Aisha woke up before sunrise, her arms still wrapped around the soft guild girl. Her kindness and insistence to take care of her… reminded Aisha of mistress. She was going to become a silver rank today.
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Why was she even doing this? This… adventuring stuff? At first, it had seemed like a good idea, but… what would be different if she returned to mistress, even a diamond rank? Mistress had never been a materialistic girl...
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No. No point in thinking about that. Even if it was true, this was better than nothing. She would figure something out when the time came.
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"Mmmmm"
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Aisha''s shifting had awoken Miiha. Aisha liked Miiha, She was cuddly and nice. Her voice was soft and nice too, and her laugh was airy and not annoying, unlike the annoying guy and the old man. She didn't know why Miiha was so nice to her, but she wasn't complaining.
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Aisha sat at one of the long tables in the guild hall, irritated. Miiha had relayed Calen's message to her, to wait for them, but she had not specified when.
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It had been 3 hours…
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Finally, Calen and his party entered the guild hall. Aisha stared at them, taking in their appearances. They were dressed in actual battle equipment.
Calen was still in his colorful clothes, but he wore a leather breastplate and armguards.
The mage had thick clothes on, a long jacket with flowing coattails and a skirt, a contrast to her usual lacy and thin clothes.
The large boy was still in his heavy armor, but he wore a helmet with the visor open, and on his back was a massive bow, probably twice the height of Aisha, as well as an equally large axe. The cleric girl was in the same silky dress, but she held a jingly staff in her hands with many hanging crystals.
They filed in and sat across from Aisha at the table. She noted that the mage pulled the little cleric girl into her lap.
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"You're late." Aisha scowled, making her annoyance plainly obvious.
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Calen just laughed in response, making Aisha's eye twitch. The other members of the party shot her sympathetic looks, but she paid them no mind. Their expressions weren't worth anything - she could have spent those three hours doing something, but instead she was kept waiting by this bastard.
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Aisha really wanted to punch him again.
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"You gave me quite the hit yesterday!" Calen said grandiosely, using his hands to gesture wildly around him. "Your strength is crazy!"
"..."
"Still the silent type! That's great! Well, on to business. How our team usually operates, is we take four contracts at a time. One contract for each of us. We usually do three contracts per day, but we only got through one yesterday, since we had to wait for you. That's perfect though, because now we can do three today! I know you're eager to rank up, so don't worry. As long as we are all in the party when we turn the contract in, it counts as a completed contract for all of us!"
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He held his hand out to the side, wiggling his fingers. Elza took out a silver contract from the inside of her jacket and handed it to Calen, who promptly thrust it out at Aisha.
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"This is going to be our first contract for the day! Wolves!"
"Mandrakes." Jorral corrected.
"Oh, uh."
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He turned the contract around.
"Alright, it's mandrakes! Our contractor is good old Dante! Let's go!"
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Aisha trudged along with the party towards their client. Elza and Thassiel attempted to make conversation with her, greeting her with their names, but they were ignored, in favor of just blankly staring back. Eventually they just gave up.
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"How do you think Dante is doing?" Asked Thassiel.
"Probably the usual. He has problems with his shipments almost every single day." Said Elza.
"Why doesn't he hire an escort?" Asked Thassiel.
"It's cheaper to just hire a team to retrieve the goods after. He gets money from the magistrate when his wagon is destroyed." Rumbled Jorral.
"Hahahaha! What a guy!" Laughed Calen.
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This Dante person reminded Aisha of her Rigel. She wondered why the military of the empire didn't deal with these problems.
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They eventually arrived at the outskirts of town, where a nomadish looking man, with a bared chest and vest, sat on a stack of crates. She assumed the man was Dante.
"Calen! It's been a while!"
"Dante! Sorry man, the other adventurers are just faster to the contracts I guess! Haha!"
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Dante cracked a smile.
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"You know the deal. Here's the map. Watch out for the mandrakes, but I'm sure you'll have no problem dealing with them."
