73 Unravel 2 - True Intentions (1/2)

After producing a powerful stomp, the force behind it was enough to propel Emily towards Stigma within the short distance at full force.

In normal circumstances, people are to panic when their life was aimed from a surprise attack, yet Stigma did not feel any sense of danger hence Dusk did not move.

When Emily attacked him with a knife, Stigma immediately realized that she may had been offended from his careless remark, and would later on apologized to her afterwards with his head bowed down.

Out of instinctive, Stigma did not dodge and raised both hands towards his chest and blocked the incoming slashes to his face, chest and legs. Eventually, Emily gave a shocked expression from Stigma's agility from dodging each of her slashes and performed a lunged at him as a last resort.

With the arm fully extended, Stigma dodged momentarily then performed a submission maneuver by locking Emily's arm under his armpit forcing her into a stand still.

Although it only lasted a moment, Felix was able to perceived what had happened then sighed a breath of relief from the quick judgement Stigma made. Though both had avoided injuring each other, Stigma and Emily were still in a stalemate with a knife in the middle.

From his position, Felix motioned both Lara and Roger that they were both fine and uninjured, which made Lara and Roger wipe off the cold sweat they had on their heads.

Although Felix held great importance to being guest of the Boar Clan. Their mistress Emily had informed them that Stigma held greater importance and had orchestrated the meeting to secretly assess his abilities.

From their interaction with Stigma, both had underestimated the infamous 'white haired boy' as he deserved the attention of their mistress.

If the ignored the incidents from two days ago, Stigma had proven himself not only to be intelligent but also physically gifted enough to block at close range, which meant he can also double as a body guard.

Yet unknown to them, Emily had different intentions for employing Stigma.

It was known that Emily was in difficult position of being aliened in the market from her 'Seniors' combined influence.

So by employing Stigma into her ranks, Emily would have an outside party complete any task behind the scene without the other three knowing his identity as she is the one 'responsible' for investigating any crimes taking place.

Once employed, Emily would have turned a blind eye from all charges and allow Stigma to continue his reign of destruction.

Eventually, Emily's aim to gain profit in secret through bails and bribes will eventually led to sabotaging/correcting her 'Senior' means of business forcing them to be more docile with her.

If needed, Stigma would be trained to be proficient enough to handle half of Emily's workload which was mentally taxing for her age, ultimately taking the role as her right hand[1] when he takes interest.

Nonetheless, Emily realized her mistakes and was forced to think up an excuse before it got out of hand.

Emily was soon dumbfounded from seeing her first attack be blocked against someone below her age, yet glad to have found an excuse from testing Stigma's combat ability up close, but her curiosity got the best of her and made a mistake from being caught.

Even though she was trained to fight as a means of protection, Emily was not experienced as of yet and had made the poor decision in pulling back as Stigma had already decided what his next move was and suddenly released his arm lock.

Although Emily had lost her footing, she along with everyone else realized that Stigma had went through his own battles, hence had a wider combat sense than the blue haired girl shocking them once more.

Stigma next objective was to perform a different submission by grabbing onto one of Emily's free arm, preventing her from falling and taking away her chance to fix her footing, grabbing the knife in the process and force it at her own throat.

Giving a message that he wasn't the type to be intimidated easily.

Unfortunately, because of the obstruction of view, Stigma could not tell the distance between him and the table.

So instead of being pushed away, Emily had tripped on the table and grabbed onto Stigma's for support but ended with her pulling him in the process when she fell.

Due to Emily's earlier stomp, the table from earlier was already weak almost splitting in two, so any additional weight like two children falling on top had collapsed it all together and formed a small dust cloud.

*Crash!*

Felix wanted to help, he had no idea what was going to happen next, as Emily's entourage were no different. Eventually the dust cloud had cleared away, but the scene could only be described as jaw dropping when they saw it and could not move.

Unfortunately, the most unlucky one was still unaware what had happened.

*

Currently, Stigma was facing the most....unexpected situation he had ever encountered that even he had never experienced from his previous life.

Initially Stigma had no intentions of harming Emily, nor had any aim to destroy his relation with her as he still needed information and her support.

Yet, Stigma's current situation might have ruined everything and would get him killed in the process.

As of right now, he does not know if the situation should make him laugh or cry, as Stigma was currently on top of Emily with his hand on top of her right bosom and his lips were on her's.

'.....so small, yet so soft.....Wait! Now is not the time for that' Without realizing Stigma took his head away from her face, but forgot to remove his hand of her chest.

Due to his situation in his previous life, Stigma or Cheng Xuan had never interacted too much with woman, so he does not know what to do next much less coop with his present situation other than apologizing.

”....Ngh.....Hmmm...”

As if on cue, Emily woke up but instead of feeling the throbbing pain on her head and back, she felt something heavy was on top her and felt that something was on her lips.

When she opened her eyes, Emily's stunned expression immediately turned into shock, eventually turning into a glare of pure rage to Stigma who just moved away but had forgotten his hand was still on her breast.

Because he was daze from the sudden development, Stigma did not had the chance to explain as Emily delivered a devastating punch to his face, which sent him across the room into the corner with a red imprint on his face.

Felix and Roger could not say anything and watch, while Lara could only look away with her face turning red from the embarrassing situation that could only happen in one the books she had read.

Emily slowly stood up but her expression was not approachable when she walked towards Stigma, anything she said was in complete stutter from the shock so it was hard to understand.

