Evening soon arrived.
Inside a restaurant beside the Administrative Plaza, Seele was eating with gusto.
The exquisite food of the Upper District was far beyond anything the coarse fare of the Underworld could compare to.
"Slow down, don't choke," Oleg said with a smile beside her. "There's more if that's not enough. I'll order another serving."
Seele nodded and kept taking big mouthfuls, unwilling to waste even a moment.
As a street child in the Underworld, Seele treasured every scrap of food she could get and never dared waste any.
Besides, if she ate too slowly, someone else would snatch it away.
So even sitting in an Upper District restaurant, she still couldn't shake the habits she had developed.
Beside her, Chu Mu ate while thinking wistfully:
If only Xiao Bu were here.
The restaurant served individual portions, with a separate meal set before each person. Seele had nearly finished hers, and Oleg had already finished his. Before coming here, he had never imagined that an upscale restaurant would serve so little.
This was Oleg's first visit to this restaurant, too. Having experienced high-end dining, he now had only one question in his head: did rich people enjoy going hungry?
He looked at Chu Mu and found that the boy had eaten less than a quarter of his meal, only tasting a little of each dish.
"Is the food not to your taste?" Oleg asked with concern.
"No." Chu Mu shook his head. "I want to save some to take back down."
Oleg froze for a long moment at those words. He looked at Chu Mu with a complicated expression and sighed.
"You little..."
Then he called over a waiter.
"Three more servings, please!"
"Uncle, that's too much money to spend," Chu Mu said, a little uneasy.
"If we're out having fun, we should enjoy ourselves!" Oleg shot Chu Mu a stern look. "How can you eat so little? What if you go hungry?"
Chu Mu had wanted to say he was used to going hungry, but after thinking it over, he nodded instead and said earnestly:
"I'll finish my portion."
With that, he lowered his head and began eating. This time, he no longer held back.
Oleg smiled in satisfaction.
"That's more like it!"
Meanwhile, in a corner of the restaurant, a pair of eyes watched them from somewhere Oleg and the others hadn't noticed.
"Sis, there's something strange about the people at that table," a pale blond young man said gravely.
The young woman sitting across from him, whom he had called his sister, also had beautiful, long, pale blond hair. A few locks had been dyed purple, giving her a hint of rebellious, free-spirited flair.
In the Upper District, that shade of pale blond hair was practically a mark of nobility.
The newly appointed Supreme Guardian, Lady Cocolia Landau, had the same hair color.
The siblings dining in the restaurant were from the renowned Landau family.
The younger brother, Gepard, had just graduated from the Military Academy and now served as a squad deputy captain in the Silvermane Guards.
His older sister, Serval, had attended university with Supreme Guardian Cocolia and had become a researcher at a Secret Research Institute after graduating.
She and Cocolia were very close-the best of friends.
But ever since her best friend had become the Supreme Guardian, a sorrowful, thick barrier had risen between them.
Serval followed her younger brother Gepard's gesture and looked at the suspicious guests.
"Aren't they just an ordinary family? A father taking his two kids out for dinner. That boy's outfit is pretty cool, though. I like it." Serval looked at Gepard. "Little brother, aren't you a bit too wound up? Why are you seeing suspicious things everywhere? You're off duty now. Don't bring your work into this."
"No, Sis, haven't you noticed?" Gepard said seriously. "Those two children cleaned their plates too thoroughly!"
They weren't merely clean. The plates looked as though they had been washed, every last trace of sauce carefully wiped away with bread.
"Pfft! Is being frugal a crime now?" Serval laughed so hard she couldn't sit straight. "Little brother, are you trying to make me die laughing?"
"Sis, stop laughing." Gepard looked at Serval earnestly. "There's something wrong with those two children. I suspect there must be a crime involved!"
"You mean they were kidnapped?" Serval stopped smiling. "What kidnapper have you ever seen take their victims out after abducting them, bring them to such a busy restaurant, and treat them to a feast? You even have to book a table here a week in advance. Little brother, does that make any sense to you?"
"I don't mean kidnapping." Gepard shook his head. "Those two children don't look like they're from the Upper District. Sis, I served in the Underworld. These two look a lot like the children there."
"So? Are you going to stand up in the name of justice, shout that someone crossed over illegally, and arrest those two poor children? Have that kind uncle sentenced?" Serval's expression turned cold. "Gepard, I've already done everything I can to stop you from carrying out your so-called justice. Why do you keep bringing it up?"
"Sis, that's not what I mean!" Gepard's eyes widened. "It's just that this really is against the law!"
"Ha! Against the law!" Serval looked at Gepard and demanded, "A kind uncle went to great lengths to bring two children from the Underworld up here, just so they could enjoy a good meal. Would you ruin even something this simple and beautiful?"
"But the Supreme Guardian doesn't permit it." Gepard shook his head. "The restrictions have become even stricter lately. People from the Underworld are strictly forbidden from coming up."
"Gepard!" Serval glared angrily at her younger brother. "Are you protecting cold, lifeless laws, or the living people right in front of you? Tell me, who are you fighting to protect?"
Gepard fell silent for a long time.
At last, his gaze cleared, and he said quietly:
"Preservation without people is meaningless. Sis, I understand now."
"We didn't order this."
A waiter wheeled a large, expensive-looking cake up beside their table.
Oleg hurriedly stood to refuse it. There was no way he could afford a cake like that.
But the waiter smiled at him and said:
"Sir, this is a gift from the guests at that table. Huh? Where did those two guests go? Have they left?"
"Could you tell us a little about those two kind guests? If we meet them someday, I'd like to thank them in person," Oleg said sincerely. He had already guessed something.
"A brother and sister with pale blond hair. The sister had some purple-dyed locks. Judging by their hair color, they're probably from one of the great families," the waiter said reflectively.
After the waiter left, Seele looked at the large cake on the table and sighed.
"So nobles aren't all bad. There are good ones, too. I was planning to knock all the nobles down, but I guess that won't work now. What if I hurt someone good by mistake?"
"Every class has people like that. Individuals can betray their class and do some good, but a class can't betray its individual members and have everyone do good," Chu Mu said softly. "We don't want to oppress anyone, but we can't let ourselves be oppressed either. So some things have to be shattered."
"Kid, that's pretty deep. You've got even me confused." Oleg glanced at Chu Mu. "Leave things like that for the Supreme Guardian to think about. There's no use in us thinking about them. It'll only make us miserable. So eat. Don't dwell on it."
"All right." Chu Mu nodded.
The three divided up the cake, each taking a small slice, and asked the waiter to pack the rest.
While they waited for it to be packed, Seele idly watched the other guests.
It was late now, and guests were leaving one after another.
There was still plenty of unfinished food on their tables, and the waiters clearing them dumped it straight into the slop bucket.
"They just throw it away like that?" Seele asked.
"Yes. The guests here would never eat someone else's leftovers," Oleg said with a nod.
"Do they know there are still lots of people in the Underworld who don't have anything to eat?" A shadow fell over Seele's face.
Oleg fell silent, unsure how to answer the child.
Chu Mu looked out the window at the stars in the sky. Through his blurred vision, he could see only patches of brilliant color scattered across the night.
Every patch of color was an unknown world.
I came from the vast Sea of Stars, yet I'm trapped in this lonely city of ice and snow.
Just then, Seele took his hand and said quietly:
"Boss, I don't want to stay here. I want to go back."
"All right." Chu Mu nodded and looked at Oleg. "Uncle, let's go back."
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