Having left the grocery store, they were assaulted once again by the market's cacophony and lively atmosphere.
It was now dark, nighttime outside; the twenty or so minutes they had spent inside the grocery store were sufficient for the bit of daylight that remained to vanish completely. But as seen by the bustling crowd, the nightlife of the market street was just as lively as in the day.
The cubic frames on the tip of the metallic poles were now lit. They were glowing with a warm yellow light as they illuminated their surroundings in silence for the moving sea of people below them.
Putting mister Gren and his concealed thoughts to the back of his mind for now, but not back enough to forget him, Theron followed Alicia through the bustling crowd under their lighting; a full basket was hanging by her left arm while she held his left palm with her right, firmly but gently.
After passing a few stores and stalls, Alicia and Theron had arrived in front of a butcher shop in which they entered.
As soon as they stepped inside, the iron smell of blood and sweet odor of freshly cut meat entered Theron's nose, almost unconsciously making him drool.
Even though he wasn't before, and neither in this life, a voluntary meat-eater, due to his growing body he found himself very often craving for meat; the protein in it the only nutrient that could sate his hunger enough.
A counter in the form of an elongated, capital greek letter pi was positioned right in front of them. Its top was encased in thick glass and inside it many kinds of meat were neatly placed, dressed appropriately in various parts.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* Behind the counter, two butchers in white, blood-stained aprons, were bringing down their butcher's knives with force, cutting clean flesh and bone alike in one move.
"Hello mister Brice, mister Ulise!" Alicia called out.
As soon as they heard a customer calling them, they stopped the butchering and turned their heads towards the entrance, practically at the same time.
As Theron walked with Alicia forward towards the counter, he looked up at them, scrutinizing them.
The first thing that caught his eye was their height. Both were at least one head taller than Alicia; they seemed like giants to Theron with his four years old height.
Their bodies seemed fit, and their muscle mass was balanced all around as if they trained regularly. This was his first time in this world seeing such well-trained bodies. It was weird too how they resembled with their bodies' stances the experienced soldiers from his past life.
The corners of their eyes sported a few faint wrinkles, betraying their ages to be somewhere in the early forties. Their other facial features were also almost identical between each other, leading Theron to the fact that they were most likely brothers.
Except for small differences that weren't so noticeable, only their facial hairs truly differed. One of them had a dark brown moustache which connected with his low sideburns and was shaved from his chin to his neck, while the other had a goatee without a moustache.
Which one was which, was still to be determined.
"Oh, young Alicia, welcome! How are you and Frank, everything well?" over the counter, the one with the moustache and sideburns warmly welcomed her.
The difference in age between Alicia and the butchers was shown, as she indeed seemed a young lady to them.
"We are both fine, mister Brice, thank you for asking. And how is your business?" she politely asked back.
'So that's Brice, making the one with the goatee Ulise.' Theron thought.
"Ahahaha! The business is good as always!" Brice merrily answered while Ulise at the side smiled along. He was obviously the quieter of the two.
"Oh!" as if just noticing Theron, Brice exclaimed. "Is this little Theron, you always tell us stories about?" Ulise turned in surprise and looked down at Theron as well.
'What. Am I too short for them to notice me?!' the cheerful attitude of the loud one rubbed the always serious Theron in an irritating way.
Due to his previous life's strict work ethics that were mandatory to be followed, the many years spent in it had gradually sharpened the edges of his personality while nullifying other unneeded aspects.
That made him not particularly keen for merry personalities or those with goodwill jokes always ready at the tips of their tongues, as pretty often than not as it turned out, those character tendencies led to work accidents. And in his line of work, an accident was guaranteed to cause destruction.
Of course, his warm and gentle mother was exempt from those groups of people.
Theron's inner thoughts of dislike managed to surface in his eyes before he could control them, leading to his stare becoming especially sharp.
"Wow! That is one sharp and intense stare he has got young Alicia! His beyond his age smarts are oozing out of his eyes!" Brice pointed out in surprise. Ulise nodded, agreeing with his brother.
Only just then did Theron realize his blunder, quickly withdrawing his feelings just in time to feel Alicia's free hand ruffling up his hair.
"That's right. My little Teri is a genius!" Alicia proudly said.
"Ahahah! I'm glad to finally be putting a face to your stories!" Brice said.
'Ugh, did she really tell everyone about me?!' despondently Theron thought.
"Nice to finally meet you, young lad!" he continued, right before leaning over the counter and stretching his hand forward.
The hand of the tall butcher almost reached him when it stopped. Theron only needed to tiptoe a little to return the handshake and greet them back. Right after, quiet Ulise did the same, and Theron reciprocated his handshake and greeting as well.
"Well, young Alicia, what brings you here today?" straightening up again, the brothers adopted their business looks, leaving the chitchat behind.
