Jiang Mo breathed a silent sigh of relief. It seemed Seele wasn't going to press the issue.
Seele sighed softly, touching her own empty cloth bag. "There's nothing to eat in Rivet Town either," she said, her voice low. "The Fragmentum monsters are getting more numerous. It's not safe outside the town, and there's less and less to find. I was so hungry I had no choice but to come back here and see… I didn't expect…"
She trailed off, but her meaning was clear. Her past few days had been just as difficult.
"Grrrrumble…"
At that moment, a loud, inopportune noise broke the silence. It was Jiang Mo's stomach. The damned hunger was still gnawing at him. A flash of embarrassment crossed his face, but the sharp pain in his stomach was too intense to care. He instinctively clutched his belly.
To his surprise, Seele hesitated for a moment before pulling a small object from her pocket and holding it out to him. It was a piece of very dry, hard bread, but at least it wasn't moldy.
"Here," she said, looking at him. "This is the last piece I found today. You should eat something."
Jiang Mo was stunned. He couldn't believe that in a situation like this, Seele would share her only food with him. He looked at the bread, then at her equally exhausted face. He took it and silently tore it in half. He put one half in his own mouth and slowly chewed, then offered the other half back to her.
Seele shook her head and took half a step back. "I don't need it. You eat it." She glanced away, her voice soft. "You… shared with me before."
She remembered. She remembered this boy, even thinner than her, giving her half a biscuit or a frozen potato when she was about to pass out from hunger. It was a small thing, but in the Underworld, where starvation was the greatest threat, that kindness was precious. Now, it was her turn.
But Jiang Mo pressed the bread into her hand. "I ate a piece earlier, I'm not that hungry. Half is enough. You take it. You're starving too." He was referring to the moldy bread Huzi had thrown away. It tasted awful, but it had put something in his stomach. He wasn't going to die just yet.
Seele looked at the bread in her hand, then at his insistent gaze. She finally relented and began to nibble on it in small bites.
The alley fell silent again, filled only with the faint sound of them chewing. The atmosphere was no longer as tense.
"Earlier…" Seele began after swallowing the last bite, unable to hold back her question. "What exactly happened?"
Jiang Mo's eyes flickered, but he didn't hide the truth. "They tried to rob me and beat me up. I was just defending myself." He told her the simple facts. Although it was excessive self-defense, that was how it started.
Seele fell silent again, her head bowed, her expression unreadable. After a long moment, she looked up. "Maybe… you should go to the orphanage? You can at least get a meal at Sister Natasha's place, can't you?"
The orphanage. The place run by Dr. Natasha to take in homeless children.
Jiang Mo shook his head without hesitation. "I'm not going."
"Why?" Seele asked, confused. "After all this…"
"I don't want to see those eyes," he cut her off. "The kids in the orphanage… the way they look at people, it's so empty. Like little puppies waiting to be picked up. It's pathetic. And Sister Natasha is a good person, but every time she sees me, she wants me to stay. I don't like owing people favors, and I especially don't like being looked at with that kind of pity. I'd rather starve than go there. Besides, you know it too. The Fragmentum corrosion is getting worse. If there's nothing to find in Rivet Town, the orphanage there can't be doing well either. I don't want to take food from the mouths of those kids."
Seele listened quietly. After a while, a wry smile touched her lips. "I see… You're still the same. Stubborn and always thinking about useless things. You're about to starve yourself, and you're still worrying about others."
"Aren't you the same?" Jiang Mo shot back, glancing at her. "You'd rather dig through trash than stay in the orphanage. And you're telling me off?"
Seele huffed and turned away. "I just realized I don't like a place without freedom like the orphanage. It's not as complicated as you make it out to be."
"Whatever you say." Jiang Mo shrugged.
They fell silent again. The half-piece of bread was gone, but the emptiness in their stomachs remained.
Finally, Jiang Mo stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes. "Seele, I'm leaving. It's not safe here. The smell of blood will attract trouble."
Seele nodded, not stopping him. She looked at him, and hesitated before adding, "Those Silvermane Guards have been acting strange lately. They're patrolling the Underworld more often, and they're stricter than before. You be careful."
The warning was also a promise. She wouldn't report him.
"Got it." Jiang Mo nodded, giving her one last meaningful look. Then, he turned and walked towards the other end of the alley.
Seele watched his small figure disappear around the corner, then looked down at the corpses on the ground, her expression unreadable. Finally, she grit her teeth, turned, and quickly left in the opposite direction.
However, once he was sure Seele was gone and the alley was empty, Jiang Mo returned to the three bodies. His eyes fell on Huzi, who was still lying unconscious on the ground.
Leave no loose ends. A survivor was a liability.
He walked over to Huzi and, with a blank expression, raised the brick in his hand over the defenseless head.
Splat!
[Villainous Act Judged: Eradicating Future Trouble! Villain Points +50!]
Jiang Mo tossed the brick aside without a second glance at the body at his feet. He turned and walked out of the dark, filthy alley, which now held a few more souls, without looking back.
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