Luci was watching everything around him. The main street was crowded and loud.
"Those people, none of them are awakened."
"Hmm… I guess Awakeners are just a small portion of the population."
"Isn't it weird that you don't know anything about hunters and stuff?"
"I just didn't want to learn."
"So the reason is…"
David stopped for a moment. Luci walked past him. When he realized David was no longer walking, he stopped and turned his back. David was watching the traffic.
I should apologize. Luci thought. He opened his mouth to talk but David acted first.
"Let's not talk about the reason. Since I'm also an awakener, we can learn important stuff by time."
David started walking and Luci followed him. After walking a little while David stopped again.
"Why are you…? I told you to walk beside me."
Luci was watching him.
"I just… I couldn't be sure whether you were angry or not. Understanding emotions just by looking at the human face is hard."
"I'm not mad. Let's just say that the reason was the time. I didn't have time to learn that stuff."
"But you had the time for re-reading the same web novel 3 times."
David's annoyed face changed and he smiled.
"It's just peak. You know better than everyone. Dokja is my idol."
Luci knuckled a little and started walking by his side. Duo walked for a little while. They stopped in front of an old building. The brand logo was barely visible from afar. After they came close to the door David asked:
"Luci, can you stay here? The old man knows me, if he sees you he could get confused."
"Okay."
"You can look around if you want, just don't run to the street."
"I'm not a child."
After staring Luci for a bit, David entered the building. Luci watched the world around him for a while. There were more people around than the other street.
Hmm… This skill uses so much mana. I need to level up. With the way I am, I'm only a dead weight to him. He thought.
His eye caught David who was happily chatting with the old man on the cash desk.
He's calmer than I thought. I have memories of his family. He can get unstable since cracks are the reason... At least I can help by keeping him in check. That S-class, Carter. He might help if I share that information with him. But David probably wouldn't be happy about it. I have the free will to do it, I guess. I just want to know what my limit is.
His eyes caught a little girl who's walking by herself.
I can kill her, right? He didn't order me to not hurt people. It should be easy, just one blow…
Luci walked close to the little girl. Red fire-like energy started surrounding his fist. His eyes were glowing red. He came closer and closer…
The little girl heard footsteps behind her. Turn her back and look at the young man approaching.
"Are you lost?" Luci's gloving eyes faded away.
The girl's little eyes filled with tears and hugged Luci's leg.
"Killing her huh… I don't think I can do it." Luci mumbled.
After waiting for her to calm down, Luci lifted the girl and held her in his arms.
"You are short. If you look from higher up, we can find your mother faster."
"I'm not!! I'm gonna get taller when I grow up." She was mad but at least she wasn't crying anymore.
"What does your mom look like?"
"She's wearing a pretty blue dress. There are flowers on it. She's pretty too."
"Yeah, that's probably helpful." He walked around with a little girl in his arms.
Who am I kidding, how am I supposed to find that human in this crowd? I shouldn't have approached her. Luci thought. His expression changed like he remembered something. Hmm… Maybe that could help.
Luci's sight changed. People, who were wearing blue, started to glow.
"Oh… This is useful."
"Hey… Big brother, we will find her right?"
"Yeah."
Luci walked around the street for a little while.
"Hey, start a route to them."
Luci started to move as soon as the dotted line appeared. He couldn't run fast because the crowd was preventing him. He slipped between the people. After he passed the crowd he started running, until he stopped at the street corner. A woman with a blue, daisy pattern dress was breathing super-fast.
"Mom! She's my mom!"
The woman heard the voice of the little girl and lifted her head. She was in sweats and her eyes were red.
"My baby!!" Luci put the girl to the ground. She ran to the woman and hugged her. Both of them hugged each other.
"What a mess. I got too far away. I need to return." Luci turned his back and started walking.
"Oh, young man!" It was the little girl's mom.
Luci turned his back.
"Thank you!"
"Thanks!" It was the little girl. She was waving her hand to Luci.
Luci smiled and waved back. Started walking. After returning to the main street he saw a familiar silhouette.
"Here you are. I thought that you got lost so I came to look for you." It was David. He was holding two packs in his two hands.
"Summoner's Mark only shows your location. I still needed to use Engineer's Sight. I think that skill has lots of blind spots. I guess we will see its true effects by time."
"That skill is pretty useful tho. The Engineer's Sight. Since both of your skills are unique skills, maybe there is a reason behind that you have both."
"I'm too hungry to think about it now." David gave one of the bags to Luci.
"Follow me; I know a good place to sit." David started walking but Luci kept standing still.
"Aren't you gonna ask where I was?"
"I know that you helped the little girl."
He was getting away; Luci started running and passed him. "Then you know that I…"
He stopped in front of David and caused him to stop walking too.
"They called intrusive thoughts. Every person has them one or another. Like, jumping out of the window, hurting someone, or dyeing hair to unique colors… As long as you don't make them reality, having that kinda thought is not a problem."
"But… That could happen again and I might not be able to stop myself."
"I would stop you then." David was smiling. He wasn't serious at all.
"Don't joke about this, someone can get hurt."
David got closer to Luci and put his arm on Luci's shoulder.
"I would do everything necessary to stop you then." This time, however, his voice was cold. It was a threat.
Luci felt a deep fear. The same fear that he felt the first time he saw David in the crack. David in his memories was an easygoing and cheerful person. This side of him was new. To be exact, it was the outcome of him becoming an S-class.
"Come on, follow me."
Luci and David arrived at a small park after their walk. Park looks like no one has taken care of it for a long time. Tree branches were on the ground and the grass was too long. Flowers near the pond were withered and the water was green.
Despite this, Luci felt peaceful. His peace was cut short by unfamiliar voices. He turned his head fast as a defense.
"They are the voices of birds."
"Birds."
Luci stared at them for a little while.
Meanwhile, David let out a small laugh. After looking around he took out some napkins from the bag he was holding and laid them on a bank. He sat after that and watched the falling leaves.
"We used to come here and play… Nowadays it looks like ruins that are left from past people. But still, it has the best scenery in the neighborhood."
"Why don't they take care of this place?"
David pointed to the pond. "A crack break happened. Right there, inside the water. I've heard that creatures coming out looked like zombies. Long story short people think this park is cursed. So no one comes and sits here."
He took out the burgers from the bag. "Come here and pick one."
Luci sat beside David and looked at the burgers.
"Why this much?"
"I feel like I can eat worlds right now. I haven't been able to eat since yesterday's breakfast. It's kinda amazing that I haven't passed out."
"It's probably because of your mana. Mana is usually used for skills, but it's actually the source of life. If your body has nothing to use as a living source, it uses mana instead."
"That explains why my mana does not fill up after all the time has passed." He took a large bite and swallowed it without chewing. "I thought it would fill up slowly but it didn't." He threw the packaging in his hand and started eating a new one.
Luci looked at the burger in his hand.
"It's weird. I know how it's gonna taste like. Even though I have never eaten one before."
"Just don't think much." He was already at the third one.
Luci started eating. "It's good."
"Yeah, I know right?"
Two sit and eat the rest without exchanging any words. Sun was settling at the horizon. David was collecting the papers on the ground while Luci watched the sun's disappearance.
"Let's go back." Luci said.
"Yeah. It was a crazy day."
"I guess we have somewhere to go tomorrow."
David stared at Luci for a while. And he remembered.
"Ah… I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT SCARY MAN! I don't wanna go!!"
…