“Yes, give me a few minutes.” Nanly speaks in a louder tone than usual, her gaze clearly showing her annoyance, I just don’t understand why. She has been like this since the morning.
“What the hell is going on?” I mutter from my chair. I don’t really care if she’s angry at me, the problem is that the trip will be uncomfortable now, it’s better to try solving this before we leave.
There’s only one big problem, she has been avoiding me as much as possible and whenever I try asking, she either changes the subject or simply leaves because she “has something to do.”
I sit in a chair waiting for her to finish her business before we can depart toward the capital. In the middle of my thoughts, I feel someone approaching from the side, when I turn to look, I see a girl with two pigtails, she can’t be older than twelve.
“I want to thank you again for saving us.” She gives me a deep bow.
“Don’t worry, I would do it a thousand times over.” I smile from ear to ear seeing the happiness on her face from my answer, I ruffle her hair a little when I notice how adorable she looks.
We spend several minutes talking about future plans or meaningless questions, I’m surprised by her strong mentality, enough to smile only one day after being rescued. If I hadn’t appeared, she would have simply become merchandise and a future slave somewhere.
“You know…” I raise an eyebrow when she makes a dramatic pause. “For someone so strong and intelligent at such a young age, you can be a little dense.” Her words leave me speechless, my brain freezes completely.
“What do you mean?” That’s the only thing I manage to ask a few seconds later after cooling my head.
“Haven’t you realized yet? Don’t you know why Miss Nanly is angry with you? It’s not that difficult to notice if you think about it for a second.” She judges me with her gaze, as if it were something obvious anyone could see.
“I don’t have the slightest idea… I haven’t done anything to make her angry. I don’t even know if she’s angry with me, she just seems very busy and stressed.” I know she’s angry, I just want to deny reality for a moment.
“Men…” She lets out a sigh and crosses her legs, as if she had years of experience dealing with these situations. “Sometimes you’re so slow to understand.” I stare blankly for a second.
“You’re just a child, I don’t know how much experience you could possibly have in your short years.” I look at her judging her from head to toe.
“More than you could imagine, my mother’s job is dealing with different people every day to help them overcome their relationship problems. I’m always in her office listening to stories and learning.” The girl sticks her tongue out at me mockingly.
A few years ago, this kind of work similar to psychologists started appearing, for now they aren’t very well paid and not many people trust them, but little by little they are gaining popularity and clients. Someday they’ll earn a fairer salary.
“If you say so…” I hesitate for a few seconds before deciding to ask. “Will you tell me why she’s upset?” I look toward the sky avoiding her gaze, trying to act like it’s not important.
Thanks to my enhanced senses, I can feel her laughing at me, she noticed I tried to downplay it. “It’s the least I can do for my hero, this little lady will help you with your sorrows.” She crosses her legs again and straightens her back as if we were in a real session.
“It’s so obvious that all the girls noticed… you had a fun night while she worked tirelessly. Arriving smelling like wine and women’s perfume exposed you.” I don’t know what kind of face I made after hearing that because her eyes shine with joy and she looks very proud of herself.
“Shit… this is a misunderstanding. I didn’t spend the night with women, I didn’t have that kind of fun.” I clarify the situation quickly, I don’t want this little girl spreading strange rumors.
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“You don’t have to explain that to me, you need to explain it to young lady Nanly. I don’t know if she’ll believe you after smelling wine and another woman’s perfume… many couples have broken apart because of that combination of smells.” She closes her eyes and nods slowly.
“Seriously, I didn’t spend the night in those kinds of places, it’s just a misunderstanding.” I clarify again, though she doesn’t look convinced at all.
I can see the girl simply shrugging as if it’s none of her business. We continue talking for several more minutes, now I’m a little curious about her life, the little girl is quite perceptive about her surroundings and has a mind of steel, I like people like that.
