"Ahem, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Ikaris chuckled bitterly as he reluctantly put down his strawberry.
The young woman, like Ellie a few days earlier was on all fours in a suggestive pose offering a plunging view on her neckline. Although her tank top was rather demure, exposing only her neck and her dainty clavicles, gravity was doing its job, her two milk pillows sagging slightly towards the ground and stretching to the limit the fabric of her camisole as if they wanted to be set free.
Regrettably, the atmosphere was very different from that with Ellie. Right now, her expression was icy cold and her smile was like that of a dangerous predator preparing to devour him bone included at the slightest incartade.
"You dare to ask ?!" Malia growled between her clenched teeth.
The teenager gulped as the orange glow in her eyes intensified, turning fleetingly to crimson red before returning to golden yellow. With a dry mouth and sweaty skin, Ikaris cleared his throat and offered in a casual and generous manner,
"I can sense you're in a bad mood. No need to be jealous of my fruit. You offered me a slice of meat when I sorely needed it, so you can have two."
Radio silence.
" ... "
"It's your lucky day, Ikaris. I happen to be in dire need of this fruit." Malia's smile became friendly and charming again, her voice also regaining its sweet and soothing quality.
After a moment, she stated factually,
"I'll take a Heart Strawberry for your Demonic Boar meat debt. I'll take another because as you said 'you owe me one'. As a man, you should always keep your word. Finally, I'll trade you three more fruits for two more kilos of Demonic Boar fillets. Non-negotiable. The remaining three fruits you may dispose of as you wish."
Ikaris breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he heard the sentence. He had expected to be beaten up and have all his fruit taken away, but against all odds Malia was more reasonable or merciful than he had imagined.
The 'owe me one' that Malia had just mentioned was obviously a reference to what he had muttered about choosing the fruit instead of going to her rescue. As unbelievable as it was, she had apparently heard it.
"I-I can really keep the rest?" He stammered in an unconvinced voice.
Malia smirked, amused by the speed with which he was regaining his poise.
"Unless you want to give them to me, of course. I'll accept your gift magnanimously."
"Cough, cough, no thanks haha..." Ikaris hastily refused, wiping the trickle of sweat running down his forehead.
Who was she kidding? No way! He had risked his life to get this fruit, even if the woman in front of him had definitely borne most of the risk.
"Then don't ask." Malia sneered mockingly before turning serious again, if not downright intimidating. "Last thing. If you don't want your tent to become one of the unfortunate victims of the Crawlers over the next few nights, I advise you to keep quiet about what you think you saw, deduced or understood. Am I clear?"
"Clear as a bell." Ikaris answered solemnly after staring into her eyes for a long time.
The first real sincere and warm smile from the young woman finally spread across her face.
"To our collaboration. Good night Ikaris. By the way, be careful. You weren't as careful as you thought you were. Oliver saw you return to your tent with the fruit."
She patted his shoulder as if to say good luck and left his tent giving him a free glimpse of her firm buttocks. Of course, the boy was no longer in the mood to enjoy the view. Once Malia left, his stiff eyebrows twitched anxiously, fretting over how to handle the simp.
'I'll give him some tomorrow in exchange for his water. I'll see it as his remuneration or some form of gratitude.' Ikaris finally decided, his face scrunched up in frustration at the thought of having to share his hard-earned food.
But the risk was just impossible to ignore. If that idiot Oliver started to harbor jealousy or envy towards him, there was a risk that he would reveal the truth to the other villagers, or at least Toby whose squad he had joined.
As if to confirm his concerns, the simp's deceptively warm voice called out to him in a whisper at the entrance to his tent,
"Pssst. Psst. Hey Ikaris, you're here. I know you're in there, man."
Ikaris'face darkened as he realized that less than five minutes had passed since Malia had left. If you counted from the time he returned to the village it wasn't even 10 minutes. Truly, this guy had no regard for himself.
Relaxing his gloomy face until it became a smooth and serene mask again, the teenager emerged from his tent as if nothing had happened.
"What is it, Oliver? You already brought me water this morning, I still have some left." Ikaris spoke calmly with a know-nothing smile.
"Y-yeah, I know but I got some more this morning at the pond. If you want some I can trade it to you for something else..."
Ikarus'lips twitched despite his excellent self-control and he had to restrain himself with great difficulty from headbutting him with a good Black Veil. Striving to remain friendly, he chuckled,
"It's your lucky day, I found some fruit earlier while wandering in the jungle. Keep it a secret because my supply is limited. From now on, I'll trade you every gallon of water for a serving of fruit."
Recalling the sight of those huge strawberries that had made him drool so much a few moments ago, Oliver accepted without hesitation. He was smart enough to refrain from taking the arm when given a hand.
"Deal." The simp accepted with a little too much zest.
Ikaris kept his faint, indifferent smile, but inwardly he felt nothing but contempt for the former hairdresser. The man had tried to offer his services to the villagers, but talking about hairdressing to these aborigines was like playing the violin to a pig. Even the other earthlings didn't care about their haircuts at the moment.
The teenager went to retrieve his serving of fruit from inside his tent and seconds later an intoxicating red fruit scent wafted through half the village. It was as if the fragrant essence of millions of strawberries had been released at once.
'Bloody hell! Malia could have warned me not to cut it open like that before she left...' Ikaris tearfully comforted himself with the good excuse that the village was practically empty. His tent skin had absorbed most of the smell, but he was sure that several other villagers would notice the anomaly.
Wanting to complete the transaction as quickly as possible, Ikaris just popped his head out of his tent, snatched the waterskin from Oliver's hands and threw the half-pound fruit portion at him as if it were a grenade with its pin pulled.
"Run."
The hairdresser was confused for a brief second, but once the fragrance of the piece of strawberry reached his brain a shiver of horror ran through him and he shot off without looking back, dashing as fast and stealthily as he could towards the tent he shared with Ellie. Seeing his delight, the boy had no trouble guessing who he planned to share the fruit with.
"What a dumbass..." Ikaris sighed in a low voice as he closed his tent.
Once he was calm, he decided to use his System Skill on one of the fruits before eating it. He was pretty sure it was good for him, but the fact that Malia had braved the danger to get them made him realize that these Heart Strawberries had a second use besides their nutritional quality.
This would be the first time he cast the System spell on anything other than himself, but he was confident that with the similarity between the two spells the difficulty would be considerably lowered. Closing his eyes, he wished for the relevant information from the large strawberry in front of him through another mental interface identical to that of his System and whispered,
"Appraisal."
His stamina was immediately sapped, but to his relief Ikaris realized that the cost was bearable. Four or five seconds was no problem. Taking advantage of the window before it closed, he skimmed over the report, trying to imprint as many details as possible in his memory.
[Rank 2 Heart Strawberry: A strawberry weighing 1.7 kilograms. Its nutritional, vitamin, mineral and antioxidant composition is such that a small portion of 150 grams can keep an adult male healthy for 2 days. It is also a powerful metabolic and cardiovascular stimulant. For 12 hours after consumption Stamina+2, Vitality +2.]
After switching off the spell, Ikaris drew a sharp breath. He was somewhat pale after holding the spell longer than expected, yet he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.
"I really hit the jackpot this time."
