Annie lowered her head, her eyes dazed, her body still trembling slightly.
Lilith sighed, knowing that Annie wouldn't trust her with just a few words. Trust needed a process.
"How about this, let's chat first. Where are you from? Why did you become a slave?" Lilith sat opposite Annie, her voice very gentle.
This was a racial ability of the Demon Tribe; not only did they possess natural charm, but their voices, under their control, could also cause some emotional changes in others. They could make others calm, tense, or even passionately excited. This gentle voice calmed the somewhat nervous Annie down slightly, but she still felt a bit constrained sitting in the chair.
"Annie… Annie was in the mine… looking for… ore… was… was caught… locked in… a starship… No food… disobedient… that… that bad woman… would… would… hit Annie…" Annie said in a very soft voice.
Lilith immediately grasped the information in that sentence. Annie was captured by that group of adventurer fleets while living on a planet. Adventurer fleets engage in various work, besides overt interstellar pioneering, mercenary missions, bounty missions, etc., they also do some grey area business, such as human trafficking. And since Annie lived on a planet, there must be many of her clansmen there! A group of Dwarves…
Lilith continued to probe with questions. But Annie was clearly tight-lipped about the planet she had lived on. Seeing this, Lilith didn't press further; prying would only make Annie resentful. It was better to let her relax her guard first.
From their conversation, Lilith learned that Annie had been captured and held for over three months. Because the woman in the leather jacket had a very high asking price, many people were unwilling to buy her. After all, although Dwarves are natural interstellar craftsmen, to make her utilize her abilities, a complete set of industrial equipment and technical blueprints, etc., would be required. Ordinary forces wouldn't have these. And those who did wouldn't want a Dwarf of unknown origin—what if she was a spy sent to steal their technology?
Just as the two were chatting for a while, two plates of fragrant fried rice were placed in front of Lilith and Annie.
Lilith was already accustomed to this fried rice, skillfully picking up a spoon, scooping a full spoonful, and chewing it in her mouth.
But Annie, opposite her, was staring with her big eyes, incredulously looking at the food in front of her… Is this… real rice? And vegetables… and minced meat…? Just the ingredients she saw were at least five kinds!
"Don't you like it?" Lilith asked.
Annie shook her head, swallowed, and said with timid yet longing eyes, "Annie… can… can I eat this…?"
"Of course. This is just the most common food on this starship," Lilith said with a smile.
What seemed like a casual conversation was, in fact, subtly beginning to influence Annie. Because no one could refuse the food of the Little Dragon Fleet!
Annie hesitated for a moment, but finally, she couldn't resist the urge of her appetite and directly reached out, grabbing the rice grains and stuffing them into her mouth. Because of her short stature, Annie's head was basically parallel to the dining table; she even knelt directly on the chair, her mouth full of rice grains.
"Wait a moment…" Lilith suddenly stopped her.
Annie immediately shrunk her neck in fear, the rice grains in her mouth neither chewed nor unchewed, looking as pitiful as a little girl who had made a mistake.
Lilith walked to Annie's side, pressed a button on the chair beneath Annie, and the chair began to slowly rise.
"This chair can adjust its height," Lilith adjusted Annie to a suitable height. Then she took out a tissue to wipe Annie's hands and the rice grains around Annie's mouth. Finally, she placed the spoon, which Annie had ignored, beside the bowl.
"Don't eat with your hands. Use a spoon," Lilith said gently, looking at Annie as if she were her own younger sister. Although she had the goal of recruiting her into the fleet, she also truly pitied this poor little Dwarf.
"Alright, keep eating. Don't eat too fast," Lilith said.
Hearing Lilith's permission to continue eating, Annie finally let out a sigh of relief, swallowed the food in her mouth, and sat obediently in the chair, eating the fried rice in the bowl with a spoon.
As she ate, tears streamed down Annie's face.
She had never eaten such delicious food. On the planet where she lived, resources were scarce, and it was difficult to grow crops, so they could only collect some inferior ores to trade with passing interstellar merchants for artificial nutrient meals. During the three months she had been abducted, she didn't know how her family was living, or if they had enough to eat. She wished they could also taste this delicious food.
Happy times are always short; every grain of rice on Annie's plate was eaten. But she still looked toward the direction of the dining counter. Before, she was too self-conscious to look, but during this meal, she noticed that everyone who entered the restaurant ordered there, and then a robotic waiter delivered it to their table. Besides fried rice, there were all sorts of delicious foods. Another point was that none of these people were human; they were all half-orcs!
Suddenly, Lilith tapped Annie on the head.
Annie clutched her head in pain.
"Don't look anymore. You can't eat any more. Your little body has already eaten a lot. It's your first time eating this kind of food; if you eat too much, it will put a great burden on your abdomen." Lilith recalled when her own Demon Tribe people first ate. After wolfing it down, most of them experienced bloating. Each of the originally beautiful and charming Demon Tribe members had a little potbelly—someone who didn't know might even think Zachary Chase had gotten someone pregnant in just a few days.
"Mm…" Annie nodded obediently.
"We'll go take a bath now." Lilith led Annie out of the restaurant and to the starship's bathhouse.
Soon Annie was completely refreshed; her previously messy hair and dirty skin were all clean. Then she changed into a set of fresh clothes. A brand new little loli appeared in front of Lilith.
"So cute," Lilith looked at Annie's round cheeks, really wanting to gently pat them a few times.
Annie sniffed the fragrance on her body; she had forgotten when she last bathed. She had even grown accustomed to the sour smell on her body, and now, suddenly being clean and wearing clean clothes made her feel a bit unaccustomed.
After bathing, Lilith led Annie to her bedroom. As a secretary, Lilith had a fifty-square-meter single bedroom, though it wasn't as large as the captain's room. But it did have a private bathroom and shower, as well as a large bed and a desk.
"You can rest here for now. I'm going to work," Lilith settled Annie in the room and went to work herself. This was Lilith's deliberate arrangement; exposing Annie to so much at once meant Annie needed some time to process it herself. This way, the efficiency of 'conquering' Annie, the interstellar craftsman, would greatly increase.
Annie looked at the clean and tidy room alone; she walked to the fluffy large bed, pressed her hand on it, and then sniffed the fragrance on it.
Annie carefully lay down and closed her eyes. She was very sleepy, but Annie couldn't fall asleep no matter what.
Finally, Annie got out of bed, went to a corner of the room, hugged her knees with her arms, and curled up against the wall.
This time, Annie fell asleep very quickly.
There was a faint smile on her face. She must have had a good dream.