The second female lead Dual Cultivates

“Of course, we have everything prepared to go. What kind of idiot do you take us for?” Maria walked down the stairs, only to watch Nao interrogate a group of locals.

The person she had been talking with sounded pissed off but he also seemed to be in control of his temper. Maria spotted a bag of something in his hand and it looked too fancy to have belonged to the poor man in front of her.

It had to have been something Nao used to bribe the man.

“Look, I’m not accusing you. I was merely asking if you were ready to head out” Nao asked in a quiet voice and Maria wasted the man in front of Nao flinch as soon as the hood came down.

Maria had never seen anyone react violently to a demon before but the village man almost fainted from Nao’s mere looks alone.

“Dear, are you alright? T-This is a demon” the woman behind him, apparently, his wife, stepped forward to catch her falling husband. Her eyes took one look at Nao and chose to ignore her.

Maria watched it all play out and her hand moved to secure her hold on her head. She did not want her secret to come out as well.

“Don’t worry. I am bounded by a contract and not here to hurt you. Though, I would like you to hurry up with your preparations” Nao asked and Maria watched as the couple gulped in fright.

Nao was an intimidating demon with big muscles and a tall body. She could snap any human in half if she tried hard enough. Nao positioned her body in such a way that it showed her claiming mark and the pair finally looked like they could breathe.

“Of course, you are bounded” the man muttered before he pulled himself straight up. His eyes held fear in them but he seemed much more comfortable in Nao’s presence now that he knew he was relatively safe.

His wife still looked afraid and had positioned herself behind her husband’s back. It was a useless move to protect herself. If Nao wanted to hurt them, then these humans would not stand a chance.

“We will leave in an hour. Meet us at the village gates” the man replied as he backed away carefully. Maria was sure that the party they would be traveling with would know about Noa by the hour.

“There was no need to tell them your secret. Won’t it cause us problems?” Maria asked as she finally stepped out of the shadows of the corridor.

She watched the couple walk away with an awkward air before she snapped her attention back to Nao.

“It’ll be alright. They’ll be too afraid to do anything and will move fast enough to get rid of us. More importantly, where is Suna? Is she not up yet?” Nao asked as she crossed Maria to move back inside.

“She’s sleeping. I did not wake her up since she looked drained. I’ll go wake her up so that we can leave” Nao did not protest, nor did she ask Maria to stay back to talk.

Maria took it as a sign that Nao was not ready to talk yet. Maria was also not ready to open her wounds. It was fairly easy to let the topic drop after that.

Suna was, amazingly enough, awake when Maria walked inside the room. Maria watched as Suna’s grey eyes snapped into focus and her face became overcome by a shocked expression.

“Orac-Maria. Did w-what happen? I feel so tired” Suna sounded drained and it made Maria feel guilty. She had not wanted the other to become like this.

But Maria did not regret her decision to spend a night with her at all. Suna was a good person and deserved to have good things happen to her. Even if it was only a night full of pleasure from Maria’s side.

“You helped me out last night so I decided to let you sleep in. But we need to leave in an hour so you should start getting ready” Maria watched as Suna tried to make sense of everything.

“Last night? Help? So that did happen?” Suna sounded like she was in disbelief and Maria understood that feeling.

She had been in that position not too long ago. She still could feel the disbelief in herself when she thought about all that had happened in a short amount. Had it only been a week since she had been thrown in this mess?

[The user is reminded that it had been 1 week and 3 days since the ceremony]

Her system’s chirp reminded Maria just how little time had passed and Maria had just gone with the flow this whole time. It would all hit her one day and Maria dreaded that time to come.

After all, if a small confrontation with Nao left her an emotional mess, what would the burden of all her actions cause her to do?

“-will go freshen up after you. Did you take a bath yet?” Maria felt a hand move toward her face and she grabbed the wrist in an instant.

Suna’s face snapped into focus and Maria instantly let it go. She tried not to think hard about the crestfallen look Suna gave her at the action and instead focused to decipher the words she had heard.

“I think I’ll go and take a bath first. You don’t mind waiting for me?” Maria asked and got a nod in return. Suna settled down back into the bed and Maria took it as her cue to go and take a bath.

The water running down her skin was nice and the shower was short enough to not make Maria forget everything.

Suna followed as soon as Maria was out and Maria waited for her to finish up before they went to breakfast.

Maria did not want to talk to Nao and she knew avoiding her was not an answer. These excuses would not last forever but Maria decided to make this wait as long as possible.

When they arrived down, Nao already had a table full of dishes. Most of them were Maria’s favorite but there were also the ones she had never seen.

“Since you both were taking so long, I took this time to order some dishes for us. I did not know what you preferred Suna so I took some wild guesses here and there” Maria felt a stab of annoyance when Nao chose to address Suna instead of her and it caused Suna to blush.

Maria should not have felt the annoyance at that interaction since Nao had gone out of her way to order her favs.

They still did not taste as good as they usually did and Maria knew it was due to her jealousy. But who was she jealous of here?

Maria never figured that answer out as they soon left to join the crew. And as soon as they did, the crew left the city as well.

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