"I’m sure there's no need for this to be said if we were in normal circumstances, but, just to make it clear as to why you've all gathered here– we are opening a public kitchen."
The size of the crowd that had convened on this particularly sunny day was more than they had anticipated, and it was still growing as more and more people showed up from their call. The silent and dead sight of a ghost town they had been greeted by every single day for the past week had, in turn, masked the true number of people who managed to keep their lives intact all this time.
"-To protect the livelihood of us all..."
Dias had scanned the barrier and confirmed that every living human within it had gathered in front of the supermarket and she had roughly counted, and still was counting, every time someone left and brought back with them more people to join.
The teachers and university professors were giving speeches as of now, making sure the masses were placated and calm so they could be separated into several orderly queues to receive their food.
"And therefore, it is within our moral line of duty to–"
The crowd was a large mass consisting of two thousand people; a mix of the old and young. They had all gathered in a bid to gain food once there were no more choices left.
There were no more stores open, no worth in the money that they held. Transactions hadn't taken place since the start of the collapse of their society, and one might have wondered how much harder it was to survive outside of their enclosed space.
"... Now, let's form lines as we begin to distribute the food. Please walk to the designated area and follow the staff that are holding up the signs."
Miraculously, the crowd neatly separated into streams to form a line to receive their food as they had been ordered. They didn't dare to cause any commotion, even with their large numbers, as would typically happen at any kitchen offering free food.
That was most likely attributed to the hundreds of big-bodied security personnel wearing all black on standby around the area who were emitting a menacing aura. Due to a lack of personnel, the majority of them were recruited from gang members and students from both universities, but they were doing a wonderful job holding the line so far, despite the lack of training.
Although it could also be said that the sight of the people in front of them had washed their doubts and restlessness away. Warm and steaming hot, one by one, each container was handed to the people who received each one with shaking hands. Those who had waited in line and ended up at the back of the parking lot appeared to have spent all of their energy walking, only wanting to get their turn to eat as the line flew and ebbed, waiting for their turn with hope and anticipation.
Clearing the cars out of the parking lot had been no easy task whatsoever, but the muscle crew from Uni A had spent an entire day doing their best and somehow had managed to complete the tall task just in time. The fact that their temporary leader, Henry, could now lift a car by himself became the biggest contributor to speeding up the process.
Even as yesterday's events unfolded; during her observation of the muscle crew at work, she had never once caught sight of Purnama during the day. It was as if he had disappeared into the ether.
Out of sight, but never out of mind.
Ginan had somehow roped Sariya into helping out with the kitchen squad. Between the cooking club and the cafeteria aunties of the two other unis banding together, there was no actual need for the juniors other than being tasked as a bread shuttle.
Which was exactly what they ended up doing.
Although it must have been exhausting, the grin on their faces and the unimpressed frown on Sariya's face were entertaining enough to watch from afar.
Their presence had also lightened the mood among the younger kids, as some occasionally greeted their former classmates among the crowd who were lucky enough to spend their nights with their families or relatives.
Small talks were happening all around the lot. The students from the lower level were doing their best to appear non-threatening as much as was possible by distributing candies to the younger kids. She hadn’t known why Sir Saputra had needed them to do this specifically, at least not until today, but it had worked in a way to disperse any tension and suspend their disbelief of things being too good to be true—for one thing.
With just the kids being there, it had helped the adults loosen their guard as time passed by, soon some even got teased by parents who had their own shy children.
Moreover, as per Armand's request, Dias wouldn't make any public appearances this morning. It was already bad enough trying to cover him at a place with only a few dozen people around, doing so in front of a crowd of thousands would be a nightmare.
No wonder all of those celebrities' bodyguards she'd seen on tv had always looked older than their actual ages if this was the type of shenanigans they had to face every day.
And as of her right now? Her legs swaying by the edge of the rooftop should be enough of an answer for those who were bothered enough to ask why they had spotted a girl on top of the building.
The biggest reason they had to be stationed here was because Dias wanted to see the progress of the public kitchen, which was how they found themselves on the rooftop.
Tira thought for a second that she had taken to scouring on top of high places more often than not lately. That might make a good conversation starter for when she got herself checked out with the school counselor. Eventually. One day in the near future. It would happen.
