92 l might be cute, but I'm not anidiot!
“There you go,” Daria said while reaching her bloodied hand out.
“Thanks,” Mathew said when the girl dropped the blood-covered cores on his open palm. “And with that said,” Mathew added, only to turn around and head right back towards the merchant.
‘Let’s get this over with,’ he thought as he reached for the blob of darkness.
A moment of shadowy theatrics later, Mathew appeared right back in the merchant’s realm.
“I wish to buy basic supplies,” he said before throwing the five cores in his hand.
The process of purchasing the items from the merchant didn’t change at all. The cores first exploded with brightness, only for the light to then disappear, leaving behind a box of food, water, and basic medicine.
‘With that, there shouldn’t be any further problems,’ Mathew thought when he grabbed the box.
“I’m leaving; see you soon!” he said out loud, not directing his words at anyone or anything specific. pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ
It wasn’t a mark of Mathew’s rudeness. There simply wasn’t anyone in that space for him to direct his words at.
And just like that, the shadows that made up the subspace all pulled towards Mathew’s hand, only to condense into the same blob of darkness he grasped.
“How did it go?” Nadia asked only to move her eyes towards the box in Mathew’s hand. “I see it went well,” she added, answering her own question.
“Yeah. As for those…” Mathew muttered, only to raise his hand and look at the box himself. “Daniel!”
“Yeah?” the policeman answered right away. Yet it took him an actual moment to leave the room he was in and appear in the main area of the floor. “What’s going on?” he then asked.
“Distribute those to everyone,” Mathew ordered while shaking the box in his hand before placing it on the ground. “Oh right, while I’m away, don’t let anyone use the merchant,” the young man added before turning around on his spot and leaving for the hole in the wall.
“Are we going now?” Nadia asked despite already following after Mathew’s back. pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴoᴠᴇʟ
“Yeah,” the young man nodded his head. “I don’t know if it will be enough or if we will have to visit the last merchant as well,” he revealed, only to then shrug his shoulders. “Oh, but that reminds me,” Mathew added, only to turn his head to the back.
“Before I forget, if you hear me clapping three times in the shaft, that means I need both of you to come with me,” Mathew said when he locked his eyes on Daria’s silhouette.
“Some fight coming up?” Daria asked while raising one of her eyebrows.
“A fight?!” Leila shouted, bursting out of one of the rooms. “When? Where?” she asked with her eyes brimming with excitement.
‘Foolish girl,’ Mathew thought, his expression darkening a little. ‘What’s there in the fight for you to get so excited over?’ he asked himself, only to then shake his head.
“It’s possible. But before that, I have one question,” Mathew suddenly announced despite having no plans to keep the talk. He even turned around on his heel, dropping the idea of going back to the bottom floor right away. “Do you guys know the name of Carol’s boyfriend?”
It was a simple question. And given how popular Leila and Daria used to be in the pre-apocalypse world, there was a small chance they had heard about the guy before. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
“That guy?” Daria asked, her eyes opening wide in surprise. “I don’t really know him, so I…”
“I know!” Leila shouted, raising her hand like a child eager to be called out to the blackboard. “He tried to court me in the past, and I just happened to remember his name,” she added as a wide smile decorated her lips. “His name is…”
Leila’s words stopped right as she was about to reveal the name. Her face then tensed up only to take on a look of confusion.
“Huh?” the girl shrugged and lowered her eyes to the floor. “That’s weird,” she added, only to then raise her eyes on Mathew’s face. “I can’t recall his name at all!”
‘So I was right,’ Mathew thought, his expression darkening once again.
“What does that mean?” Leila asked, raising her confusion-filled eyes at her husband’s face. “Why can I remember his name at all?”
Her voice changed as tones of panic started to settle in. Her shoulders started to shake. She then brought her hands up only to cover the sides of her head, clearly trying to fight off a sudden headache that struck her.
“Forget it,” Mathew ordered in a cold tone. Yet, seeing how his words bore no fruit, he dashed forward.
Mathew was tired, but not to the point of being unable to move. He reached Leila’s side in a single leap…
Only to send a juicy slap right at her cheek.
“Auch!” Leila cried out in protest, moving her hands from her temple to her burning cheek. “What was that for?!” she screamed out, more surprised than she was angry.
“Don’t try to recall his name,” Mathew ordered as he grabbed Leila’s face between his hands and forced the girl to look him directly in the eyes. “I have no proof, but I believe his system might be somehow related to that,” Mathew explained.
‘And that means we will likely have to check the other merchant out,’ Mathew thought, gritting his teeth over the annoyance that just surfaced.
‘Whatever his system enables him to do, it shouldn’t be better than what I received up to this point,’ Mathew thought, only to bring his hands down from Leila’s face and stand up.
“Do we have a problem?” Nadia asked, already standing by Mathew’s side.
‘I didn’t even notice when she moved…’ Mathew thought, stopping himself from rolling his eyes. ‘I knew she could move both silently and quickly, but this right now?’
Mathew shook his head again, only to force a smile on his lips.
“Nadia…” Mathew muttered while refusing to look at the girl.
“Okay,” the girl accepted the request that Mathew didn’t even voice. And when the young man turned his head around to look at the girl’s face, Nadia simply shook her shoulders and smiled. “What? You dropped all those hints, and now you are surprised I saw through them?”
Nadia’s face changed to house a look of disbelief… that the girl then quickly chased away only to giggle.
“I might be the cutest girl around, but don’t think that makes me an idiot!”