4. I can eat two!

4. I can eat two!

"Mama!!" The lost girl released both the elf girl and Aether and ran.

They both saw how the lost girl embraced each other with her mother. Then Her mother turned to them and gave them a bow of gratitude. And they left.

"So, do you believe me now?" Aether asked. The Elf girl looked a bit sorry toward Aether.

"I almost got caught as a Criminal because of you" Aether continued.

The Elf girl looked more guilty by that. "I'm sorry" she sincerely bowed.

"Then as you see from my clothes I'm not from here. So, can you help me with something?"

This time the elf girl looked troubled. "Are you busy?" Aether asked.

The Elf girl stared at Aether for a moment… and as if she decided something inwardly she replied "A bit, I need to find something" She replied "It's not that I don't want to help, can you wait, I'll help you after I found my item"

Separating here was the last thing Aether wanted, on the other hand he also realized the elf girl in front of her is a goodie-two shoes. Which is someone he also liked to help. "Did you lose it?"

The Elf girl shook her head. "It was stolen by a young girl with short golden hair. She also has a long red scarf" she described.

"Then why are you leisurely walking here and not chasing after her? Is it something not important?" Aether was confused by her conduct.

"E,ettto… It's because… I lost her'' The elf girl said embarrassingly.

Aether really didn't understand how this Elf girl's train of thought works! But anyway, Aether found out what he had to do to stay with this girl.

"Then why don't I help you find that thief?"

"Ehh? No need, No need!" The Elf girl rejected.

Nevertheless, Aether won't easily give up. "As you see, this kingdom was just on the way to my travel, so I don't know a thing about this kingdom. But now that I'm here I thought maybe I should go sightseeing a bit in this country. At first, I wanted your help to give me a tour introducing this city and country to me. In the end, my purpose is to walk around the city. So, even if I helped you in the middle of it, I also feel good helping people like how I helped the lost girl from before."

"Still…" The elf girl hesitated.

"Besides with this I also have enough time to ask a little bit about this country so I can survive safely" Aether explained. (Will she bite on it?) He thought. From Aether's point of view, the Elf girl was a good person but also wasn't honest to accept others' good will. So he told her as if it helped himself if the elf girl were to let Aether accompany her.

"Lia!" Suddenly from behind the elf girl a cat on two feet floated in front of her. "I don't sense any malice. Why don't you accept his offer?"

"Wahh!" Aether was surprised to see the floating cat.

"Oh, is it the first time seeing a Spirit? I'm Puck, nice to meet you!"

"Spirit? Wow!" Aether was amazed. Then he turned to Paimon, "Paimon, you need my mana to materialize right? How do I share it with you?"

Paimon was silent earlier because Aether was the only one she could talk with. But he was busy talking with others. Paimon quickly responded. "The same as Elemental power, just feel the power inside you. And Allocate Mana into your gate then shared with me"

"Hey, who are you talking to?" Puck asked as he floated around Aether.

Aether ignored his question and channeled his Mana. Aether was experienced in channeling his original power or Elemental power inside his body before. He could easily control Mana in his body and he also found the 'Gate' that Paimon talked about.

"Paimon" Aether opened her palm and Paimon materialized above it.

"So you also contracted a spirit," The Elf girl said.

"This is the first time seeing another spirit so it surprised me a bit" Aether lied as he breathed.

"This is Paimon," he introduced.

"Paimon is Paimon, nice to meet you, cat person, and elf person!" Paimon said.

"Hahaha" Puck laughed at her words.

"Elf person…" The Elf girl didn't know how to respond to it and looked troubled by her words.

Seeing that Aether quickly pulled out his share of chicken skewers from his inventory and gave it to Paimon to shut her up (Maybe it's a mistake to materialize her now) he thought and quickly changed the subject.

"So, do you accept my offer?"

The Elf girl snapped out and thought a bit more… "Okay, I accept your offer. But don't misunderstand this is for me so I could find the thief sooner!" the Elf girl replied.

"Yes, I understand I also moved for myself. I'm Aether"

"..." The Elf girl once again looked troubled "I'm Sate-"

"You don't need to tell me if you don't want" Aether saw through her difficulty "In the end, we're strangers. Anyway, which way did the thief go?"

"..." The Elf girl was silent

"Don't tell me you didn't know?" Aether asked exasperatedly.

"....." She continued with her silence.

"If you didn't know, why are you here?"

The Elf girl slowly evaded her eyes from Aether.

"Haa~" Aether unable to hold his sigh anymore "Then why don't we go back to the place where it was stolen? We might be able to find someone who saw the culprit"

The Elf girl didn't refuse and led the way to where it was stolen.

On the way, Aether also asked many things about this kingdom but mostly what he already knew from the first run, he asked that so that the Elf girl didn't become suspicious of him.

"Where are you from?" The Elf girl asked.

"I don't remember" Aether replied honestly "I spent my life traveling from one to another. I don't really remember the starting point. It's been a long time since I started traveling"

"You talked as if you already spent a long time traveling. You looked the same as me or maybe even younger" she replied not satisfied with Aether's answer.

