NOVEL NEXT Chapter 268: Forced Sleep Over
Originally, Frostbite was insistent on us taking showers to clean off. Because the pipes could be tapped and listened to she tried to make us shower together at first… But… There wasn’t exactly enough room… Much less enough for either of us to be remotely comfortable doing so. Eventually, we settled the issue by just taking turns and being quick, not turning off the water in between. Isy could hardly handle the cold at all, almost crying by the time she was done, so needless to say, they certainly weren’t slow… However, some time was added when she slipped and hit the back of her head against the wall.
‘Oh Isy…’
It all seemed pointless. Don’t get me wrong I understood the logic, and although it was all very awkward I didn’t have any huge issues with it… But it just seemed like Frostbite was being a little too cautious for some reason…
When we were done cleaning up she had us properly care for all of our armor and weapons, cleaning them as well, and only then were we allowed to rest.
“You should hurry and sleep, and leave by morning…”
‘You’re the one that’s been keeping us up…’ I sighed, slowly stretching out on the floor. “Sure thing boss,” I muttered behind a yawn.
Isy rubbed her eyes, “Siya who is this girl? You’re calling her boss?”
‘Should I tell her it’s the girl that made her… No… Probably not, at least until morning.’ “It’s her room, so she’s the boss. We can do introductions tomorrow.” I yawned again. “For now, just get some sleep.”
After a short groan, it wasn’t long before she let out a heavy breath, her body relaxing into the carpeting and her heartbeat slowing to a steady rhythm.
“Hey Frosty…” I murmured through the silence in the dark, staring up at the ceiling.
“What do you want…”
She slowly and silently moved to the darkest corner of the room as if taking a position to assassinate us… Or… Maybe more like a kitten, hiding from an unknown monster.
The dark didn’t bother me in the least though. My eyes moved straight to hers, locking onto them and making her heart begin to race. “Thanks for letting us sleep here.”
Her jaw shuddered slightly before she spoke. “Right…”
It was then that it became pretty clear she wasn’t going to try anything. To her, I was an unknown. A strange little girl with night vision and dragon eyes. She knew I was strong enough to take down her sister's guild, but without seeing me fight I almost became more frightening. ‘To her right now. I am an enigma, a storm that she’s just hoping will pass as soon as possible… I almost feel kind of guilty…’
Throughout the entire night, she watched me like a hawk. Every now and then her gaze became so intense it would wake me up, but every time my eyes locked with hers she would become progressively more timid.
‘I wonder what she’s thinking…’ Even though we hadn’t said anything to one another, her soul continued to shift and change, I could see it clearly but... Figuring out what any of the changes meant was another matter.
Frostbite.
Loyalty: 10
Opinion: 100
Intimacy: 30
Attitude: cautious.
Mental state: intimidated.
By morning she was sleeping soundly in her bed like a little angel. It almost looked like she belonged in a fairy tale. She didn’t drool, or toss and turn until her hair became a mess, she just lay there silently, her small features becoming more apparent as her face finally relaxed and stretched out. Not even her nose twitched.
Frostbite.
Loyalty: 12
Opinion: 100
Intimacy: 40
Attitude: Friendly
Mental state: calm
‘Like a fairy in a land of giants… I’m a little jealous…’ I slowly lifted myself up to a seated position, rubbing my head, trying to make my brain wake up. ‘I should wake up Isy. We have enough marks to form a guild, but it’s still only been 2 days out of 5. More marks will always be better, and I still need another guild member…’
I took a deep breath before turning back over to Frostbite… But paused when I saw her fully awake, sitting on her made bed as though she had never slept at all, I almost lost it.
‘Bloody… I guess she’s a morning person…’ “Good morning…”
Frostbite.
Loyalty: 12
Opinion: 100
Intimacy: 40
Attitude: Friendly
Mental state: Alert
“G-good morning… Please leave now…”
‘What about that was friendly…’ I sighed, nudging Isy awake. “Yeah, yeah, We’ll get going as soon as she wakes up and changes… Although, fair warning, that takes a while. You know it would be a big help if you could snoop around and find out what your sister's gang is up to. They really have one of two options. Either join me and become my underlings, or fight me and take back their marks.”
She slowly squinted without saying a word. Trying to avoid an awkward silence I continued. “I’d do it myself wearing a disguise, but my eyes pretty much just give me away. Of course, if you don’t want to that’s fine too. I’ll just wait here until your brother shows up and escorts me back.
“K-kai is coming!” Her eyes widened and her face turned pale. “NO! He can’t, but why?”
