“N—no. Not spying.” She sounded as if she wanted nothing more than to find a bottomless pit and throw herself over the edge. “It’s never on purpose. Do you think I want to see such things?” In a helpless, complaining tone, she added in a quiet voice, “Why does this keep happening?”
He walked over to the corner and dropped down to one knee. “Look at me.”
She did so with heavy reluctance. Silver eyes brimming with moisture, her face was so red that it seemed as if she’d just taken a dozen slaps to each cheek. Indignant anger filled her gaze, which made it evident that she wished nothing more than to smack him to death and bury him somewhere within the surrounding forests along with her shame.
“In the future, don’t spy on us like that.” Taking out a small, translucent grape from his primary spatial bag, Nolan grabbed one of her hands and pressed the divine fruit into the centre of her pale little palm. Clearing his throat in a somewhat awkward manner, he said, “Look, you’re only human. It’s only natural to want to see things like that every now and—”
“Please,” she said, visibly hating herself as her white lashes flickered amidst a storm of forced blinking. “Say no more.” She stared down at the fruit in her hand as if it were to blame for all of her grievances.
He stood up and turned to leave, but Delia was quick to send him a desperate look. “Nolan, the others…”
“I won’t say anything.”
He left without another word, leaping onto his flying sword and leaving the area with a surreal feeling in his gut. Only once he’d gone a certain distance did he become aware of the heat on his own face. Delia had watched several hours of intense intercourse between him and Nyla? Even for someone with skin as thick as his, Nolan was quite embarrassed.
So Nyla noticed, huh. Thinking of this, an odd tingle settled within his gut. Nyla had been aware of Delia’s presence, and had continued on as if nothing were the matter? Thinking back to the time that they had hooked up within the Desolate Spirit Tower, she had also seemed to be aware that the sound-nullifying effects of the upper levels had been deactivated after Uncle Grey had harvested all of the energies on the level that they had been on. She hadn’t said anything so that she could make a statement to May, which he’d viewed as her making a sort of claim over him.
Damn, he thought. She really doesn’t give a fuck, does she? Wondering if his influence had fostered some secret perversion within her heart, Nolan began to question his integrity as he closed in on Tallgate from high above in the magenta sky. While he was embarrassed about what had happened, he also felt a strangely excited rush at the thought of it.
I need Jesus.
Pushing such thoughts from his mind, or at least trying to, he arrived at one of the man back entrances to the villa and sought out his friends in the largest of the compound’s several dining halls. A lavish feast was laid out on one of the extensive tables of heavy, lacquered wood, with a dozen female servants seeing to the needs of those within his group. Welson was there, and so was Melissa and a middle-aged man that he took to be her father. With a modest, clean-shaven face and short sandy hair the same shade as his daughter’s, the thin man was dressed in high-quality robes of the CMA’s trademark colours of electric blue. While on the surface he seemed at ease, Nolan could tell that he was quite wary to be in the company of those that had murdered two of the most prominent members of Merchant Lord Angram's faction.
Katerina had chosen to stick around, and he soon learned that she had brought along the servants from her own household in order to attend to the needs of her new acquaintances.
As for Ian, Sean and Esteban, they were still out and about while enjoying themselves in town.
“It will be fine, right?” Melissa’s father was saying to Welson, who looked equally as uneasy as the slightly older man. “They’re quite close now. With those numbers…”
“It should be fine,” said the consul in a self-convincing manner, who looked to Nolan for assurance. “I take it the preparations are in order?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Yep,” he said, tearing two legs off of a rotisserie chicken. “You guys just relax here at the villa, and we’ll take care of everything else.” He glanced at Nyla, who was enjoying a conversation with Lyra and Alicia, appearing completely unaffected by what had happened earlier.
“And about the arrangement we discussed earlier,” said Melissa’s father, his light gaze that of a seasoned businessman. “You can assure us with one hundred percent certainty that Merchant Lord Kam will be fine with it?”
