"No, no, you can't. Burnt fried fish doesn't taste good—it'll be really bitter..." she said incoherently. She did not know what was wrong with her. All of a sudden, she thought of the companions who had left one by one. Bettis hurriedly turned away and wiped her tears.
"It's fine. This one is good enough." Grisha did not speak quickly, but his tone was firm. "I fought alongside Lady Nora in the Northern Territory for a long time. Back then, all we had to eat were hard, stale rations. Sometimes we could stop and boil a pot of water to soak them in. Most of the time, though, we could only swallow them with snow."
He raised the fried fish in his hand. "Something like this is a delicacy people in the Resistance Army would not even dare dream of. Forget slightly burnt fried fish—I've even stuffed charcoal and tree bark into my stomach before."
"Sorry..."
Bettis sometimes hated her own weakness. She wanted to fry another portion for the boy. She ran a fried fish shop, yet in the end she was letting her employee leave with burnt fried fish.
But when she looked into the boy's eyes, she could not bring herself to say it.
"One large fried fish and French fries combo, with extra sweet fruit sauce!" A shout suddenly came from outside. Bettis hurriedly wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeve and went over to fry the French fries for the customer.
"Coming, would you like it packed—" Bettis began, then suddenly spoke in surprise. "Lord Theus?"
Theus nodded at her. His gaze paused briefly on her reddened eyes before moving away.
"No newcomers at the shop recently?"
"Newcomers?" Bettis gave a bitter smile. "What newcomers could there be? Grisha is leaving now too."