".. Never touch my food machine ever again."
"Slice!"
The spear split the thug in half and sprayed blood out of the corpse, leaving two bodies in front of the mentally ill patient.
"Hoooo..", Archehon breathed out and dropped a torch on the bodies while kicking over the cans of gasoline in the alley the two thugs arrived in.
"Crackle..", the blaze burned.
"Ha, that's some relief released..", he returned to his 'outer' appearance.
"Hey. Honey Badger 1, come here.", he ordered a shadow behind the entrance of the alley.
"Woof!"
A bald thug acting like a dog while barking crawled in front of Archehon. It was the gang leader who threatened Vulcan but was turned into a demented human, losing most ounces of his humanity.
"Drag these bodies to the junkyard, now."
"Woof!"
The bald man who lost all his senses, followed his orders, despite being a decently intelligent person before meeting Archehon.
Who turned his life around for the worse.
"I should go visit Leonardo soon but before that, I think it's.."
"Time to enjoy my food machine delicacies~", he again displayed his completely normal self.
* * *
"Click.", the same front door was opened by Archehon, prepared for the divine feast that would behold.
As soon as he opened the door, steam flew into his face. Not just any steam, but the steam of the food he craved to munch on. He followed the aromatic scent with his only trunk, flying, numbing every other part of the human body.
"Sniff, sniff."
The mindless daze of his was interrupted when he felt the strong smell of garlic tingle his nostrils. The eyelids opened to see the gorgeous meals which hypnotized him to forget everything else, besides the tasty-looking fries, burgers and various other exquisite foods.
"Archehon, you've made it in time. All of this is for you."
"Thanks Ariel. Time to dig in~", his mouth drooled while clenching the big burger on each side.
He dug through the meal like a dog, stacking towers of plates in the process.
"Yummy..", he held his giant stomach filled with giant foods and smiled in satisfaction.
"I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"Yeah, I'll go now- Ah, wait. I have a present for you. I'll show you it tomorrow morning.", he suddenly jogged his memory.
"Hm? Okay. You didn't have to but I'll accept it.", she remained humble.
The next day arrived and both the brother and sister were dressed- better than ever- ready to leave the slums.
"Archehon, why are we packing all of our clothes? And where is the rest of our stuff", Ariel looked at him with a jumbled head.
"You'll see when we get there.", Archehon smiled at her, ignoring her confusion.
Their bags shook while they hiked up to the top of a hill where a car awaited them. Though, it would be an overestimate to say 'both' of them were carrying the bags when Archehon wore most of the bags, leaving only one to Ariel.
"Please leave the bags on the ground and sit down sir and ma'am", a man wearing a black suit and tie opened the cars door.
"Eh?", Ariel was startled.
"Thanks. Ariel, you can go in first.", Archehon wasn't amazed in the slightest.
The siblings sat in the luxurious car with the posh driver, seats and steering wheel while Ariel sweated looking around, thinking she was in the wrong place.
"U-uh, Archehon."
"Yeah?"
"Isn't this quite expensive?", she nervously laughed.
"It cost me thirty bronze coins, for driving us from the slums to another place which is only fifteen kilometers away, so yes. It is.", he calculated.
"W-what? How can you afford this by working in a restaurant??"
"Uhh.. I'll tell you later."
"Haaa... Alright. I'll wait till then."
The smooth driving Ariel never felt before continued until they reached the area. The area was a housing estate. Built with lush green trees and bushes, clean roads and most importantly, decently sized homes.
"We've arrived sir and ma'am."
"Wh-what are we doing here?", Ariel looked at the estate like an alien who had wandered its way into another planet.
"Don't worry about that. Just follow me.", Archehon told his sister as he walked inside the estate.
Ariel observed the middle-class houses, parks and families enjoying themselves. Dumbfounded. That was the main feeling she felt at the moment.
Why am i in such a rich area?
It didn't make sense to her why an area that was looked after this well would be where she was right now. The hard working girl was used to working in harsh environments, in which she barely got paid. It would be better to pray that had she won the lottery, rather than, her being able to save up for a large sum of money for these expensive houses. Moreover, the rent would be close-to-impossible for her to pay, even if she bought the house.
"We're here."
In front of them, there stood a two story house with a small garden in front.
"Here's our new home.", he presented the place.
"W-what? Tell me that you're joking."
"Nope. This is definitely our new house.", he grinned.