…Definitely.
The eyes that noticed her from afar were starting to increase. One at a time, starting with a little toddler who had asked his mom 'what that sister was doing on top of the roof'. He was hushed by his poor exhausted mother, of course, and dragged away to join the line. And even though he couldn't possibly see her clearly from this distance, she gave him a little wave anyway.
The others were more skeptical, perhaps trying to figure out if she was part of the performance or just a loony with a penchant for overlooking people from heights. Either way, the one man who had nearly shocked himself silly when he couldn't unsee her, kept glancing every now and then was a fun one to keep track of.
With the rays of the sun being shielded by a thin layer of clouds, and feeling the winds that blew at the elevated level she had perched herself at, it made her feel all the more refreshed. She missed the thrilling sensation of soaring through the sky, sure, but she could appreciate the little moments where it caressed her skin gentler than silk; just the same.
Dias was, of course, standing behind the safe side of the railing. His constant presence on her back was an assuring one, though an idea briefly crossed her mind as to whether he could push her off the ledge, to begin with. Would she react fast enough? Could she dodge? If he succeeded, would she be able to land on her feet safely, assuming that he could deactivate her power at will?
Glancing back, the face that greeted her wore the same old smile—and nothing but a smile. He was getting better at masking his thoughts from her. The bastard.
"What is it?" He asked in a low hum.
It was reassuring in a different way that, even if she fell down to her death, his life wouldn't go unscathed either. The satisfaction of knowing she would claw into him on her way down was more than enough to quell that side of her brain for another moment longer.
"Nothing. Just missed your face for some reason."
Laughing, he struck a cute pose by cupping both his cheeks with the back of his hands and tossed over a big grin and blinked his eyes. She rolled her eyes at his antics to the further amusement of the demi-god.
Returning her focus to the crowd, Tira kept her eyes on the situation, ready to intervene if anything unsavory occurred that the group on ground couldn't handle. That was the second reason why she was stationed here, on this very unsafe and greatly unstable ledge.
Apparently, having jumped from high places on three separate occasions would do that to your public image. Who would’ve guessed?
Though it appeared that she wouldn't get to jump into action, fortunately. Any time some gruff old guy would grumble or their self-righteous opinions began to rise about getting further in line—out of fear of not getting any food—they were given candy by a smiling young child from the lower grades, as coordinated by Donny from the side.
If the troublemaker, in any way, tried to take the drama further than needed, the guards took a step forward. Just a single step, but it was a simple and efficient warning, considering that they were going to be painted as the bad guy as soon as a kid even let out a sniffle or got teary-eyed. Between the kids and the glowering from the security team, it was almost enough to deter any insurgence.
Anyone who were stupid enough to not quit while they were ahead were then given the opportunity to say hello and chat with the security guards on the sidelines. Though there were only two cases of that happening so far, and in both cases, they were made a thorough example as the last deterrent.
Dare she say it, things were going much better than expected.
Tira spotted then, in the rather shaded corner, that the teachers and the professors were talking with the should-be parents of the school students who had made it.
The atmosphere surrounding them was familiarly eerie in a way that all parent-teacher meetings were, and so were the topics they were currently discussing.
She had never seen adults get along so well. There was always a shadow over both of them seemingly wanting to wring each other’s necks because of a problematic kid or two, or, in the case of her high school, all of the kids.
Without much hesitation, Tira looked away from that shady looking scene. There should be other interesting things she could monitor somewhere else.
Even though only an hour had passed, the kitchen area was already on the second shift of personnel. The first batch of people who had rotated were sitting behind the lines of trailers and cars made to section off the lot, panting from the stress and sweating profusely as they hydrated and took a much-needed breather.
Rizal was talking rather amicably with Lydia and a few senior sisters from the university. Tuning into their conversation revealed that he was just making a quick chat and asking them about the situation, to the cooing of those older women with, "Aw, you’re going to grow into a cute guy in the future! Too bad I have a boyfriend..." and other similar laments.
"Do you think he has an older sibling?" She asked out of curiosity; that coquettish ‘little brother’ act was too good to be done by a single, siblingless child.
"I have no idea, but it's possible." Dias' answer came in a light-hearted tone.
