The bistro “Marry’s” is one of the few businesses that survived Dawn of Darkness. It was opened thirty years ago, and it overcame even the death of its immigrant owner Todd Marry. He left the bistro to his first employee – waiter Tadeáš Skoček – but in respect for the old man, Tadeáš left the name as it is. A sign wasn’t the only thing that didn’t change. Every food here is being cooked the same way as years ago. It couldn’t stand up to five-star restaurants, which became almost extinct, but the best burger in Camitis is only one: a crispy bottom bun smeared with spicy ketchup and Marry's original tartare, a proper juicy slice of beef that makes you want to bite into it just by looking at it, melting golden cheese, a leaf of fresh lettuce, two slices of sweet fresh tomatoes covered with a top bun smeared with raspberry sauce with Port wine and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

From that picture of the king of lunch, Akally would normally drool as soon as the meat would hit a grill. But now he awkwardly played with his hands under a table waiting for the arrival of his companion. To his table came, already a second time, Tadeáš’s wife Karla: “Still no order?”

Akally shook his head: “I am waiting for another person.”

“Another person, huh? That’s new,” wondered the black-haired waitress.

“She told me to meet her here,” added the lad, which was more to assure himself.

“She,” the waitress pointed out, “will surely come, no worries. But as I look at you, I wonder if you are worth any effort.”

Akally checked himself. A grey plaid shirt was without a single spot. When he was taking his trousers from a pile of clothes, it looked good enough, whatever that means in the language of a seventeen-year-old boy. Quietly he sniffed his armpit, but when he came home, he took a quick shower.

“Today’s kids are seriously stupid. Where did you leave a flower, boy? I hope you didn’t come to a date with a lady with empty hands?”

The flame-haired boy got red as a strawberry: “I-It is not like that! It’s… it’s… work. She is from my work.”

Karla let out a sigh: “You need to figure out some things on your own. Call me when you are willing to order.”

Although Akally didn’t like her rude and nosy approach, when she was gone, he forgot about her. But her words got stuck in his head. What if that old hag was right? What if this is more than he thought? Where should he get the flower now? It was too late. A little bell at a door rang when she came in.

Her shiny auburn hair, tied in a braid that fell below her shoulders, swayed gracefully from side to side as she searched for a familiar face among the guests. Same as Akally she chose a plaid shirt but in dark red colour. The last buttonhole reached under her waist, so the shirt covered a big part of her jean shorts. She saw the lad’s fiery hair and ran in white sneakers to his table. She sat across him.: “Sorry I’m late. Obviously even swiftness over 35 can’t help you run through the half of the city,” she giggled.

Redhead’s mouth corners twitched in a small smile before he realised what she just said: “Your swiftness is over 35?!”

“Well, in fact, closer to 40, but I try to focus on other attributes.”

Again, he was reminded of a huge difference between a newbie who just completed his first alter and an experienced huntress.

Dea noticed his sad look: “Don’t worry about it. You will have enough opportunities to catch up to me. In your case, there are more important matters at hand than playing tag with orcs.” The final sentence she said with a different tone to show Akally the topic she wanted to discuss.

“I don’t know what you wanna hear. It was a first time for me as well.”

“Does anybody else know about your abilities?”

He tried to go through his memory before he got to the only answer: “MITEM.”

“That,” she blurted out, “actually may not be such a problem,” finished in a calmer manner, “their data aren’t accessible to others. Even if some big guild managed to convince MITEM to look somewhere else for a moment, guilds won’t do it for a newbie who is still F-rank. Unknowns in our equation are Doi and Kristina. We don’t know whom they are working for. If they even do work for somebody. We don’t know if they are going to talk or sell that information. It’s unorthodox, but some hunters keep their rank low so they can headhunt promising newbies.”

“I don’t think anybody would be interested in a healer who has a hard time healing scratch, and his buff can’t really change the situation,” he scratched his cheek nervously.

