"What's wrong?"
"I-I can... eat this?" Latifa asked Rio hesitantly, gauging his reaction.
...I guess she's never been allowed to eat without permission before. Rio
hazarded a guess at the reason for Latifa's question.
That was exactly the case: Latifa had been raised to only do as she was
ordered to. If she moved of her own free will, she would have been
disciplined. Thus, she had picked up the habit of asking for permission before
doing anything herself. Her existence relied entirely on others. Releasing her
from slavery wouldn't solve those habits immediately.
By engaging with her, Rio was slowly able to analyze the issues
regarding her personality and mental state... But changing her state of mind
wouldn't be easy.
He would just do what he could, helping her little by little during their
time together.
"There's no need to hold back — feel free to eat it. What do you want to
do, Latifa?" Rio asked.
"...I w-want... to eat it." After a moment's pause, Latifa voiced her own
thoughts.
"Okay, then eat it." With a gentle smile, Rio handed her the sandwich.
Latifa stared at the sandwich in her hands intently. To make her feel more
at ease, Rio started to eat his sandwich first, prompting Latifa to slowly put
her's in her mouth.
"I-It's delicious."
Once she had confirmed the taste, her next bite was a hurried chomp.
"Om, nom nom...! Mmhgh... nom... nnn... uguu..." Latifa furiously
stuffed her cheeks with the bread, but began to cry midway.
Having been born a slave, this sandwich was the greatest delicacy she
had ever tasted in her entire life.
"I won't take it from you, so eat it slowly. It's not good for you to eat like
that." Rio sat down next to Latifa and patted her back gently.
"Wah... hic... Every day, Brother would... hic... when feeding me...
waah..." Latifa choked on her tears as she recalled her meals until now.
Just how horribly was she treated during her mealtimes? Rio didn't even
want to think about it. He continued to pat her back soothingly until she
calmed down.
Rio refilled the flask with water using his essence, then offered it to
Latifa after she stopped crying.
"Here's some water."
"T-Thank you..." Latifa nodded her head and started to gulp it down as
Rio drank from his filled flask, too. He couldn't quite find the right words to
say.
"...We'll be setting off in a bit. I want to cross the country border and
enter the Wilderness by the day after tomorrow. Today, we'll go as far as we
can... At worst, we can camp in the forest if need be."
"O-Okay." Latifa rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her robe and
nodded.
◇◇◇
As they had discussed, Rio and Latifa dedicated as much time as possible
to moving forward, heading towards the far east kingdom of Galarc.
Before the sun began to set, Rio discovered a low area of ground suitable
for camping and pitched a suggestion to his traveling companion.
"Let's set up camp for today. I'll fix up a place for us to sleep, so you
wait there."
"A place... to sleep?" Latifa tilted her head in wonder. She seemed to be
questioning if they had any materials to create such a thing, since their
backpacks were mostly stuffed with food supplies.
"I'm going to make it myself. Stand back a bit." Rio gave a small smile
as he drew the sword at his waist.
He marched towards a moderately-sized tree and leapt at it, swinging his
sword around at a speed faster than the eyes could follow. The next moment,
thick branches of the tree rained down from above.
"Wow..." Latifa said with widened eyes.
Rio picked up an especially thick branch from the selection scattered
about. He stabbed it into the ground at the edge of the lowered pit, fixing it in
place. It would serve as the main pillar of support for the shelter he was about
to build.
Next, he stuck branches on both sides of the pillar, diagonally into the
ground, positioning them like a triangle and using rope to reinforce the
structure. At this point, it formed a tall tent shape.
Then, he covered it in greenery to make it blend in naturally with their surroundings. The leaves also helped cover any gaps to block out the wind
and rain. All that was left to do was make a door and similarly camouflage it
before the simple tent was complete. Since the forest at night was cold and
the weather unpredictable, it was worth the trouble of building such a shelter.
Seeing how fast he had constructed such a wonderful shelter made Latifa
gaze at Rio with sparkling eyes of awe. With a forced smile, Rio started a fire
near the tent entrance.
"Okay, time to make our meal. Can you fan the smoke into there?"
"Fan... the smoke?"
"Just make the smoke blow into the tent. It acts as an insect repellent."
"O-Okay. Leave it... to me!" Latifa nodded earnestly.
Rio picked up his backpack and walked a bit of distance away from the
campsite, to avoid leaving the scent of food near the tent in case beasts
roamed by at night. He picked an appropriate place to begin cooking; today's
menu would be pasta soup.
First, he built a simple base to place the pot on and filled it with water,
lighting a fire underneath to warm it up. Then, he did the same for a deep
frying pan, oiling it with vegetable oil.
He placed cuts of dried meat and wild
grasses he picked on their way here into the pan, added seasoning and spices
before beginning to fry it up. He would occasionally use his essence to create
a gust of wind, casually blowing the smell of the food directly up into the air.
Meanwhile, the water in the pot had reached a rolling boil, so he added
some salt and let it simmer. Then, he dropped the pasta into the pot, radiating
it out from the center. He turned down the heat and stirred the pasta lightly; it
boiled as he adjusted the temperature of the bubbling water.
