Chapter 144 - Alyra

After getting unceremoniously knocked out by Azalea, the fat man had loosened his grip around the girl's neck considerably. In that moment of weakness, the girl had released herself and hurriedly stepped away from the standing comatose man. Just in time too, after she had stepped away, the man immediately fell forward with a thud, blood dripping from his nose.

"Well, I hope you boys learned your lesson and now know how to properly treat a lady, next time", I said as I dusted off my clothes. The only reply I got was a chorus of m.o.a.ns and groans.

"Now then", I said as I turned towards the attacked girl, who was just staring at me in awe, "are you alright"?

The girl in question appeared to be about a few years younger than me, looking a bit older than twelve but less than sixteen. Her dark hair and sun tanned skin looked no dirtier than what I was used to out in the frontier, but the roughness of her clothes showed she was a a beggar. The one thing that stood out to me though, was her red eyes that reminded me of coal embers.

The girl was about to respond, but stopped as her stomach made a very loud growling sound.

"..."

"..."

[Huh. I guess surviving a crisis does work up one appetite all around], Voxea said.

"Do you want to join me for a late lunch?", I asked.

The girl just vigorously nodded.

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Out of view and a few feet away...

"Oink me! I didn't know Silvia was that strong", Bori commented as he munched on some cube shaped fruit candies.

"Huh...I remember holding pretty well during that tavern brawl, but I didn't expect her to able to take down four guys at once", Albina whispered as they hid behind a wall.

"Who's the girl?", Savina thought with a gloomy look on her face.

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"Here you are! Two bowls of my famous mutton curry laghman, one with extra noodles. As well, here is a plate of honey dumplings. Enjoy"!

"Thank you", I said as I handed the waitress the suls for our meal.

A little after the alleyway brawl, I had taken Alyra, she told me her name as we were walking over, to the part of the market where street food vendors congregated. While poking around, Alyra pointed to this place and here we are.

[Voxea, what the heck is laghman?], I asked as I grabbed a pair of chopsticks and picked out a piece of what appeared to be mutton that was stewed for hours. Alyra meanwhile began scarfing down her bowl as quickly as possible. Hunger be a curse.

[It's this type of hand pulled noodle dish. I'm honestly surprised that it managed to survive the isolation era...anyways, try adding salted peanuts to it. They're my absolute favorite way to eat them], Voxea explained. With a shrug I began to eat my own bowl and was delighted by all the flavors in it.

While eating, I suddenly developed the sensation that someone war trying to burn a pair of holes on the top of my head. Pausing from eating, I looked up to see Alyra giving me a rather strange stare, her bowl completely empty.

"Wanna order another bowl"?

"Why did you help me?", she asked in a straightforward manner. Her mannerisms gave me a sense of déjà vu, but I couldn't pin from where and why.

"Does anyone need a reason to help someone in need"?

"Yes".

"Well then...I did have a reason to help you. Two in fact", I simply replied while putting down my chopsticks, "First, I am currently looking into an...incident that had happened recently. And if there's one thing I understand about such things, is that locals who live near a thing happening tend to know more than law enforcement looking into it".

[How mysterious of you], Voxea teased.

At my reasoning, Alyra looked a little surprise at first but quickly adjusted to what I could only described as understandingly skeptical.

"That's... understandable. What was your second reason in helping me?", she asked point-blank.

"As for my second reason? Simply put, it was the right thing to do", I replied casually.

Alyra looked at me with skepticism, but when she saw I wasn't shirking or changing from making such a statement, the look in her eyes shifted from skepticism to awe.

"Pardon me, can my friend here get another bowl? I would also like some salted peanuts too".