They went back to their group. Ellie went back to Violet's side, and occasionally she looked back to stare at Hazel and noted how she behaved. Ellie's new goal was to get a similar presence to Hazel. Imagining herself ordering people, riding her mount with dignity as everyone gave revering looks towards her, made the conviction of her new goal grow. Soon, she was awoken by Violet's question.

"Ellie, who was that person, and why do you care about his opinion?" said Violet worriedly, she could no longer keep the question to herself. Aile's appearance and Ellie's new behaviour had her surprised. Her only friend was changing so quickly and blushing, acting surprised and self-conscious something that had never happened before. This made her curiosity peak, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.

"I-I do not know, and he is our benefactor."

Violet did not believe her but did not push her for an answer either.

Like this, they travel for a bit more.

In the meantime, Aile had extended his senses and went to check the path ahead. 

With his highly perceptive senses, he was a good scout. After travelling ahead for about 20 minutes, he noticed a large group of low-level beast moving in their path. 

With this news, he returned after changing to his blue robes. He could just sneak into the adventurers union's ranks. But that would only create unnecessary fear for everyone. Therefore he let himself be spotted and then taken to Hazel. This way, he will not be suspected of having a high level of strength.

Aile told her about the group of beasts in their path after meeting her. She decided to tell everyone to take a quick 30-minute break. 

Giving the low-level beasts enough time to pass. Avoiding the fight was the best course of action, and tiring out the people was not acceptable.

To not make it suspicious Aile did not stick around with Hazel for long and went to One, Two, Three, Four, Ellie and Violet. 

Then One asked if they will also be resting or continuing. Aile, of course, told them to remain. Four gave a report of what happened, including how Ellie went to Hazel. This made Aile chuckle, and Ellie avoided eye contact with him out of embarrassment. 

Soon the 30 minutes were over, and the group of scouts returned with the news that the path ahead was now empty. Aile took one of the mounts expecting Ellie and Violet to share one. However, Violet came and sat behind him.

When Aile looked at her, she snorted that this was her mount, to begin with. Two wanted to protest, saying that it was his. But he did not as he was not confrontational and had no interest in talking and arguing if the end result was a petty victory. Ellie just looked at Violet and then got on her mount.

Violet wanted Aile to cheer up Ellie. She was going to tell Aile about  Four's comment of them being 'balloons'. Violet hoped that he could comfort her and tell her that Ellie's strength was due to her hard work, Violet did not like the new defeated expression in Ellie's face. She knew that this person's opinion meant a lot to her friend. They travel for a bit, when Violet asked, "Hey... what do you think about us?"

"Do not worry, I am not going to do anything to both of you. I will just take you to Port Kiar, and then you can do whatever you want." Aile said with a righteous tone. Aile did not want her to get any ideas. He remembered her 10 years ago when she started fighting him before confirming whether he kissed Ellie or just whispered to her.

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"Unapreciative bastard."

"What... it cannot be that you fell for me after..." Aile stopped with his sentence because he remembered his inappropriate action when he was carrying her away from the camp. He did not want to bring that up again. He felt guilty and last time she bit him.

Cough

Violet was going to get angry but then saw that Aile's hands turned red from blood after the cough. This included his face cover.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah... I am fine."

At this time the mount was guided unstably.

"Let me guide the mount... you treat yourself at the back," Violet said with care.

"Thank you."

Humph.

Violet moved in front of Aile and took the mount's control. Aile behind her felt tired and decided to take a quick nap. As it will help him mentally recover from the soul pressure, he had just faced. If he recovers from that, he could heal better and quicker.

Aile was used to sleeping next to Leia, once he was napping, out of habit, he hugged into Violet's waist tenderly and placed his head on her shoulder. Violet blushed. After a while, she noticed Ellie's angry gaze. 

She immediately guided her mount next to hers and explained the situation. She did not want to create a rift between them. Ellie already seemed distant recently, she did not want them to drift apart further.

Ellie immediately informed One, she got the reply that it was a minor wound and it should not be a problem after the nap. One knew about the injury that was afflicted to Aile by the beast, as Aile had explained it to them. Therefore, he was not worried as Aile had assured him he would be fine. 

Meanwhile, Aile's affectionate behaviour was affecting Violet. She did not want to wake him up and prevent him from healing. But she was conflicted, she was enjoying his tight hug, gentle face rub and the adoring behaviour. Yet she felt she was betraying her friend. She felt guilty, she also did not know his identity. A small side of her that she had never experienced before really enjoyed this treatment and wanted her to see who is behind the face cover. She looked at him and noticed the face cover was already cleaned. Aile had secretly used the water and air gathering rune to clean the blood. 

This mystery tempted her a bit more to find out who he is. Initially, she had some doubts in the back of her head about him, but after seeing Hazel's adventurers' union also escape, that doubt changed into curiosity. She was wondering who he was and why he protected her. Was it really because he found her beautiful or was there another reason. A lot of people wanted to befriend her to get closer to the White Clan or her dad, Hunter. Therefore Violet had developed a cold personality to not be used. She was wondering if Aile was the same, and at the same time, she was hoping that it was not the reason.

The behaviour of Aile seemed like someone asleep, but to Violet, who was experiencing it, it was completely different. She was creating a calm facade as she occasionally conversed with Ellie to keep her mind occupied. But the gentle touches and affectionate hug was touching her on an emotional level. She endured it, and the fact that it happened in public made it more exciting and more torturous for her. Her usual personality would just push him away from the mount. But now that she knew he had protected her, she was reluctant to take a harsh measure. She swallowed her anger and somewhat fancied his action, she did not want to do something like that and just waited for him to wake up. After two hours of this, Aile woke up and squeezed her and then kissed her on the cheek.

"You are not my Le..." said Aile with his undisguised voice. Then he saw Violet and immediately changed his voice, "Thank you, it was pleasant." It was not a proper kiss as the face cover was in between them.

Violet did not respond, As she knew, she had heard that first voice before and immediately started to think where she had heard it. She was not led astray by Aile's comment. But her face turned more crimson.

Aile realized his blunder and simply ignored it. It was not like he could do anything about it. Plus his voice had changed compared to 10 years ago, she might not be able to figure his identity out. 

However, his simple act of not doing anything was enough of a distraction for Violet. She knew that Aile was now holding her consciously, and this made her flustered. 

"Let me go now," said Violet in an angry but quiet voice.

Aile moved his head in a circular motion on her neck and back and muttered, "Goodbye comfortable bed." He similarly moved his left-hand circularly on her smooth stomach but did not say anything. This made Violet's face and neck very crimson. 

"Wanna switch?"

"What?" said Violet.

"Thanks for guiding the mount, now I am healed, you can rest now."

Before hearing her reply, Aile moved in front of her while she was in a stupor. As he scootched back a little, his back was leaning into her. He then took the reins from her hand, and with a small jerky motion, the mount changed speed. The next thing Violet knew was, she was hugging him from behind.