I can’t help but to breath in sharply at her bold statement.

“No?”

Her hands move to her wide hips, and she stands firmly. She gives an absurdly sweet, attractive smile to me, looking me dead in the eyes.

“No.”

I think she realized what I was doing. I don’t think she’s going to let me go that easily.

I have to try something else.

I force a smile to my face.

“Haha, I Could have sworn that a certain someone told me not to let others push me around?”

She rolls her eyes before squinting at me.

“That was that, this is this.”

She takes a step towards the bed.

Ah shoot, I need another angle. Ahhh, what did they call close female friends, but not lovers?

“Dearest Siste…”

She recoils a bit, taking a step back.

“… Ugh. Don’t call me that.”

I think I may have gotten it wrong, but I may have something here.

“Why not, though? You’re very precious to me, as you could tell before.”

“… Just no. And stop trying to change the subject. I’m laying down with you tonight and every night after this, because I want to.”

Dang it.

She actually pauses, before continuing.

“I… want to be sure it’s gone. I still feel apprehensive about you and probably other men, if that’s the case. Something still feels a little off.”

Wait, what? She has to be messing with me. I’m going to check her sta…

…

Huh, she’s right. It’s not ‘there,’ per se, but the seeds of it are already reforming.

Maybe, because it’s a memory-based trauma, it is difficult to root out. If I had to guess, the condition aspect of the symptoms was removed and taken care of. But ultimately, she is still scared of men.

This does not bode well for healing those victims of the parasites.

I guess she may actually need the help. Maybe even long term. Dang it. I’ll have to deal with this over time and figure out an alternate method.

For now, though. Let me be honest and say what I found.

I then explained to her what I found regarding my ability.

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And ultimately agreed to allow her to sleep next to me.

Since it appears that this might actually help her and I won’t be assaulting anyone lately, it should be alright.

Probably.

As I’m already in the bed, I scoot over and make space for her.

After I do so, though, she doesn’t move her position. In fact, she seems almost frozen.

I call out to her, to shake her out of her stupor. Quickly, she realizes she’s been standing there and moves over to the bed stiffly. She lays down on the far side of the bed.

Contrary to earlier actions, she doesn’t seem very aggressive right now. In fact, she seems passive. Stiff as a board. Her back is also turned away from me. An air of nervousness and fear practically radiates off of her.

This isn’t good. I can’t imagine she’s going to be able to get sleep like this. Nor I, for that matter.

“Hey Ai? If you would like, I could heal you continuously? It has a bit of a soothing effect, so it might help you get some sleep.”

Her voice cracking, she says, “No! …No. I think I should be alright. Y-you get some sleep.”

Sigh. This is going to be a long night.

And a long night it was.

The whole night Ai stayed awake. Her back still stiff and turned away from me.

Luckily for me, I actually don’t need to sleep. Well, not that much at least. So, I stayed up the whole night to make sure nothing happened. Unfortunately, she had no such advantage.

She was up the entire time, constantly peeking back at me. I kept my eyes closed the entire night, but my scan was on. Even while I was ‘sleeping,’ she couldn’t seem to make a move on me.

Wow. If she is like this, I can see why she needed the help. That really could be a weakness for her when we get to this sect.

When the morning comes, I try to ask her if she wants to be healed. This time she quickly accepts, looking exhausted. Just before I healed her, I saw that the seed of the condition had slightly grown over the night.

Thankfully, she looks refreshed after the healing. No bags under the eyes. No tiredness. Nothing.

Man, I could really use this for people who want to stay young or work through the night. Oh, wait. I’ll be working with cultivators, so I they may not actually need this. Hmm, I guess it depends. Since this may actually help with cultivator level issues. I feel I could take this ability much farther than I currently am, as it gets stronger.

Ai gets up, thanks me for the healing, and goes along with her day. Albeit, a little stiffly.

So, I guess we’re not going to talk about it. That’s fine with me, I guess.

Just before we part ways, I can see Lin come around the corner, likely not coincidentally. I keep walking and turning the corner, but keep my scan in their area.

I feel a little uncomfortable listening in on their conversations more, but I need to know the way these conversations are going so I can prepare better. Not sure if this is the best habit to get into, though I have little choice.

Ai relays the events of the night to Lin. Including about her condition. They have a bit of a heated argument, somehow still whispered. Lin feels betrayed by Ai’s lack of trust.

Ai just stands there guiltily. She follows up with restating her commitment to get me to be more reliable, to bring me closer to their side. Though, it looks like Lin is more hurt because Ai essentially hid her condition from her.

Numbly, Lin walks off without saying much.

Ai remains. Tears going down her face in the tunnel.

I briefly think of going back to comfort her, but I realize that may actually make things worse for her. Ignorance would honestly be a lot easier than seeing them like this.

The day moves on, though.

I start preparing for my foray outside today. Most likely the last for a while.

Going through all these twists and turns is exhausting. After this, I just want to deal with the mundane things. To not jump from one fir to the next.

Before I leave, I make sure to make a list and instructions for different recipes and concoctions that I think may be useful for their group. Mainly, things to help with soreness and minor injuries. It’s a much-reduced version of the healing salve, but will definitely be useful, nonetheless.

They are also general use recipes, which wouldn’t just be for women. Easiest comparison would be an aspirin for mortals.

A plant in the ingredients list, the Bubbling Dragon root, is already used as a way to ease very minor inflammation. This just amplified its properties.

There are better versions of this that can be made, and at a cheaper cost, but this will be much of an impact than those would be.

Hopefully, this will let me just drop things off and keep going.

With this all planned, I head to the entrance and begin moving back through the path to the Yellow Sashes area.

Strangely, I didn’t see Gong on the way up.

Alright, guess it’s time to get going.