He Xi was no fool. Hearing Dorick's exuberant voice, not only did he not stop, he quickened his pace instead.
The doors to freedom were right before him. All he had to do was give them a gentle push, and he could...
Creak—
The door was pushed open from outside.
"Ha ha, Brother Galen, I went out and bought some more good stuff. How could fine food go without fine wine?"
A burly figure, solid as a hill, blocked He Xi's path completely.
It was Brendan, and he had two little wine casks tucked in his arms.
"Uh..." He Xi's mind raced as he tried to come up with a plausible excuse. "My companions seem to have gone out. I'll go call them."
"Oh, I ran into them on the road just now," Brendan said warmly, utterly unaware. "Seems your little dog ran off somewhere. They said they were going to look for it and told us to eat first, not wait for them."
Damn it, Bruce! So it was you, you thick-browed, big-eyed traitor, who defected first!
At that moment, the furnace-like figure behind him also came up at He Xi's back, carrying an indescribable wave of heat.
"Delicious food cannot wait! I closed the shop early and spent an entire afternoon preparing this. If you don't taste it at its freshest moment, my beard will be so heartbroken it'll tie itself into knots!"
Facing Brendan's expectant gaze before him and Dorick's scorching stare behind him, He Xi, trapped between two men, silently turned around...
Unlike the sweltering atmosphere indoors, the night outside carried a slight chill.
Fivik and Zoya were leisurely strolling down the still fairly bustling streets with Bruce.
The dwarf brothers' delicacies had not yet come out of the pot, but merely the opening notes drifting