NOVEL NEXT Chapter 401: First fight in the new camp
The one downside of the barrier Fay installed in place of the doors to our apartment within the administrative building was the lack of ability for anyone to knock on them.
A downside that whoever was currently furiously smashing their hands directly against the wall, found a clever way to negate.
"What the hell…?"
Raising my head from Fay's fine bosom, I looked over to where the dark barrier covered the only entrance to the apartment.
In theory, there was a perfectly comfortable and even oversized bed for us to use. But after taking the liberty of sleeping on the mossy floor that Fay created… we both agreed that it was simply nicer to sleep on the floor rather than on the bed.
It had the perfect hardness that catered to the legacy of thousands upon thousands of years that humans lived like just another animal within the forest. The moss that it was covered with was just cold enough to be refreshing, stopping us from getting too hot without actually making us feel cold.
The overall sensation of laying down on the soft moss scratched the itch that I never knew that I had before. And whatever this moss lacked in terms of softness or warmth, Fay's naked body was always there to compensate for.
Or, if looked at it from Fay's perspective, my naked body was there to pillow her head, warm her up, and keep her within the reassuring embrace throughout the night.
Still, regardless of how much bliss it was for me to just keep lazing around with Fay inside our apartment, the speed and the intensity of the knocking gave quite a clear message.
'We need to get going, huh?'
Allowing my head to fall right back down to where I pulled it up from, I abused our bond a little, too relaxed to go for the effort of opening my mouth.
'I guess…'
When using our bond to communicate, the words were just a fraction of the message. The feelings, the deeper thoughts, the intent, even the physical status… All of them tagged along my direct thoughts, only for Fay to share everything about her current state of self when she willed me back.
For just a few more seconds, I relaxed within Fay's cuddle, enjoying the softness of her flesh or the warmth of her skin. Yet, as soon as I managed to gather my wits, I rolled over to the side, taking a few breaths now that I laid apart from the girl before finally forcing myself to stand up.
'Clothes…'
I looked around, searching for where my yesterday's attire ended up after the rather intense way in which we both lost our clothes upon our return to our love's nest. Soon enough, I was pulling up my pants only to then catch the wrinkled shirt Fay threw my way.
Pulling the shirt down over my head, I then raised my eyes to the show Fay happily gave me as she dressed, always making sure to stand at a perfect angle and in a perfect position not to leave anything to my imagination.
She wasn't tempting me in hopes of getting right back to business right this moment. The furious knocking reached the point where various plants and wines growing on and along our walls started to actually shake!
No, Fay's little dress-up show wasn't aimed for right now but was a promise for what would come to be once we would brave through all the tasks today was going to throw at us.
After all, tomorrow, we would part our ways as she would stay behind while me and Claudy would be the only ones to go back to the barrier area of the starlight plain. A victory that I couldn't feel more shitty about, but a victory necessary given how we couldn't tell whether the light of the stars actually impacted our kid or not.
"…me on…"
The shout of the person on the other side of Fay's barrier grew so loud, that we could hear its faint echo on the other side. Thankfully, by then, we were both properly dressed up albeit in clothes that wouldn't really go under the radar in a corporation strict about its workers' presentation.
'It's a good thing this isn't a corporation,' I thought, patting down the wrinkles of my shirt before checking in on Fay and then moving over to the doorway.
"Let's get this shit over with," I muttered and registered Fay nodding her head before pushing ahead and stepping through the barrier.
It was really a miracle of a craft.
Even though no person, sight, or sound could pass through the barrier, I felt absolutely no resistance as I walked right into it, through it, and then emerged on the other side only to see Kash's sweaty forehead and furious glimpse in her eyes.
"Just how long were you planning to fucking take?!"
Despite obviously trying to shout, Kash's voice was all raspy, only serving as proof of just how long she was screaming at our doorway. Looking down and to the side, the rim of her hand was all torn and bloodied, leaving crimson marks in the spot where her continuous strikes dug past the layer of paint and left a dent directly into the concrete prefab.