Tira leaned back on the railing, curling her hands over and behind it to hold her posture better then stole a glance at his never-changing smile. "Do you have siblings?"
"I do." Dias admitted with a fond countenance, "A little sister. She is as cute as she is deadly. You?"
She withheld her sigh and wondered how she would have to describe her sibling without giving too much away, and settled with, "I'm the older sister, sadly."
"Oh, what a surprise!" Dias leaned on the upper ends of the railing, putting weight on his waist as he glanced up to the sky. "Do you get along?"
"I think so... We only ever fought three separate times." Ash filled her mouth as she uttered that, and found her tongue somehow unwilling to share the circumstances of those fights.
"Aside from that, just your typical minor disagreements."
As she remembered something, Tira checked the ground again in great detail, enhancing her eyes further to focus on her search. "I think you two would’ve gotten along."
"Awh, did I burn down that bridge before I knew it?"
While her eyes might not have been trained on him for his reaction, if she was reading him correctly, Dias sounded genuinely regretful.
"You know what you did." She tapped the ring onto the steel railing, which rang hollow from the light impact of the metals. "Be careful of being assaulted when you’re out on your own."
Dias’s response to her warning was to just laugh harder. "I’ll try to run as fast as I can." Joyful and full of mirth, without any baggage whatsoever.
The discussion between the parents and teachers erupted into a minor commotion. The parents' questions grew like wildfire; what had happened to the supermarket; why had it stood mainly intact for so long, and a multitude of a hundred whys, almost like curious children.
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Sir Saputra had been completely correct in his conclusion. The moment that people were given and assured levity and safety, they immediately turned to look for gossipy drama.
A couple of accounts started to trickle in about what had happened there on the hour of the end, the source being one of the survivors who had happened to be sitting near the PTA corner meeting. "Those nasty pieces of shits had taken over the place as soon as it was available, shooting at anyone who dared to get closer! Dunno where they got their guns from but even without that, they swung their machete at anyone who tried to sneak in to get food!!!"
"Must've been hard, sir, and they've been hoarding the food for that long?" said Sir Saputra as he opened a pack of cigarettes, then offered one to the man. "None of the police moved in?"
"Bah, what police! Those guys were the first to run away once their shots didn’t do a damn thing to those creatures!" Another woman chimed in anger, snatching a cigarette with visible rage on her face, "My husband was pushed in front as bait by those motherfuckers—I'm never going to forgive them!"
"Hey, not all the police are that bad!" A younger man interjected, offering his lighter for the two older adults, cutting the woman away from nearly a mental breakdown for sure. "I got pulled out of that hell-hole by an officer, he was the last one who stayed. Guy took a stab to the gut for me on the day that they tried to ransack the houses around here!"
"Ah, I see. That was very commendable of him!" Sir Saputra probed even further with his questioning, "And did he...?"
"He’s getting treatment, uh, there." The young man had to search before he pointed at the tents opposite the open parking lot, where the Red Cross members and medics dressed were all in white and moving diligently. "He's already looking better than he did last night. Also, did they really, um,"
He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Did the gang really get killed by the creatures sneaking in at night?"
Now that was an interesting question to investigate. "Can the creatures sneak in?"
"No, they can’t." Dias remarked as he leaned over her shoulder, the shadow of his head covered the entirety of her face and shoulder, "Even if I can allow them to come in, I won’t. They’re equally hostile to both humans and demi-gods, I’m not that suicidal yet."
"Hm, I see."
She stowed the information away, and noticed the appearance of this new rumor spreading quick enough to warrant another glance at the field hospital.
The Red Cross members all worked alongside the rest of the doctors they fished out of the barred clinic, along with all the tools and supplies they could get from its storeroom to attend to the various tarps that were filled with new patients lying on them.
Those who were lightly injured were sent to a tent on the other side, forming a neat line as the remaining two doctors performed less invasive treatments. While those who sported severe injuries or were in a state that required emergency care were directed to the tent near the underground parking lot.
This way, the limited medical force could be applied appropriately based on the severity of the cases, and also distanced away from the food depot by the public kitchen, or so Hannah had told her this morning–
Thud.
