16 Meat

It was getting late and I was running out of patience, so I walked around for another fifteen minutes before going home.

Fortunately, I was able to identify the figure of a girl with sport clothes with a maid design in the distance.

There you are.

Lea was finishing cleaning a small tomb with a bucket of water, for some motive, I hid behind a tombstone.

Why the fuck I´m hiding?!

I didn´t want to look like a stalker, so I pulled out one of my last cigarettes and started to smoke to dissimulate I was behind the tombstone, meanwhile, Lea joined her hands in prayer.

-I keep doing the best I can Leo, though I´m still not getting along with my work colleagues... But you know what! The heroes were invoked, so we can defend ourselves against the demon lord!

Leo, eh, they didn´t complicate with the name. Will he be her brother? Her father?

-But you won´t believe it, one of those heroes doesn´t have the title of hero!

Ah, she started to talk about me, let´s see what she says.

My interest in the one-way conversation of Lea interested me more, so I stealthily got a bit closer.

-Boss Molly told us that he was a mean and brute man, and the truth is that she has the reason, also, most of the time I can´t know what he´s thinking, he has a weird and twisted personality, and he rarely shows any fear or nervousness.

Yhea, well... Sorry to have a weird and twisted personality.

-But... Deep down, I think he´s a good person! He helps others with their tasks, passes the time with the knights, and the mages enjoy talking about magic with him... Since he´s someone who doesn´t stop moving forward, it´s easy to want to trust him, also, I think he already noticed that I have a hard situation, but instead of harassing me with questions, he treats me like an equal... Maybe even as a friend.

And you´re not wrong about that, honestly, someone should give me a prize for my kindness.

-Recently, I´ve been very happy, I have a pair of people who I feel I can trust, and I have a nice time with them... Although I´m gonna feel a bit... lonely when he goes away.

Guess I´ve heard enough.

-Hey, Lea.

I came out from my hiding spot and talked to Lea, the lioness slowly turned her body and turned her attention to me, her face was blushing and her eyes avoided my sight.

You already knew I was here!

I could feel how my face was heating a bit as I got closer to her.

-... Was it for the smell?

-... Yes, you always smoke the same cigarette.

This would be the perfect moment for the earth to swallow me up and return me to my world.

....

Nop, it won´t happen.

-... Um, Who is that person?

I pointed to the tombstone behind Lea.

-... Oh, he is my little brother... He died a time ago.

-... I see.

There´s no ghost, that´s good.

I stood beside Lea and joined my hands the same way she had done.

I guess it was something like this.

I honestly didn´t believe in God or the afterlife, but after being invoked to this world with swords and magic I couldn´t be sure about that anymore.

-Umm, I´m the hero with a weird personality, I don´t know what happened to you, but I can see that Lea misses you a lot, there are lots of things I want to doubt about what she told you about me, but, for now, I´ll just say that she seems happier, the truth is that I want to know what happened, but Lea will talk when she wants to do it, that´s why... I'll try to not disappoint her trust... and... well.

I quickly looked around before keep talking, I didn´t want anyone to hear this.

-I-I´ll try to make her feel happy while she´s with us... or something like that.

Well, that sounded more pathetic than I thought.

I separate my hands and turned to Lea, her eyes were full of tears, but she didn´t sob, she simply kept looking at me.

-Umm, Want to eat something? My treat.

Lea came out of her trance and cleaned her tears.

-Pff* Hahahaha!... Let´s go for meat!

After laughing a bit, she answered me with her characteristic childish smile, we turned around and walked out of the cemetery.

Lea had wrapped her arm with mine as we kept walking, it was embarrassing, but I didn't have the strength to move away from someone with such a big smile, so I simply enjoyed the celestial sensation in my arm while we were looking for a restaurant with meat dishes.

-By the way, What happened with your glasses? And where did you get that tattoo?

-Aahh, my glasses accidentally broke, I´ll fix them later, and I got the tattoo as a kind of a promise.

-A promise?

-Seh, that I will never be completely alone anymore.

-Hm? What´s that supposed to mean?

-Hahaha, nothing important.

-Is that so?

-Seh.

After a time, we stopped at a restaurant that let you cook your meat at a table with a grill.

Ooohh, I had visited a place like this in the Korean district.

The place had rooms instead of seats, apparently, you had to make a reservation to enter, but we had the luck to find a free room for us.

We followed the waitress to a closed room with four walls and a big table with a grill included, before entering, the waitress asked us to take off our shoes so we didn´t get dirty the wooden floor, a petition quite strange to me, but since this was an influenced world by the oriental culture I didn´t think much about it.

Lea and I took a seat one in front of each other, I took off my suit, tie, and globes, I looked like a Godines after one long Friday night of work, it was kind of surrealist, I never got the chance to get a job in the earth, but those were just minor details.

Lea unsipped her sports uniform, showing a sleeveless T-shirt with a great neckline, the sensation of liberty that her sigh gave was almost concerning.

Yes, well... I guess it must be suffocating.

I tried my best to not look at her a lot while I rolled up my sleeves and inspected the menu.

-You come here often Lea?

-I like to come here once or twice per month, The meat of basilisk is great in this place!

-You can eat a giant poisonous lizard? Woah, I guess nothing goes to waste here eh.

-Is more juicy and delicious than you imagine! The ribs of the electric bull have a strong taste, but it´s a great beer company!

-Is that so? Then I´ll order that you don´t contain yourself and eat as much as you want.

-Hahaha! Don´t regret it later!

-Haha, go on, go on.

We ordered our food with some kind of remote alarm and I kept listening to Lea talk bout meat cuts and other things.

After a while, some waitresses arrived with dishes filled with different cuts of meat, tweezers, condiments, drinks, and tiny plates of porcelain. They turned on the grill with fire magic, gave us oil and salt, and finally step out of the room with a "Please enjoy your meal".

We said "thank you" in response and proceeded to cook the meat.

Just then, the voice of Fei Xue came to my mind.

-Master, you choose some curious people to protect, it hasn´t been much time, but I already froze eight assassins, I suggest we start a deep investigation if you want the family to live on a long term basis.

Eight?! Why would someone spend so many after a family made of kids?

-How are the elves? Did someone saw you?

-They are safe, nobody knows of my existence in the kingdom yet.

-Good job, about the assassins, Is there a distinctive feature? Something like a family shield, tattoo, or weapon?

-Three of them have the shield of a winged snake.

-Do you recognize it from somewhere?

-I´m afraid my knowledge about dark organizations is not very wide outside the north.

-I suppose so, Something else?

-One of them had a letter, but it seems codified, we would need one of them alive to know its content.

-Don´t take unnecessary risks, make sure to break into pieces their bodies and dispose of them in the sewers or the forest.

-Your methods are quite disturbing, master.

-We´re just taking out the garbage, anyway, Are you okay? Need any help?

-Kukuku, now I feel protected~, don´t worry, it´s nothing I can´t handle.

-Hmm, fine, keep protecting them, if you need me don´t hesitate to call me.

-I hope for a proper reward for my hard work~.

What a hungry woman.

-Sure, you can request anything later, for now, I need you working.

-Mmm~ How cold~.

The mental connection finished and I returned my attention to Lea and the food.

I had ordered a beer while Lea had an alcoholic drink of something called "mintane", the drink smelled like mint so I didn´t ask what it was.

We both cheered and started to eat and drink until we left the table empty.