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(MC POV)
After that night incident I never saw another one of those posters; I thought that in the morning the whole city would be filled with them, but surprisingly I didn't find a single one. I tried walking out at night again the next few days to collect more information, but there weren't many appearing to capture me.
Finally I had another go after me one night and I tried to get some info from him. He said that the next day all the posters and information had disappeared for some reason and the only thing he had to go off of was the original poster he took.
Even if this event didn't last long it brought one thing I hadn't had much of nor did I wish to have here: recognition. To be honest I don't quite know how I was able to be so lowkey in this city for so long, but now I would be recognised more.
Before I would simply just be a random handsome man who stole the glances of a few women here and there, but now it might just change. My face has been brought to light and for a negative reason too. Before, occasionally a few women would come and ask me out, but now there might be a little more than "just a few women" who would come and it probably won't be a good encounter either.
I'm sure my notoriety will increase from my previous random hot stranger position. I think if I lay low for a bit they would hopefully forget. Actually the posters were taken down very early on, they didn't spread far enough for the public walking the streets to see it so perhaps I'm just overreacting and everything is fine.
In fact that's probably the case, what's important is that they don't know that I'm the Azure Sky's Sect Master. This identity I have in the open doesn't matter as much, but I suppose it would be easy to connect the dots if anyone were ever able to see me in the sect. That would then be a bit of a problem, but simply not being able to walk in the city isn't too bad.
I walked around the dark night, which was occasionally lit up by a sparing amount of lights. The streets were fairly clear, but I felt a presence following from behind me, in fact there were two of them, but they had some distance between each other. I was fairly certain they were following me, but to make sure I headed into an alley to which they also followed behind, which of course only confirmed to me their target was me.
I went towards a dead end and waited there patiently. Oddly enough they both took separate routes to get to me, either they were together and planned a pincer attack or they just had absolutely no idea that the other was around and happened to take a different route.
Soon one of them arrived in hooded robes. Once they saw me staring right back at them they froze for a moment. Silence reigned before a pair of dainty hands appeared and took off their hood. A young girl's face appeared whose eyes shone with a bit of determination.
I thought back to my previous encounters and their harsh words, anticipating what sort of disgusting and cruel words she would spew at me. She reached into her robe and took out one of those slanderous posters before pointing it at me.
"I-I…don't believe that you're this k-kind of man! I want you to prove to everyone that you aren't this kind of man! Surely you've seen these posters too! You can't honestly take this kind of slander right!?"
The words she uttered weren't quite what I was expecting to hear.
'Huh? Is this girl one of those "I can fix him" types?'
"What?... Why don't you believe so?"
I looked at the girl, who trembled a bit at my words. She slightly bit her lip before taking a step toward me.
"I've seen you before. I was merely wandering the streets when I first saw you, but at the time you were accompanying a woman. You two seemed so affectionate that the moment I saw this poster I knew it was slander!
I've watched you two for a whil- I-I mean, when I saw you two together she seemed to really enjoy your company. In fact I've seen it multiple times in different locations, from public places to even those a-a-a l-little more p-private. I-I swear I haven't been stalking, I just happened to be there at the time!"
As she spoke towards the end of her talk she began to blush a bit.
"Oh? You believe in me? But what if everything they said was true? What would you do then?"
I had a slight smile on my face as I took a step forward. Her reaction was to take half a step back as she trembled.
"I-I.. you're lying! I know you are!"
'Should I continue teasing her? No, this is enough I might go too far if I were to continue doing so. A shame I won't be telling her how I "hypnotized" Jing Xiuying into falling in love with me. Maybe just a bit.'
I retraced my step and I could see her visibly relax in response.
"Haha, well if you want to clear my name so badly then, surely you won't mind being "kidnapped" by me too right?"
"If-if that's what it takes then I'll come with you. I don't believe you'll hurt me!"
'Aren't you a little too naive? How can you trust me so easily?'
"I was just kidding! I won't be taking you anywhere."
"B-but what about your name?"
"Well, it's my own problem to solve, isn't it? You don't need to get involved over a man you just met. Besides, we have company."
"Huh!?"
I was keeping track of the other target the entire time and finally they seemed to find our location. From around a corner another hooded robed figure appeared. They froze immediately seeing me staring at them just like the girl in front of me earlier.
A feminine voice came from the hooded figure.
"S-sister Ya? W-why are you here?!"
"Wait, Sister Mei is that you!?"
