Chapter 154: Countless Possibilites
"The world out there is dangerous you know," Anissa spoke to Jacob for the first time, prior to that day they had only either exchanged head nods or smiles, mostly the latter.
Jacob turned his head to face her, she was glowing unusually under the noonday sun, her golden hair sparkling as though it was wet.
"There’s too many evil people, people who would want to do you wrong." She added, she was unfortunately not part of the audience that had watched Jacob’s battle with a Heimdall so even though it was obvious that the young man was strong, she hadn’t seen him in action. Hence,the reason she would say all these things.
"Well they haven’t met me." Jacob casually replied.
Anissa chuckled, she looked at Light and then back at Jacob.
"What?" Light asked her, confused as to why she was switching glances between them.
"Oh, I just realized the both of you are very alike."
"What!?" The both of them chorused in unison, shocked expressions on their faces.
"I’m nothing like him." They both said again, their words aligning almost perfectly.
"Stop copying me!" Light growled at Jacob.
"You’re the one copying me." Jacob returned the same energy.
Their argument was quickly ended when they heard the girl laughing as hard as she possibly could, tears were already running down her cheeks as a result of how hard she laughed.
After sharing confused glances, they both joined her in laughter.
They all watched as the sun slowly dipped over the horizon, and it was finally time to separate.
When Jacob had his fill of sunlight, he got up slowly, rising to his feet, he had to return to the room to inform Xenia of his decision to leave the Wutherhorn estate, and plot their next destination.
He had something else to do, something that he would not tell Xenia about.
"I think we’ll head back to our room now, all that laughter has made me hungry." Light announced, wrapping his arm around Anissa’s waist, a gesture she welcomed happily. The two were basically living together at this point in time, and nobody had an issue with it.
Jacob knew it wouldn’t be long until he received an invitation to their wedding.
"I’ll be leaving too, I have to go check on Xenia."
The two parties bade farewell to each other, with Light and Anissa leaving first. Jacob stood there for a few more moments.
In less than ten minutes, he was back at the Manor, he stretched his body casually and walked into the building, making his way to the room where he and Xenia slept.
When he opened the door, he didn’t find the woman in the room, he could hear the sound of water in the washroom and knew instantly that she had gone to clean herself up.
He ignored the sounds and plopped into the bed tiredly, it wasn’t that he was tired, he just missed the feeling of a bed, he had been sitting on grass for nearly the whole day.
He lay there, staring at the ceiling until Xenia was done with her shower. She slowly came out with a towel around her chest and a towel on her head.
Jacob turned his gaze away instinctively.
"Oh! young master Jacob, w-welcome back!" She said, flustered as she didn’t expect to find him laying on the bed.
"Thank you Xenia."
She dressed up as quickly as she could and sat down on the mattress beside him. "I hope your outing went well."
"It went very well, I actually spent the day with Light and Anissa." Jacob started. "Which reminds me, I have some news for you."
"Oh, for me? Good news I hope."
"Yes, we’ll be leaving the Wutherhorn estate in three days." Jacob told her, he still lay on the mattress as he could not bring himself to sit up. "I know you don’t like it here very much, and I think we’ve overstayed our welcome."
"That’s great news. If you’re sure that you’ve done all you need to do here, then you know I’m ready to follow you wherever you go." She said calmly, a smile tugging at her lips.
That was actually the first time Jacob had seen her smile in a few days. For some reason he couldn’t explain, it made him happy and satisfied.
He grew up watching Xenia smile all the time, no matter what the circumstance was, but throughout their time at the estate, she hadn’t really smiled at all. Everytime she did, he could tell that it was forced.
"So yes, you’re gonna have to pack your things, and we’ll decide where next to go after speaking with Leon."
"Okay."
Jacob still had one more thing to do that night, but he would wait until after Xenia was asleep.
He stood up and walked towards the window, he could see the spacious land covered in tall grasses spread out around the Manor, shimmering under the evening light.
It wasn’t yet time to sleep, so he figured he would discuss with Xenia some more and get her opinion on the next place to visit, he didn’t just want to storm into someone’s land and take up space.
He also didn’t want to just wander around aimlessly.
Which was why he would take his time to carefully decide where next to travel to.
’The fallen Zoltha empire is off limits...’ he mused as he remembered what Xenia’s memories had done to her in the Forest of Ten Thousand Beasts.
A plethora of things raced through his mind.
The silence between them was comfortable, neither of them felt the need to force the conversation.
"Where do you think we should visit next?" Jacob asked her without turning his back.
"There’s so many possibilities, young master. I’ll leave it up to you."
Jacob squeezed his face, Xenia was a master at this sort of thing, when she didn’t want to give opinions on something, she knew how to redirect the question very easily.
He simply sighed, staring into the distance while he carefully organized the countless possibilities in his mind. There were kingdoms to visit, mysteries to unravel, and stronger opponents waiting beyond the borders of Wutherhorn. He would approach each one in time.