Tira caught the sound of something falling onto the ground. Something light, which could easily be mistaken for the sound of a heart skipping a beat. It turned out to be an apple slipping out of a woman's hand as it fell onto the ground.
The woman, noticeably pregnant, had swayed and nearly followed the pull of gravity. If she were not caught in time by the man who had been holding her shoulder the entire time, she would have thudded and crushed the apple that had rolled away not too far from her feet.
The man let her down as carefully as he could, panic blooming on his face as he moved closer as the woman mouthed something to him. Her whisper was so low that the crowd’s shocked gasp and murmurs would have drowned it out.
But not for Tira's ears or the panicking father.
"My wife is in labor!"
The man cried out at the standby Red Cross members by the tent, shocking everyone around him. Two of the students on transport duty immediately approached the couple with a stretcher and moved the woman further towards the parking lot.
"Are there any midwives among us?!" The doctor who had come along with the stretchers asked his passing co-worker, who went around spreading panic and pandemonium with each relay of the question, that Rina and a stout, elderly doctor had to come out of the depths of the parking lot still covered in blood.
As soon as Rina made an appearance, Tira tore her eyes away to watch the crowd, her instinct telling her that the old doctor would have a good handle on the situation.
There were a lot of curious eyes trying to follow the situation around, so she signaled down Dharma, who had been on standby to watch for her, who immediately nodded when she pointed to that part of the restless crowd causing a stir.
Quietly, she observed as he sent his men to deal with the area, forming a clear line between the medical area and the feeding area, deterring any intent to peek further into the emergency tent.
Her attention to said emergency tent happened to catch the moment when the old man had just finished taking the woman's vitals and faced the father with a grim face and asked, "How far along is she?"
"T-Thirty-six weeks as of yesterday!"
"Alright, I’d like you to please step back. We’ll do the best we can to help the delivery."
Regretfully, but understanding, the father left without much choice and took further steps away from the table, then sat on the side chair that one of the students had fetched for him.
Rina had run into the tent from who-knows-where with a blanket and covered the woman’s lower body. She was already wearing a maternity dress, thankfully. Thus, the doctor only glanced at her once before he ordered:
"Sanitation!"
Rina ran back and returned with a box of surgery tools and Raphael in tow. Raphael immediately put out his hands and generated a thin membrane that enveloped all three of them by the makeshift operating table, just in time for the crowd to slowly disperse from the security's presence.
The thin barrier-like membrane was nearly see-through, though she could tell that light still hit its shell differently, and that it also carried an extra function to somehow clean the duo of the blood splatter they were sporting when running out in haste.
All of these clues were enough for her to make an educated guess about Raphael's ability. "A sterile room?"
"Yes. He hasn’t officially named it yet, but your guess is correct." Dias commented with a grin, leaning forward even further to observe the crowd that was secretly still stealing glances at the emergency tent. "This is the largest area he's been able to generate. Two days ago, he could only muster the size of a football."
She didn't know how to feel about the fact that he could just so easily divulge another person's ability. "Is it wise to let me know?"
"Will you tell someone else?" He questioned her back.
"No." Not even if her life was on the line. Not that he needed to know that.
"She was already on such a wide cervix opening and has breached the water." The doctor pulled the legs up, Rina stood by his side, helping him to prop the mother's knees as he rearranged the blanket for him to inspect closer. "I think I saw– Flashlight!"
"Coming!"
A nurse ran as fast as he could, carefully entering the tent as the dust that had stained his clothes faded away the moment his step breached the membrane. The old man didn't question why he was the one to come instead of someone passing a flashlight and immediately pulled his glowing hands under the cover of the blanket.
"Her cervical opening is wide enough, why isn’t the baby… I think I see—fuck, stop shaking!"
The nurse cried out "I’m sorry!" at the harsh comment but the old man soon rectified himself in a gruff voice, "I wasn’t talking to you!"
He leaned back from the table, a grim expression on his face before he turned to the young-looking doctors standing right outside the room.
"Have any of you helped out in operation yet?!"
Glancing at each other, their eyes reflected the uncertainty that they soon voiced shakily with, "We’re just third years..."
"Now's a good time to start! Two of you, get in!"
He yelled with such an authoritarian tone that two women, a short-haired one and the other wearing a ponytail, went forward and into the room by reflex.
