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Chapter 20: The Talk

I was woken up suddenly by a rather alert Foxy who motioned me to be quiet. As I got my senses back I noticed I had slept in the bed along with two girls. I cursed myself as I was not awake to experience it instead sleeping through this minor miraculous fortune.

Anyway I soon put that in the back of my mind as Foxy gestured me to follow her outside. I followed her and she lead me to this rather scenic place by the lake near Paolona.

“Good, we won’t be disturbed now,” Foxy was pleased with her choice of location

“So what was so important that you wanted to not be disturbed?”

“I want to talk to you about yesterday. First off promise me you won’t tell any of this to Emi.”

“I promise. Go on what do you want to talk about…” I didn’t want to point out how she turned into a different person so I let her reveal however much she wanted.

“I’ve had a rather hard life, learning to fight from a young age to fend for myself. I won’t go into much detail about my past life as it isn’t important right now. All that is important is that you know that when I hold my weapons I’m serious.”

“Okay then so why tell me here in a place so secluded?” I probed for answers.

“I didn’t want to worry Emi about such a serious topic. She seems such a caring person I didn’t want to burden her.”

“That’s understandable but why don’t you try to. She’s always been very accepting, I know just recently I had something similar that she helped me with.”

“I don’t want her to pity me and start our relationship on the wrong foot… she’s one of the first to care about me and its been tough I must admit to open up.”

“I understand, I had a past that I didn’t want to accept and she helped me confront it and as a resulted in us growing closer not further apart.” Relationship…a specific choice of diction…

“I just don’t feel ready to. You seem to be taking this rather well? More level headed and mature than your age suggests.”

“Haha you don’t know the half of it…”

“Anyway promise me you won’t tell her about our little conversation.”

“Don’t worry about it I won’t let onto other people’s secrets. You can trust me.” I smiled trying to reassure her.

“Ah there is another thing that I should probably let you know…”

“Is something wrong?” I had begun to piece together that something was amiss. Having slept on it and thought it through I had remembered yesterday Foxy’s sudden outburst. Perhaps to do with money?

“Remember those people that I was with when you met me?”

“Oh yeah.” Those big burly men who had ganged up on Foxy were still in my head.

“Well I sort of owe them a debt that I need to repay.”

“What type of debt is it?”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“The gold kind, I was betrayed. That’s why I decided to join the fighting tournament in the first place. I don’t like fighting straight on as it doesn’t suit my style but the prize money would go a long way to satisfying that debt.”

“So do you want me to lose?”

“No I’d never want that to happen. This just sort of blurted out of me. I just needed to tell someone that. As it had been killing me inside a bit while I was partying with you.”

“Don’t even worry about it,” I smiled trying reassure her, “Just do your best and I’ll do mine.”

“Thanks for listening,” She hugged me rather suddenly and I felt her rather feminine curves. They weren’t as pronounced as Emi’s but as a man who hadn’t had much experience with woman it was more than enough to surprise me, “Please don’t tell Emi okay?”

Still in the embrace, “Yeah of course not. I promise you I won’t.”

We walked back to the lodging with Foxy looking rather more upbeat than she had been before. It seemed like a whole weight had been lifted off her shoulders. We chatted a bit and talked basically about nothing until we got back to the lodging.

Emi was already wide awake when we had returned and she asked us about where we had been. I answered something nondescript and vague while Foxy nodded along. It didn’t seem like Emi was particularly convinced but she let it slide. Even if her expression said otherwise.

We decided as a group that we would change it up a bit and decided to go eat outside for breakfast. As a reward for the rather lavish winnings we had last night, we went to a café and celebrated there. It was good to have some tasty food and sit on the chairs outside the café and relax.

I decided to have smoked ham and eggs while Emi chose to have pancakes with syrup and butter that she reminded her of home. Foxy to have something a meat patty that was somewhat reminiscent of a burger patty but served in slices in a cream sauce. She explained that she needed to eat more meat regularly because of her ancestors requiring more protein than the average human needed.

It was nice to have a change of pace, even if what Foxy had told me weighed heavily on my mind, what could I do to help her out? Her hard life and her unfortunate current circumstances seemed such bad luck. I almost wished I could share some of my luck stat with her. But I still didn’t know how much of an effect it had on anything. Perhaps seeing my worried expression or just having been with me since we were young children, Emi knew something was wrong and gave me the same look that she had given me earlier after I had come back with Foxy.

But I first needed to find a way to cheer Emi up without letting her know Foxy’s secrets. I could handle the weight of knowing but I didn’t want to Emi burdened with it too.

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