Chapter 122: Encounters and red lights
"Try to keep calm for just a little longer. Once we merge into the crowd, it should be okay to let this amazement of yours go free."
Step by step, the two of us were gradually distancing from not only the mansion but the entire faction area as well. As little as it would do in the greater scope of things, given how the entire city was divided into areas that other factions were responsible for, it was still for the better if my private activities didn"t take place in the area controlled by the group behind me.
"Don"t worry…"
Using the moment when we were about to cross the corner and enter the subsidiary street leading to the main trading area in the city, Ayda fluttered forward, wrapping her hands around my arm.
"... I can play the role of love-ridden maiden pretty easily. We will be in such a spotlight that no one will bother with us!"
Whispering gently to my ear, corner"s of Ayda"s lips raced upward, putting a slightly playful smile on her face. Accepting how she was fawning over me during this simple stroll through the city, for the first time in a long while, I got to enjoy myself by just walking through the streets of my hometown.
"Well, that could be the case. Or rather, if I wasn"t pretty well-known around the town that is."
Even if I fully pulled away from the world of politics within the city, there was no way that people would already forget that fake face of mine. That"s why Ayda"s idea of hiding in the shadows of the spotlight we would direct at ourselves… Didn"t lie well in me.
"Well, if you are an influential figure here, then how come I can tell you feel like you need to hide? Isn"t it the point of being strong to do whatever you want? And it"s not like you are doing something wrong… Unless…"
Suddenly, I felt a sharp sting steeming from Ayda"s aura. With her hands leaving my arm, I saw how her face changed as she took several steps to the back.
"Unless you are…"
Her eyelids were shaking, her hands were trembling. Her aura was about as stable as the core of nuclear load right after it broke through its critical ma.s.s.
"Krist, tell me. Like, with all the honesty you can muster. Are you… like that?"
Looking at me with a dead-cold stare, Ayda showed me this side of her for the very first time.
"Like what? I don"t really understand what you mean."
Just like Ayda requested, I was perfectly honest with her. And using that perfect honesty of mine, I could fully claim that I was just confused. What I was like? I was like what? Those questions continued to make my head hurt over how hard I was trying to uncover the meaning of them.
"Krist, do you swing that way? Is this some kind of requirement in your society to be man-crazed in order to achieve some kind of status?!"
Only now did I understood what she meant, what was the source of such an insanely deep disgust that I could see both in her eyes and her aura.
Rather than explaining the misunderstanding right away, I decided to tease her a bit.
"What? Does people in your world scorn at the vagino-sceptics?"
Asking this question with a smile on my face, I could see how Ayda turned her eyes away.
"Well, it"s not like its forbidden or criminal… But there are some that don"t like the idea. I personally don"t care either way, but to think that you would be one… Why did you sleep with me then?! Was this all just to trick me?!"
For a moment, I really wanted to tease her. Yet, seeing how tears started to brim in her eyes, how her entire aura filled with a sense of desperation and overwhelming loss, I realised that the cost of my little fun was way too great for me to be willing to pay it.
"Stop it."
Rushing forward, I shot my hands towards the girl, only to lock them behind her neck and lock her in a deep hug. Right now, I couldn"t care less about causing a commotion and people noticing me. When compared to seeing Ayda sad because of some silly misunderstanding, outrage in social media seemed to be a far lesser problem.
Or rather, it was a far lesser problem for me. After all, this entire religion that I heralded, was nothing but a mean for me to attain a happy and peaceful life!
"I was just teasing you. I"m sorry about that. I would never sleep with you just to get you to my side. Whenever I hold you in my arms, I do it because I want to have you as close to me as possible. Whenever we make love, I"m truly immersing in your warmth. Whenever we kiss, I truly hope to convey all my feelings with this nonverbal usage of our lips."
Moving my hand up and down her back, I allowed the scent of Ayda"s hair to get in my head. Standing just like that in the middle of the street, I didn"t even need to raise my eyes to know that a crowd of people was watching us as if we were some kind of drama performers.
But I still raised my eyes. Not to confirm my guess, just by reading the fluctuations of the magic energy in the air I could tell that I was right. I wanted to just look scornfully at those spectators to remind them that going on about their own days and matters was what they should focus on.
But when I raised my eyes, I saw someone who I didn"t expect. And an expression on the face of that person, that spelt trouble.
Or rather, not trouble. A disaster.
"Krist?"
Asking with a weak voice, Martha took a step forward. It was as if she couldn"t even see that I was currently making out with my girlfriend. Even though my current looks were nowhere close to how my original face looked like, she somehow still looked at me exactly the same way when back in the days, I found her lost in the forest.
"Excuse me?"
Noticing a change in my aura, Ayda instantly calmed herself down. Forcing her way out of my arms, she rapidly turned around before casting a deadly cold stare at that former cla.s.smate and love of mine.
