The Coffee Cafe by the side of the road had a nice ambiance to it.
Balam had seen them while going out to work with Mok Jae-Hwa but he had never tried sitting at a roadside Cafe. Now that he did.
'It feels nice.'
He closed his eyes, breathing in the peaceful air with a gladdening grandeur. Opening his eyes, he took another sip of the Americano in his hands with a lot of ice candy toppings.
The table in front of him was for two, there was another black thin chair opposite him. And looking over to the next table that drew a straight line away from him, he could see a male and female, both dressed in white shirts, jeans, and white sneakers sipping the same coffee.
'I wonder if they can't afford to buy another one. Should I help?'
His eyes lingered on them for a few seconds, pitying them before deciding to call on the waiter.
As he was about to, someone else joined him.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Balam scowled.
Mok Jae-Hwa from Balam's expression immediately realized he had used 'hell' for Balam. The demon king hated it when humans used a word used to depict a special part of his realm as a depravity word.
"I'm sorry…"
Mok Jae-Hwa apologized, observing Balam's gaze.
A couple of seconds of silence passed between the two. Balam finally opened his mouth looking behind Mok Jae-Hwa.
"Those two, I was about to buy them one more coffee."
Mok Jae-Hwa looked back, raising one brow unbelievably, he asked:
"Why would you do that?"
"Quite obvious. They are drinking only one, perhaps they can't afford two."
Mok Jae-Hwa spat out a belly full of laughter which he swallowed back in as his gaze fell on Balam's blank expression.
"Uhm…"
He swallowed the spit as if he was digesting the laughter so it wouldn't spill out. He adjusted his suit and sat very well, glancing at Balam's still blank face in between.
"What was funny?"
The demon finally asked with indifference ringing in his tone.
Mok Jae-Hwa hesitant at first spoke:
"Actually. They aren't doing that because they don't have enough money."
"Uh? Are you stupid? Why else would they?"
His expression transitioned from its blankness, an erupting spark of unbelief forming in his eyes.
"From the way they are dressed. They are probably couples. Human couples have this thing they call dates, when they go on dates, they do all sorts of things together. We can just say, they are expressing love to each other."
Now his face spat out pure irritation.
"How then will they be satisfied from that one cup of coffee? Starving themselves just to show love. Humans are so nonsensical"
Mok Jae-Hwa opened his mouth to explain further but closed them.
'I don't think anything I say will make him see otherwise.'
A small smile formed on Mok Jae-Hwa's face.
"Since we are done here. Can we go home now… I miss Loati's soup."
The elven woman who was in charge of cooking evening meals at the encampment. He could miss morning or afternoon meals but that evening meal was a must for him. Maybe it was because of her beautiful blonde hair and pristine green eyes, her skin that was as white as the first snow of winter.
Or maybe the soup was so special, they were complex emotions that Balam detested having to navigate through. All he knew was that he enjoyed looking at her while savoring the spicy sweetness of the soup.
"I will make a few calls and we can arrange our movement."
Balam sank into the chair, lifeless.
"Okay."
Mok Jae-Hwa threw one last glance at him, wondering why his mood suddenly became dull before he picked up his phone to call the Uber that had brought him here.
—
Things were progressing on its own. Raith didn't even need to do anything. Except for having his soldiers help out with construction works.
The buildings were shabby and uneven, but it wasn't bad for a start.
Regardless of whether they were men or women, they were all working their butts off to build themselves a dwelling place. After all not all of them would love to sleep in the cold.
Especially Draear.
He was currently on the roof of his own shabby house, hammering each plank to fill out the spaces on top, his fingers were swollen and taped, to show how much they had gone through in order to raise this rough-hewn.
It stood small and unassuming, with deeply browned wooden planks from the trees that Maria had managed to grow out for them on a whim.
Nestled far away from other rising rough-hewn, it seemed lonely from afar, sitting to the edge of the landscape that led them farther into the wide expanse of snow.
Eventually, houses would reach that side too, but everyone was already building their houses, those that weren't had marked out a foundation. And none had managed to make it close enough to his.
Odd. Very Odd.
His younger brother came with more planks. Making sure the makeshift wooden ladder was not going to fall, he picked three more planks and climbed up, dropping them beside Draear before going back down.
Two men approached Draear's almost completed edifice.
His brother Pagna turned to them with a scowl.
"What do you vermin seek with us."
"This guy."
The tall huge guy of the duo said, giving Pagna a gentle knock on his head.
Pagna reddened with embarrassment as pain danced around his scalp. He raised his head back with an unruly frown, shouting:
"How dare you? Don't you know–
"Hey, we have come to talk to you about a hunting party."
The huge guy. Thalami said. Completely ignoring the chirping boy.
The person standing beside him just stood in silence and his hand crossed. He was an elf, a blonde elf but Thalami wasn't.
Draear paused and looked down. He dropped the makeshift hammer and slipped to the ground, fluid, he landed on both feet.
"Does lord Raven know about this party?"
"Of course. The people need food. Lord Raven would personally be going with us into the deep parts of the land for our first hunt."
Draear's face lit up.
"Are you serious?"
"Why would I lie? That is what Sir Curtis said."
Draear turned to his brother.
"Pagna, I will be back soon. I will bring a lot of meat too."
Even though he was a very proud and arrogant elf, it was still a shock how he managed to show utmost affection to two people.
Thalami shook his head,
'I don't understand why he just can't be nice to everybody.'
Waving at Pagna, Draear was led away by the duo.
It was the same around, everyone was being gathered to form a hunting party that would be in charge of hunting.
While Curtis was in charge of the hunting party. Maria herself was teaching the women and a few toughened old men about farming.
Since there existed some of them who were farmers in Therut, it was a fast lesson. Right now, they were trying to figure out what to do about farming tools with Yujin sitting amidst them.
Draear threw a glance towards the small horde of women that sat around a pregnant woman and the tree spirit standing.
They reached the ground where the warriors were gathered.
The snow had been packed to one side. The ground was pristine and free of any weeds or sand. A small makeshift was built before the crowd, on it stood Curtis who was with a paper and biro.
There was a blonde-haired kid beside him and a red-haired guy.
He was used to seeing them already.
The blonde-haired kid he had heard a lot about. He is just two years older than his brother and yet he is one of the strongest hunters in Korea.
There was another guy. But he wasn't standing on the platform, he was sitting on a small makeshift stool that was situated to the corner where snows were piled up. He was also with a book. His focus was deep into the pages of the book he was holding.
Draear was a bit disappointed because he thought he would meet Raith here but nonetheless. He joined the group of people.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l