The new hooded figure removed their hood too. The face revealed showed a woman who looked like a mature Big Sister. In fact the one here earlier has that Younger Sister feel too.
"W-why are you here Sister Ya? Don't you know that the man behind you is dangerous?!"
"I could ask you the same thing! Sister Mei, why are you here?!"
"I…" Suddenly a furious blush coated her cheeks.
"S-sister? Why are you blushing? Do you have a fever?!"
The younger girl ran towards the woman to support her. She then leaned over to hear the whisper of the older woman.
"Sister Ya, I'm actually here for this man."
I could tell that what she wanted to discuss with each other was a little private, but I wasn't going to take a chance that they were actually plotting something together. I had already made that mistake once before and I wasn't going to do it a second time.
The younger girl had a slightly confused expression as she looked at her sister.
"What?! Are you going to try and turn him in too?! I can't let you do that! I really don't believe that he's such a person!"
"No Sister Ya, I mean I'm here to join him."
"So you're not here to take him away? Then, does that mean you're on my side?! Yay! Sister Mei, we can work together to prove to the city that he's been framed."
"*Sigh* Sister Ya, I mean that I want to join that little harem that he's building!" Another blush appeared as she spoke.
Her Sister Ya on the other hand wore a shocked expression.
"S-sister Mei, you mean you believed them!?"
"Yes"
"And-and you want to be one of those slaves? Forced wifes?"
"Y-yes…Don't look at me like that! You know I've admired him since we first saw him! This is the chance I want!"
"B-but don't you care about how he treats you?! If you were to believe those posters then wouldn't you be treated horribly?"
"Don't worry Sister Ya! I'll take this chance, I think I could change him if he really was like that! I'll try my best to change him! And in the future I'll show you, no matter how long it takes!"
"Sister rethink this! No, wait! Sister Mei I don't believe he's that sort of man in the first place! Don't you remember how he treated that woman we saw him with before? In fact I've only ever seen him with one woman until recently! Even then how can you be sure she is even his other wife!?"
"Does it matter? How about this? I'll help you prove it by joining him, then we can get all the information you want and I'll be able to enjoy being with him. Win win, right?"
The young girl pouted as she looked at the woman.
"MMmmmm, Fine!"
"Hehe, Sister I know you're a little jealous. I bet you wanted to get on his good side by saying you were on his side, didn't you? Then you would have some time to grow closer with one another."
"N-no…"
"Hehe, I know my Sister. You're quite a good girl aren't you? Even wanting to help a wanted man, but I know you have a good heart. Just leave it to me!"
"But, what if he just rejects us?"
"Um, uh I don't know. I didn't think of that. Let's just hope he doesn't, at most we'll just go home like nothing happened I guess."
Hearing that final exchange I thought of a little prank for them. A smile slipped out for a moment before immediately disappearing.
At that time the woman walked up and stood around 2 meters from me. Her lips just parted and she was about to say a word, but at the moment I spoke.
"No"
*Shoon*
A spatial portal was torn into existence behind me and I took a step back into it. I deposited myself onto the roof of the building we were next to and looked over the edge at them. The spatial portal I created was left behind, but was slowly shrinking down to the size of a hand mirror. In fact it acted as a two-way window and the portal I exited through was actually pointed at them, but they simply had yet to realize it.
This was part of the Laws of Space which I understood. Spatial techniques and Laws in general were quite powerful. Time was also a Law quite well entwined with the Law of Space, they work extremely well together and seem to improve the efficiency of each other at times, it was like the four dimensions. The first 3 pertained to space and the 4th one was time.
I think I should be the only one in the lower realm which has such a high level of knowledge related to Time and Space.
The two Sisters froze staring at the gradually closing portal before slowly exchanging glances.
"H-he left! I-I didn't even get a chance to speak to him!"
"Hey wait, Sister Mei, look behind you the portal isn't closing! Hey you can even see the other side of it!"
"What?! Let me see!"
They took a few moments staring at the scene before anything happened.
"Huh? Did he record us!"
"No, it seems like we're moving at the same time. Wait!"
Finally the woman figured it out and looked up to see me. I sat on the edge of the roof, my head rested on my left fist and a soft smile adored my face.
She looked up with an entranced face completely ignoring the teen who tried to gain her attention. At some point she also decided to look up and just like her Sister became entranced. They both looked for a few moments before I decided it was enough. I dispelled the portals lightly hopped down in front of them.
At this point I was only standing half a meter as they both had a blush staring at me.