Bradley gave her words some thought for a moment but quickly forgot about it. He had a responsibility on his shoulders now that their parents were gone. He would be the one to take care of his brother.
If he was lucky, he would even be responsible for the whole town in the future. There wasn’t much need for him to worry about not living a simple life as he knew after a while, his life wouldn’t be as simple.
Stanley on the other hand was simply stunned by what he heard from the girl.
‘Why am I trying to become a Defender?’ he asked himself.
Was it because he wanted to save people? No, as much as he didn’t like to think about it, he didn’t care much for the others. He would help them if he could, but he would never go out of his way to do so.
Then why did he want to become a Defender?
When starting out, it was because Defenders made a lot of money. If he had enough money, he could give his mom the easy life that she deserved.
However, now that she had passed away, his reason for becoming a Defender had died with her too. Now, there was only a single reason why he wanted to become a Defender anymore.
It was to get his revenge.
He wanted to kill as many crawlers as he could, to satisfy the anger in his heart, the one that hid deep within him and would only show up when there was a Crawler in front of him.
He didn’t care about the money he would earn or the people he could help. He only wanted revenge.
But… did he need to be a Defender for that?
“Eat up!” Bradley nudged him. “Or else it will get cold.”
Stanley jerked out of his thoughts and nodded. Then, he started consuming the noodles in front of him that seemed to hold the flavor of life itself in it.
He savored every single bite, taking his sweet time as he ate.
“Hey, little sister. Is the shop closed yet?” a voice asked loudly from outside the shop.
“No, I have enough for about 20 more people,” Sheila answered the man. “You can come in.”
“20 huh? You are way too popular. You should get more ingredients so you can keep the shop open until late evening,” the man spoke and walked in.
“It’s fine. It’s too much work anyway,” Sheila answered. “Please sit around, I’ll get you your noodles soon.”
“Okay,” the man answered and looked around the room. “Oh? If it isn’t Bradley.”
Stanley turned around when he heard his brother being called. He looked at the man that had arrived and was surprised to see that it was another Defender.
The man was slightly taller than Stanley and had a thin build, no different than his brother’s. He had slightly brown hair and looked normal for the most part.
His eyes looked a little weird, however. Stanley couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something wrong with his eyelids with how smooth it all was.
“Brother Yasu?” Bradley turned around. “Off to work?”
“Yeah, I have patrol duty today for the entire night,” he explained while he sat on the empty seat next to Bradley. “You like the food here too?”
“It’s great,” Bradley said. “Do you come here often?”
“Yeah, no one does it like Sheila does. There have been others trying to copy her apparently, but not a single one of them has been able to make something as savory,” Yasu said. “I wonder what she uses to make it all taste so good.”
“I don’t think she’ll tell anyone that,” Bradley said. “Oh, this is my brother. I don’t think you’ve met him before.” .𝘯𝘵
“Oh, hi,” Yasu went in for a handshake.
Stanley quickly shook his hands and introduced himself.
“That’s a strong shake,” Yasu said. “Youths these days are strong, aren’t they?”
Yasu ignored Stanley for the most part after that, talking only with Bradley. Their conversation was simple, neither delving into any deep topics.
Yasu’s food arrived a few minutes later and he started eating too. He seemed to be in a hurry, so unlike the two brothers, he finished his meal as quickly as he could.
“I’ll be leaving first then,” Yasu said and got up from his seat. He complimented Sheila on her food and left after paying.
“Oh, it’s dark out already. We should leave,” Bradley said and started eating quickly as well. Stanley increased the pace and in the next two minutes, both brothers were done eating their meal.
“Thank you for the meal,” Bradley spoke as he walked up to Sheila. “I had to leave in a hurry last time, so I couldn’t tell you how good this food tastes.”
“Thank you,” Sheila said softly while taking the money she was given.
“We’ll come again,” Bradley said and walked away. Stanley nodded as he walked out as well.
The lamps dimly lit the streets this time around as the sky had gone completely dark. “Wow, we spent a bit too long in that shop, didn’t we?” he asked. “Let’s go back quickly.”
There were a lot fewer people in the streets now that it was night. The ones that were also rushing back home.
As they made their way up the town, a figure in a hooded cloak ran up to them. “A-are you two Defenders?” A desperate-sounding woman’s voice could be heard from beneath the cloak.
“Yes,” Bradley said. “What’s wrong?”
“M-my child! P-please, help my child,” the woman spoke and rushed away.
Stanley and Bradley quickly ran behind her to help her child. They followed her into an alleyway, where she took a turn toward another alley with bright lights.
The two brothers quickly ran after her. Stanley was ahead of his brother, so he arrived at the alleyway just a few seconds earlier. As he turned around the corner, a deep sense of fear filled him.
The feeling had come back which meant so had danger.