I even told her where I live in case she and her family ever want to move to another territory, she also comes from the empire like me. I didn’t mention anything about being a noble or my family’s influence, I only implied that my family has some money and we could help her if she ever needed it.
I gave her a medal that can be used to communicate with the person in charge of security in any of the villages and told her she should give my physical description when she uses it. My words confused her a little, for a moment she opened her mouth as if to say something, but she simply closed it and accepted the token.
I can see her mind trying to fit all the pieces together, she lacks the information needed to reach a conclusion and I don’t intend to give her more details. I’m sure life will make our paths cross again in the future.
“I’m going to talk to Nanly, I want to clear this up as soon as possible.” I stand up from my chair, if I keep talking with her I’ll end up revealing more details, she really talks and asks questions like a psychologist, at some point I might slip and give her the information she needs.
She frowns, not wanting to let me leave. She has no way to stop me, I can see her stomping the floor with her shoes out of frustration. Talking with her was fun, though at other moments it became tiring, sometimes she simply made me roll my eyes.
One thing I always felt in her Imra was gratitude, she truly sees me as her hero, as a perfect man.
“Can we talk?” I approach Nanly from behind, she’s simply reviewing some papers for the tenth time. I know because she hasn’t moved from this spot, Nanly has been “secretly” watching us this whole time, I could feel her gaze on me every time I laughed.
“I’m a little busy.” She tries avoiding me again, before she can turn around and leave, I stop her with my gravity and Imra prison.
Nanly’s eyes widen in shock, she tries moving or using some ability to break my prison, all her efforts are useless. “Sorry for being so rough… but we need to clear up this misunderstanding before starting our trip to the capital.” I can see her eyes slowly narrowing, I release her a second later when I feel her calming down.
“You didn’t need to be so rough with me, just grabbing my shoulder would have been enough.” She pouts while responding.
“Sorry.” I laugh awkwardly. “Well, let me get straight to the point, I think we had a misunderstanding about where I was yesterday.” She frowns again after hearing me.
I explain where I was, why I smelled like alcohol, and who the woman’s perfume belonged to. It feels strange giving explanations to a woman who isn’t anything of mine, I can only call her a simple friend, but I don’t want to have a horrible trip with such beautiful scenery.
“Anyone could misunderstand if you arrive smelling like wine and women… I thought you had gone to have fun with whatever girl you found along the way while I was taking care of all the paperwork. I know we can’t ask anything from you, you’ve already done so much by saving us, but… it felt horrible thinking about that, I wasn’t angry at any moment, maybe just a little uncomfortable.” Her eyes already changed, she no longer looks upset, that playful gaze returned.
We continue talking, our usual jokes return in the middle of the conversation, there’s no discomfort anymore, everything feels completely natural. I feel more at ease after clearing up this situation.
She tells me about the situation of each person, she already took care of everything except the lodging issue for the people who need to wait, something I had already taken the initiative to solve myself.
Everything is completely in order now, all that remains is saying goodbye and letting everyone go where they need to go. I say goodbye one by one to all the rescued people, most of them continue thanking me through tears while giving me strong hugs.
I let them know that if they ever go to the territory they should ask for Emago, all of them assure me they will if they ever pass through any of the villages. They still have no idea my family owns the entire territory.
“Are you sure? I can buy a carriage for the trip if you want.” I ask Nanly once again.
“Yes, I’m completely sure, we don’t need it, it would be an unnecessary expense.” She shakes her head from side to side in refusal, though I can see a gleam of excitement in her eyes.
When Nanly found out about my ability to fly, she jumped around in excitement. She looked like a child with a new toy, she loves speed and flying through the skies. It makes her feel completely free.
We leave the village and walk a bit until we are far enough away to begin floating. Her eyes shine with happiness and excitement. “If you need anything, tell me so I can slow down.” I use gravity to fly, not as fast as I possibly can so we can enjoy the scenery, I can hear Nanly’s excited screams echoing around us.