"Ah, sorry. I didn"t mean to interrupt…"
Up until this moment, her face was trembling as if she couldn"t stomach the possibility of what she just witnessed. But now, her looks changed.
Taking a step forward, she leaned over Ayda"s shoulder before whispering in a voice that was soft enough for the crowd around us to miss it, but one that I could pretty easily hear.
"If you don"t want to cause a scene, follow me. I"m sure you don"t want to reveal who you really are to the public either."
Just like before, Martha"s current face was familiar to me. It was one that she used when after two years of training, she finally faced off against her greatest rival in the school. That was a face she made when, at least in her head, her entire life was at the stake.
"You little… I don"t know what kind of hole you crawled up from but if you think…"
Hearing the clear threat in Martha"s words, Ayda instantly flared up. Even though she was currently dressed in earthy clothes, from how she suddenly placed her hand on her waistline, I could tell that she still managed to hide some kind of weapon under those skin-tight clothes!
"Ayda, it"s okay."
I wasn"t rejoicing at the fact that a former love of mine managed to recognise who I was, despite my appearance being that of a relatively young, middle-aged man. This girl, even if unwillingly or even unknowingly, was still the one who caused the chain reaction of people"s actions that led to the death of my former life.
And as such, she had absolutely no right to hold me back right now. Not when I finally got the chance to enjoy my day with Ayda. And as much as I wanted to separate myself from the politic of the town, now that she somehow realised the truth about my ident.i.ty, this pit full of s.h.i.t finally had to be taken care of.
Even if only because of who her family was.
"I"m sorry, young lady, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Right now I"m in the middle of something, so it would be lovely if you could make yourself spa.r.s.e."
Rather than allowing her to use her advantage of the knowledge that she just obtained, I decided to play dumb. Ultimately, her realisation was just this. A realisation based on a guess and a feeling.
If she truly believed she could cause me trouble by suddenly claiming I"m one of the people that my faction turned into martyrs, then she spent too long at the seat of a school queen to recognise what kind of enemies were better off left alone!
Grabbing Ayda"s hand, I didn"t even wait for Martha"s response. Just by interacting with her for such a short period of time, my mood already reached the verge of breaking apart and forcing me back into my working att.i.tude.
Yet, Martha didn"t stop us. Not willing to give her any hints, I didn"t turn my head around no matter how surprising her lack of actions was for me. Rather than doing that, I simply scanned the area with my magic sense… Only to realise that she was still standing on the same spot that I left her at.
"Let"s go."
Since she wasn"t going to act on her threat from before, I wasn"t willing for this opportunity to go to waste. With the rage of having my family killed once again surfacing in my soul, I just dragged Ayda with me through the streets for quite a while, without even bothering about the directions.
Only once my emotions managed to calm down, did I stop. Raising my head at the girl obediently following every single step of mine, I would have to be stupid to not notice the worry on her face.
"Don"t worry about it."
Realising how did the situation appear to her, I finally managed to shake the foul mood from before, bringing a smile back to my face.
"She"s just someone from my past. Not worthy to bother with."
Shrugging the topic of Martha away, I raised my eyes. Only to notice a single, peculiar element of the atmosphere of the place we reached that managed to escape from my attention before.
"She"s the one that caused you so much grief back then, isn"t she?"
Rather than calming down, my words only aggrieved Ayda"s anger even more.
"Not directly, but yeah. Looking back, she most likely wanted to use some forceful measures to push her family into supporting mine… But she was too naive to notice that her movements were quickly noticed. As a result, the former governor of this town sent his troops to recover a simple d.a.m.ned plant from my house. The results of which you could guess even back when it happened."
As I kept Ayda"s attention focused on our talk, I managed to sneakily grasp her hand. Using the fact that her focus was elsewhere, I attempted to pull her away from the area.
"What are you doing? We are not done talking yet!"
Sadly, Ayda wasn"t as naive as to let my silly attempts go under her radar.
"Or is this place making you uncomfortable for a rea… oh."
Looking around as if she wanted to find some clues capable of explaining my strange behaviour, Ayda scanned past the several signs placed on the nearby buildings, all sharing a single feature.
All of those signs cast a red hue on the streets below them. But even without that, the suggestive imagery used on said signboards was more than enough for anyone to realise just what kind of area did we end up appearing at.
"Now that you understand, how about we leave for somewhere else…"
That was my genuine intention. Today was aimed to be a day that I would spend letting Ayda uncover the wonders of the earth. A red street district with brothels and love hotels wasn"t one of the sights that I planned to show to her.
"No. This place is good. Or rather, isn"t this the perfect place to have some talk in private?"
Stepping forward and wrapping her arms around my shoulders, Ayda purified her aura out of all the anger.
"Or is it that seeing this Martha girl made you hesitant whether I"m the girl you want to screw with?"