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He looked past Calen's shoulder.
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"New party member?"
"Yeah! She's got quite the arm on her! Haha!"
"Well, good luck!"
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God. What had she signed up for. She would have to hear his stupid laugh every single contract.
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Aisha's boots sank into the sand, as she squinted at the rocky cliff faces that surrounded them. They were in some sort of desert, the sun In the distance, she could hear the howling of wolves, and the screeches of… some creatures. She squinted in an attempt to discern what kind of monster they were, but quickly regret it as the motion prompted Calen to turn to her and explain what they were doing.
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"Alright rookie, so the way we do this, we're just going to hug that cliff face."
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He pointed to their right.
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"We can deal with the wolves and the mandrakes pretty easily, but if we find a were or a saurian tyrant, or a garuda, we're going to get out of here."
"I don't know what any of those are."
"A were is like, a beast-man kind of looking monster, they're orange and look like wolves, but they walk on two legs, and they're huge. Um… basically, we're going to run from anything that's bigger than us. Don't worry, they're pretty rare around here, we usually don't run into them."
"Tch."
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Calen ignored the noise and pulled out the map. He started to walk along the cliff face, and the party followed.
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"What's with the blue necklaces." Aisha spoke softly to the cleric girl.
"Oh these? They're sapphire amulets. They boost your magical aptitude."
"How does that work?"
"Um… I don't know. There are also ruby and emerald amulets, and some rarer ones. Supposedly when they're enchanted they give you boosts to your strength, or bow ability, or, um. Yeah."
"Then why are you all wearing the sapphire ones? And where did you get them? I didn't see them at the jewelers."
"Oh! You don't know about the guild shop? It's the building right next to the guild. And um, we wear them because we all use magic. Calen needs it for his sword techniques. I use them to heal and buff better. Um, Elza casts spells, and Jorral infuses his arrows and weapons with magic."
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Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of howling close by. Jorral drew his bow, and Elza drew her wooden staff. Calen motioned for them to be silent.
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"It's wolves, Calen. A pack. Are we going to run?" Spoke Elza.
"Nah." Calen replied offhandedly.
"What!?" Elza said, her brows furrowed. "Why?"
"We're going to fight!" Calen said, determination in his eyes.
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"What the hell do you mean we're going to fight?" Elza demanded. "There's no reason-"
"Alright newbie!" Calen interrupted. "It's time to show us what you've got!"
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Aisha could see the wolves in the distance. There were about 6 of them, orange with white markings and black snouts. Thassiel muttered something under her breath, holding out her staff with two hands, the crystals on them glowing bright and levitating.
Aisha saw a shell of large, connected, blue hexagons envelop everybody in the party, each getting their weapons ready.
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The wolves came within a couple meters, and Elza was the first to act. She thrust out her staff, a purple glyph appearing at the tip. A purple ball of magic, about the size of a soccer ball, appeared at the wolf's feet, and exploded in purple smoke and sand, with a loud sound. Two wolves were caught in the blast, sending them flying. One of the wolves was swiftly pierced in the chest by one of Jorral's magic arrows, who drew his bow back again. Jorral let loose another shot, with a heavy twang, but the wolf he was aiming at jumped out of the way, the arrow only striking the blue trail of magic it left behind.
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(The wolves have some sort of speed boosting magic?)
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One of the wolves, faster than the rest, leapt at Thassiel, a blue trail of magic following, and it's jaws opening wide. A massive jaw made of magic closed on Thassiel, but it's path was blocked by her mana shield, which had taken the shape of the blue shell she had placed earlier. The wolf's magical attack was blocked, but the wolf's physical body still flew towards Thassiel, who cowered in fear.
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The wolf was knocked out of it's leap by a red, crescent shaped magic, leaving a large gash in its side. It yelped, falling on its side in the sand. Calen held his sword in the air, glowing red, and made a slashing motion in front of him, throwing another crescent at the downed wolf.
