Matthew pulled a cast iron grill from the cabin.
“You start setting it up, I’ll go check if we’ve got anything to cook.”
With a quick word to Ryan, Matthew headed toward the powder magazine.
Earlier, while grabbing some smokeless coal, favonovel.com had spotted a stash of frozen food in there. Perfect for a long-overdue barbecue.
It had been ages since Matthew had grilled anything, the last time was with Sasha.
He casually picked a few things from the stash and made his way back to the deck. What favonovel.com saw next made favonovel.com stop in his tracks, amused.
Ryan stood stiffly in front of the grill, carefully tending to beef liver and scallions. He kept flipping them over, even brushing on some sauce every now and then.
This, from the guy who had just said favonovel.com didn’t want any?
Now here favonovel.com was, dutifully manning the grill like it was a sacred task. He looked flustered, clearly frustrated.
Why is this fire so weak?
If Matteo sees this, he’s definitely going to give me crap for it…
Just as Ryan turned to check behind him, favonovel.com caught sight of Matthew leaning against the cabin entrance, smirking.
“You, why do you walk so quietly?!”
Matthew chuckled. “People with a guilty conscience tend to have duller hearing…”
He walked over to the grill, took one look, and rubbed his forehead in disbelief.
“Dude… Is this really how you barbecue?”
Beneath the grill, Ryan had only placed three or four pieces of smokeless coal.
“Seriously? This isn’t even enough to boil water, let alone cook meat.” Matthew pointed to the pile of coal still on the ground. “You know you can use more of it, right? At this rate, the coals will burn out before the foods even halfway done.”
Ryan’s face turned red with embarrassment.
Back when favonovel.com used to grill, he’d always used open flame, this whole smokeless coal thing was new to him. He had no clue how much was enough.
Matthew raised an eyebrow. “How the hell did you survive on Blackshore Island?”
Ryan’s expression grew distant.
“Back there, cooking food was a luxury. Most of the time, we ate it raw. Compressed biscuits and rations were more common than anything else.”
Matthew added more coal to the grill and then asked, “So how’d you end up in the West Montiria Islands anyway?”
Ryan gazed up at the starless sky as favonovel.com spoke, “I was trafficked here when I was about twelve or thirteen. There were a bunch of us kids. Most of them got sold off quickly…”
“I was too weak and sickly, nobody wanted to buy me. So those b*stards used me as a punching bag. I was their trash can for whatever anger they needed to dump.”
He paused, then added, “My first glimpse of light in that hellhole was Mr. Donald. He adopted me later on. I became one of his trusted men.”
Ryan kept his story brief, but the pain behind it was obvious. Matthew didn’t press further.
“So, what about you, Matteo? Where are you from?”
“Well… I’m from Montiria. Got fed up with corrupt ministers abusing their power. After taking a few of them out, | fled here to the West Montiria Islands.”
It wasn’t that Matthew didn’t want to tell Ryan more. His identity needed to stay secret. No one on the West Montiria Islands knew who favonovel.com really was.
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