I suspect Nala has a lonely and depressive side that needs some attention. Nothing serious, of course, but she loves to be the target of other people's emotions, whether those emotions are positive or negative.
Of course, she prefers to be the target of positive emotions, like now for example. But she can easily annoy someone for trivial reasons just to draw the other person's anger towards her. This gives her a certain sense of importance and belonging.
But unlike positive emotions, which she doesn't handle very well, perhaps due to lack of experience, Nala knows very well how to deal with negative emotions. Be it anger, envy, contempt, or any other similar emotion that other people feel, Nala knows very well how to react no matter the intensity.
Once, Mom warned me not to try to test Nala's limits and reactions because she is totally unpredictable. And I fully agree, nothing is more dangerous than an unpredictable person; if she ever decides to punish me severely for my actions, she will punish me.
Just as it can also happen that she exceeds herself and accidentally hurts me at some point of loss of control. Mom told me that she has severely injured some 'hasty' suitors who tried to jump the gun. In some rather horrible ways to be mentioned, I have to say...
"Lady Nala is in a good mood today, Young Master. Could it have to do with the commitment later?"
"Why do you say that, Aglaya?"
The three girls stood a few meters away from me while Nala was here, but now that she's gone, Aglaya approached me as I stood here pondering the current situation. But Aglaya's question was enough to pull me out of my moment of reflection.
"Normally she wouldn't tell you to take care of Lady Inessa or Lady Abigail. On the contrary, she would forcefully take you."
Aglaya once again presents her surgical comments. I turn to look at Aglaya and the other girls who are waiting for me. I don't need to say anything, so I start walking towards where Mom and Abigail were unconscious.
Aglaya and the others start to follow me, staying one or two steps behind me without saying anything... Only after a few minutes of walking do I decide to break the silence and ask a question about the subject.
"What do you think of Nala? What kind of person is she?"
"Pardon?"
"I won't repeat the question, Nala may not have heard it the first time, but I'm sure she'll hear it the second time."
The three briefly stopped their steps, but soon realized the situation they were put in. Nala, like Mom and Abigail, has very sharp senses, being able to clearly hear up to 2 kilometers away; if they use aura, this range extends to more than 10 kilometers.
Since we are already at a distance of about 1 km from Nala and I spoke softly, I have about a 30% chance of not being caught because Nala is not in her normal state. If she were emotionally stable, she would have heard without a doubt.
If she still heard, I will suffer some serious consequences. But this conversation I would have sooner or later with Nala, so it doesn't make sense to have it sooner than planned. For now, it's more important to know if my opinion about her is a shared one or not.
"Young Lord... Shouldn't this be discussed in a more private place? I believe your room or one of the palace's leisure rooms would be more secluded."
Avior may seem like a simple palace, but the truth is much further from that. That place is a true fortress, built with rare materials and with countless utilities. Made in a way to be impregnable by any being below the category of Supreme Dragon Lady.
Counting on numerous methods to strengthen and countless spells with various utilities distributed throughout the place. I have no idea how many there are, let alone how it's possible to activate most of them.
Mom only registered me to have access to 3 palace enchantments and only in specific locations. She said it could be very dangerous for me to have access to other enchantments since I still can't manipulate aura correctly.
Sound isolation, total light absorption, and Temperature Control, these three are the 3 enchantments Mom taught me. Useless? Definitely not, but it only makes me more curious to know what other types of enchantments exist.
"I'm not trying to hide this subject, Mahara. I'll talk to her at some point about it, but I want to know if my way of thinking is right or wrong... That's why I want to hear your opinion."
"I understand... So we will tell you what we think, But we hope this does not lead to serious consequences..."
"Mahara, Please, answer me honestly."
I stopped my steps and soon the girls also stopped. I turned to look at them and started to wait for their answers. They started looking at each other and after a few seconds of silence, they decided, then Marien started to say:
"I had already talked to the other girls about this, Young Lord, and in all our conversations, we came to a unanimous opinion..."
"And what would that opinion be?"
"Lady Nala may be studying you, Young Lord... In the sense that you may be a kind of guinea pig in one of her experiments."
"… …"
It's worse than I thought... My expectations were that their opinion about Nala wouldn't be so widespread or disturbed, but the situation is not what I expected. They observed and studied Nala's behavior with effort and dedication.
"Understand, Young Lord, our duty is to fulfill your wishes and above all, protect you from all kinds of dangers. Since the first day you arrived, Lady Inessa entrusted us with this mission."
While I was trying to digest what Marien had just said. Aglaya interrupted my thoughts with her words. She approached me a little more and started to look at where Mom was, then continued to speak with her serious and calm voice:
"Since that day, Lady Inessa said that our loyalty and commitment should be with you, Young Lord. All our debts and gratitude we had with Lady Inessa, were passed on to you."
"Debts?"
"…"
Aglaya didn't answer me, instead she just looked at me, put her hand on my cheek, and gave a small melancholic smile. As if she were remembering something very sad but didn't want to hide her sadness.
"Each of us has a story, Young Lord... Very different from each other, but we all have two things in common: we want to forget our past and we have a debt with Lady Inessa that cannot be easily paid."
Seeing that Aglaya wasn't going to say anything else, Mahara decided to talk about the subject, but she also didn't answer my question clearly. She continued speaking after she realized that I wasn't going to ask more about the subject:
"We will tell you when we are ready... The important thing now is you, Young Lord, knowing that our loyalty is yours. That's why we watched Lady Nala, to see if she could harm you. And we came to the conclusion that Marien spoke."
"Explain better, I don't exactly know what you're trying to say..."
"Lady Nala made a bet, Young Lord... She's not interested in power, wealth, or knowledge. Lady Nala likes to feel emotions, the more intense and memorable, the better. This is something that only a few people know."
"I already know that, Mahara. Continue and get to the point."
"It's good to know, Young Lord. Anyway, there are some rumors that Lady Nala never had a bond or even came close to having one, but no one knows exactly why. It is said that she has even killed some suitors who played with her feelings, but no more details are known."
"You're being redundant again, Mahara."
"Sorry, Young Lord, but it's part of the explanation..."
"I understand... go on"
"Alright... According to the stories, Nala has no lack of suitors, but she only chooses 1 every 100 years. Normally she stays with this suitor for about 10 years, some more others less, but she never makes their relationship official. So, for some reason, she leaves her suitor and goes back to being alone."
"hmmm"
"There are no criteria about race, age, beauty, or power. The only thing that is apparently common among all, Young Lord, is the personality. Her suitors are always..."
"Let me guess... Brave, daring, bold..."
"... Exactly, Young Lord..."
"... By Aura... So what did you mean by her studying me is..."
"Yes, Young Lord... Lady Nala may be watching you and studying you to see if you have the potential to become her Statera in the future. After all, it's been about 90 years since she chose the last suitor..."
++
I hope you can help me correct any spelling errors in the chapters.
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