The lush forest was way less dense compared to the one near the city of Wülgenville. I was not sure why forests could differ so much from place to place, but it made our journey much easier nonetheless. After Solitaire introduced me to this world, I made one wrong assumption, thinking that wildlife here was more preserved than the one from my original world. Here and there I could see trampled pathways and even stumps left by lumberjacks. This world might have been set further in the past, but it seemed like human activity was omnipresent throughout all times.
As we traversed through the tall grass and obstacles, I noticed that Nila stopped from time to time to pick up various mushrooms and berries. At one point, she looked at me and pointed at the fallen tree covered in short weed, "Let's have breakfast over there."
"Breakfast?"
She ignored my question and instead overtook the lead, shifting our path to the right. I narrowed my eyes at this sight and caught her hand before she made her way to the tree.
"We already wasted more than enough time in the morning, why would we stop to have breakfast?"
She tilted her head to the side and gently shook off my hand, then replied, "I get it that you did not have much opportunity to travel?"
"What do you mean?"
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! You never know when the next opportunity to eat will be, thus eating before going on a journey is the safest bet."
I had not eaten for a few days now. Even though I was already used to cramps from a rumbling stomach, I was perfectly aware of the necessity of food. It was not a rarity for me to starve when I worked with the gang. But there was a slight problem with her suggestion. I hated breakfasts; my stomach did not usually tolerate food until noon. In fact, my first meal of the day more often than not was around 1 pm. On the other hand, we had wasted so much time at the beginning of the day, that it must be around this time now, which made this suggestion more tolerable. But I still disliked her carefree demeanour about this venture.
"Just do not waste too much time, I was not joking when I said that I will abandon you if we do not get to that village throughout this day."
Nila did not answer; instead, she opened her suitcase, with some items falling to the ground. I squinted at this sight, but my face loosened up after she extended a piece of dried meat towards me. Afterwards, she put on the fallen tree all the collected gifts from the forest between us and picked some out of the pile.
"Is it safe to eat it?"
"If you do not trust me, then feel free to only eat meat."
I huffed at her remark and picked up some of the berries, both red and white in colour. They were sweet and sour, their juices helpful to push dried meat down my throat. While we were eating in silence, I noticed how Nila peeked at me a few times.
"What?"
"You are rather rude even by human standards."
"And you are rather dumb for an elf."
She sighed and took a bite out of the meat, "You do not have many friends, right?"
"Shut up, I do not need friends. I always work alone."
She smirked at my remark and proudly declared, "Well, then welcome to the world of duet! I will make sure to complete our deal, even though I really do not like you."
"No one asked. I told you to finish as fast as possible, but you keep yapping about whatever. If you do not like me, then make it all faster." I lashed out, but she did not react to my words. It was almost insulting how calm she was with my attitude, as if she did not even consider me a fully fledged person.
Fortunately, she followed through with my words and once we were done with the food, I took the lead once again, setting us on the same road. I noticed how she started walking in another direction, but at my sight, she quickly turned back to me and tagged along.
"If I do not like you, it does not mean that I would not want to know you better," she whispered behind my back. I heard it well but decided to ignore her words. I did not care about friendships or acquaintances; I was only using her to escape this hellhole called the Schöltum region. I was perfectly aware of how partnerships went. It might feel nice to have a person to talk to at first, but these memories wouldn't be worth a penny once you felt the cold blade up your back. If I had to choose, I would rather be the one with the knife in hand.
Luckily for Nila, the village appeared to be much closer than I expected at first. Soon enough, I noticed faint pillars of smoke coming from further down the forest. I turned to her with my lips tugging upwards, but once I noticed her listless expression, my smile dropped, and I said, "The village is ahead."
"Yeah, I can already hear the cattle and farm equipment. It seems they are working in the fields."
I stopped for a moment, concentrating on my hearing, but other than the rustle of tree tops and bird songs here and there, I could not hear anything resembling human activity. I looked at her once again, now observing her ears with silver jewellery at the tips. I raised my brow and asked, "How much better is your sense of hearing compared to humans?"
"By quite a margin, but hearing is not the only sense more developed in us. Eyesight, smell, and mana detection are all superb compared to that of humans."
I scoffed at her smug remark; however, she continued talking in a serious tone, "There is nothing funny about it, we are solitary creatures and need these traits for survival. You humans are far better in other departments."
As if I would trust someone who was showing off her supremacy just a second ago, but curiosity killed the cat, and I ended up asking, "And what would those departments be?"
"Humans can be clever, stubborn, and… affectionate."
"Well, two out of three of these traits are indeed useful. Being affectionate won't bring you far."
Her pace decreased until she halted completely. I noticed the lack of footsteps tagging behind me and turned around. She stood a little further away with her head tilted and eyes directed at the ground. Once I followed her gaze, all I could see was dirt, perhaps, a borrow of some kind of small rodent. Suddenly, she made a melancholic sigh and said in a nostalgic tone, "I think so too, but a certain man was told me to never underestimate the power of empathy, as it can change anyone. I wonder when does this change occure?"