An almost dying man with a severed leg, traces of a fight, and two missing bodies. It was only natural to assume the kid and the woman were dead. Or perhaps the kid was dead and was in that woman's stomach — if only there were any recent claw marks on the scene.
But not only was Rita fine, but that woman also emerged from behind the little girl.
"You're alive?" Lucky pointed out with a tinge of surprise, settling his eyes on the barely covered woman. "And you're fine?"
"Nero!" Rita yelled, sprinting to Nero's side and kneeling beside him. "Nero… you…"
Her voice began to crack, hunching over Nero's chest as she wept. But Lucky couldn't care less. Instead, he focused his attention back on the woman. She was already wearing something else other than his jacket. He assumed she woke up when he left, and Nero, being the hero, probably offered her a few layers of his clothes.
"You're fine," Lucky repeated, nodding in satisfaction. "Not hurt anywhere?"
The woman took a deep breath until her neck turned taut. She opened her mouth, only to produce a short sound. Her action made him squint his eyes.
"You can't talk now?" he asked, watching the woman attempt to speak again.
"She hasn't been talking since she woke up," Rita explained between her hiccups, wiping her tears with her arms before she looked up. "She saved me from the hound that attacked us."
Rita pursed her lips into a thin line, shifting her gaze at the woman. Bitterness shone in her eyes, unable to say whatever she wanted to say as she gazed down at Nero.
"Nero bought us some time to hide too…" she whimpered. "He sacrificed his life to protect us."
"He didn't sacrifice his life to protect you both," Lucky, acting like a jerk as usual, marched toward them. He stopped a few feet from Nero's feet, watching Rita look up at him. "Even if he did, he wouldn't just waste his life to protect another stranger."
He wiggled his brows, stressing his comments to make his point across. Nero might be a martyr, but he was only a martyr to this little girl.
"Remember how he fled and left me behind when the hounds surrounded us?" Lucky cocked his head to the side. "But well, he's a man. I can understand he would act macho in front of a lady in hopes they could… reproduce."
"Why are you being so mean?" Rita hiccuped. "My brother is dead! Why are you—"
"He's not dead." He shrugged indifferently. "See his leg?"
"It's gone!"
"Why do I bother talking to a kid?" Lucky clicked his tongue, pointing at the leg. "Your brother might be silly, but at least he's smart enough to burn his leg to stop the bleeding. He lost a leg, but not his life. So save your tears for the future."
"He's not dead?" Rita's lips quivered, gazing down at Nero once more. She bent over until her ear was on his chest. Surprise immediately washed over her face as soon as she heard a faint heartbeat.
"Nero!" she yelled, smiling in relief. "Nero, you're okay!"
"He's alive, not okay. Keep it down, little girl," Lucky waved dismissively, trudging toward the woman. He stopped two steps from her, assessing her up and down. "Talk."
The woman touched her throat, but her voice wouldn't come out. She tried over and over again until she could feel pain in her throat.
"She can't talk!" Rita remarked, noticing that Lucky was 'harassing' the lady to talk. "She couldn't talk when she woke up."
Lucky squinted his eyes and looked back. "She couldn't talk when she woke up?"
"Yes." Rita nodded nervously. "She woke up minutes after you left last night, but she couldn't talk. That's why Nero could only give her some of his clothes. But then, the hellhound suddenly appeared from the dark and caught us all off guard."
Rita drew a deep breath and huffed it out. "If not for her, I would've lost a leg instead of Nero losing his."
"That would have been better!" Lucky agreed. "It's more convenient for a grown man to carry a physically disabled kid than the other way around. But I guess things happen. What's there to be surprised about in this land?"
He then pointed at the woman. "You, stand back."
The woman furrowed her brows and tilted her head to the side. But seeing that look in his eyes, she took two steps back. On the third step back, she saw Lucky's fist coming straight at her face. She shut her eyes on instinct, clenching her teeth to reduce the pain.
But alas, only a soft gust of wind blew on her face. The pain didn't come.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, only to see his knuckles inches from her face.
"Well, that's disappointing," he muttered as he retrieved his fist. "Do you know who you are?"
The woman shook her head.
"How come?"
The woman tilted her head to the side, blinking innocently. Lucky took his time to study her, searching for any clues that could indicate she was lying. How could she suddenly become mute when she talked the first time she woke up? She also gave a significant amount of information just to prove she remembered everything.
'Was it the water?' he wondered. 'Or was this an effect from the Imp?'
Lucky dismissed the latter idea, imagining the imp on his shoulder defending itself with its continuous 'Ke.' Hence, he concluded that it was the effect of the water he poured on her. Just like the book, the bottles of water he had been consuming came from the same place.
'In other words…' his train of thoughts halted when the little girl suddenly called out.
"Mr. Lucky Guy? Can you take us back to the base?" Lucky slowly looked back at the girl upon hearing her request. "If we take Nero back to the base, he might recover faster. We have a cleric there."
"Didn't your brother say he doesn't trust me enough?"
"But he needs help!" Rita's eyes blazed with determination, hands clasped on Nero's chest. "There are many strong people on the base. They can deal with you if you're a bad guy, but I already know you aren't."
"Please," she added through her gritted teeth. "Take us to Ant Hill."
Lucky pondered for a moment, thinking of his current plans. He had none. He still had more than a day to see what sort of skills he had. Moreover, he needed more information since the packages he had in tow had no recipients.
Regardless of these uncertainties, Lucky had a hypothesis.
He was sure one of the packages belonged to someone living in the inverted city. And he was also certain the gods loved the idea of balance. Hence, at least one delivery was meant for someone in this ruined gutter of a world.
"Sure," he agreed with a contemptuous smile. "Out of the goodness of my heart, I'll take you."
Rita smiled in relief, looking back at the unconscious Nero, and said, "You'll be fine, Nero. He's gonna take us back to Ant Hill."