As Penelope walked over to get her share of lunch from Gavin, Crow took some time to look for a comfortable place to sit down and rest. He already knew Gavin wouldn’t give him a portion until all of the knights had claimed the amount they wanted, so there was no point in trying to approach him right away. After all, the man hadn’t even willingly agreed to feed him anything. The only reason he had done so was because he had been coerced.

After casting a quick glance over the clearing, Crow spotted an old fallen tree in a patch of tall grass. It looked pleasant enough, so he stepped over and sat on the ground with his back against the trunk. Once he had settled down and decided it was a good place to relax, he shifted to a more comfortable position, stretching out his legs and leaning contentedly into the tree as he watched the knights distribute their shares of the food.

He smiled in amusement as he overheard Olivia’s teasing comment to Gavin about the way he had packaged their lunches so neatly. Despite her gibe, he was a bit surprised to see that the knight had done such a thorough job of bundling up the food. He didn’t know too much about nobles, but from the little he did understand, they usually had servants do such menial tasks for them. It was interesting to him that Gavin would have been able to do something like that, even if it wasn’t a particularly impressive or challenging skill. But of course, he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone else, so he kept his mouth shut about it.

Noticing that the knights were almost done dividing their food, Crow left his bag to secure his spot by the tree and got up again to stand at Penelope’s side since he didn’t want to miss out on taking whatever had been left over for him. When he reached her, he met her gaze curiously as she said that he could take the majority of her ration. He had been expecting to be given some scraps from all of their lunches, not offered most of a whole one.

At her teasing comment he felt a faint warmth creep into his cheeks, and he rolled his eyes in a casual attempt to cover his embarrassment. “I hope you meant that, love, because as soon as I take this from you, you’re not getting it back,” he kissed her playfully on the cheek as he slipped the parcel of lunch out of her hand. “Also, I found a good place for us to sit over here,” he smiled at her warmly and pressed his free hand to the small of her back as he led her towards the place where he had left his bag.

Sitting down again, he made sure there was enough room for her to lean against the tree with him before he opened the neatly wrapped cloth that held their food and began to eat his portion of it. He took a moment to look at the other knights, noting that Gavin was keeping some distance from them, although he seemed to frequently cast furtive glances in their direction. Olivia, on the other hand, decided to make herself right at home on Penelope’s other side.

“So,” the female knight spoke up, eyeing Crow with an intrigued expression. “I happen to recall you mentioning something earlier about knowing these thieves. If they’re friends of yours, why are you handing them over to us?”

The thief met her gaze guardedly as he answered, “They’re not friends of mine, and honestly, Brerra would be better off if they were dead.”

“Ooh,” Olivia purred, seeming to think she had found an interesting topic to dig into. “Sounds like some bad blood. What did they do? Did they steal from you?”

“No,” Crow shook his head, averting his gaze as he took another bite of food and swallowed. “I just happened to run into them in the inner kingdom a while back. I’ve seen them steal, and I don’t approve of their methods. That’s all there is to it.”

“Is that so?” Olivia pursed her lips, seeming unconvinced. “Those were some harsh words for a simple difference of opinion.”

“Sorry to disappoint, but that’s it,” he shrugged. “I dislike murderers, and these thieves kill without discretion. My reason to help you find them runs no deeper than that.”

“Hm,” Olivia grunted, seeming to pick up on the fact that he wasn’t going to tell her anything more about the men they were after. She fell quiet for a bit as she ate her lunch, drumming her fingers on her leg as she grew bored of the peaceful moment. After a brief silence had passed, her dark eyes wandered to Gavin before she turned back to Crow with a mischievous smirk. “By the way, how’s Penelope been for you since you two got back together? I bet she didn’t tell you I was the one who helped her get better in the love department while you were gone.”

Unprepared for the knight’s sudden comment, Crow choked on his food and turned to her with a startled look.

Olivia laughed, clearly entertained by his reaction. “Oh, I didn’t mean I helped her [i]personally[/i],” she snickered. “I just meant I was the one who helped her get back out there.” She nudged her friend teasingly. “I bet it helped. She was such a prude before.”