As soon as I reach the vicinity of the house, I sense an unwelcomed presence. 'What is Jerald doing here?' I hop onto a nearby tree and spy on Tarma's lapdog. He is standing directly infront of the house, clearly waiting for someone.
The door opens and Alexia walks out. 'Ohh~ She is talking with him.' Dora whispers in my mind.
'Shut up.' I spread my mana field and enhance my hearing ability.
"It is almost evening, is he not home yet?" Jerald asks in rather rude tone.
Alexia crosses her arms and stands firmly. "No, he is not here yet. I told you to go back and return tomorrow."
Jerald scratches his own head, he leans to match Alexia's height level. "Look girl. I am not playing games, if I ask one of those little shits and got a different answer, I rip your hair out."
Alexia glares at Jerald, her eyes moving from his hand to neck. "Over my dead body."
Jerald puts his hand on the hilt of his longsword.
Meanwhile, I already unsheathed Melsier's blade. My aim was fixed on Jerald's head. "Just dare to move, you bastard."
Jerald stares into Alexia's eyes for far too long and surprisingly laughs it off. "Haha. You are a fiery one just like Helen."
"Oh yeah? Now get lost."
Jerald takes a step back and smiles. "Now now, don't spit fire. Here, show this Altaris… You are Alexia right?"
Alexia takes the scroll from Jerald's hand. "Don't take my name too lightly."
"Well, Melsier talked about you, you are the oldest one, right?"
After mentioning Melsier's name, Alexia drops her defences. "You knew, brother Melsier?"
"Knew? Melsier was my best friend. He never told me that you were this beautiful." Jerald smoothly flirts with her.
Alexia just smiles at his words.
"Mind if I come inside?" He sneaks his true motive.
'Is it the demonic mark?' I whisper in my mind.
'Did Alexia bled already?'
'I-I don't know. Shut up for a second.'
Just as I was about to jump down, I heard Alexia's refusal. "No. The kids don't like strangers and Altaris is not here as well."
Jerald smiles and looks down. "Shame." He turns around to leave.
As I sigh in relief only for Alexia to call him out. "Wait."
Jerald halts his steps and looks behind with a huge grin. "Yes?"
"The thing you said about my hair. You said because they looked good right?"
Confused, Jerald asks again. "Excuse me?"
Alexia gets bit flustered that she has to speak it out loud. "I am asking you, if my hair looks good or not!"
"Heh? It looks magnificent. Like silk, found in other parts of world. Each string can cost hundreds of platinum coins."
Cringed out by Jerald's words, Alexia ignores him and turns back. "Weirdo."
Jerald watches her going back and snaps his fingers. "She likes me."
I watch him get on his horse and gallop away. "That was… weird."
'Ah, a typical man thinks his rejection is secretly declaration of love. Only the emperor knows how many great societies fell because of men's foolishness.' Dora dictates her own philosophy as I jump down.
"But really why would Alexia ask Jerald about her hair?"
Dora quickly jumps on my head looks down at me. 'Are you serious right now? I refuse to believe men are that ignorant…'
I stare at Dora as she blocks my vision. Then she proceeds to play bungie jump with my hair. 'No. You are playing with me, right? You know everything.'
I roll my eyes and catch the jumpy mouse. "I don't know what are you doing but get off my head."
Dora escapes and lands on the ground. Her voice still loud in my head. 'You are actually that dumb? It's you! You are the reason Alexia asked that man about her hair.'
"Me?"
'Remember yesterday, you held her hair and asked if they were always white. Not to mention you stare at her randomly and call her cute.'
"Because she is cute? Every child is cute." I brush Dora off and make my way to the house.
'You cannot ignite a fire and blame the tree for getting burned.'
Finally realizing her words, I turn back and crouch in front of her. "Witch. Alexia is a child. Do not imagine strange things."
'She is teenager. Almost a woman. The age where they get curious.'
"For god's sake, she is 15… or 16. Somewhere around that."
Dora climbs onto my hand. 'Whatever it may be. You cannot change the fact that she is interested and the mark will only agitate her. You don't her to ruin her first time with someone like him.'
Jerald's face appears in my mind and my expression fills with disgust. "No. What shall I do?"
Dora tilts her head in confusion. 'Why are you asking me? You were called the greatest mage of this continent. You had the power, surely you met plenty of woman yourself, young and old.'
My face twists with complexion. "No… Not really."
'Huh?' Dora stares at for a second before bursting out laughing. 'Hhahaha! The royal mage was a virgin! Why? Did the casanova emperor left no bitches for you?'
With a cold face and pride tone, I reveal my secret. "It's not that… I was sterile."
'Hahaha! An truly incompetent man. This would justify your previous reactions with Stella and Marie. What a joke.'
I close my hand and held Dora in a tight grip. "I was a result of decades of research and resources, they made me in a lab, deep below the empire estate. The makers of my body did not deem any importance for reproductive organs, they wanted to create a perfect vassal to store ungodly amount of mana and they created me."
Dora who was struggling to breathe whispered in my mind. 'B-But I read t-that emperor p-picked up the r-royal mage off t-the streets.'
I release Dora to help her breathe. "He did. He picked up a gifted mouse off the streets to perform unspeakable experiments which gave birth to the greatest mage on the continent."
I could sense, Dora's tiny heart beating so fast. "Are you scared? That I would the same things to you?"
For the first time after becoming a mouse, the witch felt true fear. She started to shiver, to regret her every word. 'I-I, plea-'
To her surprise I simply put her in her place, my pocket. "Be delightful for being a weakling, for not being the gifted one by heavens and hell."
I turn around and enter the house. Everyone quickly swarmed me with hugs and kisses. "Altaris! We missed you!" "Hey, we waited you for so long!" "Why didn't you show up for lunch? We waited for you!"
I smiled and gently walked through the crowd. "Sorry everyone, I got bit lost on the way back."
Gerblt and Fran pouted at me. "We are hungry now!"
Alexia walks towards me and offers me a cup of water. "We missed lunch. Even I am hungry."
I take a sip and apologize. "My bad. Here, today's pay. 50 bronze coins."
Alexia takes the coin pouch and shakes it. "It's more than last time?"
"I told you, I was going to bring big money."
She softy curls her lips at my words and walks away to put the pouch away.
I lightly tap my pocket and Dora pops her head out. 'Go and check if the illusion spell is still intact.'
I order.
'Aye. Aye. Master.' Dora nods and runs away.
I put my cup down and glance at the kids. "Tonight, we eat meat!"
"YEAHHHH!" Everyone yells in excitement.
From the corner, Alexia throws a scroll on my face to stop the yelling. "Here, Melsier's friend dropped by. He told me to pass you this."
"I know." I open and read the contents.
Few seconds later, Alexia asks me. "So? What does it say?"
I calmly close the scroll. "It's a dinner invitation."