“But of course,” said Welson, who wiped at his double chins with a silk napkin. “He might be a bit young to take up his current post, but he is Merchant King Markham’s son. After the death of Merchant Lord Harvor, we had to…remove all of the members in his province that were still loyal to Angram’s faction. Because of this, there are plenty of posts that still need to be filled.” Sipping wine from a chalice made of star gold, he added, “The town you’ll be overseeing is many times larger than the one you’re giving up, I can promise you that, Rodrick.”
“And what of Merchant Lord Varus? Daren was his chamberlain, and his province is directly beneath Merchant Lord Kam’s. Will it be safe?”
“It’ll be fine,” said Nolan after swallowing down a mouthful of chicken. “Melissa’s my friend, so I won’t let anything happen to you guys.”
Hearing this, the girl sent him a thankful, pink-lipped smile. “Papa, Nolan said that he would teach me spiritual arrayments on the ride to Frostport. Aren’t I lucky?”
“Thank you for looking after my daughter,” said Rodrick with a light bow of his head, his mannerisms calculated and well-practiced. “If anything, I’m glad that she doesn’t have to accompany Chamberlain Daren’s son around anymore. To say that I lost sleep over that predicament would be an understatement.”
Nolan didn’t miss the sweat that lined the man’s brow. Evidently he feared that his daughter might not live to see these lessons come to fruition.
Melissa crossed her arms with displeasure, no doubt recalling the young man’s nasty and overly-possessive attitude. “The hells take him. Because of that loser, my friends won’t even speak to me.”
Nolan recalled the girls that had been keeping the young man company along with Melissa, though he quickly suspected that they no longer wanted to associate with the girl solely based upon the fact that, as far as they were concerned, she and her entire family would soon face the wrath of Merchant Lord Kalvin. After all, a formal challenge to the merchant king’s legitimacy had been issued, which meant that for all intents and purposes another battle for the throne of the CMA had just begun.
“That just means they were never your friends in the first place.”
“Who needs them?” she huffed. “I much prefer to hang around you lot.”
As had been the case on the day that they’d met, her long, healthy hair sported several braids of intertwined strands, each tied at the bottom by tiny ribbons of yellow silk. She gave off a very ‘girl-next-door’ type of vibe. As she began to pester her father about his views on her career path in life, Nolan couldn’t help but hide a smile. The more he interacted with her, the more evident it became that she wanted nothing to do with her family business and that the idea of becoming a logistical manager for some aspect of her father’s enterprises or other was nothing short of a nightmare for the girl.
Nolan enjoyed the company of his friends and acquaintances for the next several hours, though he eventually contacted the guys and told them to return to the villa so that the group could engage in some last-minute cultivation. He intended to evenly distribute the remaining divine fruit, so that they could make rapid progress in the dozen or so hours that they had left to them before the inevitable conflict with Tems and his people.
“We can really have these?” said May, whose eyes had lit up like lanterns in the night at the sight of the incredibly precious treasures. Despite these words, she quickly accepted the fruit that Nolan had left floating in front of her.
“Since when have we been stingy in this group?”
Katerina, Welson, Melissa and her father Rodrick were still in the dining hall from earlier, accompanied by the servants that the former had brought along with her. As for Nolan and his friends, they had gathered in the western wing of the villa’s main building, where he’d just willed a divine fruit to appear in front of each of his friends.
“Will we even have time to refine these, though?” said Ian, who abruptly adjusted the collar of his tunic and vest-like robe when given a discreet prod by a relaxed-looking Sean. “Ahem, I mean, there’s so much energy in these things that I probably won’t be able to refine more than a tenth of it by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Do what you can,” said Nolan, who gave his friends a sweeping look. “Although we’ve got an ace in the hole, we can’t be negligent when it comes to tomorrow’s fight. We don’t know much about the Nightshadow Sect, so for all we know they practice some crazy powerful martial skills or arrayment techniques.”
Esteban looked unconvinced. “Then why did we mess around all day?”
Because if I might die, it’ll be with a full stomach and an empty sack. Obviously keeping such truths to himself, Nolan responded with a shrug. “Do you regret it?”
Glancing at the other guys, Esteban frowned and admitted, “I don’t know. Not really, I guess.”