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"Why don't you just stab it with your actual sword?" Aisha asked calmly.
"We're in the middle of battle!" Elza yelled, another purple bomb exploding directly on top of a wolf and sending it flying.
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Aisha rolled her eyes. She watched as Jorral shot another magical arrow from his bow, striking a wolf but dissipating on impact, leaving the monster still alive. Aisha furrowed her eyebrows. A physical arrow would have easily killed the thing in a single shot.
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Whatever. It wasn't her business, and on top of that, she didn't really care. What mattered more was what was happening in front of her, and she saw five wolves closing in fast on the less-heavily armored members of the party, while the two melee fighters were occupied.
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Aisha clicked her tongue in displeasure - the group was clearly not well trained enough to hold a formation, which meant that the battle was essentially a free for all. And ordinarily, that shouldn't have been a large problem, but the choice of enemy was disadvantageous for most of them - in fact, the only fighter suited for combat with such a fast, agile enemy, was Calen.
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She still held her sword lazily at her side, not doing anything. Not as if she could do anything, as getting close would mean that she would get hit by one of Elza's bombs or Jorral's arrows. And while the wolves were resistant to magic, protected by the mana in their own bodies, Aisha definitely didn't share that trait.
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A wolf jumped at Aisha, speed magic leaving a blue trail and magic jaws appearing in front of Aisha. She easily sidestepped the jaw and kicked the wolf in its underbelly, shattering its ribs and sending it flying away. She threw her sword at the wolf, landing with a thunk in the side of its head.
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From her right, she heard a scream as another wolf jumped at Thassiel, it's snout crashing into Thassiel's mana shield. Visible cracks were left in the shield, and the wolf quickly recovered from the impact, snarling and circling the poor girl, ready to jump again.
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The rest of the party was also doing poorly against their opponents. Elza was trying hard to hit her wolf, but her large stature, and slow spells made her a poor match, the orange beast in front of her looking completely unscathed, while the buxom mage was looking tired with heat and exhaustion.
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The heavy fighter was looking no better. He had discarded his longbow in favor for his axe, but his large, cumbersome swings were easily dodged, and his form was quickly starting to deteriorate as his arms grew tired swinging around the massive chunk of metal. The time that his weapon spent buried in the sand was growing longer and longer, and Aisha surmised that he would soon grow too tired to even be able to run away.
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Of course, that was nothing compared to the poor priest girl, who, without a single offensive option available to her, was unable to do anything but cower in fear, as the monsters slammed themselves repeatedly into the bubble surrounding her, the cracks mending slower and slower.
"THASSY!" Calen shouted, as he saw the pitiful state the girl was left in. He turned away from his two wolves, his arcane shield cracking, to cast a slashing spell at the wolf attacking Thassiel. The spell flew fast and true, and thankfully, it was able to catch its target, sending an orange monster to Aisha's feet with a large gash in its side.
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She ignored it and went to go pick up her sword to her left. The others were too preoccupied to notice Aisha's complete lack of concern.
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"Thassy! You have to attack! Urgh!"
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Calen's mana shield shattered, leaving the two wolves to leap on top of him and knock him to the ground. He grimaced, as he held one wolf back with both hands, its jaws snapping and closing at his face.
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Aisha sat down, watching the battle in front of her, each adventurer looking worse than the last. At this rate, without her help, they would all be eaten, slowly tired out and eventually left to die a painful death from their own hubris.
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A sick part of Aisha wanted to let them all die here, and leave to be by herself once more. And perhaps she would have, if not for the sake of Miiha, who already looked troubled by the amount of deaths she had been made witness to...
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Aisha sighed and started to trudge through the sand, but before she made any progress, Jorral managed to catch his wolf in the side with his axe, a stroke of miraculous luck that made Aisha raise her eyebrows. He rushed over quickly, swinging his axe and knocking the wolves on Calen off.
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"You go help Thassy." The large boy panted, panicked and out of breath.
