Chapter 96: The Effects of a Sanguinis Decadence

"No need to worry about that. I’m giving it to you."

She hadn’t followed his lead yet, her eyes searching his face for whatever would make this make sense to her. "... But why?"

Dion paused, glancing back at her.

"Two reasons," he said. "The first is that its thanks for what you did for Marcus, sorting out that tourniquet before he lost more than the arm. Even if he’s awakened, in the state that he is in, he still probably needs a hospital, or at least better conditions for him to recover. Anything getting the guy slightly closer to that is saving a whole lot more potential trouble. Whatever thanks he or the rest of them gave you for it, I doubt it was enough. The second is an apology for the crackers. I know what that must have looked like, and so, regardless of my reasons for it, this is in part... compensation for the inconvenience."

She turned back to him, unsure of whether he was really sure about what he was saying. Dion only walked ahead, gesturing her forward once more.

She crossed the room slowly and lowered the boy into the chair as she muttered, "Jules... wake up."

He stirred as his weight left her arms, his eyes opening halfway, and when his gaze found the food on the desk, his hand went to the pie before the rest of him had fully woken.

Jules’ expression immediately lit up as his sandy brown eyes bounced between the woman and the food, and she nodded with a smile. She certainly wouldn’t refuse the offer for his food when their own had been taken.

Jules moved and tore the wrapping open with both hands and bit into it, immediately humming and chuckling to himself as his eyes closed with satisfaction, his head high and his legs swinging happily.

The woman watched him for a moment, her hand still rubbing over his back.

"...I don’t mean to be rude in asking," she said, her eyes still on Julian, "but have the other awakened actually been given anything like this? Or is this just for us?"

"This isn’t coming out of whatever they’ve got left for each other, if that’s what you’re asking." Dion’s tone stayed even, giving nothing else away with it.

It wasn’t quite the answer she’d been looking for, and by the slight furrow that crossed her brow, she knew it too, but she let it go for the moment, her attention already sliding back down to the crackers on the table.

"...You didn’t eat them?"

Dion took his seat across from them, shaking his head with a slight laugh as he shook his head.

"I didn’t take them to eat them myself, I’ve already eaten. Not to mention that I’m not so cruel as to take from a child. The reason I had taken them was so that those guys wouldn’t think he could come back to you again. If I had sided with you, he would have known where to find food the next time he was hungry, and if I had forced you to share it, it would have been the same issue eventually through your time here. Perhaps they might not have even gone to you or chosen someone else next time, but you get what I mean."

Her eyes lingered on him, and this time, just as she had looked at him when she had passed by him earlier to deliver the first aid kits, she gave a smile so pleasant and satisfying that all his greedy indulgence immediately drowned away whatever mental conflicts he had about his decisions and sacrifices against other people.

"...Florence," she said, reaching out her hand. "My name is Florence. And this is Julian."

"And I’m Dion," he said as they shook hands briefly.

’Even despite her nerves... she has very stable hands.’ He thought, finding it a little curious.

"It’s a pleasure to properly meet you, and thank you, Dion."

"The pleasure is all mine. Everything was a lot easier to do because you didn’t make a scene then."

She nodded once with that slight smile of hers, and then she looked back at her son.

"Jules, slow down. The food isn’t going anywhere. You’ll choke if you keep that up."

Julian huffed in disagreement, his dark hair swaying with all of his movements, was already halfway through the pie, crumbs falling onto the desk and the front of his shirt, while his free hand had found the bag of crisps and was digging through it greedily.

"..." Dion’s brows faintly raised, looking at the boy.

Thankfully, he seemed to be one of the people who quickly recovered from the effects of the prana-saturated rain, and coupling that recovery with his sleep and now his excitement, he seemed to be in his best condition.

"...Is this from your own food?" Florence asked, with her gaze still watching Julian when she said it.

"... I have enough for myself."

Florence’s lips pressed together, then for several moments, she didn’t say anything, her gaze looking between the food and then back at Dion.

"I want to repay you for this. I’m not going to sit here and take from you and give nothing back. Whatever I can do for you, I will."

Was what she said, and the look in her eyes was so solid and free of all her nerves that it made him feel it would be difficult to say anything to convince her otherwise.

She held his gaze, and waited for his response.

"You don’t need to do that," he said, his voice a little lower than before. "I didn’t bring you here to ask for such."

’There just isn’t anything I want from you that’s acceptable to ask for... And the only other thing really worth any kind of exchange...’ He thought, shaking his head a little.

Florence’s expression froze, her eyes gradually widening.

The implication reached her a half-second after his words did, and the colour flooded up from her neck, blushing across both cheeks.

Julian looked up from the desk with pie on his fingers and crumbs on his chin, and his eyes moved between his mother and Dion as he chewed with a squirrel’s mouth full of food, and no one said anything for several moments.