A few moments later, colour returned to the young man"s face and he finally seemed to come to."...Uh? Where am I?"
The young man sat up and put his hand to his head.
"Ara? Are you awake already?"
The young man was awestruck at the beauty in front of him. She had l.u.s.trous black hair all the way down to her waists. Fair skin that had a faint blush of pink which made her look extremely cute.
"Eh? Umm..."
"Hmm? Is there something wrong?"
"Uh, No! There"s nothing wrong!"
Meanwhile, for the party of four standing by the fancy carriage.
"..."
"..."
"..."
〈「...」〉
"Val, you don"t have to broadcast your silence via telepathy."
〈「No, it"s definitely needed.」〉
The bystanders in the romance flag raising event were dumbstruck by the perfect act Felicia had put on. Cole, not as much. He saw through her act once before but he felt weird for some reason. It was as if there was a black wave surging in his heart. And he didn"t like the feeling of feeling weird. It was weird.
The twins had another reason for being dumbstruck.
"Dammit. He looked so feminine so I thought he was gay for sure. Or secretly a woman"
"If you wanted to know whether or not he was a dude, you could have just asked me."
"But then what would be the point of betting against myself? And you wondered if he was gay too!"
"!!"
Cole had offered to be the one to talk with the man but Felicia insisted. Cole was confident in his Chinese/Zhonghuan but Felicia apparently had her pride on the line.
She also said that he would be put more at ease with a gentle-looking woman like her to be the first one to talk to him rather than a dead-eyed man.
"My eyes aren"t dead all the time."
"Wait, what if he"s gay?"
"What if he"s crooked?"
"I don"t think it would make any difference..."
The rest of the party had their own thoughts about the circ.u.mstances but decided it would be best to let Felicia do what she wants. She was still dressed in those fancy young missus clothes. 3 of those thoughts were already disproven though.
The young man had already had a relaxed expression on her face and his guard was completely let down. He had no idea that everybody present wasn"t human. Well, half-human.
The frames on a Combat-type Mechanica were retractable. As for the headphones, they had optical camouflage on them.
Cole just used a mask to cover his since the frames helped with the recoil from his laser cannons. They could also form a metal mask over his face but Cole decided to just use the black one he was using now since it would attract attention. Although it was activated underneath his cloth mask.
"So, why were you floating through a river?"
"Ah, that"s right. You see, I was meditating underneath a waterfall last night."
The young man started to recount his not really tragic tale.
Meanwhile, again, the carriage team dived into a discussion once more.
"People actually do that?"
"Maybe it was a magical waterfall?"
"It could be some way of training?"
〈「Maybe it"s his fetish...?」〉
"I didn"t expect that to come out of your mouth."
〈「A Dragon"s mind is wide and vast.」〉
Val appeared to take pride in that. The group continued their discussion about the different reasons why one would meditate underneath a waterfall. Unfortunately, the discussion was cut short.
"But then I was struck with a bolt of purple lightning!"
〈「Kuh!」〉
Val had nearly let out a sound but was able to shout it out through Telepathy instead. Arrows of guilt started to aim and shoot towards his frail, Dragon heart. But as a Dragon, he had like three of them so we"re not sure if that actually did something.
Felicia"s smile froze and she felt tempted to burst into laughter just then and there but she restrained herself from doing so.
"Oh my! That must have been painful! Are you alright, Sir...?"
"Oh yeah, I didn"t introduce myself yet, did I?"
"I am Nan Zhujiao."
"..."
"..."
"..."
〈「???」〉
The carriage team got stunned into silence once again.
"Wait..."
"What did he say his name was?"
"...He said he was "Nan Zhujiao". The eldest son of the Nan clan."
"Pfft...!"
"Hey... Kuh... Gemi, it"s not nice to laugh."
"But...Haha...Nii! His name!"
"I know, but that isn"t polite."
"Shut up you two. Or else I won"t let Felicia share any of the Orios with you. You"re also supposed to be mute, remember?"
"!!"
"!!"
The twins immediately clammed up. Their snacks were more precious to them rather than a momentary bout of laughter. Felicia wasn"t sure if she was supposed to get mad for being used as a bargaining chip but didn"t really care. She would shut up too if it meant she would get to keep her stash of snacks.
They also agreed that they would pretend to be mute since they couldn"t speak Chinese.
〈「Hey, you two. What"s so funny?」〉
"It"s because his name means..."
"Male Protagonist."
The twins didn"t set their auto translate to leave out names because it was sometimes part of the sentence. It was also because they thought it would fun to see the meaning of the names.
And the subt.i.tles they read when Zhujiao introduced himself was as such.
〔I am Male Protagonist (Nan Zhujiao)〕
Another translation was "I am the Hero" which was also funny in the same way. And when both of them thought back to it, with his backstory, he really was one.
"Should we set it to〔Detect Name〕, next time?"
"A few more times, then we change it back."
Although they were about to burst into laughter, the conversation between the Felicia and the young man was going on smoothly.
"Ah, nice to meet you, Sir Nan."
"No, please, call me Zhujiao."
"If you say so. My name is Feng Huan. I do believe I"m older than you, so please call me Sister Feng, okay?"
"Y-Yes!"
Zhujiao moved his face away in embarra.s.sment. Although he was the heir and eldest son of the Nan Clan, he hadn"t had much interaction with the opposite s.e.x. He mostly focused his time on his studies and cultivation.
It just so happened that the direction he turned his head to was at the carriage. He first noticed the black scaled beast hooked up to the carriage. Its black colour provided a striking contrast against the lush, green backdrop.
He then noticed the pair of blue-haired twins gazing at him curiously. They appeared to be around his age yet a bit shorter.
And then finally, there was the last person.
He was dressed in a similar fashion as the young boy. Black robes with red embroidery. He had a black mask covering up half of his face and he couldn"t see the rest since the upper half was masked by the straw hat he was wearing.
Zhujiao didn"t know why but he felt a slight fear looking at the man. He actually nearly missed him. Yet when he noticed him, he couldn"t take his eyes off him. It was if he would die the instant he blinked.
He couldn"t go on without blinking at least once so he did.
And when he opened his eyes again, there was a new figure right above him. Because of the angle, he could clearly see the man"s face now.
Silver hair like the glow of a full moon and black eyes like the abyss.
Zhujiao"s eyes widened and he couldn"t help but say.
"...I found you."