As soon as it was done, he transferred the pasta to the frying pan,
cooking everything together at a low heat. Then he poured in the broth and
adjusted the flavoring to complete the pasta soup. Rio preferred his food
spicy, but he held back so a child like Latifa could easily eat it.
Hm? He suddenly sensed a presence behind him, making him whirl
around.
It was Latifa, lured by the smell of the food.
Her nose twitched cutely as she sniffed the air. Seeing the typical fox-like
behavior made Rio chuckle with a smile. Latifa noticed him laughing at her,
and blushed in response.
"Come on, food's done. Let's have dinner," Rio said, picking up the
frying pan. He served the pasta soup into containers and carried them to a makeshift table he had put together earlier.
"Spaghetti? Is this spaghetti?!" Latifa took one glance inside the
container and yelled in astonishment.
"...You know what this food is?" Rio asked his question in a daze, though
at first, he had been at a loss for words for a moment.
"I... know! I... know it! Can I... eat it?" Latifa nodded furiously, looking
up at Rio with expectant eyes.
"Of course. Eat up before it cools."
"T-Thank you!"
Once she'd received permission from Rio, Latifa smiled a carefree smile,
eyes sparkling as she began to eat the pasta. Rio watched her in
contemplation. The noodle-like food called 'pasta' had only appeared in this
Strahl region recently. On top of that, it was only sold in a limited number of
areas at the moment. Rio was sure he had never seen pasta in the kingdom of
Beltrum, at least.
Furthermore, Liselotte — the inventor of pasta — had never called it
spaghetti. And yet, Latifa had taken one glance at the pasta and called it just
that. She was even using the fork and spoon with skill, moving the pasta into
her mouth with familiarity.
What exactly could this mean? Rio's thoughts came to a stop.
"Omf, om nom nom." Latifa was engrossed with gobbling down the
steaming hot pasta.
"...You'll burn your tongue like that. Slow down a little," Rio warned her
gently, fearing she would hurt herself.
"Om — hah, hot!" Sure enough, Latifa burned her tongue. Rio smiled
bitterly.
"Here, water."
"Ah, t-thank you." Latifa accepted the flask from Rio and brought it to
her mouth in a hurry.
"Apparently, this food is called pasta. Have you had it before?" Rio
inquired once Latifa drank the water and calmed down.
"Fweh? Pasta? Ah... umm, yes. I used... to eat it." Latifa's expression
suddenly stiffened, fearing she had done something bad. But after a moment,
she fixed an uncomfortable smile on her face and nodded with feigned
enthusiasm.
"I see. No wonder you seem familiar with eating it. That's great," Rio
said, as though he was impressed. But on the inside...
She's never received a proper education, yet she knows how to use
cutlery and eat high-class food... there's just too many factors that can't be
dismissed anymore. Pasta isn't even in circulation in Beltrum's markets yet...
Rio calmly deduced that Latifa was either lying or hiding something from
him. And he had one theory he was fairly certain was close to the truth —
that Latifa also had memories of a previous life.
However, Latifa's language abilities seemed a little too underdeveloped
for that to be the case, Rio thought. From his interactions with her up until
this point, he could tell there wasn't much of a difference between her mental
age and her appearance. If anything, they matched up perfectly.
Perhaps it was because of her slave upbringing, but her mental instability
made her seem all the more child-like. At the very least, she didn't appear to
have any experience with society in her previous life. Of course, it was
possible that it was all an act, but Rio couldn't imagine a need for her to do
that.
Which meant that she wasn't much different in age — an elementary
school-aged child — in her previous life.
However, if that was the case, then that would mean Latifa had suffered a
much more tragic second life than Rio. A child living in the prosperous
modern Japan had suddenly been stripped of her human rights and made into
a pet slave, after all. If she had been born and raised as a slave, she would
have never known any better, but that all changed once she regained her
memories of her previous life. She would have lived her life yearning to be
free from slavery, to return to her former world. Her pain and fear would
have far surpassed anything Rio could imagine.
Not being allowed the freedom to live.
Not even being allowed the freedom to die.
Just imagining the circumstances Latifa had been placed in made him
feel sick.
She should be less than ten years old at present; he didn't know how old
she had been when her memories returned, but if it was at the same age as
Rio, then she would have been six. Even if Latifa was an elementary school
student in her previous life, she wouldn't have had more than ten years of life
experience. Simply merging those two young lives together didn't mean their
life experience had advanced further. Rio had the feeling he knew why Latifa
appeared and behaved as she did. And at the same time, he knew why she
seemed a bit unstable, as well.
"Fuu, fuu."
At the moment, Latifa was wholeheartedly eating Rio's cooking. At
some point, her eyes had even welled with tears, but her expression was one
of happiness. Once she finished the last bite, she licked the empty bowl with
regret.
"There's still some left for seconds. You can eat more... Here." Rio took
Latifa's bowl and served her another helping.
"T-Thank you!" Latifa smiled happily and bowed her head.
Rio had completely lost his appetite, so he forced down his own first
serving and gave the rest to Latifa.