"Hey, you!" Someone yelled, staring right at them. "Why are you looking at us like that, HUH?!"
He was looking at Rowan, who couldn’t hide the sharp look in his eyes. In his mind, he just wanted to burn these bastards. Even if they were all of a higher level than he was, at this time, he just felt... angry.
In fact, if one looked at his cup, one would see the bubbles created by the liquid heating up.
Obviously, a little over a year ago, this kind of talk was so prevalent that it was normalized. Although he didn’t like the conversations nor had he ever participated in them, it didn’t really trigger emotion in him.
Now, after being accustomed to Alterra—and most importantly, after falling in love—these kinds of comments suddenly felt personal.
Before anything could explode, the person in front of him stood and headed to the other table with a friendly expression.
"Wow, good brother, that sounds so envious!" Silvia, er, Silvio said as she stood between them, taking attention away from Rowan. "Have you seen these women? Are they beautiful?!"
The men looked at Silvio for a moment. They had scowls on their faces at first, but they saw his ’genuine admiration and curiosity’, so their moods lifted immediately.
Discussions about beautiful women had a way of diffusing tension.
"Most of them are! So watery, so beautiful. Not like women we have here."
"Heard they were Migrators."
"Ah, been a while, yeah?"
"I was a kid when the previous batch came in," another said. "Though I heard they all died within a year."
They chatted like this for a bit, though it was mostly Silvia who did the talking.
They basically confirmed that the elementalists here were mostly Terrans, at least all elementalist slaves were. They chatted until they didn’t get any more useful information, excusing themselves.
She wrapped an arm around Rowan’s shoulder like a brother, saying goodbye to the aborigines.
Her smile disappeared as she dragged Rowan out of the restaurant. "I’m angry too," she said. "But we have to keep a low profile."
Rowan paused and nodded. He also felt ashamed. If he had made a scene, what would have happened to Silvia?
Seeing that the man was remorseful, Silvia smiled, teasingly rubbing his ears—he was sensitive there—before taking it away before they blew their cover.
"Now, let’s go to the next one," she said with a sing-song voice, leaving him alone as he stood stiffly, still affected by her touch.
Rowan’s eyes darkened as he looked at the woman.
She’d suffer quite a bit later that night for sure.
...
In order not to stand out too much by staying too long in one place, they shifted pubs and restaurants every two or three hours.
The next one was a pub. They settled on one of the wall-mounted tables there, their backs facing the others, appearing like two lonely men just drinking with their own thoughts.
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