‘I honestly thought she’d be happy… But I guess not. Now I feel like I’m blackmailing her into working for me…’
“I’ll be right back.” She said coldly, vanishing out the door so quickly that the sounds of it opening and closing merged and faded, making it all seem like a light trick.
“Siya… My head hurts, I don’t want to get up yet…” Isy whined.
‘Two very different people…’ I nudged her again, letting out another sigh. “We have work to do Isy, come on. You can sleep all you want later alright?”
She let out a long whine, rolling over and closing her eyes again. “Promise?” She muttered, already half asleep again.
‘Seriously… Ok then. I still remember the trick mom used on me to finally get me to start waking up in the mornings…’ I grabbed her blanket and flung it off her. ‘The funny thing is… This was something she did after giving up on ways to get me up in the morning… She decided it would be easier to just do everything in the morning for me…’
I grabbed her pant legs, and with one quick pull yanked them right off. ‘Seeing as how she’s as shy as I am… I imagine she will feel just like I did…’
At first, she just curled up slightly, becoming a bit colder, but as her brain processed what happened her eyes opened, and as she looked down her mind finally started to wake up, as fast as her face turned red… Which… Admittedly still wasn’t very fast… Since I took the blanket too she didn’t have anything within reach to cover herself, except her change of clothes, which of course I placed nearby. ‘What was it she would say again?’ “Here, I’ll just change your clothes for you, that will be faster than waiting for you to get up and do it yourself.”
Her brain was still too tired to form any actual words, but given that she quickly grabbed her clothes and clumsily got to her feet I figured it worked well enough. ‘Did I go too far? She’s already been through a lot… Then again, at least I didn’t strip her naked…’ I growled, thinking back before I rubbed my face again and refocused on the present, changing into my armor. It didn’t take very long, but by the time we were both done Frostbite was already returning.
She slowly opened the door, stepped inside, closed the door, and then leaned back against it all without a single notable expression. “How many of those guys do you think you two can take on alone?”
‘Does that mean they’re after revenge after all?’ “Hm… If were talking the weaker ones, and both of us fighting, I think we could take on 5 or 6 in a head-on fight…”
“Ok, you won’t have to worry then. Of the 42 members, 22 want to join you, 17 are joining other guilds, and 3 are starting their own guilds, or at least they are going to try. They were apparently strong enough that gathering marks traditionally isn’t terribly hard, and since they are older, they only need 50 marks per member to form a guild, rather than a base of 1,000. Taking that all into consideration I think you should be fine.”
“I still might have to worry about these three new guilds though… Is that right?”
She pushed herself off the door and stepped forward again, closing her eyes and finally relaxing. “I doubt any of them would risk going after you, because if they lost again it would be hopeless, not to mention make you look better, which is the last thing they want. Two of the three at least will avoid you for that reason… The last one though… He has a reputation of sorts…”
“So he’s an idiot?”
For the first time, I saw her smile. “You could say that. Apparently, he wasn’t there when you took down the guild, and he tends to be brash and loves picking on girls, especially small ones like us who look weak. Given everything you did I’m sure you make him all hot and bothered if you know what I mean.”
‘I’m not convinced you know what you mean when you say it like that…’ “I don’t think you should use that expression anymore…”
She slowly bounced her eyes off of Isy, a hint of fear in them as if she was worried she had done something wrong. “Why not?”
“Just trust me alright? There are like a dozen other expressions for people being angry, pick… Any of them.”
Her look of confusion only grew. “Like what?”
I closed my eyes for a brief moment to think .”Like, I make him want to bite my head off, or go ballistic, blow my top, HIS… Blow…” I growled, biting my tongue. ‘I’m making it worse… It’s too early for words…’ “You know what… Just forget I said anything… Where are the people that want to join me?”
Without a moment's hesitation, she didn’t question my awkwardness at all, simply responding. “Outside the front door of the dorm, I don’t think it’s a trap, none of them have weapons.”
Letting out another sigh I stretched my arms into the air, tightening my armor one extra notch to fully fasten it and heading out. “Ok. Thank’s again Frosty, that was a big help. Oh and uh… I didn’t tell Kai you’re room number… Just that we would be staying here. So you won’t have to worry about that…”
She smiled dimly but her eyes betrayed it. “Thanks… Now I don’t have to force someone to switch rooms with me…” She said softly before closing the door again.
‘So her brother is the only thing in the world she cares about… And she doesn’t want to see him? Either she’s ashamed, or she’s worried he will be. Likely both I suppose. The only real way to fix that would be for her to eavesdrop on him saying otherwise. If the problem has more to do with her wanting to escape her current life as an assassin though, then things will probably resolve themselves when she does that… Ugh… My job never ends…’