As he sternly addressed the two, the old doctor raised his hand, his shaking digits visible to those nearby. "I cannot help out with this condition. I will guide you, I will tell you two things to do and you have to do them exactly as I tell you to, understand?"
They nodded so quickly that their necks might have gotten whiplash, but they still managed to respond "Yes, Doc!" with military-grade cadence and intonation.
"Good. You, get a pair of gloves and keep stable eyes on the baby’s condition, try slowly coaxing the leg to come out. You-"
He instructed the ponytail girl to hold the actual flashlight this time, with the other trying to coax the baby out with her hand.
Rina ran back out to fetch the IV bags and other various things from Felicia's hands. Who knows how Felicia figured out how a catheter looked, but seeing that familiar instrument being made on the spot somehow made Tira want to pass the wet wipes at her too, knowing what was going to come next.
Her observation duty continued after checking in occasionally at the emergency tent. Most of the people had eaten until they were full. The bulk of them had moved over to the park next door where Lydia and Henry held the recruitment call for volunteers.
She wasn't aware of how they had decided to handle the food rations, but now she could see that someone had at least given it some thought with the recruitment agenda.
Unfortunately, the park was too far for her to peer at, so even though she was starting to zone out occasionally, Tira couldn't even try to distract herself from the yelling and shouting being voiced across the street to figure out what was going on.
Thirty minutes passed with no sign of a baby. The mother was still fighting for her own and her child's lives all while she had somehow been holding the male nurse's hand. Her husband sat nearby with his own swollen, bruised hands.
Dias had not spoken a single word during the entire time, though his face seemed to have gone paler, and only when she observed closer did she figure out the reason why.
"You need to breathe."
Dias took in a deep breath upon the reminder and immediately exhaled loudly. "Isn’t this nerve-wracking to you?! It’s been so long!"
"It is. But that’s how labor usually goes. She’s not going to die, not under the care of so many people now."
Tira commented casually, watching as the nurse was now encouraging the woman to push, putting her through breathing exercises every few seconds. "All babies will pop out at whatever time they want to, just wait for it."
"Are you saying the babies are just not feeling it right now?"
She couldn't give him a direct yes or no, and instead, turned her gaze away. Her hunch told her as she watched the pregnant woman desperately trying to push to no avail, huffing in intervals and crying aloud, that the woman would be alright.
Another tense minute passed, another round of normal scanning the grounds. Before finally, the short-haired med student finally withdrew once more, whispering to the doctor. "I see a leg coming through…"
"Try grabbing it. Gently, coax it out."
"I’m. Trying…!" The short-haired girl had definitely reached out into the hole, given how clear the squelching and other wet sounds signaled her attempt to grab onto something. "It’s stuck! I feel something is holding it back?"
"Fuck." The old doctor cussed, his temple drenched in sweat, then addressed the girl again as he also peered back in. "Is it getting tangled in the cord? The cervix opening has progressed faster than what I normally remember, we–"
"Wait, no, I think I got it!"
The doctor and his two assistants had their shoulders tense, waiting. Those who were standing around held their breath in their lungs and the soon to be father looked as if he could pass out at any time. Even the black-uniformed boys had their aura tainted with worry, as some frowns were coming through their supposed impassive faces.
Tira returned her focus to the ground, confident that Dias would have told her something if the delivery had gone awry, when her eyes clashed with another that had glanced up at the same time, their gazes meeting almost as if it were a well-timed coincidence.
Purnama was the first to break away from their standoff and walked off from the parking lot gate with his group, smiling as they chatted and went in the opposite direction of the park.
"I… it’s stuck."
A groan of disappointment reverberated in the tent. The father slumped back on his chair, looking like he was about to cry from despair.
After manually monitoring the patient for so long, the nurse finally spoke up, his fingers shaking as hard as his voice trembled, "Sir, her pulse is weakening and her temperature is dropping."
Rina did not wait for the doctor's order over what to do as she shouted for an unexpected name with an ear-piercing volume.
"GINAN, COME OVER!"
The chubby boy perked up his head as soon as he heard his name called and was pushed by Sariya in the direction of the emergency tent as he ran as fast as he could.
