乇卩|乙ㄖ́

卩卂尺ㄒ ㄒ山ㄖ: 匚卄卂卩ㄒ乇尺 丂|乂

By the time I finished up Aurelio's hair, the sun was setting.

His hair actually looked really nice. He wanted to leave two strands long in the front. The rest of his hair got cut really short. Layers spread throughout the back of his head, making his hair shaggy instead of the smooth, long hair he used to have.

I outdid myself, and it suited him.

I decided to take him down to the dining hall. He was probably starving by now.

"What kind of things do you serve?" he asked me, staying by my side.

"Well, we make all kinds of things based on what people like. We also go off of allergies and religion. People who are allergic get special trays, and we have an experienced person who makes kosher food. Then we arranged them in sections for vegetarians and people who choose not to eat meat. Everything's fresh from the farm and the barn. Aino's the main chef," I explained, actually really proud of what we've done here.

"What do you do with the leftovers?" Lio tilted his head, thinking of many possibilities.

"Normally, there aren't many leftovers. We don't immensely overcook, and many people here actually don't eat much. In the scenario where there are a lot of leftovers, we feed the rest to the animals. Anything they can't eat, we use as compost for the earth," I answered, glancing out at the wheat crops.

"You have animals that eat human food?"

"Dogs and wolves for meat, cats for dairy, and our barnyard animals eat the greens."

"You have wolves?!"

"Yep."

He chuckled a bit, slicking his hair back.

"Can I see them sometime? I fucking love dogs and wolves," he asked, his smile hardly wavering.

"Sure, we'll see where we stand after today." I responded, giving him a gentle smile back.

"Thanks," he laughed, looking ahead at the trail.

"Oh shit! That's right, you had a big Chimera trained, right? What ever happened to it?" I asked him, remembering that big dog he was with.

"Oh..." he muttered, his smile finally fading.

"Oh. Don't tell me-"

"Yeah. That's kind of another reason I left the camp. Once Griff started rising up, they claimed that the work I did on missions wasn't enough. One mission, they snapped," he cut himself off, letting out a shaky sigh.

"They killed my fucking dog."

My eyes widened, my pace slowing to a stop. He glanced back, stopping along with me.

"Aurelio, I'm so sorry, I-"

"It's alright, it wasn't your fault."

He kept walking, but I could barely urge myself to move.

I felt extremely guilty now. Despite what he's done, he's suffered too. Everyone who used to work for that camp was a victim. They just coped in different ways. I couldn't believe that they'd actually killed his dog because he wasn't working hard enough. I could tell that he loved that dog. When Griff put even a tiny scratch on it, he freaked out.

"You coming?"

"Yeah,"

I finally urged myself to walk, feeling like there were concrete blocks strapped to my feet.

We finally reached the dining hall, everyone giving Aurelio some judging glares. Aurelio just awkwardly walked through, waving to each person who stared at him.