"Our shift starts in an hour," I calmly pointed out without even looking at the clock.
Here, in the real world, I didn't need to bother tracking time as I somehow could do it with just my guts alone. And while it wasn't as precise of a measurement as a proper clock, it was good enough for me to follow.
"What's the problem?" Fay asked as soon as she followed me past the barrier and stepped into the main corridor of the lodging area in the wing of the administrative building. Find your next read on empire
"Huh?" with her anger only growing, Kash rapidly turned her head to Fay…
Only to catch my cold glimpse, swallow both her saliva and anger, and only then speak up.
"There was a fight."
Honestly, the calm manner in which Kash announced the news made the information far more pressing than if she were to scream it out loud.
There was grace and importance in silence; dignity that shouting could easily remove.
"What fight? Who fought? What are the casualties?"
There were more than enough people gathered in the new camp for some conflicts to become inevitable. Such was the fate of places where a huge number of people gathered.
'It's actually strange if not an outright blessing that there were no fights for us to deal with before,' I thought before forcing my mind back on the right track.
Kash wouldn't act the way she did if it was just a small matter of two people opting to use their fists to solve some sort of disagreement.
'Heck, I doubt they would bother me even if such a fight resulted in deaths!' I thought… Only to hesitate a little and then completely change my opinion. 'Wait, if it's a first death in here, we will need to properly address it, so maybe that's what happened?'
"Did you know that in the week that you were away, we've started doing business with the frontier town?" Kash asked, her voice indicating this small detail of great implications was merely just the prelude to what made a simple fight into a problem massive enough for her to wake the two of us up so damn rudely.
"I've heard about the plans to do so but no, didn't know they already went into effect," I replied.
Cooperation with the Imperial frontier town was one of the very prerequisites of our deal with Etaria. It was to be initially the first and only city we would be allowed to trade with and trade in, all for the sake of letting both the princess and the empire at large know how fair we were in our trades.
It was also a measure we willingly agreed to, knowing how scary it would be for the imperial nobles if some strangers from only god knows where not only managed to defeat the imperial expeditionary force, take most of its soldiers captive, and then enforce some sort of peace upon the empire.
In their eyes, if we were allowed to spread throughout the entire empire right away, our presence would instantly become the hook, the actual reason for the great peace terms we offered the empire.
And through the natural, cold-blooded calculation, they would come to an assumption that our presence was bringing benefits so massive, that the lives of tens of thousands of men of the expeditionary army would pale in comparison.
"It's been exactly four days. Not that long in the grand scheme of things, but within those four days, we observed one hell of a problem. A problem that gave birth to the fight I came here to tell you about."
Kash didn't need to finish. Just her looking over my arm to where Fay stood in silence was enough to indicate the one element of the puzzle that I missed.
'Oh my fucking god…'
All the strength in my body suddenly vanished when I had to face the consequences of my oversight.
An oversight that all of the decision-making individuals made.
"So it was all about a woman?" I asked just to confirm, pretty annoyed with the idea of assuming something if I could get a proper answer with little to no effort.
If I were to stay silent on this topic, it would be an insult to all the questions that I couldn't get a simple answer to.
"That's right. But while the fight itself is actually a good thing as it allows us to start introducing our own laws…" Kash hesitated for a bit, only to look away as a small blush appeared on her cheeks.
In the end, the genius architect shook her head, turning her face back to one of perfect stoicism as she brought her eyes up and looked me directly in the eyes.
"All the VIPs are gathering at the ground floor to discuss the issue, imperial people of importance included," Kash announced, only for a slight grimace to cut across her otherwise stoic and calm face. "And you two are the only ones left."
I took a deep breath and looked over my shoulder before sparing Fay a small smile.
"If that's the case, it's better if we hurry, isn't it?" I suggested as I turned my head back to its natural position before grabbing Fay's hand and pressing ahead. Yet, before we could pass by Kash, I couldn't help myself and smirk a little.
"It would be rude of us to make everyone else wait, right?"