Chapter 772

Chapter Thirty-Two I Want to Follow You

Who?

My eyes narrowed sharply.

Despite the footsteps trying hard to be quiet and slowly approaching from this side, due to the old wooden planks in the tavern, the sound couldn’t escape my ears even from a distance. I immediately waved at Barry to keep silent, pulled my hood back over my head, and quickly moved behind the door, pressing my face against it to listen closely.

I heard the shallow breathing getting closer, and the footsteps became clearer. The person was walking slowly but not steadily; it seemed unsteady, not like someone skilled in body strengthening. The shoes they wore seemed to have heels, and their steps on the wooden boards weren’t heavy.

It should be a woman.

The tavern maid?

I had a preliminary judgment in my heart.

That person soon arrived at the door and stopped. It was indeed coming this way.

Because of the commotion just now. Tsk, troublesome.

I didn’t move, standing quietly behind the door and listening, while the person outside seemed to be listening to the room’s动静 as well, with steady breathing sounds slowly emanating, indicating she was also pressing her face against the door.

One second, two seconds…

The woman listened for a while, unable to hear any more unusual noises inside the room, seemingly ready to leave. Her steps shifted a few times, then hesitated, mumbling, “What’s going on?总觉得这小丫头哪里不对劲.” Then she took a breath, raised her hand, and knocked on the door lightly: knock-knock.

“Are you there, girl? Is everything okay? No problems, right?” “Mm-hm, it’s definitely the tavern maid.”

She might be the owner or manager of the tavern. I stepped back two paces.

I turned to glance at Barry, who had already stood up, looking slightly nervous. He sat there, staring at me with a puzzled and somewhat panicked look. I rolled my eyes at him irritably, then cleared my throat and answered calmly, “Nothing’s wrong.”

“But I heard noise downstairs…”

“The coat rack fell over by accident.” “Oh.”

The maid responded reluctantly.

Then she asked again, “Are you sure you’re fine? Do you want to open the door and let me check in? If you’re hurt, you need to get it treated promptly…”

“I said, I’m fine.”

“How strange.”

After a moment of hesitation, she muttered softly, “How strange,” then shouted, “Be careful then, remember to come find me if you need money, there’s work!” After shouting, her footsteps quickly faded away, no longer trying to hide the sound, probably assuming I wouldn’t hear: “There shouldn’t be anyone else in this room, could it be a同行?”

同行?

Does that mean prostitute, or something else?

I frowned slightly, pondering for a moment until the maid’s footsteps went downstairs. Only then did I turn back to Barry, remove my hood, tilt my head slightly, blink my eyes, and smile at him.

“Let’s go eat something.”

I never thought I would smile like this before, without even looking, knowing it was very stiff, as if only twitching the muscles, without any real joy in my heart.

Looking back,

it seems I haven’t tried to smile warmly at anyone in a very long time, a very long time indeed.

To hide that unnatural expression, I quickly turned around, walked a few steps to the bedside cabinet, and completely opened the large leather-wrapped package I had placed earlier. Inside, the food was still warm. I saw bread, some sweet potatoes, and ham. What was most precious were a few pieces of honey pastries. My attention was instantly captured by the pastries.

I hadn’t eaten anything sweet in a long time.

How rare.

I quickly rubbed my hands on my cloak, grabbed a pastry, and stuffed it into my mouth, eating it greedily while squinting my eyes, gradually brightening with delight.

The taste was…

Without sweets, the difference in happiness is incomparable. I suddenly felt…

I felt like I could laugh out loud. Of course, that was just an illusion, but after swallowing a large piece of pastry, my heart felt a bit more comfortable and content than it had in the past six months. I immediately picked up another piece and started eating. Then I turned around, and Barry had already staggered over to me. I grabbed a piece of bread and handed it to him. The boy reached out and took it, first bringing it to his nose and inhaling deeply. He looked at me apologetically before standing there and devouring the bread ravenously.

He looked like a hungry little puppy.

And he really had been starving for days.

I thought for a moment and handed him another whole slice of ham. Seeing his cracked, bleeding lips from opening his mouth, I picked up a cup and filled it with water for him. Barry quickly finished the bread, choking and pounding his chest as he stretched his neck. He held the ham with one hand and eagerly accepted the water cup with the other, tilting his head back and gulping it down. He let out a sigh and seemed to catch his breath.

“Sit on the edge of the bed and eat slowly. No one’s going to take it from you.”

I watched him and said, pausing for a moment, “The dessert is mine.” “Uh-huh, I know you love sweet things, hehe.”

Barry looked at me, bit off a large chunk of ham, and grinned at me with his greasy mouth.

Seeing that, I frowned. “What are you laughing about?” “N-nothing.”

He lowered his head again, pretending to focus intently on the meat in his hand. But as he ate, his eyes began to redden.

For some time afterward, neither of us spoke. The small room was unusually quiet except for the sound of us eating.

I sat next to Barry, each of us holding a piece of pastry, eating slowly together. When he couldn’t eat anymore and his belly visibly swelled, he put away the remaining half of the ham, wrapped it in brown paper, and awkwardly wiped his dirty hands on his pants. He clenched and unclenched his fists, which pulled at his wound, causing him to hiss in pain.

“I told you not to move your right hand recklessly.”

Why did this guy seem more childish than ever since we last met? After finishing the last piece of dessert, I couldn’t help but worry about him. ‘You.’

“I,”

We both started speaking at the same time, then stopped abruptly, looking at each other. Barry’s eyes were still red, and he quickly turned his gaze to the window. After a short pause, he murmured, “It’s good that you’re alive.”

His tone was soft, filled with indescribable joy and a hint of sobriety.

“I’m obviously still alive. How easy would it be to die?” I said with a light-hearted tease.

“But the report said you died, and that you went down fighting alongside some kind of heretic demon or something… No one knows what happened,” he replied.

“Don’t believe everything you read in the reports.”

This statement was made seriously.

“What really happened?”

Barry continued to look out the window, quickly rubbing his eyes with his hand, as if he didn’t want me to see him crying—though the window wasn’t even open, and he seemed to be putting on a show.

“Lilith told me what happened roughly.”

I didn’t want to answer his question and didn’t want him to know unnecessary details, so I immediately changed the subject. “One of your companions was already dead when I arrived, and the other… I’m sorry, I couldn’t save him either.”

Actually, I didn’t have much desire to save him at that moment.

“Mm.”

Barry responded gloomily.

I didn’t know what he was thinking.

I considered for a moment and then asked, “Do you have any plans or ideas now?” “I don’t know.”

After a moment, he turned his head and said, “I want to stay with you.”