"Well, you'll have to wash up if you want to meet your family." Alia said with a smile.
I was only half reassured to hear this.
Indeed, one only had to look at her to notice that it was not a natural smile, but a forced one. I don't know if she's forcing herself to smile because she's afraid I'll lose control and take it out on her, or if she's just smiling to show me that she's not expecting it.
Either way, what's done is done, unfortunately.
I really don't understand what came over me. At first it was just a bluff, but when I got close to his neck with my knife. A kind of white screen was put in front of my eyes, letting me see everything, I could hear everything, even the smells were coming to me, and it was only when Alia called me that I could regain control of my body.
"Yes, you are right. Let's go back to the coach so I can change."
As I said this, another thought occurred to me.
During my AWOL phase, I remember hearing Doz, say he was giving up, but yet I didn't die when I almost tortured him to death afterwards.
Which means I should have died, according to the rules I set.
But the proof is that I am still alive. Which proves that either my contract was badly drawn up, or a new peculiarity of the rules of war has been discovered.
In either case, it means that I am lucky to be able to testify to it even today.
"What are you doing Yù? Alia asked me, keeping the same forced smile.
"Oh nothing special, don't worry.
"Well then, can you get in the coach to change, please? More and more people are coming this way and I don't particularly want to be stopped by the guards."
Speaking of guards, I don't think I've ever seen one in my life. At the same time, what would defenders of the realm be doing in our poor village?
Each of them has gadgets capable of killing a human without the slightest harm. And the training they have received strengthens their powers even more.
Being a guard is a profession reserved only for the nobles or the rich of a city.
In a city like Dorta, there must be 4 guards at most. In a village like Yo, it is simply impossible to have one.
There is already one soldier, that's more than enough.
The soldiers are bourgeois or nobles who don't have enough money to pass the guard test, or who have failed it but who still want to protect their states.
"Yes, yes, I'm hurrying. I replied as I got into the coach.
I was about to close the door behind me, but Alia got in at the same time.
"What are you doing?
"Ba, I'm getting into the coach. She replied.
"Yes, but you know I'm going to change there?
"Yes I know, but I have to change too. I've got blood all over my clothes.
"So you want to change together?"
"Well, yes."
"But you're going to be in your underwear, do you mind?"
"Wait, don't tell me you've never seen a girl in a swimming costume?"
"Well, I live in a small village, but it's not a cave either.
"Well, underwear is the same thing."
Well, actually, apart from my mother and my two sisters, I've never seen a girl in a swimming costume. So seeing a girl in underwear is a first for me.
But hey, all I have to do is not look too hard and everything should be fine.
And she didn't wait any longer as she was already starting to undress.
So that nothing seemed strange, I also started to change.
I took off my bloody jacket, and noticed that my normally white T-shirt had red blood stains scattered all over it.
I didn't take long to change, and I didn't even look at Alia.
I was about to leave when Alia's hand stopped me.
"Wait two seconds please."
"What's wrong?"
"Please look at me."
Oddly enough, I only half appreciated this sentence. In most films, when this line comes up, the woman is often naked and looks the man in the eye and they kiss.
Whereas I don't really want that to happen now.
How would I react if this really happened?
What would I do ?
And if she kisses me, what do I do?
And if I kiss her wrong, how will she react?
And if we go even further, what will happen?
It didn't happen often, but a lot of questions came to me at the same time, unfortunately, I didn't have time to think about all that because I had to turn around.
So I turned around and luckily she was from behind, but in her underwear.
"Can you help me take off my bra, please?"
"Okay, but how do I do it?"
"You bring the two ends together between her and it should come off. But you don't take the opportunity to look.
"Yes yes, don't worry."
Well, fortunately I managed to get it off without any problem and I was able to get out of the coach, without having seen anything.
Alia took a little longer than me, but eventually got out.
"Shall we start looking? she asked.
"Yes, we have a good hour before it gets dark so let's start looking.
"Who do you want to start looking for?"
"We'll start with the easiest ones to find normally, that's my dad and my little sister. They're probably somewhere in the city, my guess is that they're in one of the shopping streets.
"Well, here we go, to the shopping street.
We got there in a few minutes and for the first time I saw so many people gathered in one place.
It was a really big street, in which, a hundred people were walking from shop to shop or just licking windows.
We walked about ten metres down the street, taking the time to look at each passer-by, to see if I recognised my father or my sister. But for the moment, no news from them. So we kept going.
Many times I thought I saw Shiro's white hair, but it was only the reflection of the sun in the windows.
As we stared at each other, more and more people moved away from us.
This was quite beneficial as we had more space to recognize the passers-by and to find them. Even if in the end it all turned out to be useless.
We just finished scanning the first street and we found no trace of my father or Shiro.
We were changing streets when I heard a voice calling me.
"Yùichi!"
I looked reflexively at Alia, but I knew it wasn't hers at all since it was much deeper and I had directly, almost instinctively recognized it.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to look anywhere else as a sharp blow landed in my ribs.
Inevitably, the one I had just broken during the duel. Even though up until now it hadn't bothered me at all.
Despite the pain that had just appeared I managed to stay on my feet.
And almost at the same moment, a small white thing, that I could recognize between miles, had just jumped on my neck.
"Yùichiiii!"
"Hi Shiro, it's been a long time."