Upon his arrival, he was pulled into the room and told to keep the woman at an even temperature. He took her other limp hand and channeled his power, slowly and carefully letting his control over temperature flood into the mother's system, turning her complexion rosy by the second and soon flushed by the minute.
Tira knew that she couldn't be the only one who thought of the possibility, but to think of it on top of her head in such a stressful moment was a hard thing to do. It was truly a well-played move from her senior.
The mother had blacked out momentarily, perhaps when her eyes rolled back because now her eyelids trembled as they blinked open.
Then, as if she had realized the pain of labor was not over, the woman screamed with all the air in her lungs to the point where it now sounded alike to a slasher movie's sound effects.
The old doctor had dipped out of the shade of the tent with a frown so deep that his entire face would be dragged down by gravity.
He threw away his blood-soaked gloves and put clean new ones as he uttered the dreadful words to any mother in labor.
"We are going to attempt a C-Section."
Then, after he took a deep breath, the old doctor addressed the youngest girl in his proximity with a gentle, yet stern question that Tira couldn't have expected.
"Rina, can you lead the operation?"
"Yes." Her hands glowed momentarily, along with a gentle sway of her ponytail. For one second, it felt as if something had tried to take her breath away. That one second was all the preparation she needed for a pair of gloves to appear on her hands.
"Razor."
The roles of the doctor and the assistant had reversed as soon as Rina voiced her order; the unlikely duo moving in tandem as she trimmed the edges of the woman’s pubic hair and marked the lining of her right side of the stomach with her fingers alone.
Once that part of skin had been sterilized, she did not hesitate to bring the knife in line to the bloated area and made an incision.
The mother didn't scream from pain. Nor was there a volley of blood streaming down the sides of her stomach.
It was as if time stopped and gave no chance for anything else to move aside from the surgeon's blade.
"Number 10. Forceps. Give me another–" Rina uttered order after order, no beat wasted as the skin was skillfully flayed with minimal bleeding, then muscles, following the dance of her blade as her precision had moved too quickly for the naked eye to catch.
Soon, the womb appeared in sight.
Sinking another scalpel into it at a perfect depth, she sliced open the vessel that had contained life, which was stalled from coming into contact with the air like a zipper. Her hands moved deftly as she maneuvered a figure out into her arms, handing it over to the bedazzled nurse, who immediately caught the baby as it opened its mouth.
Never before had a wail of panic brought so much joy to those around hearing it.
The father had cried openly as he stood up, swaying on his feet, and was propped back down onto his chair by those who cared enough to share the joy with him.
But it was not over, as another ear-piercing shriek soon joined the first. The father's sobbing turned louder when he saw the source of the wailing harmonic.
"Twins huh." Tira watched as the second baby was taken out and untangled from the deathtrap of its own making. The clamp was already pinching between two points for the scissors to cut in the middle, separating them from the placenta that appeared to have been pulled from the side with a bit of force. "No wonder she was having such a hard time."
Rina continued her treatment with cleaning and suturing, quickly stitching the wound from the inside out as her gloves seemingly rejected all blood that tried to cling onto her palms. One by one, all sorts of tools she had used were being pulled out as if it were a magic trick.
And, just like a magician performing a spell, the muscle tissue returned to the proper places where it once had been in tandem with her rhythm of stitching and positioning.
"Operation completed. Time of-"
Only after that flayed skin was finally closed with hair-thin sutures did Dias finally breathe a sigh of relief. "That was intense."
She nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. A cacophony of joyful celebration came from one end and prayers of grief from the other end had blended together in her ear. It was loud enough that she decided to return her enhanced hearing back to normal.
Many had returned to the east parking lot, where they found their families in the long, destitute rows of the memorial shelves, though many more would remain lost and unnamed. Even without powering up her ears, she could hear their wails—of grief this time—echoing all the way up to them, disclosing the signal of their misery and pain.
Raphael had recalled the sterile room and moved away to attend to other matters. Rina's hunched form had plopped onto an available chair, talking with the doctor who sat on her side, her smile was tired but also glimmered with something else.
He had placed his hands on her shoulder, pride glowing on his face as he gave her all the clues she needed to piece together the full picture. At least, before the rest of her Red Cross juniors crowded over her in a more apparent show of pride and awe, pulling a silent smile out of her.
