Daniel and Melissa's conversation didn't end there, and it continued with a barrage of questions from Melissa, but now one at a time, not like on the way to the lake when she had asked about everything in sight.
Daniel himself wasn't so cold towards Melissa anymore. In the beginning he had been a loner for years, but gradually he decided that it was not such a bad idea to tell her a little about himself, since he had come to the Academy with the intention of making contact with other people and gaining experience and knowledge. For that reason, he decided to try to tell the person who didn't know his past until the moment of the conversation something about himself.
"Do you have any friends in the mercenary group?" Melissa asked, having already received an answer to the question about his role in the group, and listening carefully to what he said with a resigned expression on her face.
"We mercenaries have no friends... at least in the group. We treat each other as brothers in sorrow and arms. Almost everyone in the group has experienced some sort of tragedy, none of us are keen to talk about the details, so we keep it all to ourselves, and yes, a brief debriefing before joining is just to make sure the new member is not a despicable individual. There is even a group of people who will start a background investigation if there are any questions. But there haven't been many cases where someone has deliberately claimed the title of 'victim', only to find a fate far worse than they could have imagined for their pseudo-identity". Daniel's reply was measured, but that was exactly why Melissa's chest heaved. She didn't know how anyone could talk about violence with such indifference.
"Yeah... I don't even know how to feel about that..." Melissa tried to say it calmly, but her crooked smile gave her away.
"I guess I shouldn't be telling you this..." Danielle whispered to herself, but the sentence couldn't escape the little girl's curious mind...
"Tell who?" She asked with obvious curiosity in her voice, and she didn't try to hide it.
"Well..." Daniel hesitated a bit, but still thought about the fact that it wasn't such a big secret, so he answered "to humans..." He didn't know how to put his thought into words.
"What people?" Melissa was so eager to get to the bottom of what he was trying to say.
"I've already said that I've lived most of my life between mercenaries and books, so..." Daniel didn't know how to say such thoughts without being ridiculed, but he decided to continue anyway: "I don't know how to behave around other people. He continued, but with a face as if it was his turn on the scaffold.
A clear, compressed laugh broke out. Melissa tried her best to cover her laughter with the fur blanket she had brought earlier, and Daniel went dark before her eyes. His face became impenetrable and his eyes looked longingly at Melissa.
"Eek, I'm sorry," Melissa had already stopped laughing under that look and was squirming violently, but then she pulled herself together and started to explain, "I'm just surprised to the point of laughter that you both know this fact and admit it yourself. I thought you were just a rascal, but apparently it's just a defensive reaction."
Daniel pulled back a little from his inner embarrassment, but didn't stop looking at Melissa with the same look.
"Eek, I'm sorry," Melissa had already stopped laughing under that look and was squirming violently, but then she pulled herself together and started to explain, "I'm just surprised to the point of laughter that you both know this fact and admit it yourself. I thought you were just a rascal, but apparently it's just a defensive reaction."
Daniel pulled back a little from his inner embarrassment, but didn't stop looking at Melissa with the same look.
"Hey, I already know you're an asshole because of your contrived behaviour! How about you stop looking at me like I'm your worst enemy!" Melissa became a little bolder when she realised that he might be a little softer than he'd shown her since they'd met.
Daniel just sighed.
"I shouldn't have told you so much about myself. "Daniel sighed again when he saw the relief on Melissa's face, which was like going through life and death in a risky scam. Then he decided to leave the situation alone and wondered:
"Do girls from noble families even know the word 'asshole'?"