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Calen rushed to Thassiel's side, catching the wolf in the side with a crescent. Jorral similarly rushed over to Elza, whose shield had shattered. The wolf leaped at Elza, but it's head was split in half by Jorral's axe.
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Aisha leaned against the cliff face as she watched the four catch their breath. Thassiel crawled over to Elza, who hugged her protectively.
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"CALEN! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! WE COULD HAVE DIED THERE!" Yelled Elza, livid with fury.
"My bad, my bad... "
"THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY AFTER YOU ALMOST GOT US ALL-"
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"How have you been doing jobs like this?" Asked Aisha suddenly, prompting the party to turn and face her.
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"We don't usually do this." Jorral panted, his face matted with sweat. He looked the most physically exhausted out of any of them, and the fact that they were cooking in the desert heat made it impressive that he was even able to stay conscious. The two girls of the party nursed him slowly back to health, trickling water into his mouth and stripping the heavy armor off his body.
"Sorry, sorry." Calen apologized, weakly.
"Why did you do it??" Elza demanded.
"I just thought… that you know, if we can fight a pack of wolves at once, then we could maybe take on a gold mission."
"We already tried that, remember." Jorral rumbled.
"Yeah… but… Look at us now. We did much better this time."
"Much better my ass! Look at your leg!" Elza pointed to Calen's leg, where a wolf had bitten through his shin guard, and blood was flowing freely.
"It's fine." Calen said, waving her off. "Besides, it looks like Aisha did fine!"
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He cracked that annoying smile, despite having almost gotten every one of his friends killed. Jorral mumbled something under his breath.
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"Let's go." Calen said after a bit of waiting. "We've still got a contract to do."
"Are you insane!?" Elza snapped. "We're all injured and exhausted!"
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"You all look like you're ready to go." Calen insisted.
"You-"
"I-I'm fine..." Thassiel muttered timidly. "I-I... I don't want to hold the group back..."
"I'm also okay." Jorral struggled out, even though he struggled to rise to a sitting position.
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Calen just nodded, looking pleased with himself.
Eventually the party continued on their way, eventually finding the abandoned cart they were searching for, the discarded goods spilling out of the wooden carriage.
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Aisha squinted at the small creatures that bounced around the cart energetically. They looked like chickens, but they stood on two legs and had large, reddish-orange heads that reminded Aisha of tomatoes.
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"Alright, those are the mandrakes, and that's Dante's cart. Don't get close, we can pick them off from here."
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Jorral pulled back his bow, notching a magic arrow. He released, the shot flying through one of the mandrake's heads. It fell over, dead. The rest of the mandrakes didn't even seem to notice.
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Slowly, Jorral picked off all of the mandrakes. They approached the cart, filled with crates and jars.
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"Alright Jorral, you're up!"
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Jorral grumbled something about killing mandrakes, but nonetheless he picked up the cart and started to drag it back towards the town. He pulled it with ease, his massive frame almost the size of the cart.
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It was noon when the party returned to Dante. He thanked them gratefully for their service, and then they were on their way to their next contract. Aisha took her adventurer's plate out of her pocket, and watched it shift color from brown to silver.
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Sigh... five more to go.
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Aisha stuck her sword into the blob of slime. This mission was going much smoother than the other one, mainly because slimes were not as dangerous as wolves. Elza's magic and Jorral's arrows made quick work of them. Their job was to fill up 10 jars with their remains… but the fool Calen forgot to bring a ladle, or anything, so they were forced to scoop up the slimes with their hands and pour them into the jars. Problem was, the slime quickly sank back into the ground after they killed them.
Elza also adamantly refused to touch the stuff, so the work took forever.
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Aisha looked up at the sky. It was almost dark…
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She returned to the guild hall soggy and slimy. She took off her gloves and threw them on a table. Ugh. She hoped they sold new gloves at the guild store… She had left Xelos's gloves back in Nashen. They didn't fit her.
But buying new gloves could wait. She had a date.
