"Want to mess with me again, huh?"
The man batted an eye to look at the little girl wearing a red cloak in front of him, while still leaning against the pillar of the gazebo. Although he looked like he was lowering his guard, he would immediately deal a fatal blow as soon as any threatening movements towards him appeared.
That was how he worked, even if this place was inside Vertin's suitcase.
"No, I want to say something else."
Facing his suspicious eyes, the young huntress slightly shook her head. Her fingers on the "hand-adz" - her special weapon, tightened a little, yet it wasn't a sign of precaution.
In the last two days, Mondlicht had been practicing how to remain calm when facing Pavia. Despite the fact that she had realized he wasn't the same kind with the big bad wolves, her instincts didn't work that way.
The vengeance for big bad wolves had become a part of her since the moment she learnt to fight and it would always be there till the moment she died.
Therefore, her hand-adz would instantly fire and slash, if any of her five senses ever detected the presence of those ferocious monsters. This also included Pavia, who had some traits and a faint atmosphere similar to them.
After asking some members in the suitcase, the little girl was led to an experienced stunt actor, Ms. Bette.
"Me?! O-Of course, you came to the right person!"
Ms. Bette had an ability to change her appearance to anyone she had seen before. Moreover, she was very good at mimicking their gestures and vibes for a short time, which was able to reach 50% of similarity.
Thanks to her quick reflexes as a stuntman, Bette had successfully avoided many lethal attacks from Mondlicht, right after she played her role as Pavia.
As a result of the training, the young huntress had shortened the safe distance between them and restrained her fighting instincts in front of the man.
"I'm sorry for trying to kill you that day."
Mondlicht lowered her crimson eyes and honestly admitted her fault.
"That's all you want to say, after having the guts to bother my resting time?"
Pavia gave her a glower.
"Then you should f*ck off before I'm totally pissed off by your presence."
The mercenary himself hated those annoying brats as much as those hirers who refused to pay when the mission was about to complete. With the previous, he had many ways to make them shut their mouths, yet the only option for the latter was death.
The girl still stood there, remaining in the safe space and now looking straight at him. Just like their first encounter, his threatening words had no effect on her at all.
"Here's my apology gift. Please take it."
As she spoke, a small object was thrown to Pavia's direction and easily caught by him. It was wrapped in a page from an old newspaper, with the astrology section visible in Pavia's sight.
[Your lucky item today is a fairy tale picture book.]
'If it didn't explode, then it wasn't a grenade.'
That thought quickly passed by his head when he was slowly opening the wrapped paper. Soon, various types of colorful candies revealed themselves before the suspicious eyes behind the sunglasses.
He could recognize some of them, since he had seen the balloon weirdo give them out to all the children in the suitcase the other day.
"I can swear that there is no poison inside."
As if seeing him spend a rather long time watching the candies, the girl added promptly.
Mondlicht was still so young that her thoughts were written all over her face. Just looking at her face was enough for Pavia to know if she was lying.
That was why he received her apology gift without worrying that it could be a grenade which would blow his hand away in a blink of an eye. At the same time, he enjoyed the feeling of stimulation as the chance he guessed wrong was up to 50%.
In the end, the little brat didn't give him a disappointed answer.
The man tore off a random wrapper and put the purple candy in his mouth. On his tongue, there was a combination of the chemical-sugared sweet and fake grape smell gradually spreading.
A cheap piece of candy.
A familiar taste.
In the darkness that he couldn't tell if it was night or day, it was something in the past that he once craved for.
"What else do you want from me?"
Pavia was now actually paying his attention to the little girl in the red cloak standing before him.
"Can you... read this picture book for me?"
Inside her red cloak, Mondlicht took out a picture book as well as a small pouch of candies.
Since the young huntress heard an explanation about his job from Vertin, a faint intention had appeared in her mind. Then, she had borrowed the picture book from Cristallo and promised to bring it back intact as soon as she finished.
"I will pay you for all the sweets in this pouch when we finish reading."
The man remembered the pouch in her hand, because he had seen her use it to contain all the sweets people gave her last week.
"How about your desserts after the meals tomorrow? I want them too."
His fingertips rubbed together and a cunning smile appeared on his face.
"Yes... I will give them to you."
Her hesitation in her words made him satisfied.
Therefore, their reading times began.
............
Once upon a time, there was a girl who wore a red cloak. Because of that red cloak, people called her Red Riding Hood.
"Why was her cloak red?" The young huntress knitted her eyebrows, "Was her cloak also soaked in blood like mine?"
"They didn't write anything about the reason for it."
The mercenary replied.
"So it could be the blood of her enemies or those stingy hirers who refused to pay."
"I got it." The girl nodded seriously.
One day, her mother told her to send a basket of food to her grandmother's house on the other side of the woods. The girl happily received the basket from her mother and began her trip.
"Wasn't it too risky for an unarmed girl to walk through the forest alone?"
She asked him with a confused look on her face.
"Apart from big bad wolves, there may be bears, foxes, snakes and many dangerous animals in the woods. She could have been attacked and even lost her life."
"Bad parenting happens a lot these days." The man turned on another page and said in a sarcastic tone, "They thought a child who could walk and talk could survive by themself already."
"I... got it."
Still bewildered with the new information that was contrary to her knowledge, the little girl nodded absentmindedly.
On the path, Red Riding Hood met a sly wolf which intended to eat both her and the food in her basket. Before doing that, the wolf asked where she was going. The girl replied she was going to her grandmother's house on the other side of the wood.
"This brat was so f*cking stupid." The man exclaimed.
This time, the young huntress also nodded in agreement with him. However, she still tried to defend Red Riding Hood a little.
"Maybe she lived in a peaceful world where no big bad wolves existed...."
"Even in a peaceful era, no one will talk with a wolf that can speak human's language. That one is a monster."
He clicked his tongue.
"Also, normal humans can turn into monsters in no time. Try to keep that thing in your little head."
Somehow, not only Mondlicht, but also Pavia was into the picture book that she brought. In each part of the story, both of them would leave their comments on the details that caught their eyes.
Sometimes the girl asked, the man answered. Sometimes the man criticized, the girl tried to defend and was soon persuaded by him.
The distance between them grew closer and closer, to the point that they didn't have the slightest idea to harm the other, even though the only thing that separated them was just a picture book and a small pouch that was filled with candies.
From another direction that wasn't too far from the gazebo, the ghost photographer was floating aimlessly in this small wood. After a while, he stopped before the gazebo, raised his camera and clicked without the notice of anyone.
'An alternative time and space where Red Riding Hood became friends with The Wolf...'
A name for this picture had appeared in his head.
At the end of the month, Vertin visited Click's room to watch his monthly collection.
Various moments of her companions were captured and one of them made her let out a gentle smile.
New work: The Wolf & The Girl in Red Cloak.