"Your…your nose!"
Said Naomi shocked while pointing her finger at Ayanine's nose
And Ayanine, as if by reflex, touched his nose with his left hand and an expression of astonishment invaded his face as he looked at the tips of his fingers of his hand covered with a red, slightly warm liquid
"What...is..."
Said Ayanine as his hand was shaking
"It's blood!"
Screamed Naomi
"I know it's blood okay! I wonder why I'm bleeding !"
Replied Ayanine, visibly confused by Naomi's remark.
"Maybe you hit your face on a tree branch when you were chasing him?"
Said Naomi approaching him
Hearing the words 'hit your face', the scene where he had just greeted an unknown little girl at that moment flashed before his eyes but before he could realize it, a small hand grabbed his face and in front of him , Naomi was cleaning up the blood with the handkerchief he had given her
"What are you doing?"
Said Ayanine surprised
"Stop moving !"
Replied Naomi, cleaning the face of the visibly bourgeois boy stopped in front of her,
'Look at his literally horrified face just because of that, rotten little bourgeois spoiled by his parents, I bet he's never seen his own blood, pathetic!'
She thought while cleaning Ayanine's face
"There you go, you are clean now. I hope it will be a lesson for you the next time you'll want to act like a creep to a girl and then start running after her"
Said Naomi, snatching her basket of mushrooms from Ayanine's hand.
Ayanine wanted to point out to him that she was the cause but the image of Vinson came back to her mind.
"Thanks"
He said to Naomi, sighing, but the little girl was already heading inside her cabin.
Ayanine followed her and entered in turn.
As he entered, multiple question stared to go get out of his mouth and before Naomi even realized that he had followed her, Ayanine was already asking her questions
"Why is this house so small?"
"Where are your parents ?"
"Why are there statues of a man and a woman here?"
"They are very detailed, which craftsman made them ?"
"And why--"
And suddenly a slap landed forcefully on his cheek, stopping the series of questions.
"I'VE TOLD YOU TO STOP ACTING LIKE A CREEP!!!"
Shouted Naomi furiously
****
Meanwhile in the throne room, King Yoshi struck up a conversation with his male major Vinson
"My king, here is the report which was written by the captain of the army during the last attack of the monsters against our convoys"
Said Vinson holding out a paper towards Yoshi
"They attack all convoys that leave and enter the kingdom, our traders have let me know that they will no longer export or import if the monster attacks continue, for them there is no question of risking their lives "
He added with a worried look.
After listening carefully to his man major, Yoshi who had his hand on his chin while listening lowered his hand and grabbed the report, sighed while taking another look at it.
"My king, shall we not try to reconsider the peace treaty--"
Vinson added but even before he finished his sentence, Yoshi exclaimed
"No! Don't even think about it! There is no question of sympathizing with these monsters after all the humans they have killed! It is out of the question!"
He said, cutting Vinson off.
"With all due respect my king, it was the humans who started this war against these people and what is happening is the repercussions of our ancestors, they are just trying to defend themselves!"
Answered Vinson
"They're not people Vinson! They're monsters, mindless beats, they have nothing that can compare them to a human!"
Said Yoshi furious
"How about vampires then? They're literally humans, it's just that they have a different diet and superior abilities than humans--"
"What do you mean?! Have you lost your mind Vinson?"
Yoshi shouted, interrupting Vinson once again
"What I mean is that if these beings are capable of establishing attack strategies, that means that they are not mindless beats, we could collaborate with them! Imagine what will happen if vampires join our ranks, the other nations will fear us even more and we will be unstoppable, think about it my king"
Said the old man to defend his idea
"Vinson... tell the captain of the army to send the 'elites' [1] to explore the place where the last attack took place and that they kill all the monsters that are around and as for you I recommend you to go take a rest"
Said the king sighing with a pitying and bored look
"But !"
"Vinson…"
"Understood…"
He said as he left the throne room.
Yoshi sighed again as Vinson was leaving.
"You guys should go slowly with those monsters or you'll end up fighting between yourselves"
Said a soft voice from the corner of the room once the doors closed
"Oh 'Honea' how long have you been here?"
He said, smiling but visibly bored by his conversation with his male major.
"Since you and Vinson started talking about a peace treaty with the vampires grrrrr!"
She said amused as she approached her beloved
"He is losing his mind due to old age"
He whispered to Honea
"And you should go slow on overthinking or you will lose your mind before you reach his age"
Said she as she kisses him
****
Moments later, Ayanine and Naomi were both sitting by the river
"So if I understand correctly, your parents died during your birth and these statues are their representation?"
Said Ayanine with a well-defined red mark of a hand on his cheek.
As an answer to his question, she nodded with a look of melancholy and regret.
"Don't worry for my cheek, the pain is already gone"
Said Ayanine having noticed her face
"I don't care about it! You deserved it, you creep!"
Shouted Naomi
[1] Elites soldiers was a group of normal that during their during their training, received injections containing the life essence of golems, those which gave them extraordinary strength and abilities