”.....Y-you, d-deviant ra-rascal, h-how, da-dar-re, you.....t-ta-k-ke....a-ad-va-vant-age....a-an-d-d...m-m-my f-fi-fi-rs-t ki-k-ki-iss-ss. F-for-ge-get a-ab-about e-expl- plani-ng an-an-nything --a-aan-d t-t-ake , re-re-sponsi-si-bility!”[2]

Although Emily displayed a tomboy like personality, she was still a young girl in body and heart who had no relation to boys outside her grandfather's influence. Hence, Lara and Roger were also surprised from seeing their confident mistress breakdown from just a kiss on the lips.

Felix wanted to help, but even he had no idea on how to help Stigma's 'accident'.

”W-wh- waht?”

Because of shock and confusion from his first kiss, Emily had promptly misunderstood that Stigma was shameless and would not take responsibility for taking advantage of her, so the adolescent girl charged at Stigma with a red face and was intentionally aiming for his life.

What happened next was like the earlier incident, only this time Stigma caught the knife aimed at his face between his hand in a praying gesture despite having a hazy vision.

From Lara's perspective, her step sister/mistress Emily's intentions had completely changed to an important meeting to straight out murder in hiding her shame and could only smile wryly.

From the start of her assault, Emily wanted to intimidate Stigma to never call her lazy again, but instead she had been intercepted and had lost her first kiss to a rascal.

'D-damn it!....if I don't force him to take responsibility, my name Emily Album Aurum would be put to shame!'

While Emily was going through a mental dilemma with tears in her eyes, the young girls had completely ignored the six guards who entered because of the commotion. But were later confused on what was happening and turned to their head captain - Roger for enlightenment.

Stigma was pleaded towards their direction, but Roger did not turn his way and explained that their mistress was going through another 'outburst' because of the taboo word was been used repeatedly and motioned towards the white haired boy as the outlet of her anger.

When all was said, each of them looked at Stigma with a trace of sympathy and gave him a praying gesture for his survival before they left.

The guards were aware of their young mistress 'outburst' due to her past and personal reasons, so they were sympathetic to Stigma as the next victim of her beatings.

Though each of the guards were capable of using Zen energy, Emily had long reach the level of a Cultivator and had sparred with five guards in each match and had not lost.

While the others were breathing a sigh of relief or praying for safety, Stigma was trying to remain calm despite a sharp blade was being forced in between his hands. At the same time facing Emily's glare with traces of rage.

Even with the blade inching toward his heart, Stigma did not raise panic and tried to workout a solution for his current predicament. But scowled at the guards for leaving and Felix's group for not helping.

'Like hell everything is okay! Help me over here already!!!!'

While cursing under his breath from seeing the guards leave, Stigma remembered that he had inspected both the girls using his skill: 'Essence Reader' and found the girl named Emily was a Cultivator and in the same Tier as him.

A mid Stage First Tier Cultivator but he was more surprised of viewing her list skills.

*Bing!*

[Name: Emily Album Aurum

Age: 14

Rank: Rare(I)(Mid stage)

2500 / 4000

Strength: 80

Agility: 100

Vitality: 150

Zen Reserves: 2000 / 2000

Affinity: Wind

Skills: Calculation, Cooking, Sewing, Riding, Archery, Dancing, Musician, Penmanship, Sword Mastery, Wind Spirit]

When Stigma saw her stats, he was shocked for a moment but immediately understood Emily was a true genius.

Compared to Stigma, who had a unique encounter and numerous blessings, Emily had actually trained, cultivated and polish her skills at a young age through her own effort which earned his respect.

Even though it was the first time for Stigma to met someone with a large amount of skills like him, the feeling of dejection did not surface as he felt that it was natural for someone else's efforts to bore fruit.

'....Now then, what am I suppose to do with her now.....she going to kill me if I don't give a plausible explanation, but I doubt she'll listen very easily...*sigh* why are women so confusing? I mean it was an accident! How am I suppose to know you were going to trip and pull me when you fell!'

While Stigma was having conflicted thoughts on how to fight back, Emily was shocked to find out that Stigma was also a Cultivator as his arms were covered in aura to block the aura infused knife.

It was common knowledge that Cultivators were capable of boosting any of their attacks including their physical abilities through the use of Zen aura.

If Stigma had not emitted aura on his arms, the pain from the collision would be no different from falling face first on a large pool of water[3] and the knife would have pierced through him.

”Wait! Wait! Lets talk about this, were getting nowhere!”

”N-not yet, take responsibility and we'll talk!”

”Fine! Fine! So back off already!”

With not much choice, Stigma agreed and wanted the conversation to continue so he can start his investigations for tomorrow then help Felix with his clan's dilemma.

Though Stigma does not know Felix very well, his late father always told him that men should alway repay a dept of kindness in any way possible. If the favor is not returned, then they will never gain favor from heaven.[4]

The element energy of Lightning from Felix's injury was good material and if Stigma could heal the clan in whole, then it was considered a win win situation.

”...Fine! But put it in writing that if you do so-something like that again, then you will be in serious trouble and will be treated worse than a dog, got it! Respond if you got it!”

*Arf!*

”?....What the....when I wanted you to respond, I didn't think you would act like a dog.”

Stigma was about to speak up, but he felt something moving in his robes and caught his attention.

Normally Stigma would not react to anything but soon realized that his little pet Kirin was still in his robes and woke up from being thrown.