"Oh right, mister Brice! I would like 1 kg of Roudor meat please." And Alicia answered back.
"Of course! Would you like it minced or in pieces?"
"Pieces please." Alicia answered politely.
"Pieces it is then." Brice nodded and moved to the cutting table to make some space while Ulise went through a back door, to where the fridge Theron assumed to be, to fetch a suitable Roudor part for the cutting.
When Ulise opened the door, Theron managed to see a green glow from the inside just before the door closed.
He was surprised to say the least, because the green glow illuminating the spacious fringe room was the same as the mekron crystals glow.
That whole room must have a crystal system in it and the only reasonable function it should have in this circumstance was providing the low temperature. It was like the cuboven back at home, but instead of the crystal energy transforming into heat it transformed into cold!
'Then....' Theron thought in a flash as he focused his eyes directly in front of him, putting his tiny hands on the counter's glass case at the same time.
It was cold!
Although it was logical to be cold, to hold the meats on display fresh for the customers, now that he knew the fringe room at the back was powered by crystal energy, multitude questions arose in his engineer's mind trying to analyze the system behind it.
'There is no green glow to be seen in the glass case! So, does that make this counter something similar to the cuboven, where the crystal system is inside it, hidden? Or is the cold energy from the fringe's system somehow transmitted underground with extended crystal lines?' Theron quickly thought during the few seconds Ulise took to return with a large piece of Roudor thigh in his gloved hands.
During the short time the brothers took to prepare the requested pieces, Theron eliminated most theories and left only one to be possible, the use of extended crystal lines. It would be too expensive and not cost-effective to maintain both the fridge and the counter at the same time.
The conclusion was illuminating to him as he didn't know as of then if the crystal energy could be transmitted over long distances or not. And although he needed to see them for himself first to be one hundred percent certain they were indeed operable in that degree, just the possibilities behind this capability made him wish he was back in his lab right at that moment, realizing the new ideas that popped in his mind.
"Here you are young Alicia! 1 kg of Roudor meat in pieces!" said Brice, waking Theron from his fantasies with his loud and unrestrained voice.
A package made of butcher paper was placed atop the glass counter.
"Thank you, mister Brice and mister Ulise! How much do I owe you?" Alicia asked, the leather pouch was already in her left hand.
"27 krestal young Alicia!" Brice answered, straightforward and truthful as he always was.
"Here you go." smiling without saying anything to refute that reasonable price, Alicia handed the coins to Brice and took the paper package, putting it in the basket.
"Thank you again mister Brice, mister Ulise for the quick service too! Come little Teri, let's go." Always polite, Alicia said her goodbyes as she and Theron moved to leave the butcher shop.
"We thank you for your purchases as always young Alicia! Oh, give our greetings to young Frank too when you get back home!" Brice merrily said as he and Ulise waved their goodbyes.
"I will!" Alicia nodded.
When the door closed behind Alicia and Theron, the smiles on the brothers' faces subsided to nothing, and silence prevailed in the butcher shop.
"Ulise." after a second, Brice uttered, breaking the silence.
"Yes, Brice." Ulise finally talked, his voice gruff.
"Were that basket and vegetables young miss was holding from "Greens For You!" ?" Brice asked.
With the mere mention of that grocery's name, the surrounding temperature decreased.
"Yes, they were." Ulise answered, treating his words like gold.
"What?!" he almost shouted, and the temperature grew even lower. "Are you telling me young miss visited that madman's store and we didn't know about it?"
"Don't worry, Brice, I was aware." Ulise simply stated, calm as always.
"Then why didn't you tell me? What if something happened to young miss?!" Brice asked his little brother, clearly in shock and bewilderment.
"Because you would have rushed and prevented young miss for entering."
"You bet I would! You know very well just as I do, how deranged that madman is. "What if he hurt her?!"
Brice would really love to go and tear that madman to shreds, but that madman was as cunning as a fox and as slippery as an eel, leaving no evidence for his wrongdoings behind and disappearing the moment he notices he is targeted. There were orders from the higher ups to just have him under observation until he slipped up.
"Nothing would have happened to her. He doesn't know her true identity." Ulise said, trying to calm his big brother down. "Besides...Despite the scumbag he is, his products are of good quality; Young miss prefers them." he finished, having said enough.
"Young miss is...?!" Brice stared in shock after that revelation. "C-Cough! Then it is ok, as long young miss is safe." he submitted. He clearly had a soft spot for their young miss.
"But Ulise! We need to be more vigilant and protect young miss better when she goes to his store! We can't allow anything to happen to her!" he said in all seriousness, as if the world depended on their young miss's wellbeing.
"Of course." Ulise simply agreed, as that was already expected.