The following day brought a colossal hurdle for Nora, jeopardizing all the strides she had taken until then. That hurdle was none other than Carla Veritas. The real younger sister of Arabella.
Carla didn't appear much in the original story that she had written, but this was the first timeline and it seemed Carla was quite the important character in the main lead's lives. It would have been better if it was just been left like that, but she was a budding demon hunter, and she had begged her father to go with them for this expedition.
If Arabella was beautiful like an ice sculpture, Carla was like a bright summer morning type of beauty. Both were equally gorgeous in their own ways.
'I thought it would be realistic for the female lead's sister to be as beautiful as her. Now it's coming to bite me in the back.'
The two sisters seemed to share similarities not only in their out of this world appearances but also in their taste of men. Carla had a deep admiration for Calor, it had not yet turned into a crush, but if her calculations were right, this trip might be a trigger, which must've been why Calor avoided Carla in his second life even though he treated her well in the first.
She was musing all this on her own while on the side Carla finally made her appearance. The small girl, only a year younger than herself and Arabella, looked gorgeous, with her blonde curls and eyes green like the forest.
Dressed like she was going to attend a banquet rather than hunt a demon, Carla looked out of place next to the company of demon hunters. Carla looked around and once she caught sight of Calor, her eyes immediately brightened and she ran towards him.
Only to be caught by none other than Nora. She put on a fake smile and got to work.
'Sorry Carla, I can't let my novel get ruined.'
"Carlaaa! How long has it been? We live in the same mansion, but you never show your face around." Nora hugged her tightly, dragging her away from Calor.
Carla forced a smile to be polite.
"Elynora, you know I have been busy trying to study. But it's nice to see you after a long time," She said, sounding extremely awkward.
"Exactly, we should catch up! So won't you take the carriage with me Carla? I missed you a lot." Nora mustered up all her acting skills for this.
Carla couldn't refuse. If Carla refused now, it would look extremely rude, so she had no choice but to weakly nod her head and allow herself to be dragged away to Elynora's carriage. On the way, she encountered a comrade who, like herself, was unexpectedly caught by Nora and forcefully taken to the carriage. She felt a sort of kinship with the extremely handsome man and wanted to start a conversation with him in the carriage.
To her annoyance, the man didn't even spare her a glance.
The carriage only had four seats, and Nora absolutely didn't want to sit near the demon king. So she happily went over to sit near Carla, when she felt a tug on her sleeve and almost fell over backwards. Luckily, she landed on something solid and didn't embarrass herself.
"Who the hell," She muttered, turning to look at who had pulled her so strongly. She shed tears in her heart after seeing the same Demon King that she wanted to avoid. She was also leaning on his rock-hard chest. Nora immediately pushed herself away and stood upright.
"You are not planning to abandon me after dragging me all the way here, are you?" He asked, sounding quite pitiful.
It sounded like a death threat in her ears.
"Of course not! Who will I sit beside if not for you, Sir Calix?" She said and quickly went over to sit beside him. He looked pleased and didn't talk after that.
And so, the journey to catch the mid grade demon started, with an actual demon king in their midst.
The sight in their carriage was very strange, to say the least. A handsome blue-haired man was taking a nap, a blonde lady glared at him intensely like her eyes were not at all tired of looking at him for so long and the red-haired woman who caused this situation was peacefully eating pastries while reading some kind of novel.
Nora didn't care how weird it looked to others. She was just happy that the carriage ride was going smoothly without any troubles, and hopefully Arabella and Calor were having a good time in the other carriage.
After a long time, Nora noticed some movements to her side, where Calix had taken a seat. She purposefully ignored him and continued reading the novel. Suddenly, a heavy blue-haired head plopped on her shoulder.
She tried to push him away, but her hand got caught by him, so she tried using another method.
"Sir Calix, since you are so tall, won't it hurt your neck to sleep like this?" She asked, hoping to persuade him to take his damned head off her shoulders.
"Not at all, My Lady. This position is very comfortable. I hope you don't mind, since I'm still weak and recovering," Calix said shamelessly.
Her neck tickled as his soft hair strands brushed against her. What else could she do when her boss was determined to torment her? She could only try to make it as uncomfortable as possible for him.
Nora lowered her shoulders as much as she could, praying that it would give the demon king a lot of neck pain. Carla, as she watched this scene, felt an inexplicable sense of third wheeling.
As the two people in the carriage continued their silent war of nerves and one person watched them, the carriage came to a stop. The curtain raised and Calor came into view through the window.
"Sir Calix, we have arrived. I want to go take a look at the inn before the ladies do. Would you like to come with me?" Calor asked. Nora almost jumped in joy. After sitting in such an uncomfortable position, she didn't know if Calix had neck pain, but she sure did.
Calix gave Nora a sideway glance.
"I will go with you," He said and got up, as if he had not at all been sleeping in an uncomfortable posture throughout the carriage ride.
Nora cursed in her heart.