Aile then went to his room and said his goodbye to Leia and Zero. Leia received a kiss and a hug. Zero followed after her and hugged him, Aile patted her back and was going to ruffle her hair. But she dodged and kissed him on the cheek looking innocently at him and saying, "Take care of yourself, master!" Aile nodded and now knew that she was most likely awake last night when 'his soul was getting trained,' and that hug was most likely intentional. Yet again, something unusual happened. However, now was not the time for this, and for Aile to concern himself with this. So he feigned ignorance like before and left.
The last place he wanted to go was to check on Luna. After knocking on her door, she soon arrived. Seeing that Aile was there, she closed the door back and said, "One minute..."
The sounds of things moving, drawers closing, and a breeze of air with her fragrance escaped from under the door, it seemed that she opened the windows pushing some of the room's air to Aile.
Soon she opened the door and invited him into her room. Everything seemed organized and neatly placed, Aile could guess it just happened. Her room was moderate-sized, and a theme of the room's colour was turquoise. Her room was not crowded, and her tender fragrance had dispersed in her room. Looking around, he found the place gave off a feeling of calm, and it was easy on the eyes it brought a smile on Aile's face. Luna's eyes have been following his gaze making sure that nothing was out of place.
She had a blush on her face and finally said, "Please come and sit."
Looking around and not seeing any chairs, Aile sat on her bed. Aile then asked, "How are you feeling now?"
"Thanks to you, much better. I still have not thanked you enough for healing me and giving me such precious treasures for my protection. Whatever I can do to help you feel free to ask."
Seeing her nervous behaviour, Aile joked with her, "Oh, Fiona indeed trained you well... You are offering such compensation... I am impressed, weren't you going to help me with whatever I wanted already. No wonder our union is profitable under you, you are practically selling the same service as VIP service."
"I-I was talking about per..." Luna was flustered, she indeed would do whatever he asked.
"I was just joking, give me your hand."
Seeing Aile sitting on her bed and asking for her hand, her thoughts drifted, making her shyer. Her heart was beating faster due to his action and her eyes glued on to him, seeing Aile from a different angle. As she is short, she usually looks up towards him. Now, it was different, Aile did not have the aura of someone unreachable, untouchable, and far out of reach.
She noted that he came here to check on her, this treatment and care brought a smile on her face and made her happy. Now for the first time, she saw him differently more attainable like this.
Nonetheless, she extended her hand as she became redder, expecting contact. Soon enough, another hand touched hers, making her look at the floor, and she remembered yesterday and her bold moves making her more embarrassed.
Aile held her hand and checked to make sure that the poison was removed and no side effect remained using his energy. Sighing in relief that everything was normal he gave her a smile, and said, "The poison is fully removed, but it would still be best to rest whenever you can for the next few days."
She nodded.
"Oh and also, I am going to leave to Fort Bot, I will meet Fiona and Maggi and Izumi (Fiona's two other assistants). If you have a message for me to send to them feel free..."
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Luna was embarrassed and did not dare to use him as a messenger boy. Squeezing her hand a little to wake her up from stupor, she came back to it. Knowing her personality, Aile told her that he did not mind sending the information. After being persuaded, she passed to Aile a few pieces of gibberish for each of her sisters and Fiona. Aile knew that Luna was communicating in cryptics, and it was a personal message. He already knew all then news about merchant unions. After the cryptic messages, she told Aile to emphasize a few changes in the economic structure of Port Kiar while he was there.
With those details, Fiona will get a better understanding, and the next trade will be more profitable. Aile had told them about making their letters cryptic for better information security, and they had developed their own method between them. Now, apart from the conventional methods of securing the information, an extra layer was added. Some times they send private messages encrypted too.
Remembering her gibberish, he repeated it back to her, and she nodded to Aile in confirmation. After a short chat, Aile bid farewell, and she gave him a hug and thanked him again emotionally.
Aile arrived in front of the mounts and saw that Xue and the older one of the bandit sisters waiting.
"Why is there only two mounts?" said the bandit girl.
Aile told her that currently, only these were available. She gave Aile a look of suspicion.
She was cautious of him, after all, he had seen her and her sister wearing very little, and he also has seen her true form. After thinking about how he separated her from her sister, she was worried about her at first. She did not want to fall into the divide and conquer strategy. But seeing that her sister was in the care of Hazel, who had a good reputation of taking care of women, she was at ease and started to worry about herself. She was not part of the deal she made with him. Seeing the two mounts, she confirmed that she was going to be taken advantage of. Anyone smart could immediately identify the loophole that he could not sleep with her. But what about taking advantage of her body without sleeping with her or convincing her to make the first move. As a bandit and seeing Aurelius's action, she was used to such interpretations of deals.
Well, she was not surprised that things turned out like this, she had expected as much. She had purposefully let a loophole so that Aile could focus on her, shifting the focus from her sister. This way, she can delay and think of a solution or, at least, integrate this into her plan. But she was not going to resign herself to be taken advantage of.
Surprisingly, Xue retorted and said, "Why don't you ride on that one, and I will be with him. I have things to discuss with him, and this would solve your problem."
Aile saw her reluctance to ride with him or Xue, and although he could ignore her opinion, he decided to give in now, after all, it was his fault. Plus like Xue said riding and talking with someone was much better than being alone.
The bandit girl looked at them confusedly, thinking about their scheme and nodded anyway. She still kept an eye on them to find a clue of what will happen. She had expected to either be taken advantage of by Aile sitting behind her or Xue convincing her to sleep with him, which was another loophole. She was ready to be preached until they reach their destination. However, things were different now, and this made her more worried and vigilant, not knowing what to expect.
Xue sat in front of Aile and took control of the mounts, as she knew the best route to the destination. The three of them left to the gate under their control, and they exited with ease with the Sun adventurer insignia. The bandit girl was keeping her vigilant high to see the possible ploy that she will fall into. But she was ignored only receiving a gaze from time to time from Xue confirming she was behind them.
Meanwhile, she saw Aile setting behind Xue and holding on to her waist as they talked and chatted cheerily. She had noticed that Xue would be asking him questions and he replied to them. At a point, she was worried thinking that Xue kept on looking at her but then realized, Xue did not even look at her direction and was just trying to look at Aile. Knowing that it would be around 6 hours journey and some plan was brewing, she went to Aile in hope of finding a clue. She asked for the reason she was brought.
She said that she was just like extra baggage. She was not aware of where they were going and why she was taken.
Aile simply told her that in his free time he would be studying that rune on her ribs. Meanwhile, she just needs to follow him. His nonchalant attitude of treating her like a book infuriated her. Angry at his attitude and words, she did not ask anything else preventing herself from being more incensed.