“You don’t really think we’re talking about this, aren’t you?” the girl’s brow raised in question.

“But I don’t know how that last thing works. This was the only second time I have ever used it when I tried to revive somebody. In your case, it worked, but I couldn't save Kartz,” he ended in a melancholic tone.

“That doesn’t change a fact that-” she stopped when the waitress came.

“Are you going to order, darlings?” Karla asked with a fake smile.

“I will have a chicken with fries, and a small glass of water,” started Akally.

“One American for me and big iced tea,” Dea continued without a second thought.

The lad and waitress stared at each other in surprise: “Miss has quite an appetite, right?” the woman marvelled when she was writing down their order, then went to the next table.

The huntress cleared her throat: “Ehm, however it works, it doesn’t change the fact it obviously worked. We just need to figure out why you are talking with me right now instead of a psychiatrist. What’s different in my case?”

“We were in the alter.”

“True, but that has no effect on our abilities. It’s another world, but you are still you. What you can do there, you can do here as well. Otherwise, first hunters wouldn’t stand against monsters. Anything else?”

“You are a girl…?” he thought out loud.

“Really? Does your ability discriminate based on gender? Next time I would be able to shoot a dragon but not a deathling.”

“I am still new in this; I don’t know what kind of conditions it can have. What is even a deathling?”

The girl ignored his question: “Basic hunter course is getting pretty sloppy. What else was different?”

“Nothing comes to my mind,” the redhead shrugged.

There came a long silence, during which they both thought about what caused Dea’s return. Akally’s ability did not change. It wasn’t because of him, but because of the circumstances when it happened. In the meantime, Karla returned with their order. In front of the redhead stood a heaping pile of french fries and two large pieces of chicken cutlets, the aroma of which beckoned his taste buds as if he already had them on his tongue. On Dea's side of the table towered Marry's legendary hamburger “American”. For a girl with a figure like the brunette's, it seemed like a superhuman mouthful.

“Can you really eat all of that?” the skinny guy said loudly without thinking.

Dea smirked at him, grabbed the burger firmly by both hands and with one big bite she bit into it. As all the ingredients mixed in perfect harmony of taste, her eyes lit up in bliss: “Tis ish ashome!” she said will full mouth. The hungry lad followed her example and started eating. The meat melted on the tongue like a cloud. There was no doubt that he ordered well. The atmosphere suddenly brightened. The wise man once said: “You can be sad before eating, you can be sad after eating, but you cannot be sad during eating food.”

The girl swallowed her bite: “What is written in your ability description?”

“It revives dead and heals everything,” he answered when he swallowed a few fries.

“That’s a kinda vague way to say it.”

“Do you wanna see my Status?”

Dea’s eyes widened: “Are you crazy?! There are guys who would pay a fortune for a piece of information about certain hunters. Never ever show anybody your Status! You should keep this only for people, you can trust with your life.”

“I trust you,” he smiled kindly.

“You don’t know me.”

“I know about you more than you think,” his corners widened in a bigger smile.

“You trust others too much. It’s easy to use you like that. Now you are nobody, but if somebody finds out what you can do, you will never be able to live normally anymore. The worst of worst will come after you, but what is even worse, good guys trying to protect humanity will come as well.”

“Is there something wrong with joining the good guys?” Akally’s happy face disappeared.

“You can be blackmailed only as long as your patience will hold. You can run away from them, defeat them. But going against your own moral compass? That’s hard. You cannot run away from what you are – saint.”

“And because of that, it will be easier to show you my Status.”

“Did you even listen to what I’ve just said?!” huntress angrily shouted.

“Isn’t this exactly why we are here? You are here to help me figure out how my power works and stopped others from using me.”

Brunette slightly got red: “How do you know I am not here to sell that information to the highest bidder?”

“Why would you care so much about Doi and Kris?”

“Competition,” she replied with a mischievous smile.

