They slipped out secretly through the servants' side gate, which was not under heavy guard, and immediately immersed themselves in the flowing human current of the central Sun Market.
The city was buzzing with life in a vibrant and boisterous way Dex had never known before. In Sylvester's dark era, this market had been a gloomy and lifeless place.
People had walked with heads bowed toward the ground, whispering in fear, eyes watching for the greedy tax collectors or the provocative mercenary patrols. But today, the picture had entirely reversed.
Laughter was loud and resonant in every corner, the sounds of bargaining between vendors and buyers noisy and cheerful, empty of fear.
They walked side by side, very close together because of the crowd. Their shoulders brushed each other from time to time, and each time, Dex felt a faint pulse in his chest that had nothing to do with phoenix flames.
This outing appeared, without prior planning, closer to a first romantic date between two young people discovering life together.
Dex stopped before a large wooden stall selling winter fruits. The vendor, an old man with a wide smile missing several teeth, was calling out at the top of his voice with cheerfulness: "Red apples! Red as the cheeks of love-struck maidens! And sweet, sweet as the news of the great Lord Dex's victory over the traitors!"
Dex laughed quietly and under his breath, so as not to reveal his identity through his voice, and bought two large apples, paying with a silver coin without asking for change, which made the old man pray blessings upon him.
Dex wiped his apple on his shirt and bit into it with force. The taste of natural sugar and cold fresh juice washed over him immediately. But in the moment he tasted its sweetness, he closed his eyes for an instant, and memory carried him forcibly and at lightning speed back to those nights.
He recalled the taste of the bitter, wood-hard plant roots they had been forced to tear from the ground with their bleeding hands and eat raw in the western swamp just to stay alive.
He recalled the night they had hunted a wild rabbit and roasted it over a very low fire, so the smoke would not attract the demonic wolves.
He recalled how the meat had been tough as leather, raw on the inside, without a single grain of salt, and how they had eaten it rapidly and tensely, their backs pressed together as they watched the lurking shadows in the darkness between the trees.
"Dex?"
The touch of Lumia's cool, delicate hand on his arm pulled him forcibly back to reality. He opened his eyes to find her looking at him with genuine concern.
"I'm fine," Dex smiled at her reassuringly, and freed himself from his thoughts, then extended the second gleaming apple to her. "It's just, the taste is very different. Everything here has the taste of safety, the taste of life."
Lumia took the apple with both hands. She was walking beside him, looking at the world around her with an innocent, childlike wonder she was struggling hard to conceal behind her customary mask of calm.
Lumia, the girl who had lived most of her life since awakening in this world either hidden in the shadows of Falus Forest's trees or fighting ferociously against its monsters, had never experienced the concept of an open market in this peaceful form.
She was contemplating the colorful silk fabrics fluttering with curiosity, breathing in deeply the strong and refreshing smell of spices emanating from the vendors' carts, and listening to wandering musicians playing cheerful folk melodies.
"Look over there," Dex pointed toward a small square branching off from the market, where a group of small children were running and laughing hysterically, chasing a colorful kite in the sky. "In the forest, Lumia, running always meant fleeing from certain death. Here, running is nothing but wild, carefree play, nothing but joy."
They continued their slow strolling, enjoying the crowd, until they reached the open-air restaurant area along the bank of the small river. The aroma emanating from there was irresistibly tempting: herb-marinated grilled meat, hot cheese pastries that melt in the mouth, and the smell of corn and cream soup.
They sat at a simple round wooden table in the corner, as far from passersby's eyes as possible. Dex ordered two large bowls of Seiron's Traditional Rich Stew. While they waited for the food,
Dex rested his arms on the table and watched Lumia in silence, contemplating how the market's lights reflected on her calm face, and how she appeared at ease for the first time.
"Do you remember the third night in the forest?" Dex asked suddenly, his voice quiet, closer to a whisper.
Lumia looked at him, and stopped contemplating the people around her. Her disguised brown eyes reflected a buried sadness and a shared, powerful memory. "How could I forget? That was the night the poisonous shadow spider swarms surrounded us."
"We were sitting back to back in that damp cave," Dex continued, running his finger slowly along the rough edge of the table as though summoning the scene.
"We were trembling from the bitter cold, and from the mana depletion that had nearly killed us. You were injured in your left shoulder and bleeding, and I was suffering from a fever because of a light spider venom. The silence that night was more terrifying than the monsters, because any sound, even the cracking of a dry branch, meant certain death."
Dex raised his eyes and contemplated the crowded restaurant. The clatter of ceramic plates colliding, the loud chatter and laughter of customers, the screaming of a small child at the neighboring table insistently demanding more sweets.
"Look around you now, and listen, Lumia. This chaotic noise, I used to think in the past that it was irritating and gave me headaches. But now, after living through the forest's deadly silence, I swear to you this noise is the most beautiful and sweetest music my ears have ever heard. It is the sound of life, the sound of life that does not try to kill you every second."
The hot food arrived. The stew was bubbling in the bowls, thick, fragrant with spices, filled with tender pieces of meat and carefully cooked vegetables.
Lumia picked up the wooden spoon with slight hesitation, blew on it a little to cool it, then took a small sip. Her disguised eyes widened slightly, and her pale cheeks gradually flushed with warmth.
The warmth that flowed through her body now was not the warmth of a fire mana enchantment, it was the warmth of real, comforting food.
"It is, very delicious," Lumia whispered sincerely, a warm smile adorning her face. "In the forest, food was merely the necessary fuel to prevent our bodies from collapsing. Here, food is a pleasure, a genuine pleasure."
Dex smiled with happiness at seeing her enjoy it. "And that, Lumia, is what makes all that fighting and bloodshed worth it. We did not fight Sylvester for empty power, we fought for this moment: to sit and eat a hot stew in peace, without fearing a stab in the back or a monster lurking for us in the darkness."