Marcus studied Zeliel for a while, then hesitantly spoke.
"Zeliel... don't you have anything to say?"
"What should I say?"
"About what happened yesterday..."
"Oh."
Zeliel nodded. "I won't tell anyone. We'll just pretend it never happened."
Marcus stared at Zeliel for quite some time before slowly shaking his head.
"I really understand you less and less..."
"Your breakfast is here. Enjoy." Auro set the dishes before Marcus, then returned to the counter without interrupting their conversation.
Zeliel stirred his vegetable soup with a spoon. "What's so hard to understand?"
"You're far more mature than I imagined... not only in combat, but mentally as well."
Marcus gazed at his reflection in the bowl of soup.
"When I joined the adventuring trade, I was a little older than you... I still remember the first time I killed someone. It was in the desert."
"It had originally been an ordinary mission, but we accidentally wandered into the territory of a venomous sand scorpion. We were all young then and had little combat experience. After witnessing one teammate get badly injured, the team's morale immediately collapsed, and everyone began fleeing for themselves."
"Thinking about it now, if our captain had fought calmly, we might well have defeated that venomous sand scorpion. But he was simply too cowardly..."
Marcus shook his head.
"In short, I ran with one of my teammates for a very, very long time before we finally escaped the danger. But we had lost our packs and weapons. The desert was vast, and it was hard to survive without sufficient supplies."
"We walked for four or five days like that. We were starving and thirsty, nearly unable to endure it any longer. We even drank our own urine twice. One night, I was sleeping fitfully when I suddenly woke up. I