Chapter 139

I want to apologize for not publishing for some longer time, I had some vacation and then a lot on my head after them, and ended up not publishing here for longher than I would like. I'm back to publishing regulary, and I hope you are going to enjoy this chapter, and the next one that I will add immediatly after to catch up a bit.

--- 23rd Day, Late Morning ---

After our early morning preparations, we left Ortas, meeting Cassia and Marcy, who were already waiting for us outside the city.

“Someone had a really good start to the day,” Marcellina said with a grin, her eyes focusing on me.

“The best a man can have,” I replied.

“You’re not the only one happy here,” she said, her gaze slowly shifting from me to Zoe and Azura.

“Let’s go,” Cassia cut in. “You can talk along the way.”

She didn’t wait for a response and headed toward the dungeon.

Azura’s gaze flicked to her, then to me. After I nodded, she started taking off her clothes without caring that everyone else could see her naked. Fortunately, there was no one around beyond our group.

“Are you going to shift?” I asked Marcellina, picking up Azura’s clothes.

“No, maybe later,” she replied. “Let’s go, or she’ll head into the dungeon on her own,” she added, gesturing toward Cassia, who wasn’t slowing down.

“What got into her?” I asked.

“Her parents are visiting, and she wants to distract herself so she doesn’t think about it,” Marcellina replied.

“She’s stressed because of that?”

“Kind of,” Marcy said. “It’s complicated.”

“Not for you, right?” I asked, tilting my head, wondering how much she could really feel thanks to her class.

“Her situation is complicated, not her feelings,” Marcy replied. “And I don’t need skills for that. Talking is enough.”

“Are you two friends?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t know each other before you joined us.”

“We didn’t. But we got to know each other after I joined. Not everyone is busy with dozens of women around them, they actually have time for their teammates.”

“I can find some time for you, if you want.”

“I can imagine,” Marcy snorted. “But yeah, I’m friends with Cassia. She’s pretty much my only friend.”

“Why is that?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “Maybe I’m unlikable.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” I replied.

“Do you have many friends?” she asked.

I shifted my gaze to Zoe.

“Girlfriends don’t count,” Marcy added. “Friends you don’t have sex with.”

“What if I’ve only kissed them so far?”

“Those don’t count either.”

“What if I haven’t kissed them yet, but want to?” I asked, watching Marcellina walk beside me.

“Hmm… nope. They don’t count either.”

“That crosses out quite a lot of people,” I said, trying to think if I had any friends like that, but no one really came to mind. I hadn’t had sex with or kissed Gemma, but I certainly wanted to. When I excluded everyone I had ever thought about having sex with, all that was left was Azura’s mother and her sisters.

I didn’t even know any men in this world, aside from a few I’d met here and there, and with most of them, we were closer to being enemies than friends.

“Well… it looks like I’m not likable either,” I added with a smile.

“Maybe you’re too likable,” Marcy replied.

“Something like that,” I snorted. “I was wondering, how do your abilities work?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I’m just curious. Do you need to use a skill to read someone’s emotions?”

“No, I feel it all the time.”

“So you feel my emotions all the time?” I asked.

“That’s it,” Marcellina said, snapping her fingers. “I knew I was forgetting the reason why people don’t like me.”

“Because you can feel their emotions?” I asked.

“Aren’t you worried that I’m in your head?” she asked with a grin. “That I know all your secrets, darkest desires, and everything shameful you’d want to hide in the deepest corners of your mind?”

“That would mean you lied and can sense more than just my emotions,” I replied, watching her carefully.

“Or that I can read a lot from them,” Marcy said.

“Like what?” I asked.

She looked at me, her expression turning more serious, the usual smile fading as she thought it over. I wasn’t sure if she was analyzing my emotions or deciding how much she wanted to reveal.

“Okay,” she said finally after a pause. “It’s not really my business, and if you don’t want to explain, that’s fine, but… I’m kind of dying to know. I can feel two sources of emotions coming from you.”

“From me?” I asked.

Marcellina giggled before replying, “That’s really weird if you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

I knew exactly what she meant. Or rather - who. She could sense Peri’s emotions. I wasn’t sure how much she understood or what she thought about it.

“Don’t stress,” Marcellina said. “Don’t answer. Forget I mentioned it.”

“How can you tell there are two sources of emotions coming from me?” I asked.

“Just like you can see my clothes on me,” she replied, gesturing at her body. “It’s always easier to explain this to people who have mana, but for me, feeling emotions is like an extra sense. And just like you can see different things or hear two songs at the same time and recognize them, I can feel things separately too.”