"H-how did you manage to afford it?!? Aren't you working at a restaurant?", Ariel stuttered in astonishment.
"I, uh.. I've been working as a mercenary this whole time.", he hesitated to break the news.
"Mercenary?!? I know you're going to the academy but I thought that you were going to gain experience, then go after two or three years. Not this year!"
"Well, yeah."
"Uhh.. d-do you have to go to the academy?", she grabbed her skirt and looked away, pretending not to be concerned.
"Yeah.. and, are you worried I'll not be safe?"
"Of course I am! There's no such thing as sunshine and rainbows in this world.", she tried to make the emotional memory vanish.
What she said did have truth in it. Especially, when she had experienced it first hand, before anyone else her age. Compared to herself, her brother was no different. He also had lost both of his parents at a very young age.
'Ariel did suffer a lot according to the original body owner's memories.', he thought.
'Her uncle was an alcoholic and she used to be hit a lot, then..'
'.. That's when this body's family came to save her. Her uncle, luckily, also agreed after a lot of persistence. But that didn't work in the way they wanted it to. After all, the date they were going to go pick her up and look after her, was the date when the seconds killed this body's parents and uncle.'
"Archehon! Answer me.", Ariel interrupted his dark thoughts.
"Yeah."
"I don't mind you wanting to be a hero. It's just that I thought you would want more rest as it hasn't even been more than three months since you recovered from your illness."
"Not just that. You've been hiding everything from me. I get that this is a surprise and all but I can't help it. I keep worrying you might do something dangerous and I'm grateful for all of this, I really am."
Ariel's arms, legs and hands all shook, trembled, while she tried to lift off the heavy burden on her chest. Trying to use words as a substitute.
"Th.. there's just one thing I want. And it's for you to not hide anything from me ever again. I'm sorry if this gets in the way of any more surprises but I really don't mind if you are straightforward with me."
"Can you do that?", Ariel finished talking.
"..."
"Yes. I can.", Archehon smiled after a few seconds of silence.
"That's good.", she returned the smile.
"How about I show you around the house."
"Okay."
"Click.", the door opened after he put the keys through.
The door fully opened and the house was massive in comparison to their old house in the slums. The hallway was wide; on its left was the entrance to a living room, on its right was an entry to the kitchen, and in front there were stairs with a restroom door next to it.
"Wow!", Ariel shouted, bewildered by the looks of the new house.
'Of course, what I said a few seconds ago was a lie. I will keep hiding everything from everyone. No matter who they are.', he thought out his true intentions.
"Let's go see the rest of the house."
"Mhm...", she happily agreed.
The blue-painted hallways they walked in, led them to view the living room primarily.
"Nothing too special here. Just a few couches and a television to see the news-"
"Are you kidding me? A television! I never got to use these things since I was four.", she excitedly jumped as if she was receiving a birthday present.
"You can watch it all you want when we view the rest of the house."
"Okay!", Ariel dashed to the spot next to him.
The two walked to, Archehon's most favourite part of the house, the kitchen.
"Over here is the kitchen. You have plenty of space unlike our previous house! And there are four stoves. Four stoves!", Archehon highlighted like a salesman the features.
"Using these, you can cook twice the amount at twice the speed!", he did his sales pitch.
"Hahaha..", Ariel laughed at his electrifying attitude with joy.
"No, if you think about it. It could even quadruple the speed if you take into account the capability of the chef which..", Archehon continued to mumble at a ridiculously fast speed.
"Archehon, let's go see the rest of the house."
"Oh, uh.. okay.", he doubtfully replied after being cut off by his little calculation.
After viewing both of the rooms, they looked at the restroom then travelled upstairs to see two bedrooms. One would be for Archehon and the other for Ariel, it was pretty self-explanatory. The rest of the house was completely normal. It was a low rent, cheap modern house which was expensive for the siblings but cheap for the average population.
When they finished exploring the house, Ariel joyfully talked to Archehon,
"Thanks a lot for buying us both this. I will pay you back-"
"N-no!!", he cut her off.
"But why?"
"Y-you don't have to do that. Remember how before I told you before n-not to put a burden on yourself more. Oh- and this is also just me paying back my debt for you looking after me, haha..", Archehon piled a bunch of different sentences together so that the system wouldn't give him another terrible task.
"Uh, okay.", Ariel appeared to be confused by his sudden change in attitude.
"I've got to go somewhere else and don't worry about unpacking any stuff.", he waved.
"Bye!"