The night before Leonhardt left the village of Munat...
A beautiful woman's voice echoed in the hallways of a worn-down building in the small village of Munat. The wooden beams long since used now rotten and groaning overhead. Countless cracks spread through the wooden walls, like a spider's web. Dust and debris settled on the trinkets forgotten by ti.
"Enzo!"
The air contained a thick stale scent, with sweat, rust and sothing foul leaking from beneath the floorboards.
Her voice was sharp, urgent.
Enzo halted. His fingers curled, knuckles stiff. The silence before a blade is drawn.
"Can't you be more likable, Dia?"
"? Likable? Hah! Have you taken a look in the mirror!?"
Dia's blonde hair danced in the fleeting wind, her scent like a fresh rose fallen in a pile of landfill. Her gaze narrowed before covering her lips with a small, silken black handkerchief.
"You stink."
Enzo breathed in, his chest swelling with the thick, heavy air. He could still sll the blood on the ground of countless warriors who died to keep the village safe mixed with the foul stench of animal excrent.
"THE SLL IS THE BUILDING!"
Enzo, hushed, covered Dia's lips with his dirty fingers.
The blonde-haired woman glared back, her eyes like blue ice, as hard as steel, glaring in silence.
"Don't look so angry, Dia... You know why we needed to make that deal."
"But!" Her eyes darted from side to side, gazing at Enzo like a lost cat, hoping its owner would understand her feelings and stop making her feel so stressed and upset.
"I know... that boy isn't human."
Dia's lips trembled as if she were struggling to form the words. She opened her mouth several tis but only managed a few croaks of words.
"You know... why we made our group. Have you not forgotten what monsters did to our village, our comrades?"
Enzo's eyes beca solemn, gazing at the beautiful woman, one of his many flings... yet the only one that survived and followed him so far.
"Did that boy look capable of creating a dungeon break?" A dungeon break... the act of countless monsters flooding into a village, town or even a city. It led to the destruction of everything that once lived, like an apocalypse.
The last call was originally a group of adventurers—they believed themselves able to fight off any threat.
Until they faced that horrific day, and the mont half of their group perished.
Enzo, once their charismatic second-in-command, is now the leader and owner of a small pub in the slums of Astrea. No longer the sa young man who sought to fight against monsters, to protect those in need. Instead, a man with many scars that didn't show, even to those who tried to find them.
"Maybe, maybe not... how can we be sure? Didn't you wish for your wife and daughter to live away from this danger?!" Dia's voice beca stronger, resonating with the broken glass to make it vibrate.
Enzo sighed. "It's not that simple, and you know it."
"Tsk! Since when did you care about her feelings and emotions before?" Dia understood; who couldn't see that the young priestess held abnormal feelings towards that handso abomination?
"Will you really let her join him? What if his visage is a facade and he just wants to devour her?"
Though she spoke harshly and sotis ca across as strong, Dia cared about Erina because she looked like Enzo, and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't have his child after that horrific day. Thus, she beca emotional and extrely protective of the young priestess.
Erina was the only person Enzo had saved from his hotown, a village far off in the east, which no longer existed.
He didn't know why he had left her mother there.
She wasn't an adventurer, but a kind woman that always cleaned his wounds, cared for him when he got sick and injured.
"You know the truth. Don't be too hard on , Dia."
"..." Dia's eyes trembled as she hesitated, unable to continue... "Why didn't you tell us that she didn't rember? Why does Erina believe you left them, abandoned her mother?"
Enzo shrugged his shoulders and turned away, with a horrible look pasted on his face.
"I thought it would be better if she hated ."
"But, why!" Her voice grew harsh, cutting into him like daggers. "You... if you didn't save them from that hell hole ten years ago, your body wouldn't—"
"Dia!" Enzo raised his voice, interrupting her.
"Sorry..."
"It's fine. The less Erina knows about how her mother really died. The better, but the church is going to be annoying. That girl might have been a saintess candidate, but she's a special one... to fool those old bastards, we need a perfect situation."
Enzo closed his eyes and thought about the information that Leonhardt had given him before he left. "I believe there will be a chance to stage her death soon enough."
"Enzo..."
Dia watched the man she adored and shared a bed with, never more than a mont of passion or after thinking for him, but to her, it was sothing that filled the void in her empty chest.
"I cannot trust that boy... but since it is your choice, I will follow it until the end, Enzo."
"Thank you, Dia."
Dia shook her head, and her lips ford into a smile.
"Don't worry about it, Enzo..."
She lowered her head, the foul stench of this abandoned building no longer an annoyance as she bit into her lower lip and muttered.
"I just worry about you..." Her eyes drifted up like the moon, bright and shining as the day he saved her from becoming food for those disgusting creatures.
Enzo ruffled his fingers through her golden hair, ssing it up until a small bun ford, and then he patted it down. "I need you to find those docunts while I'm away, okay?"
"I know... I won't let you down."
His hand slid down her neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps as his eyes snapped open. "Oh... how about we eat together tonight?"
"Wait, really!?"
The young man nodded, watching Dia's stunned face with a grin before turning around.
"We'll have sothing fancy, I promise you."
The invitation for a al was like a special code phrase, sothing that made Dia excited... tonight they would... for sure.
With business over, the pair left the disgusting site, with Dia rushing to prepare herself and Enzo leaving in the opposite direction to et with the others.
Two hours later, in Munat's only restaurant
"So, what do you think?" Enzo asked as he took a bite from his steak. "Good, right? The at of the Spotted Forest Hare, boiled and cooked with the oil of a Giant Turtle, served on a hot plate."
The woman in front of him stared blankly at the al before her. "You must know, no one from the village could eat such expensive food."
"What if they were rich?"
"They'd still never have this."
"Why?"
"Because it's not food."
She complained as she looked up, her cheeks reddening, "When you eat sothing, you take it into your body to make you healthy, but that," she said as she pointed at the dish in front of her with a trembling finger. "isn't going to make healthy at all."
Diamond, the woman who wore the cat mask, couldn't help but curl her lips when faced with the "food" placed before her, the scent thick and greasy.
The soup was lumpy and dense with the stringy hare at and musky turtle oil... She couldn't help but turn her nose away to avoid gagging.
"Well... uh, then, why did you even bother ordering it if you thought that?"
"Because you ordered it!"
Dia slamd the table, her blonde hair fluttering in the air, and she turned bright red in embarrassnt.
This dish was a delicacy for most n, as it was said to increase libido and energy when one might be lacking.
However, Dia knew for sure that this man never lacked energy and eating this just ant he wanted to kill her tonight. With two parts excitent, one part anticipation and she awaited the evening to co.
Ironically, the barkeep who served the drinks called out.
"Last Call! Make your final orders now."
The irony made them both smile and dig into the foul-tasting dish.
Both were fully aware that after tonight, they might not et for the longest of tis.
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