The villainess shall be mine

:::[Adam's POV]:::

'This woman, she is certainly related to the master that I am looking for if she isn't the master herself…'

I didn't know why I was lucky today but it spared me some extra work so I was grateful.

Still, this was not the time to ask her questions, considering that just cut three muscular dudes by herself. 'She must be quite annoyed…'

Considering this fact, I whispered to cristal. "Follow her and find out where she lives. We will go there tomorrow…"

I wanted Cristal to revert to her cube-like form and follow this woman.

But firstly, I needed to make sure that she wasn't injured today because it would be a pain if she had to rest the next day.

I looked at the scene that was unfolding in front of me and I could see that the woman was holding her ground against these three muscular dudes.

'Still, I wouldn't be surprised if someone pulled a sneak attack on her…'

The woman ignored the muscular dudes who groaned in pain. She walked toward the innkeeper and paid for her beverage.

"Sorry for the ruckus, Estella."

"Don't worry about it, these guys have been causing trouble with the female customers for a while now. I will ask my husband to take care of them later."

"Thanks, Estella."

"Don't mention it! But you should take care of yourself Maïra."

These two women talked to each other like they were friends for a long time.

I couldn't help but come to another conclusion. 'This innkeeper hide this information from us… Is there a reason for that?'

I was impressed by Maïra's guts though, she didn't even give another glance at the muscular dudes.

The crowd booed at the pathetic red-skinned men, and some strong-looking people began to surround them, people, who supported Maïra and acknowledged her strength.

The three muscular dudes didn't have a choice but to leave.

Not long after that, Maïra also left the pub and I watched her from afar, trying to hide my presence.

After she left, I waited for Cristal to make a quick report about her finding, and then I went to the room that I shared with the other three, but of course, there was not enough beds, so two of us had to sleep on the biggest bed.

Timothy complained and wanted to look for another room, but after a while, we decide to settle it with a rock-paper-scissor game.

In the end, it was decided that Brodon and Timothy will sleep together for that night.

'We should probably find more rooms tomorrow if we want to stay here for a while…'

*****

The next day, I communicated what I found out to the others. I didn't explain in detail, but I just told them that I had some clues.

"I will probably meet this master today, so you can come with me, Miss Liu. You wanted to meet him too, right?"

Liu nodded and looked at the others, but I didn't want to bring all of them with us.

"The others can continue exploring the city if they want… It would be inconvenient if go there together." I explained.

Everyone nodded at what I said, it looked like they all found something interesting to do, apart from one guy.

"Are you saying that we should leave Miss Liu alone with you?" Timothy looked like he was more interested in coming with Liu rather than doing anything else.

"No, Cristal will come with us too," I replied. I didn't want this guy around, as he might screw up the whole thing.

"Hmph! I am coming with you." Timothy said in a very annoying tone.

I looked at Liu, trying to gauge her reaction.

However, I didn't even need to say anything.

"Yelena, Timothy, this may be the only chance for you to relax, so enjoy it while you can," Liu said. Her expression didn't change, but I could discern a faint gentleness in her voice.

"But!" Timothy wanted to rebuke, but when he saw Liu's gaze, he closed his mouth.

'I guess Liu is also concerned about her companions… Or is there something more?'

I didn't know much about the kind of relationship between Liu and her companions, but it seemed like they worshiped her and treated her as their superior rather than their friend.

They were very enthusiastic when it came to things related to Liu, and they wanted to stick with her all day.

I bet Liu noticed this too and wanted them to do something different for once, and take this opportunity to do so.

"I understand, Miss Liu," Yelena answered. She looked like she was also unwilling to let Liu move around by herself.

"Then it's decided. We will meet here again in the evening."

I hope I didn't sound too forceful, because these last few days, I felt like I was taking more and more decisions by myself.

*****

"Miss Liu, how are you feeling about all of this? I mean, you just kind of went along with it until now…"

On the way to Maïra's place, I didn't miss the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Liu.

I didn't know if Cristal realized my intention but she walked a bit ahead of us.

I was feeling a little bit conflicted. I wanted to get closer to Liu but I didn't want to let my guard down and regret it later.

It was a very complex issue to tackle. 'Am I doing the right thing?'

"… You picked my interest. That's all." Liu said.

I didn't know what she meant by that but I guessed that she referred to my challenge.

"I see."

The conversation kind of ended there. 'Why is it so hard to keep up a casual conversation. Am I boring?'

I looked at Liu and she had her eyes set on a particular-looking fruit.

Seeing this, I walked toward the vendor and asked him about the fruits.

"Hello, are these fruits edible?"

"Hello there, young man. Hahaha, yes they are edible, I wouldn't sell them if they aren't."

"I see, can you give me three of those."

I bought the fruits and gave one to Liu and ate one myself. 'Since we are here, might as well try new foods…'

"Thanks," Liu said.

It seemed like she was curious about the fruits. 'I see, so she likes to eat weird things… I mean, varieties of food… No, that doesn't say anything about her preference. Does she like fruits, or maybe sweet things?'

"Mmm! This is good!"

The particular-looking blue fruit was more delicious than I expected, and Liu looked like she agreed with me.

"Yes, it's delicious."

I smiled a little bit seeing Liu's eyes fixated on the fruit. She realized that I was looking at her and she averted her eyes and looked at Verte instead. I didn't know that she had this kind of reaction too.

'Isn't she cute? Hey, it will be hard for me to fight you seriously later if you do that…' I thought to myself.

"We walked for a while now, let me hold Verte a bit."

"Okay."

We took turns carrying Verte while walking, as Verte was a little bit heavy. I was sure that it wasn't a hard task for Liu, but I wanted to be a little bit considerate as a man should be.

Verte wanted to eat the fruit too but it was too hard for her since she didn't have teeth yet.

"No, you can't eat this… We will buy something else later."

After that, we continued to walk, and finally, we arrived at Maïra's place.

It was situated next to a huge tree and a little bit far from the crowded city.

As expected of this city, the whole place was built on top of tree roots, and some parts of the building were even carved inside of them. The design of the building was a little bit average, considering that they just cut and carved the tree's roots and then built the house with these materials. But still, it was bigger than I expected even though it didn't have any floors.

'This place looks like it was built by a single person.'

I walked to the front door and knocked.

Tok! Tok!

"Hello, is anyone inside? I am looking for Miss Maïra."

After a few minutes, no one answered, and I knocked again.

Tok! Tok! Tok!

"Who is there?"

Finally, someone answered and opened the door.

I was shocked to see a woman wearing some kind of light clothing that exposed her mature charms and voluptuous body. Her hair was disheveled and she looked like she had just woken up.

I immediately recognized her face. "Are you Miss Maïra? I am Adam and I want to talk with you."

"Who? What do you need?" Maïra said she was more or less uninterested in what I said. She didn't even intend to let us in.

"I was looking for you, or most precisely a swordsman that could help me learn some sword skills."

"Mm? You've got the wrong person, I am no swordsman and there's no such a swordsman here. That old man already kicked the bucket!"

"What? He is dead?"