NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 250: Hair Dryer.
‘Well… There is always the third option… But I can’t seem to predict how either will react… I don’t know enough about them… Although… the assassin doesn’t know anything about me either. If nothing else that would be a good reason as to why she would hesitate to actually kill Isy… Ok… Option three then… I’ve never been much for begging anyway… And I don’t have the heart to pretend to abandon Isy.’
Time resumed and I rolled my neck and shoulders, still feeling the tension as the dragon in me stayed riled up, the scent of blood fresh in the air and mixing with my anger from my new friend getting hurt. “Isy…” I said calmly, completely ignoring the girl behind her. “How are you holding up? You’ve been through a lot today.”
She never stopped shaking as she answered. “O-oh… You know… Stuff like this just kinda happens sometimes…”
‘That’s ah… A concerning response…’ “Sorry about this, I guess I should have just had you wait in the room with me. It’s not your fault.”
The girl pulled her another step back and reached around her neck even more making Isy squeak. “Is this about my sister? Because I have no connection to anything she does…” She growled.
I just continued to ignore her. “I mean seriously. This has really been a rough first day for you. But you’re still toughing it out, it’s actually pretty impressive.”
The assassin growled again, grabbing another knife from her belt and crossing it across her throat as well. “Are you ignoring me?” She growled, even louder than before.
Isy yelped, closing her eyes, and shaking even more as her knees began to buckle. Seeing her so scared made the dragon come out even more and my eyes started to burn as my voice turned to a calm gravaly roar. “Sit down! Be a good girl and wait your turn. I wasn’t talking to you.”
She flinched so badly that she ended up nicking Isy again with the knife. And of course, Isy, with her eyes closed, was startled even more, not just by my voice, but by the knife that she probably thought was going to finish her. That mixing together ended up resulting in an… Embarrassing reaction…
The assassin made a disgusted scoff as she jumped back slightly onto the balcony rail overlooking the first floor. “Don’t come looking for me again… I have nothing to do with my sister.” Without another word she jumped off the balcony and plummeted, vanishing from sight.
Loyalty: 0
Opinion: 100
Intimacy: 0
Attitude: curious
Mental state: uncertain
I looked at Isy’s as well, and hers stayed the same… Although… her mental state changed from scared to mortified, no doubt on account of her wetting herself… The moment it was over her knees buckled and hit the ground, tears streaming down her face, all without her making a noise, aside from the sniffling that is. Of course, the fact she was so quiet almost just made it worse… Since It made it easy to hear water dripping down to the first floor.
‘Geez…’ I pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped out to offer her a hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up…”
She rubbed her eyes, slowly taking my hand and standing up, her movements clearly reflecting how uncomfortable she must have been. “O-ok…” After just a few steps she paused again. “I don’t have any clothes though…” A realization that of course only made more tears come out.
‘A rough day… Might be a bit of an understatement…’ I tugged on her arm and led her to the shower. “I have plenty that are way too big for me. I mean, they’ll be too big for you too, but they should work for the time being…” I pulled them out of the closet and laid them out for her, waiting in the other room.
‘Statistically speaking, this outcome was great… So why do I feel bad about it…’
Not long after the water started running the two rogues that were originally attacked with Isy came back, picking the lock and opening the door as if they were trying to sneak in… Staring at me face to face. I clenched my jaw and glared at them, grabbing my greatsword from nearby and flipping it over my shoulder without even bothering to stand up.
Without a word they slowly backtracked out of the room and closed the door again, even relocking it for me… ‘Wait, the locks are done with dwarven runes right? How do you even pick a lock like that?’ I sighed. ‘So every time I turn the shower on it spawns enemies? Noted… I’m surprised it was that easy to chase them off though. Well… Then again they are 12-year-old girls.’
After a surprisingly long wait, Isy came back out, but sure enough, the clothes from my grama looked almost equally oversized on her as they did on me. Still, all things considered, they worked. At least in the sense that they weren’t falling off when she tightened the strings all the way. “Why do you have clothes like this when you're so… Well… You know…”
“Tiny…” I sighed. “They’re my grama’s, I won them from her in a bet…” ‘That… Sounded different in my head.
After giving me a funny look She stiffened up again. “You mean these are her clothes? I can’t wear these?”
I grabbed her hand as she reached to take her shirt off and stopped her. “Keep your shirt on…” ‘I never thought I’d have to say that literally…’ “First of all, they are my clothes, I just told you I won them from her. Second… We are leaving now for the grand hall. We’ll probably be the last ones there… Do you really want to walk in naked? Or I guess you can put your other clothes back on.”
She let out an uncomfortable groan.
“That’s what I thought. Now, if you're done…” I paused for a moment, the sound of water trickling down to the floor from her hair reverberating as the only sound in the room. “You’re soaking the floor…” I said bluntly.
She let out another squeak as she looked down frantically, her voice rising almost three octaves. “No, I didn’t this is just from the shower!”
“That’s not what I– Ugh… You’re hair. You didn’t dry your hair off at all, stop moving around and throwing water everywhere!”
She froze like satatue.
“Seriously, you like a wet dog.” I sighed scratching my head. ‘Well, showing up late is better for us anyway, and that was always the plan.’ “Come here.” I grabbed a towel and took a seat on the bed with a comb, having her sit in front of me. ‘I don’t actually know how to do this without a hair dryer…’ I leaned around to make sure she was looking the other way. ‘I can get away with a little magic right?’
I wrapped the towel under her hair to stop it from dripping on everything and then started pulling out the water as I rubbed it with the towel until it was mostly dry, leaving in just enough to make her hair a few shades darker and not make her suspicious. “Are you ready now?”
She looked at her hair all sparkly-eyed before hesitantly nodding, and off we went. ‘Forget the assassin… I’m still trying to figure this girl out… She’s a noble, but I get the feeling she was raised more like me. Considering she doesn’t have her own weapons or armor she was probably considered just as disappointing, but her build suggests she is strong at least, so I don’t get why She’s a bit shorter, but even more burly than Lu, and her grip is pretty strong.’
She tripped, and crashed into me, nearly falling on her face before I steadied her. ‘She also might be a ditz…’