Chapter 37 - 37. The Tough Girl
Jack picked up the loots Bigarm had left behind. As he held the large sword, he asked, "I can't feed this sword to my Storm Breaker, right?"
"No," Peniel's voice sounded from the empty air. "That's a two-handed sword. You can only feed the same type of sword following the form you had chosen, which is the one-handed sword."
Jack lamented, kind of pointless to extort this large sword then.
Feeling his disappointment, Peniel said, "you could always sell it or break it down for material in the future."
"Okay," Jack agreed and stored the loots into his inventory bag. He looked towards the direction of Bowler and the girl. They were finishing up the fight. Ball was already at below 10% health. He knelt down and beg for forgiveness. Jack guessed the saying 'birds of a feather flock together' held some truth in it.
But unfortunately for the ranger, he wasn't shown mercy as his boss did. The girl went up on him and slashed his throat. He received critical damage and died immediately. He fell to the ground. And as the fight ended, his body disintegrated and a leather bracer was seen where his body used to be. The girl picked it up unceremoniously and stored it.
Bowler stood several distances from her. He didn't approach her and didn't stake a claim on the loot. From his pale face, Jack could guess that he was most probably intimidated by the girl's ruthlessness. The girl turned and looked at the two of them. The dagger in her hand was still held tight. Her eyes displayed wariness in them. Her face was not especially pretty but there was a certain charm to it. Her feature had a steely look and contained maturity that was not common for a girl her age.
"Do you guys expect gratitude, or going to force me to show gratitude?" She said in a stern tone.
Bowler who was already daunted, immediately explained, "no, we are unlike them. We saved you because we couldn't stand what they did. We have no other intention."
"Well, I'm safe now," she said.
Bowler was speechless. This was not the scenario he had expected when he decided to come to the aid of the damsel in distress.
Jack, on the other hand, didn't think much of it. He simply told Bowler, "let's go, we have wasted much time." He then turned and started walking without waiting for Bowler's response.
Bowler was baffled. He looked at Jack who was increasing in distance, then looked at the girl, then back at Jack again. He finally decided to chase after Jack. As the girl said, she was safe. There was no point to hang around anymore. Lingering any longer would just reinforce the girl's suspicion that they might have different intentions.
Jack wasn't walking exceptionally fast, so Bowler managed to catch up with him before long.
He said, "yo, bro. Do you need to act so cool? You should at least say a few words to her. You are the hero, after all. Without you, we might not have been able to chase out those guys."
"What's the point," Jack said. "You heard what she said. She was just as suspicious against us as she was towards those guys. Trying to talk further would just showing as if we were expecting her to pay us for our help."
"Ah…," Bowler didn't know what to say. So he just silently continued their journey.
"She is following us," Bowler said when he looked back. They had been walking for over an hour since the fight with Bigarm's group. He was getting bored and started looking around at the scenery before realizing that the girl they saved was walking behind them not far away.
"I know," Jack said. He had been aware of it as he could monitor the girl's position from the radar in his God-eye monocle.
Bowler shook his head, "she was rude to us after we saved her, and now she is following us. I really can't understand the girl at all."
"Actually, it is not so strange," Jack said. "Our destination is the same after all."
"Oh, you are right," Bowler just came to the realization.
He kept looking back from time to time, as if afraid the girl was just a mirage.
"If you want to talk to her, just go ahead. It's embarrassing seeing you like this." Jack was helpless with his companion's conduct.
He gave an apologetic laugh, then he went towards the girl.
"Are you all right?" He said to the girl after came into talking distance. "You were hurt quite a few times during the fight. If you need, I have medicine here that can recover your health."
"Don't need it," the girl replied with a cold face.
"It's okay, I don't need this medicine. You don't need to feel indebted for using it."
"It was only a scratch, it will heal when I rest at night." The girl was resolute.
Bowler helplessly stored back his medicine.
"Why don't we journey together? It will be safer in a group."
The girl was ignoring his offer. She just continued walking as if she didn't hear anything. After another two to three failed attempts at communication, Bowler finally gave up and returned to Jack's side.
"From your look, I would say that you didn't have any luck in establishing a friendship," Jack said when he saw Bowler was back.
Bowler held his head down with a defeated look.
"There was no helping it," Jack said. "You cannot force people to trust you."
"You are right, but I don't think she is a bad person. I hope we can become friends with her." Bowler was not ready to totally give up yet.
Jack shrugged. It didn't matter to him either way.
During their following walk, they didn't found any more people, but they encountered monsters two times. The first time Jack and Bowler took care of them swiftly. The second time there were more monsters. It was still not a problem for Jack, but it did give him difficulty to protect Bowler who was weak at close range. During a critical time, the girl interfered and reduced their pressure. The monsters were taken care of without any real danger afterward.
"Thanks!" Bowler said after the fight ended.
The girl just nodded, then proceeded to keep a distance from the two men. Bowler was muddled by the girl's attitude.
They didn't encounter any mishap again for the rest of the day. The sun took his rest on the horizon and night started to take over. Jack and Bowler searched for an appropriate place to spend the night, and decided to do it at a sturdy building that used to be a modern food market. Jack went and scoured the place for ingredients while Bowler looked for soft things to be used as beds. When they returned to the lobby to set up their resting place, they noticed the girl sitting silently at the corner of the room.
Jack wasn't bothered by it and took out his Apprentice Cooking Stove and started cooking. He didn't make another Egg Fried Rice because first, he didn't have many of the required ingredients left, he preferred to save it for later. And two, because he was genuinely started to get sick of it. He found some instant noodles inside the food market and decided to cook them. It didn't provide proficiency point nor did it give any buff, but he figured he should just cook the food to be enjoyed once in a while.
Bowler made a gesture to Jack pointing at the girl.
"Don't worry, I'm making three portions," Jack said.
After finished with the cooking. He gave two portions to Bowler. He was the one that was most concerned about the girl, so Jack would let him deal with how to persuade the girl to accept their food.
Bowler made his way to the girl in high spirit. Jack saw their interaction from a distance while munching on his food. He felt like he was watching a drama show. The girl was rejecting the offer, but Bowler was persistent. After quite some while, the girl finally relented and accepted the food. He saw them made a few small talks, mostly it's Bowler that did the talking, the girl only utter some short syllables, probably as a polite reply to the talkative man. After a while, the man returned with a bright smile.
"I'm impressed," Jack praised.
"Girls are like that, sometimes they acted tough, but most of the time they are just shy," Bowler said.
"Actually, I think this one is genuinely tough."
"You think so?" Bowler made a glance at the girl. "Oh, right. I managed to get her name?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, she called herself Fierce Flame."