Chapter 172 - Its Hard Being This Popular (2/2)

Abby sighed. She should have known this interrogation was coming. ”Yes but we didn't have the chance to talk. Our eyes met for about two seconds and I completely froze. Lian distracted me and the next thing I knew, he was gone.”

”I'm sure you'll see him soon. The area Al gave the Warriors to set up camp is only a mile or so from the edge of town. They'll be coming and going all the time to get food and whatnot.”

She supposed so but how was she supposed to talk to him when he was surrounded by other people? At least when they first had their reunion for real. That split second of eye contact earlier didn't count.

They were friends and she didn't expect anything too exciting when they first talked but if he intended to return her ribbon she didn't want other people to see. It would start rumors because she had done something very forward in this world without thinking.

Ignoring the romantic connotations, Abby only wanted to have an excuse to see Blaise again. She panicked and did it on impulse, okay?

What had he thought of the gesture anyway? Did he think she liked him? Not that was entirely untrue…she had thought about him often but she didn't know him well enough for it to be more than a simple crush.

Abby got so antsy while she waited for Al to come back for dinner, hoping that Blaise would be with him, but was ultimately disappointed. The commander wanted everyone to stay out of the villagers' ways as much as possible while they got used to the idea of foreign warriors. No one was allowed to leave the camp.

Ah, curse these people are their fear of others! It wasn't like they had never seen anybody from Shibatsu before. A carpenter's wife and a miner's wife with that stand-out silver hair lived in Ilmir. There were a handful more in Raisha.

She would never understand politics. Al and Katie were welcome to it; she preferred working behind the scenes.

”Any male who is physically able to withstand the training is required to take part because there are so few of us,” Al told his wife between bites of dinner. ”We have to rotate who goes when so everything else continues to run smoothly. I was thinking something like three hour long shifts for each group.”

Katie nodded thoughtfully. ”That could work. You might have a rebellion on your hands if this cuts into play practice though so tread lightly with those boys' schedules. If we need to have more women involved in their family's businesses than usual we will.”

There were female Warriors in Shibatsu though none of them had volunteered for this particular mission. But none of the women here would want go through Warrior training.

It was only recently that they began allowing girls to learn trades like their brothers instead of simply helping with chores at home. Too much change too fast wouldn't settle well with such a traditional people. They had already bent a lot to Katie's modern vision.

She was certain they would get there eventually but for now decided to defer to Al's wisdom on the way his people thought. Getting girls more involved in traditional men's trades since they would be a bit understaffed while the Warriors were here could work in their favor.