When she mentioned mana, my gaze snapped to her. I wondered if she was hinting at something or if it was just a coincidence. Then it hit me, if she could feel my worry in that exact moment, she might get suspicious.

“I’m starting to understand why people might not like you knowing their emotions,” I murmured. Did she already know I had mana? Would she just ignore it and say nothing?

“The more you think about it, the worse it gets,” Marcellina said with a smile. “Unfortunately, I can’t turn it off.”

“Would you want to?” I asked, surprised.

“Do you know that feeling when you read something for too long, and then you close your eyes and feel relief?” she asked. “I feel the same when I get far enough from people that I can’t sense any emotions around me.”

“Wouldn’t you prefer to live outside the city then?” I asked.

“Maybe I do,” she replied with a smile. “Do you know where I live?”

“I assumed in Ortas.”

“I do. You get used to it. It’s like background noise you learn to ignore, especially when the emotions are dull or stable. When someone feels the same thing all the time, I can sense it’s there, but it’s not intense.”

“Do you analyze everything people around you feel?” I asked.

“Are you asking if I analyze you?”

“For example.”

“I’d go crazy if I did that, don’t you think?” she asked with a laugh.

I didn’t answer, wondering if she had avoided the question on purpose or if it was just a joke. But if she was analyzing my emotions, what did she know? What could she read from them? Add Zoe and Azura’s emotions to that, and maybe Marcy knew much more than I thought.

Mari had warned me that Marcy, Cassia, and Terra might get suspicious because I was too strong and too fast, but what if they already knew something was off? Maybe they just chose not to say anything.

Just like Tori knew, and had been informing Sage about me. Could Cassia or Marcy be working for someone? I didn’t think so, but the lioness shapeshifter had been asking questions, and behind that innocent curiosity, maybe she was gathering information about me for someone.

But who?

I could probably try to exclude her from our team, but maybe it would be better to keep her close? That would give her more opportunities to gather information about me, but there was something else I could do. Sage should be able to look into it and find out if Marcellina was working for someone.

Unless she was working for Sage. But in that case, she shouldn’t be a problem, Sage knew far more about everything anyway.

Marcy giggled, pulling me out of my thoughts as we were getting close to the dungeon. “Are you starting to worry that I know all your secrets?” she asked.

“Do you?” I replied.

“Just from your emotions?” Marcy said with a grin. “You’re too horny all the time for me to learn anything beyond the fact that you’d happily spend the whole day having sex with Zoe.”

I snorted, but she continued before I could respond. “You don’t have anything to worry about. People overestimate what I can actually learn from knowing their emotions.”

“You can read what’s in their heads,” I said.

“If you want to compare it to reading, then no, I can’t read minds. It’s more like opening a book and seeing symbols, but not understanding the language,” Marcy explained.

“You can understand emotions,” I pointed out.

“Some books are written in multiple languages,” Marcellina replied, though I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant in her case. “And even if I can understand emotions,” she continued, “I don’t know the reasons behind them. I can only guess, and guessing everything everyone feels all the time is exhausting, so I don’t do it often.”

“But you do it sometimes?” I asked.

“When I’m bored,” she said with a grin.

Our conversation ended as we reached the building surrounding the dungeon and shifted our focus to killing monsters inside. Still, my thoughts kept returning to Marcy, and I couldn’t stop wondering how much she actually knew.

We stayed on Level 2, exploring again without Mari, spending a few hours there and killing dozens of monsters. Both Terra and Azura leveled up. The orc reached level four in her Battleborn Warrior class, gaining an upgrade to her Raging Blow skill, which made her next attack deal double damage. It had worked like that before, but now the mana cost was reduced, allowing her to use it more often.

Azura reached level seven in her Shapeshifter class and received an upgrade to her Wolf’s Claws skill, allowing her to deal more damage with it. But she wasn’t fighting against monsters, so this wasn’t really useful for her. At least for now.

After leaving the dungeon and starting our way back to Ortas, Azura immediately shifted into her wolf form. This time, Marcy joined her, running alongside in her lion form. I wasn’t sure what to do about Marcy yet, but for now, I decided to keep her close while being careful not to reveal too much. Maybe Sage could find out more and either ease my concerns or confirm that Marcy had bad intentions.

I wondered if Sage would be waiting for us at her house again, and what kind of trouble she’d stir up this time before we went to meet Whitney. Another person who could cause problems and wanted something from me, though it was hard to tell exactly what.

At least later in the evening, I would meet Selira - someone I was sure had no bad intentions toward me.

Unless she had a dirty mind and wanted to do something naughty in bed with me. Or at the bottom of the lake. I laughed realizing that what Marcy had said about me being horny all the time, might really be true.