"Well, I'm at least older than you" Aether shoved aside her suspicion.

"That's not possible" the Elf girl curtly replied

"Why?" Aether was a bit confused by her sudden change of behavior.

"Because I'm a half-elf"

"I see"

"You didn't seem surprised?" The Elf girl tilted her head, unable to comprehend Aether's reaction.

"Should I?"

"You're very strange," She said.

"That's very sudden" Aether chuckled "anyway whether you're half-elf or full elf you're still younger than me"

"Also a liar" the Elf girl added "you're lying as easy as you breathe"

"Well, I won't deny that"

"You won't!? Huu…" The Elf girl was also exasperated. "Anyway, this is the place"

(It was right in the middle of the road.) Aether observed.

"Aether" Paimon called when Aether turned to her "This is the place," she said.

"The center?" Aether asked for confirmation.

"Un" Paimon nodded "More accurately it's in front of that old man" Paimon pointed at a green-haired old man fruit vendor.

"Um, what are you talking about?" The Elf girl finally asked when she got the chance.

"Ee!? Ettoo…." Paimon panicked, swimming her eyes here and there. In her journey with Aether in Teyvat Paimon had learned that blabbering their ability to a stranger was a bad thing. Sadly, she just learned to understand that is a mistake but not learn to not blabber.

"Paimon felt some strange power and this place was where it came from" Aether explained, it wasn't that important information Aether also didn't explain much.

Elf girl was confused and she didn't feel a thing "what about you?" She asked puck.

"I don't feel a thing too," Puck replied.

Aether didn't mind their doubt and walked to the fruit vendor.

"Welcome!" The old man greeted them spiritedly

"Hello~" Paimon greeted back.

"Pick whichever you like, everything is fresh!" It seemed the old man had been watching us for a while as he didn't get surprised by Paimon's existence.

"That's not it! We came to ask a few questions" Paimon replied

"What!? Then go away! Shoo! Don't bother with my business!!" The vendor snapped

"Eek!" Paimon screamed and instantly hid behind Aether.

Seeing Aether the vendor glared at him "What?" His business smile had gone without a trace

"Actually, we want to buy some apples" Aether quickly helped. "We take 4 apples, is this enough?" Aether handed the last few coins he had left.

(I can find it again anyway) He thought.

Then like a flip of a coin "Welcome! Thank you very much" The vendor smiled again as he packed the apples

Once Aether took the apples he shared them with others. One for Paimon, one for Puck, and one for Elf girl.

"No, I'm okay" The Elf girl refused.

"You know, I already bought it. If you didn't take it I might need to throw it away so you're taking this actually helping me" Aether more or less grasped a bit of her personality so he made this roundabout reason.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to refuse, the Elf girl started to reach for the apple.

"I can eat two!" Paimon said innocently.

"..." Aether was speechless. He saw how the Elf girl pulled back her hand. his work just got trashed by one and only companion of his.

"Haa~" Aether sighed "Actually, I felt bad for guilt tripping you into guiding me like this, so this apple…" Aether quickly put the apple in her hand. "To help me relieve the guilt I felt"

Even with that the Elf girl still hesitates "You see her" Aether pointed at Paimon and whispered so Paimon didn't hear him or it would become more troublesome "She's floating all day without exercising even once. However, Paimon ate a lot. I trying to cut down her food so that she didn't become bloated"

With that finally, the Elf girl took the apple.

(Haa~) Aether is already tired of dealing with this Elf girl.

Aether remembered his original reason "By the way, boss." Aether turned and called the fruit vendor "Do you see anything strange recently?"

"Mhm?" The vendor thought for a bit

At that time "Mister!!" A child's voice was heard.

Aether and Elf girl turned toward the voice because it felt familiar.

What they saw was the lost girl they helped earlier. After a bit of explaining from both sides, they realized the lost girl was actually the fruit vendor's daughter.

The Elf girl got a flower accessory from the girl. And they also found the information they were looking for.

According to the fruit vendor, a thief most likely came from the slum area, and with that, the Elf girl's next step was already decided.

However, Aether got nothing. The only strange thing that happened to the vendor was a broke traveler bothering his business a while ago.

Aether said that he wanted to see the slum area too. To judge a city or country is to look for the worst area. For that reason, Aether accompanied the Elf girl to the slum area.

When they arrived the sun started to set.

"Fwaa~" Puck yawned widely "be careful, don't be careless." He said to the Elf girl before Puck turned to Aether "Aether too, please take care of her" with that said Puck became particles and absorbed by the crystal on The Elf girl's neck.

Aether didn't understand what happened to Puck. He also couldn't ask carelessly about the spirit with Paimon by her side, not knowing a thing about the spirit was suspicious as hell. On the other hand, He knew everyone had their secrets so he didn't say much about it.

"What are you going to do next?" Aether asked the Elf girl.

"I'm going to ask lesser spirits," She replied.

Aether saw the Elf girl suddenly murmuring some kind of language it was at that point…

*uuWEEEoouuuuu

The time once again turned back