Fragile

Achilles and Sia resumed browsing for weapons in a comfortable silence while ignoring the stares coming from the other clients.

The former could have sworn he saw an old lady chuckling while mumbling something similar to "Oh youngsters nowadays..."

He shifted his attention back to the axe and looked through them while taking glances at Sia from time to time.

The little elf seemed to have noticed his gaze as she turned to him and smiled lovingly.

Achilles was a little awkward after the brazen declaration, so he moved his gaze away immediately.

He heard Sia's giggling and his thoughts traced back to what happened earlier.

'Who are we?'

"Hey Stephen, look over here!" Sia interrupted his train of thought with an excited voice.

"What?"

"How about this one? I think it suits your fighting style rather well." She pointed at a certain axe being displayed.

The thing was quite similar to his old axe except for a few minor differences in shapes, length, and the handle's color which was black entirely.

"Hey, boss!" Achilles shouted out to the owner of this place who was standing a distance away.

The owner seemed to have heard them and turned toward the duo, he suddenly froze for a second before turning back to normal.

"Y-yes, how may I help you?" He spoke worriedly with beads of sweat on his face.

'What's wrong with this guy?' Achilles was puzzled by the owner's strange behavior, he was sure that he didn't do anything to scare this guy.

After a moment, he realized that the owner was not scared of him, but the person next to him — The silvery-white hair goddess.

'Is she an infamous person or something?' He wondered to himself but soon threw the matter aside and spoke to the owner with a polite smile:

"I want to give that axe a swing, do you mind?"

"My apologies sir, but we-" The boss was about to decline but suddenly froze in fear before quickly changing his words: "I-I mean...y-yes, you're free to test it as much as you want."

Achilles didn't care about the boss's odd action and proceed to grab the axe. Sia followed closely behind him, the cold expression she used to intimidate the owner earlier was gone, replaced by a warm and joyous smile.

The former held the axe in his hand to feel his grip on the weapon. Even though he didn't have much expectation at first, this thing was rather suited for him.

"You really have an eye for these matters." Achilles praised her in an impressed tone.

"Hehe...I love it when you compliment me. But this is nothing remarkable." Sia's smile widened a little.

Achilles raised an eyebrow and shook his head slightly. This little succubus didn't know to not mess with him.

'Whatever. I'll find a way to deal with her.'He thought to himself before looking at the axe again.

He changed his grip on the axe and a moment later, he began swinging it around a few times.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

After finishing testing, he nodded his head in satisfaction and turned to look at the owner who was still nearby.

"I'd like this."

"O-of course sir, please follow me to the counter." The boss stammered at his words before quickly moving to the counter

Achilles quickly finished the purchase and surprisingly, he didn't have to sign any soul contract this time.

It was most likely because this was a small-scale store that didn't have any direct link to large corporations like the Evernight, Augustus, and Johnson Corp.

The Augustus and Johnson Corp belonged to two big mafia families of respective names that controlled a part of this city like the Evernight family and the government.

These two families didn't have much influence like the Evernight or the government though.

Well, none of this had anything to do with Achilles since the thing he cared about right now was not having to sign any dumb contract.

'Wonderful! I can kill those 4 bastards without having to use hands now.' He smirked a little as his eyes turned dangerous and full of madness.

Sia was right beside him so she instantly noticed the change in his looks.

'Aaahhh...those eyes...' Her eyes turned a little moist and shaky, and her cheeks became rosy as her breathing started becoming erratic.

Sia held her hands in front of big bosoms which were heaving up and down constantly as she looked intently at Achilles, her heartbeats were slowly rising through the roof.

She felt that she might lose control of her mind any second now!

Achilles recognized that Sia was distracted again once he saw that look on her face.

...For some reason, deep in his subconscious mind — His heart sensed that they were an irreplaceable treasure to him that he desperately needed to hold onto.

His conscious naturally didn't aware any of this as he sighed a little and with one swift move, he cradled her in his arms and started leaving the store, uncaring about the eyes of on-lookers.

'She honestly feels so fragile that it seems like she would break If I wasn't careful.' Achilles held Sia in a bridal carry while unconsciously tightening the grip around her soft body.