“I believe I know enough about you to trust you. Even you cannot run away from who you are – saviour of new hunters,” he stuck out his tongue at her childishly.

[Shared Status] In front of Dea’s eyes appeared black table with gold letters.

Name: Akally

Title: Saint

Patron: Last survivor

Health: 100/100

Mana: 113/200

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Swiftness: 15

Endurance: 10

Magic power: 20

Abilities:

[Rise] Level A - Resurrects the dead person and heals all injuries.

[Healing] Level F – Heals insignificant injuries.

[Strengthening] Level E – Increases little attributes of allies.

The girl carefully read every line of his Status: “Saint, really?”

“What can I say? I am who I am,” he winked at her.

“Of course. Your magic power is higher than I anticipated, but that’s good. Resurrects the dead person and heals all injuries. If I were you, I would swallow that bite.”

He listened: “Why?”

“Because I need to ask you about something uncomfortable. How did the cursoros’ victim look?”

“The body was in pieces. I was knocked out and in shock, I don’t remember details,” Akally’s face got darker.

“That may be what we were looking for,” the brunette noted with a thoughtful expression.

“State of the body?”

“Basically yes. It is about how you perceive the dead. You didn’t say it was him, but the body. You didn’t describe him as a person.”

“Does it matter?”

“It probably does in your case. Resurrects the dead person… It must be a person; you must perceive the dead as the person. In that massacre, you saw only the body. You didn’t see anything resembling an old man. But you did see me, my injury was fatal, but you still thought about me as a person.”

The lad got terrified. Does it mean he could save Kartz? If he thought about him at least once as a person with feelings, memories and nature instead of dead meat, ripped guts and broken bones, could he be alive now?

“Are you saying, if I thought about him as Kartz, I could save him?” his sight got covered by tears in his eyes.

“I am afraid it is not that easy. It is about how you feel in your subconsciousness. Telling yourself you want to revive the person named Kartz will not change you truly see him as the body torn apart. Another problem may be your definition of the injury. What cursoros did cannot be considered a mere injury. It was impossible to save Kartz even if you saw humanity in him. I am sorry.”

The boy wiped his tears with a paper napkin on the table: “Don't apologize,” he blew his nose in it, “it's not your fault. And it's not mine either,” he suddenly said decisively, “I've never seen such a scene in my life. Even if I had known in advance, I would not be able to do anything. More importantly, I know now how to save others.”

She didn’t expect that the boy, who was scared of the orchie a few hours back, has such a strong will. He didn’t flinch. Even though he had a reason to blame himself, he found new strength in his weakness. In his eyes was a little spark of resolve, which could one day be set aflame.

“Wait a moment, what others?” Dea stopped at his last words.

“I couldn’t save Kartz, but I know how to save other victims now.”

“I guess I cannot stop you from using your power, right?” she ate the last piece of her food.

“Sorry, but I am not going to just watch people die when I can do something about it. This is why I became a hunter. When Kartz died, I thought my power is useless. But with every serious wound and dead hunter in the news, I began to think if I could change that. Thanks to you I have a way.”

“What if I am wrong? What if this is not a way it works?” she tried to stop him.

“I will find out when the time comes,” he replied with resolve in his voice.

“We will find out,” she sipped her tea, “I can’t leave you alone as you are. You are still the newbie after all,” she joked.

“Thank you,” he smiled.

“Why do I feel like you played on my feelings?” she crossed her hands on her chest.

“I told you I know you better than you think.”

“Yeah, sure, greenhorn. We will see about that,” Dea stood up and left for the door.

“Am I supposed to pay for all that?!” Akally yelled.

“You know me. I am broke,” she closed the door with laughter.

When Akally looked at dirty dishes, he saw the message from his Patron: [Last survivor asks why you didn’t tell her?]

The lad talked in his mind to Last survivor: “Because some things should stay buried. Heiress to Akashic Company is broke? I doubt that!”