Now that she'd eaten, Chiaya could finally feel how exhausted she actually was. As soon as they entered the apartment, the couch looked very comfortable—like it was asking her to lie down on it..
She'd slept maybe three hours the night before, and that was on a dirty street bench.
Still, Karan was looking at her like he was expecting something.
"There are a couple things I can try to help find someone," she said, with a smile. "But it's not much. So… Karan, today, i'm gonna teach you how to stalk people on the internet."
Chiaya liked to think she was good at digging up information online. That is, until she saw how Lavine stalked the last guy she dated.
Before the first date, Lavine already knew the guy's job history, where his cousins lived, and probably what his third-grade teacher thought of him. She even dug up some embarrassing stories from his childhood.
Lavine was truly terrifying.
Chiaya had learned a lot just by watching her that day.
Karan looked at Chiaya with confused eyes.
"We might not find much, but I'll try," Chiaya said.
She opened her laptop and started searching. She typed the name in every way she could think of—first name and last name, last name and first name, only first name, only last name.
"Elara" was a common and old name. But "Vardal" was new for Chiaya. While looking into the word's origin, she found some results from Norway and Turkey.
Karan just watched Chiaya clicking the small thing in her hand from time to time, and the foldable device showing different images as they moved up and down.
"Are you sure Elara Vardal lived around here? Because most of the results I found are just..."
Chiaya stopped talking. Her eyes had caught an old news article.
The news was from four years ago. It reported a break-in at a house where a family of three lived. The couple was killed, and the man's name was Vardal. There was no information about the child, and their name wasn't mentioned.
It was probably nothing. A very, very small chance it could be someone Karan knew. But even if it was, what could he do now? The man was dead.
Karan noticed the pause in her voice.
"What did you find?" he asked. Chiaya explained the news.
"This is my only clue. I'm going to check it out."
"How will you go?" Chiaya asked anxiously.
"That place is five or six hours away by car and you only learned what a car is this morning. You don't even know what a credit card is. Also where will you stay?"
"I'll figure it out," Karan said.
But deep down, he knew it wouldn't be easy.
Money was the biggest problem. The forstones he brought were useless here.
"Do you think I could sell my armor?" he asked.
His pauldrons and vambraces had beautiful carvings on them, like something made by a master craftsman.
"Maybe. But I'm not sure how much you'd get for it. What kind of metal is it?" Chiaya asked.
"Gold," Karan answered, like it was no big deal.
"What?! Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure. It was gifted to me by Farandal the Great Sage" Karan said.
"Karan, are you fucking kidding me?!" Chiaya stared at him, eyes wide.
"All this time… you've been walking around with big chunks of gold on you?!"
Karan didn't understand why Chiaya was so shocked.
"Do humans fear gold?" he asked, genuinely confused.Chiaya sighed and stepped closer to take a better look at Karan's armor pieces.
As she got closer, the details on the gold pauldrons became even more beautiful.
Karan, for the first time, was also looking at her face this closely.
Her skin was smooth. When she blinked, it looked like her eyelashes softly touched her cheeks.
He could tell from her eyes that she really liked the patterns on the armor.
There was something about her expression when she liked something—it felt worth watching.
He had seen that same look three times before:
when she first saw the cafe garden,
when she looked at the forstones,
and when she tasted the food.
Now, she had that same look again.
"It would be a shame to sell them just for their weight," Chiaya said.
"We need to ask someone who knows about these things."Let's get some sleep. Honestly, I'm really tired and haven't slept much. When we wake up, we'll figure out how to sell your things," Chiaya said.
She reached up to grab a blanket from the top shelf of the closet in the hallway. She wasn't tall enough but kept stretching.
Suddenly, two hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her up. When she grabbed the blanket, Karan put her back down.
Chiaya felt a little embarrassed. She turned to him, smiled softly, and asked,
"Why did you lift me instead of just getting the blanket?"
Karan replied,
"If a truly kind soul can't reach what they pursue, then let them step on you." Karan said gently.
"It is an old Ashuk saying."
From Karan's eyes, it was clear he was truly grateful.
That was enough for Chiaya. For the first time, Chiaya really noticed how beautiful Karan's grey eyes were — flecked with silver like a gentle storm inside.
She didn't know what had taken over his mind and reason when he decided to bring that man into her home—but that look... It was enough.
"This is for you," Chiaya said softly and handed him the blanket. "I'll be in my room and get some sleep. You should rest too. You must be tired."
Karan lay down on the couch. The blanket smelled like Chiaya's clothes. Even among all this essence in the air, he could still make out her scent, he thought — and before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.