Chapter 126 - Who Was That? (1/2)

Abby didn't see Hugo often because their schedules didn't exactly match up. Over the following weeks she ran into him exactly once when his instructor sent him and another Warrior-in-training to pick up some books when she was manning the shop.

He was as snarky as usual but his companion didn't do anything other than stare. Was he one of those people who had never seen a foreigner before?

”Here are your books,” she said coolly as she handed them to her ever-rude housemate.

Hugo hadn't even properly introduced his friend. Wasn't that a fairly standard thing to do when you run into an acquaintance? Why was he so against her, anyway? She wasn't a financial drain on his family; she earned her keep fair and square.

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”Who was that?” Blaise asked his partner breathily once they exited the book shop.

He had been too stunned by her beauty to do anything but stare, not able to so much as get her name. Hugo hadn't seemed fazed by her appearance at all and had even gone so far as being borderline rude in his speech and mannerisms.

During the training period where they had interacted regularly, Blaise had come to realize that Hugo was simply like that but only around people he was somewhat comfortable with. Which meant that he knew the girl with eyes the color of the sky.

”Oh her? That's Abby. She's been leeching off of my family for a while after I found her half-dead in the river,” Hugo said casually.

He found her in the river…that must be why he addressed her as River Rat. She hadn't seemed at all pleased by that moniker. Blaise had three sisters and he couldn't imagine any of them wanting to be addressed that way either.

”Where is she from?” he asked.

Hugo put his hands in his pockets, the picture of casualness as they strolled down the street. He had already handed the bag of books off to his compatriot as soon as they left the store.

”Don't know. She says it's too far away to be on any maps but she looks like she's from Annalaias. That's where she's headed anyway. Claims to have a sister in the Kanta region. Can you believe that? Of all the places to want to go. Those mountains are as barren as they come.”

Blaise had heard about what happened in the Kanta region nearly a quarter of a century ago despite how hard the royal family of Annalaias tried to cover it up. They were a calm, quiet people who had kept largely to themselves over the years and had no formal military.