153 Intermission (2/2)

I stared at her with great skepticism, but I guess the best I can do is to trust her on the issue. Besides, if anything comes up, Cheral and Yerith, her coworker friends, would most definitely use her phone to contact me. I just hope they don't let Markus do the task of escorting her home because Loriana is practically helpless when intoxicated and if anyone has any foul thoughts, then they would most definitely succeed.

The time soon came for Loriana to leave for her team dinner, which left me alone in the house as she drove off with her car and onto the streets of Palisia. Since the sun was setting, I decided that it was time that I should head out as well. Therefore, after putting on my winter coat and muffler scarf, I exited my house and locked the door behind me.

Like I had expected, the city of Palisia was bustling with activity as the night had merely started to fall on the world and there were still some sunlight left that will surely vanish in a few more minutes. However, despite that, the city streets were brightly illuminated as the millions of residents in Palisia left their homes to spend time out with their friends, family, or significant other as they were all influenced by the festive holiday spirit. The beautiful light decorations put out on the streets and on the store fronts really did help add onto the atmosphere as well since everywhere you went there were signs of Christmas.

I had visited a shopping center to see if there were any video games on sale in one of the stores located in the mall, and when I was riding the outdoors escalators back up to street level from the circular plaza that was made into the ground and at a slightly lower elevation than street level, I saw the tall Christmas tree with its many lights and decorations shining in the not-so-dark night as the many lights of the city provided bright illuminations to it all.

Many couples were sitting about or just walking to their destinations, and this reminded me of one bad thing about the holiday season. I guess it's natural and human nature that people would want to spend such joyful times with people they value, but whenever it is the holiday season, it would appear that the number of dating couples out on the street just increases drastically, almost as if they were intentionally making a point and sending a message to the many single folks of Palisia.

Whatever the case may be, none of that is my business as I am unable to control any aspect of that. What I can control is my hunger, which was the reason why I decided to walk around and see if there're any restaurants serving food that was fit for my mood at the time. Therefore, as I walked on the sidewalk of the busy city streets, I was on my phone in search of someplace nice to eat while also skillfully dodging any of the incoming pedestrian traffic.

I actually like it when I have tasks like this to focus on. It's because when I have something that I can devote the entirety of my mind onto, this often times will allow me to be too occupied to think about anything else that might ruin my mood. Recently, there's been plenty of incidents or ideas like that that will ruin my mood...

As I walked, bright beams of light from the headlights of cars driving on the main road passed by me. Their bright lights made it so that the screen on my phone would occasionally be difficult to see as their lights shined on it, but often times that annoyance will vanish after a split second as they drove by. However, for one instant, it didn't.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the vehicle the lights belonged to were parked on the side of the road with its emergency blinkers on. Then, the vehicle windows slowly lowered so as to reveal the occupants of the vehicle.

”Alevian?” Irina smiled as she peeked out through the opened windows from the backseat of her vehicle and at me.