The Lord Marshall did not reside on the capital city all the time. He was a general and as such, needed to be on the front lines which in the case of the Kirrian nation, meant Radiant City. Aridel was actually the Prince in charge of protecting it and he made it a habit to spend most of his time there.
Mei now knew they were pressed for time due to the need to return to Radiant City before the colder seasons of the year arrived. She needed to be as capable as possible by the time they had to face a 2 week trip, arrive in their abode in the city, fix the soldiers and warriors and then deal with at least 4 months of attacks by the magical beasts, hordes and the usual human scuffles and troubles that came with people fleeing to safety in times of harsh weather.
-I will do my best to be ready at that time- she said as she exchanged moves with Aridel.
Mei was also getting used to the new situation of having a completely new life. So many things had changed that sometimes she felt herself going into autopilot, just to stop thinking about the many possibilities, the reasons for her rebirth here. And it was Aridel and his constant presence around her that kept her from getting derailed.
He was not an easy man to read. But so far he was easy to get along with. It had been only 10 days together but being with him felt natural, as comrades they fit neatly. Given time and with more knowledge on her side, she felt they could develop a neat and productive relationship from a proffesional point of view. Mei knew he had a goal as a military man and also meant to keep that role along with his cultivation advancements. For him, reaching a higher stage of cultivation was a requirement, same as many scientist she used to know tended to view the pursuit of a doctorate. The means to the end which was to better do his job protecting the Kirrian nation at the cost of less lives from his soldiers. Mei had had a similar objective in life and was thinking that her change of circumstances was akin to a work position transfer rather than a career change.
What actually had her thinking hard was the highly personal involvement they had. She felt they liked each other, the chemistry was there for sure, but maybe the issue was that they had all the ceremonial part done first instead of the getting to know each other, much less the dating part. They had been soulbound and married right away while being complete strangers and that was why their relationship felt, well, weird and sometimes downright akward, despite being, feeling right too.
Time and keeping close to each other as they were now would help. When she opened her eyes and saw him sleeping on his side of their huge bed at night, with his relaxed expression while keeping still his long black hair neatly combed, she could feel sparks of joy and the sweet anticipation of the day when they would be in love and sleeping in each others arms.
Sometimes she also worried quietly. What if he remained guarded against her for a long time? He was an imperial family member, he should have seen so much scheming and betrayal? What if all they could get was a physical relationship? Men could have it all and still feel no love nor be able to appreciate it in reality, specially men with such a medieval mindset as he had. Aridel had remained alone, refusing to build a family for long years out of his own free will. His decision to avoid marriage to anyone and focus on his cultivation could be even said to be a cruel thing to both her and himself given the fact that family was so important in the world they lived in.
How things would go? Only time would tell. She wanted to love, she yearned to experience it. But she also felt that this was a jump into the unknown she could not make alone. She was also far more mature than he was as she had had over 50 years of life to get where she was and given that they had the chance of even more time, she could wait and see if he could get past his misgivings about love and what it meant for him.
Despite everything, Mei had already commited to help him as much as she could on his other quests. If a loving relationship was not possible between them, a friendship certainly was. So far, she had seen how protective and helpful he was. He stood to gain a powerful comrade if he helped train her. But he also could have just gotten rid of her even more easily.