The day was still stretching long ahead of them. She could only wish for it to not be as hot as it had been yesterday
----------------------------------------
Perhaps because of the word of mouth about their altruistic action from yesterday night or perhaps due to being fed and helped, people didn't take the idea of working too harshly. Especially under the premise of food and shelter. Specialists of all manner of professions began came to light to gain a spot for themselves or their loved ones, fighting in any way they could.
There weren't many willing to wield a weapon but that hadn't meant there weren't any at all. Only a few were accepted, and those who had made it through the screening were even fewer and farther between.
"Quality over quantity, my dear."
Dias had said as he watched Armand and Henry continue their recruitment spiel to eager-faced young men and women, the blond demonstrating his power as he was the showier of the two. Lydia stood on their side, alongside a girl who was talking to Rizal as she had previously explained the situation to the volunteer woman who had signed up.
"We may be the slowest yet to branch out to another touchstone, but I don't wish to mindlessly send out a search party until we are sure we can defend this domain from the most basic threats." He reasoned.
"I understand." Tira sighed, mostly to herself.
She didn't know why Purnama's gaze had unnerved her so much, even after she had recounted the event to Dias and Armand. She didn't have any other reason for telling the blond other than that he had passed by when she was about to tell Dias of her suspicion and that the demi-god had roped him in. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm doing well so far. Very slowly getting acclimated to the atmosphere around here, and speaking of a pleasant atmosphere," Lydia had moved from where she stood, sauntering over with obvious happiness in her steps. "-what a pleasure to meet you again, Miss Lydia."
"The pleasure is all mine, sir."
She smiled as bright as a hundred thousand watt lamp, displaying symmetrical pearly white teeth. The denture looked impressively expensive. "I think you’re distracting not just me but the lads and ladies; they can’t stop looking over here."
"Ah, I apologize for unintentionally crashing."
Dias had put on his sad-sorry expression pack on. She instinctively knew that he didn't mean it, because of instinct and because the sight of his downturned brow was engineered just enough to make it hard for people to stay angry at him.
"We’ll move to another place–"
Lydia immediately stopped him from leaving. "What? No, don’t move! You’re doing well as our poster boy." Which was true to an extent.
Dias’s prettiness was simply too unreal to not warrant a double or triple-check from the passerby, and this was with his normie disguise on.
"Keep hanging around, maybe we’ll get more offers to join than we expect~" Lydia teased impishly.
Dias chuckled and nodded in agreement. Tira noticed his cheeks flushing a little at the compliment? "You flatter me, miss. But I’m more than happy to be of help."
No. That smile slipped away from his eyes a little too soon. He could blush on command, too? That was practically a cheat.
Lydia stood on the other side of the demigod then, greeting Tira as if she were an afterthought. "Have you eaten yet, doll? Aren’t you hungry? It's almost lunchtime soon."
"I’ll manage."
A short answer was apparently the wrong answer, as a look of displeasure passed over Lydia’s eyes. She rummaged through the pocket of her jean overalls and pulled out a nougat candy then unwrapped it. "Open your mouth."
Not knowing the right thing to do, Tira obediently opened her mouth. The candy had almost reached her lips when a gloved hand plucked it out of the air and tossed it into his own mouth.
He chewed rather expressively, acting like it was the tastiest thing he had eaten so far, then winked in their general direction with a smile. "Hm, this is tasty!"
Lydia had been taken aback by either the blatant blocking or the wink, though she recovered soon enough to react, "My my, sir, don’t tease the child."
She dug for more candies and handed them over to Tira, still wrapped neatly as new ones would look like. "Hope these are enough to tide you over for now, toodles!" Then she walked over to where she had been before to continue her talk with the women candidates that were still stealing glances at Dias when they thought no one was watching.
Seeing that he was not snatching the candies in her open palm, Tira pocketed the rest but one before reading the brand and ingredients label before unwrapping it herself this time. "I think I’m overdue for that poison testing lesson. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this."
Dias’ face twisted into a confused smile as she popped the candy into her mouth and began to chew. It was caramel and chewy, really tasty. No wonder the demigod liked it enough to swallow it until the end.