After running for at least half an hour, Dante was finally ready to give up and get some rest. With how deep into White Hill they went, surely no one would be able to follow them.
’... I should have bolted on my own...’ That would have been a great choice if not for his red-haired companion being much faster than he is. ’I shouldn’t have agreed to take this job...’
Liliana was in a far better shape compared to him. It didn’t even look like she had shed a single drop of sweat.
"Did... Did anyone try to call you?" Dante beat her to the questions, finally done catching his breath.
"I... haven’t checked yet..." The girl avoided his gaze as she replied, hinting at another of her messes.
"No... no you didn’t..."
"I just turned off the notifications for everything. That’s-"
She suddenly went silent and squeezed her eyes shut. One could guess that she had just deactivated the do not disturb mode on her NIM, which likely led to her OAM being flooded with notifications of missed calls and unread texts.
Dante had to act quickly before she messed up the situation more than she already had.
"Don’t call anyone. And don’t open the texts either."
A solution. He needed to think of one. Crouching down, Dante stared at the stained road at his feet. He considered telling her to send a message reporting what she had been doing, but there was no telling how that would turn out.
"This isn’t going to work... You should just go home."
The suggestion didn’t go well with the girl.
"I thought we were already past that."
"Well, that was before I realized it looks like I have kidnapped you."
"I... huh..." Blinking twice, Liliana turned away in thought. "I guess that’s how it looks..."
They were in a part of the city so densely packed that creating a map was impossible, a place most suitable for criminals and lowlifes. To anyone unaware of her powers or the deal she made with the youth, it would appear as if he had dragged her to an isolated area to do the unthinkable. Not even the people who trained her would believe she was safe right now.
Still, that wasn’t enough reason to give up. She was going to get into trouble anyway so might as well keep going. That was how she looked at their situation.
"We can’t just stop now." She said. "And you can’t drop out either. I already paid you."
"... God fucking damn it..." Dante hung his head.
Exhaustion was starting to show its effects, making him wish he had bought a can of coffee back at the convenience store. As the silence lingered between them, the girl began to get a little restless. Noticing the continuous tapping of her feet, Dante sighed and pushed himself up.
"Alright, let’s get going."
When he turned away to walk, his hands went directly into his pockets. That told Liliana that he wasn’t going to hold her hand like before, which left her with a faint sense of disappointment.
It took them another hour to find their way out of the maze. Dante kept his silence the entire time, ignoring the girl whenever she said something until she learned to keep her silence as well.
The exit they found was about six kilometers away from where they had entered. Dante wasn’t very familiar with that part of White Hill, but it was right next to the Red River, which gave him a sense of their general location. The area was mapped as well so finding their way around wasn’t going to be a problem.
Soon enough, the red-haired duo found themselves near an old bridge that went over the river. Vehicles no longer pass through it so the locals turned it into a massive bazaar.
Despite it being almost midnight, the place was as crowded as it could get. Dante had to keep an eye on the rich girl to ensure she wouldn’t get lost. The shopkeepers kept calling out to her, and on more than one occasion she would stop to look at what they had, forcing him to drag her away.
After passing one particular shop, Dante was the one to stop and look. Calling it a shop was an exaggeration seeing as it was nothing more than a large tent with rows and rows of racks with clothes of every type hung on them, most of them clearly used.
Deliberating the matter for some time, Dante went inside and began looking through the collection. The shopkeeper didn’t spare him a glance, at least until the rich girl followed him inside, that’s when he did everything to try and make them buy something. a while later, both Dante and Liliana walked out with one bag in each of their hands.
They continued toward the other side of the bridge then stopped at a fast food restaurant where Dante went to the toilet and changed his clothes. Once he came out it was Liliana’s turn to do the same, but after she returned he immediately noticed that something was off.
"... what’s going on here?" He asked while looking her up and down.
The clothes he chose for her were standard streetwear: some sneakers, a pair of jeans, a white shirt, and a blue puffer jacket. He also got her a big beanie so she could hide her long crimson hair, and a mask to cover her face with. From the looks of it, she had no trouble putting them on, but the more he looked at her the more something felt off.
"These... these aren’t the clothes I got for you..."
When he pointed that out, the girl’s expression froze.
Exposed right away, Liliana meekly explained that she couldn’t bring herself to wear those old clothes when she didn’t know where they came from or how long it had been since they were washed. That’s why she scanned them using her bracelet and changed her outfit to match them.
Dante remembered how she switched from her costume to normal clothes right in front of him. That explained why everything looked fresh despite being bought from a second-hand store. Seeing as it did the job, Dante had no reason to complain.