Sorry, Alex

Vlad's casino employee dorms were, to Cecilia's pleasant surprise, not bad at all. 

The wooden door led to a living room with a pull-out sofa and a small television, which was unnecessary given the incredibly blue view from the balcony. 

The shower in the bathroom was significantly larger than any other shower Cecilia had seen in her life, and it could be considered a small room by itself.

But all this is dwarfed by the best part: a king-size bed with a blanket made of such soft fabric that Cecilia only now realized that there could be such a soft material in the world. The second Cecilia fell on the bed, she knew she would never want to get up.

Life, unfortunately, does not act according to desires but according to needs. 

Even ignoring her dire need for the bathroom 13 hours later, Cecilia couldn't put off the end any longer and had to go to work, which she had foolishly agreed to.

For five silver coins an hour, Cecilia had to stand next to the dealer on duty and pray for the success or failure of the alternating gamblers.

Thanks to the commotion she caused yesterday, she couldn't show her face. Instead, a little dwarf dressed in clown clothes and full make-up 'entertained' the guests by casually standing and telling a dry plank joke every few minutes. 

She was by far the casino's worst entertainer ever, the looks the gamblers gave her made her well aware of that.

Cecilia didn't know how much she really helped the casino by simply standing there; she just knew that by 1 p.m. her stomach was so empty that it almost stuck to her back.

It makes sense, since the last meal she had was with Sirius. Gosh, she misses Sirius and his bread-and-butter meals.

Her hasty employment contract did not specify anything about breaks or working hours in general, but after looking left and right at the almost deserted casino, she decided to just dare, no one really gambled at noon anyway.

The ship was really huge, and with all its splendor, it didn't bother to put up a single sign. Cecilia had no choice but to ask for the help of a strange bystander stuward, which to this day she considers the three most embarrassing minutes of her life.

She noticed that it is not really customary to address each other outside the socializing areas; no one spoke to each other in the corridors; everyone just walked in silence and with perfect posture. Sometimes she wondered if they were even humans or magical creatures created by a cynical old man. 

Their way of acting and speaking were somehow always on the verge of humanity, but not quite.

When she arrived at one of the many restaurants that the stuward told her about with perfect diction, she hastily thanked the stuward, who hung up for a moment (she noticed that thanking was not a common thing in the area, but she just couldn't help herself), and walked at a fast pace to the restaurant.

She walked behind the smiling hostess towards a quiet corner table, which suited her taste exactly. Cecilia was eager to connect with everyone and everything, but right now she was dressed in a clown outfit. 

Even she had a certain sense of shame.

She scanned the menu, amazed to find that she couldn't understand a single dish's name.

"Sorry, miss waiter?" 

A personal waitress was already on call, waiting for her to decide.

"Yes, madam?"

"Who is John Dory?"

"Excuse me, madam?"

"John Dory; his name is on the menu."

"It is a fish, madam; would you like to order it?"

Cecilia did a simple calculation of how many weeks it would take to pay for that single fish with her current salary and decided to give up on John.

"Is there any place with cheaper food? What does someone who has no money do?"

"If one cannot pay, he does not eat, madam."

She examined the beautiful uniforms of the waitress and looked again at her clown uniform. She began to feel that this outfit represented her more and more in this society.

Even the waitress's outfit is something she surely can't afford right now.

"Cecilia? Is it you?" 

She looked with obvious terror in her eyes towards the source of the voice, seeing the girl with the gorgeous blue eyes who had stabbed her before.

Like last time, she was wearing clothes that looked brand new and had such a perfect hairstyle that even one hair wasn't out of place. The coat smeared with her blood must have been thrown away already.

"Why don't you come sit with us?" She started walking in her direction, her heels clicking on the marble floor. "You look interesting enough."

"Ha ha, thank you, but I don't think..."

"Come on" She grabbed her arm and almost ifted her by force "I'm not clueless like that idiot Devin who hasn't seen the world; we'll pay for your meal."

"I really don't think..." Cecilia found her new friendly attitude incredibly strange.

"With how expensive the meals are here, you'll starve to death before we even get there." She took out a silk handkerchief and began to wipe the makeup off Cecilia's face. She had a terrible problem with boundaries.

Even so, perhaps even because of that, Cecilia couldn't help but take a liking to her.

"Okay, thank you..."

"Ilya, don't worry. It'll be fun; Alex would pay."

Only now does Cecilia notice Alex, who is standing a few steps behind Ilya and staring at her dead in the eyes, the blond man look at her as he would look at a dirty piece of gum stuck to his shoes.

Is it too late to back out now?