he was infamously known as the spoiled son of Omega that, if one crossed paths with, one would immediately have a worse day.

So as we were going through the hallway towards the mess hall, I expected all the soldiers to blatantly ignore us, so they wouldn't get into trouble with Psi—but in retrospect, not acknowledging Psi's presence at all might also get them into trouble.

But I wasn't expecting them to bow.

It wasn't even a lazy bow; they all stopped what they were doing, even if they were deep in conversation, stooped so low that I was afraid their backs would break, and stayed there for a good five seconds until Psi and I passed them.

Admittedly, at first, I thought they were bowing toward me. It wasn't because I wanted them to bow to me, but I'd never seen anybody bow to Psi willingly. Plus, in my lifetime, plenty of people had bowed to me just because of my stupid titles. Heck, I was even the crown prince of Atlantis; to my chagrin, the people had to bow to me.

It took quite a while, but we finally got to the mess hall. It was a huge, square room that sat in the middle of the complex like the origin of a graph, easily one of the biggest areas of the base to accommodate the number of people needing to eat every meal. It was surrounded by a circular hallway on all sides, allowing it to be accessed from multiple directions.

We appeared to have entered a few minutes earlier than the scheduled eating time. A few dozen soldiers were there, seemingly out of their training schedules and patrols early. They were at their assigned tables, already on their second servings. Given the waffles on their plates, it was either breakfast time or they were having sugar before their night patrol to stay alert and oriented.

Psi headed towards the center, but given my experience with Chaos and Void mess rooms, I didn't think that was appropriate. "Where are you going?" I asked. "That's where the high-ranking soldiers sit."

Psi didn't even spare me a backward glance. "I know. Exactly why I'm going there."

Arrogant much?  I wondered in my head, but I didn't give up. "We should get our food first."

Psi froze in his tracks, then spun to face me. "Are you stupid? Do you see any place to get our food? Maybe at the trash can? No! People will bring it to us when we sit down."

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't see that—I was too distracted by my ribs; they're hurting." The first part was a lie—I had observed it since mess rooms usually had a table where you could serve yourself, but I was trying to waste some time so we wouldn't immediately get into trouble. Although my ribs were really hurting.

To my surprise, as soon as we sat down at the center table, a waiter brought us some food, completely fine about where we were sitting. Psi didn't say anything and immediately started digging into his food, while I made sure to that the waiter before starting to eat.

Even though I was famished, I made sure I ate at least somewhat decently so the other people in the room would not experience the torture of watching a famished Percy inhale his food in a few seconds (though one demigod had praised me for my ability, many had voiced their disgust at it).

The waffles were some of the best ones I had tasted—though that might've been just because I was famished.

 A few minutes later, as the mess hall was slowly filling up, a group of leaders migrated towards us, but upon seeing us they calmly moved somewhere else. This time, I knew it was because of Psi and not me.

It was only ten minutes before Psi interrupted my peaceful time. "Are you done yet?" he complained. "We have to go."

I stared at him incredulously, but that couldn't stop me from taking another bite of my waffle. "What do you mean by that? You're eating too."

Psi glowered at me as he took a bite of his waffle. "Whatever. Just eat faster."

I gestured towards his plate, which held two waffles and a puddle of syrup. "I feel like your should be saying that to yourself, buddy."

Psi went to respond but was cut off by a commotion in the cafeteria.

A few tables ahead of us, there was a group of regular soldiers. Suddenly, an officer came out of nowhere and grabbed a terrified soldier by the scruff of his shirt. His voice was so loud and angry that all of the chatter stopped, and everybody's attention was trained on the two of them.

"What kind of nonsense is this!?" the officer bellowed straight into the face of the soldier that was probably under his command, his voice loud enough that even I winced at the volume. His beady eyes, which were not unlike a pig's eyes were full of fury. "Coming to eat before I dismissed you from your patrol!?"

"Y-you d-did, S-sergeant," the soldier replied, obviously scared out of his mind.

"Nonsense!" the sergeant yelled, and I could immediately tell that he was one of those leaders who liked to boss around people under his command for no reason. "I'm going to beat you up so hard that you'll never disobey me ever again."

A/N-And that about wraps up the chapter! Give it a star if you like it, and thank you for all of your support. From today onwards, I'll be on vacation for about a week and will return on Sunday, July 10th. I will update two chapters that day to make the missed days off.