Standing in front of him was the same pale skinned beauty he had previously seen, but now dressed up, she wore a white shirt which was covered by a pristine white overcoat and a pair of beige pants, her bangs covered her distant and cold eyes as she carried an umbrella in the snowy winter which caused her cheeks to redden as she blew her breath into her hands.
A few minutes ago, Ardus had shockingly discovered that most of the food present in the house was rotten, the food that was left over was just a few staples of rice and some vegetables. It wouldn't feed the both of them, so he quickly made a spontaneous decision and decided to head to the famous restaurant at 23rd Fordham Street, just a few blocks from their apartment.
As they made their way to the prominent restaurant, Ardus had made some inquiries regarding her. Without probing too much, he didn't want her to remember her trauma this fast. Ardus had discovered her general backstory, her name Maia Maeril, a commoner from a village near the Antares mountain range.
Even though she was a citizen of the Empire, the military still enslaved them, her hometown had been reduced to ashes by the nobles due to an evil festival. He didn't delve into the specifics of it, but Ardus could mostly figure everything out.
It was similar to how the nobles of Loen went out on hunting trips often, the nobles too had their own hunting trips, but it wasn't targeted at animals but poor citizens of the Nation.
Ardus did pity her, but in the end he could do nothing to change what happened. All he could do was to make her future a bit less cold.
Gazing at her blackish-lavender hair, Ardus fell in love with it. It was too beautiful, he gave a slight smile as he joined his arm to her, causing her to slightly yelp. He faced her and gave a reassuring smile before he turned to the host.
"Table for two please, make it near the window."
The host checked his notes before he apologetically turned towards him, "There's a bit of rush due to it being Christmas and also the perfect weather outside, making many people decide to come out and enjoy, as such there aren't any tables, you have to wait in the queue"
Even though it was snowing outside, it was actually perfect weather for Feysians. They normally had to endure harsh rain and heavy hail which could deeply scar a person's body if it struck them directly.
[A/N - What do you call people from Feysac? I don't think they mentioned this in the novel. An example is, people from Loen are called Loenese. So I just went with Feysians, if you know what it's called, do tell.]
So the slight snow outside didn't affect the Feysians much, they actually considered it beautiful and perfect weather to venture out and have some fun.
Ardus slightly frowned as he decided to wait in the queue, but just as he was about to turn, he heard a slight sound from Maia's stomach.
He gave a thoughtful look before he decided to reject, "Sorry we can't wait that long"
The host seemed to have sensed his answer as he nodded.
Ardus quickly exited the restaurant as he turned towards Maia and gave a wry smile, "It seems because of the weather, a lot of places have been filled."
Maia quietly purred at his statement, out of the corner of his eye, Ardus spotted a small stall selling baked sweet potatoes.
"Well I guess we have no option other than that stall, I know it's not much but do you want to go there." Ardus held her hand as he turned towards her with a smile, cold air exited his mouth as the handsome devil hoped to get a chuckle out of her.
But Maia just nodded coldly, yet Ardus wasn't deterred, he knew that what she was displaying was just an image to shield her from harm. The reason that humans have survived from the dawn of time, and became the apex predators wasn't because their strength, their ability to think or their brilliant mind.
It was because of their perseverance and their ability to adapt to their circumstances, no matter the disaster they faced, the human body learned to shield themselves from it. When the animal's strength far exceeded them, humans developed their ability to think and speak, so that they could band together and form an alliance to hunt.
When their coordination wasn't perfect due to their lack of communication which resulted in a lot of them being killed, they developed the Bridge of Thought–languages, when they lacked strength to defeat them, they developed the Cold Iron of Death–weapons. This was the power of humans that made them lord over all creatures.
Ardus and Maia quickly seated themselves in the unremarkable stall, "Could we get 4 pieces of baked potato"
The vendor nodded his head, as he started his work. Ardus turned to Maia and rested his head in his palms as he offered a cheeky smile, "So let's talk about our future endeavours together.
"I personally dislike slavery, it's a primitive power structure based on fear and control. It's inefficient and honestly quite outdated, it's frankly beneath any civilization that calls itself advanced."
"My first reason for entering the Human Auctioning House was to tear it down. I wanted to destroy that repugnant place, but the moment I entered that place I realised how in over my head I was. With that in mind, I realised that the only thing I could do was buy a slave and basically free it."
That wasn't actually Ardus's plan but he couldn't exactly say that he entered the Human Auctioning House to buy a sex slave, and assault them now could he? So he chose to lie, it was better to lie, it would protect Maia and also start making her trust people again.
If she realised his intention, it would probably further her hatred towards humanity and deepen her coldness, a scenario he wanted to avoid. Ardus quickly continued,
"But then I realised how naive I was, you probably have no skills and utility, no purpose to live too. If I just set you free, I would just seal your fate and doom you to death. So my plan is to teach you everything I know, about cooking, cleaning and laundry. So you could hopefully get a job, but in this economy that's a shot in the dark."
"After that you could either leave and pursue a new life as a housekeeper or come with me and destroy the Auctioning House and continue accompanying me with my adventures, if you do choose to stay with me I'll introduce you to the mysterious world hidden beyond this rotten society. You'll truly be able to control your own destiny, come or don't I don't care."
This truly was his goal, Ardus deeply hated slavery. He didn't just condemn it, but outright hate it. Even though he tried to ignore the Auctioning House, it still came back into his mind.
He realised he wouldn't be able to rest in peace unless he destroyed that vile place. His dinner soon arrived, with a famished look on his face Ardus stuffed the potatoes in his mouth.
"Simply delicious." He muttered
With that said, he turned towards Maia and gestured to her to start eating, "Don't hold back, order however much you want."
Maia nodded with a bit of warmth as she crunched down on the baked potato, "Anyways I know the options I gave you are tough, so you have one month to decide what to do. I think by that time, I'll be able to finish teaching you everything that's required."
They quickly finished eating their dinner, with him ordering two more rounds of the potatoes. Maia seemed a bit hesitant to take them but after encouraging her a little, she boldend up and started eating them bit by bit.
In the end, the bill came up to 25 kopeks or 1 pence even though they ordered almost 14 pieces of baked potatoes. The bill remained low, this was because the cost of living in Feysac was quite low compared to Loen, so while the conversation rate was high the citizens lived peaceful lives.
This was similar to some countries in the real world, the country Ardus was originally from had to pay a lot of money while converting their money to the currency of the United States of America.
But this didn't mean his own country had a huge cost of living, it was rather quite low, he remembered that a mattress in his own country cost 20000 of his currency, almost 250 dollars. While a mattress in America cost close to 500.
Even though the conversation was high, it didn't mean the cost of living was high.
"...."
Ardus soon reached his apartment, with a twist of his key he opened the door and entered inside. He took both Maia's and his coats and hung them on the hanger, and turned towards her, "You can sleep on the bed, I'll take the couch."
Maia stood there for a bit before she slowly murmured, "I'll take the sofa."
Ardus was stunned for a bit before his face twisted into a happy smile, "That's good, you're finally talking!"
"Instead of one of us sleeping on the sofa, let's both sleep in the bed together."
Maia's face turned red as she nodded.
_____
A/N - So how was the chapter, I'm really not good at romance so do advice me and give me some tip, I really wanna learn. I'm also going to start a new novels.
The novel I'm starting is called-
Lord of The Mysteries: Nika Pathway
These are just fics I thought for fun, I might update once in a while or daily, who knows all depends on how popular they are.