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She walked up to the counter, where Miiha sat, waiting for her. When Aisha walked up to her, she smiled and gave a shy wave to her.
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"Are you ready?"
"Yeah."
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Miiha got up and walked out, giving Aisha a good look at her clothes. She had discarded her guild jacket and brooch for a jacket, and she had switched out her pencil skirt for a more freely flowing skirt. She did a little turn to show off her clothes.
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"How do I look?"
"Uh. Good."
"That's it? Just good?"
"Um… Yes?"
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Miiha hit Aisha on her chest, puffing out her cheeks.
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"So uh, where do you want to go eat?" Miiha asked.
"I don't know."
"Well, where do you usually eat?"
"I don't."
"What do you mean you don't?"
"..."
"Wait… Have you not eaten in the last three days???"
"I sense that you won't like the answer."
"Aren't you hungry???" Miiha said in surprise.
Aisha looked down at her feet. "Hunger's an old friend."
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Miiha just stared agape at Aisha, shocked. She took her hand and dragged her to a place in the town.
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Aisha stared at the bowl of noodles that sat in front of her.
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"Aren't you going to eat?" Miiha asked.
"Um…"
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Aisha did not want to tell her that she had gotten so used to either starving or being fed by her mistress, that she had forgotten how to use chopsticks.
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"Can you feed me?"
"What?!"
"Uh… nevermind."
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Miiha blushed red.
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"Well… I could. If you really want to."
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Aisha opened her mouth, and Miiha tentatively fed Aisha some noodles from her bowl. She slurped them up, leaving broth all over her face. She licked around her mouth, but she missed… well, the entire rest of her face. Miiha went to go wipe off some drops with her finger, but Aisha ended up licking her thumb. Miiha jumped at the feel of her smooth tongue, blushing bright red. Aisha just looked at her with a confused expression.
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(She's so cute! And she doesn't even know!) Miiha thought in a panic.
"So um, where'd you come from before coming here?" Miiha asked.
"I came from… uh… Nashville."
"Nashen?"
"Yeah... That."
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Aisha's ears flattened on top of her head, and she looked downcast at her lap. Miiha wanted to hug and comfort her, but they were sitting across from each other in the booth.
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"What happened in Nashen?"
"... I left behind someone. That I loved. I decided to become an adventurer… for her."
"Oh no! Why?"
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Aisha's throat dried up.
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"I… realized that she would be better off without me."
"What are you talking about!? You're such an amazing, smart, strong girl! Any girl would be lucky to have you!"
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"...That's not true. I'm pathetic."
"You know, I used to be a slave. And on my first errand, I got into a fight with just some random person on the street. And I almost died." Aisha continued.
"Because of that day, and because of my selfish actions after… She got really sick. Because of me. And… I caused her a lot of grief. She couldn't do what she wanted… because she wanted to be with me."
"I just want her to forget about me. Then she can be happy. She can find someone… better."
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Aisha pulled her legs up to her chest, burying her face in them.
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"That's not true!"
"..."
"The only reason why she would grieve so much… Is because she really loved you!"
"...Maybe. But-"
"I can tell that you're never going to forget this woman for the rest of your life. Don't you think she would feel the same way?"
"There's no chance."
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Aisha stared at her boots with a dead expression. She vaguely could feel Miiha's arms wrapping around her in a tight hug.
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"I know you'll never forget her, but I know that if I had you, I would never want to let you go."
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Aisha didn't respond.
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Miiha looked at the fey girl in her arms, shifting under the covers slightly. She felt a pang of disappointment. She would never have the cute girl as her own. Even though she held her in her arms, her distant looks were all directed towards another woman… She was massively jealous of her, whoever she was.
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She thought back to what she had said in the diner. Everything made sense now. Her scathing looks, her indifference. Why she never smiled. Her actions towards Fenix. She thought she was worthless. What had happened to her, that she would think that?
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She hugged the girl in her arms tighter. Even though Aisha's heart would never be hers, she would hold and protect her for as long as she would let her.