REBOOT SIENNA

Chapter 18: Live To Sienna Pt.18

“Meow!”

As soon as the carriage stopped at the temple, Coco, the cat with smooth black fur, jumped off from Sienna’s arms. Then, he headed for the entrance to the temple as if that was the obvious thing to do.

She couldn’t leave the cat in the empty temple, so Sienna took Coco around with her every day. Fortunately, he was a gentle fellow, so there was no difficulty to it.

Sienna saw something strange in front of the temple. A little boy was trying to steal Coco’s rice bowl, so Coco got in a fight with him. Coco threatened the boy by raising his back and tail when the boy snatched the cat’s bowl.

“Coco! You shouldn’t do that to people!”

Sienna approached the agitated Coco, chastising him. The little boy looked at her cautiously and tried to make a run for it into the alleyway next to her.

“I can’t just let it you go.”

Sienna grabbed him by the back when he tried to run past her. Since she was from the North, she was used to running across snowfields, so she was physically fit, but the child was so small and skinny that she could lift him up easily. It was as if she had picked up a small animal, not a human child.

The child struggled in Sienna’s arms.

“Let go of me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Sienna put the child, who had been struggling against her arms, down. Still, she kept a grip on the boy’s wrist.

The child glared at her. His clothes were a mess, announcing the fact that he had been living on the streets, and he reeked. Due to his malnourished state, his lips were chapped and dark, and his skin looked rough, which made him look like he wasn’t a child.

“Let go of my hand!”

“Stop struggling. I’m not going to eat you up. Just listen to my request.”

Even though Sienna had said that, the child remained vigilant.

The child had grown on the streets, and he had met more bad people than good people, so he knew there were people with pleasant faces who were also cruel. Therefore, even though Sienna seemed like a nonthreatening lady trying to make a good impression, she could not easily get him to put his guard down.

“What kind favor is that?” the child asked brusquely.

“Please, eat lunch with me.” The child rubbed his ear as if he had heard wrong, but Sienna shrugged and said, “I feel lonely eating alone. It’s always good to have someone around when you eat. The food tastes better that way.”

The child laughed at her and said, “As if! You’re an adult and you can’t eat alone? To me, eating with someone makes me more nervous. It makes me scared that others will take my food away from me.”

Sienna said, shaking her lunchbox, “I’ve packed plenty of food today. Even if the both of us were to eat it, there’d still be leftovers.”

The little boy slowly gave in when she said she had something for him to eat. It was an irresistible temptation for someone as hungry as him.

“Um…”

The child pretended to act like he was thinking about it even though he had already fallen for it.

Putting the child down, Sienna said, “If a man plays hard to get for too long, he becomes uncharismatic. So, stop worrying and come in.”

She opened the door and entered the temple, and he followed her hesitantly.