Smiling at the defused situation, Greg spoke up. "I think I've done all I can for today," He said withdrawing his hands from the back of Eniya's neck. "I'll try to get something stronger by tomorrow and well see if we can't do a little bit more than we did today," He offered his gaze moving from the blacksmith to his wife. Innocuous as his words may have seemed, he could see that the woman understood exactly what he was implying. Much to his satisfaction, Greg could see the hunger in her eyes, the burning need and desire that coursed through her as she nodded in acknowledgment of the hidden message. "I'll see you both tomorrow," Greg said with a smile before making his way out of their home.
Looking up at the sky, Greg noted that it was almost midday. He could also feel within himself that all the mana that had been pumped into him in the morning had been digested by his body. When the process began, four months back, Greg would still feel some mana flowing through him by the time the next infusion came along. Now, however, four to five hours after an infusion, all the mana would have been used up. Whether it was reinforcing his mana pathways or fortifying his body through the spillover effect so that it could handle more mana, Greg could feel that the process had picked up pace the more he was subjected to it. Hell, even the pain had been reduced to little more than an uncomfortable tingle. With a satisfied smile, Greg turned and started moving towards the infirmary.
When he got there, Greg wasn't surprised to see a man in armor standing guard by the door. Hakor, was one of the guards under the Town-head's employ, and unlike most others, this man was a formidable fighter. Most of the other guards in the Town-head's employ would probably use swarming tactics to overwhelm a foe, Hakor, wasn't one of them. Known and respected as both a formidable brawler and decent with a sword, the man had been tasked with watching over and ensuring the safety of Shalia.
It wasn't anything supernatural about his senses that allowed Greg to pick up on the fact that they were being followed, three days prior after dinner at the Valla household. Instead, it was a magical artifact that he'd bought from the magic shop. The Arenia's eye, that's what it was called. A completely dark orb with a spindle-shaped, amethyst-purple line like the pupil of a cat on one side of it. After asking Olivia about it, he'd learned that the Arenia was a cat-like magical beast that was next to impossible to hunt. The reason for this was simple. As soon as you laid eyes on it, the beast would become aware of you. Even if it was facing a completely different direction from where you are, it would still know it was being watched. Not even scrying for the beast from a distance would allow one to evade the beast's senses. It would still know and make its escape as a result. And given that the thing could move as fast as the wind, it was next to impossible to catch it once it was alert. The only two ways to catch the beast were to either be faster than it or to somehow hunt it without ever laying eyes on it.
The artifact was fashioned from the beast's eyes and was supposed to grant its user the same abilities as the beast itself. The result, however, was nowhere near as good as the beast itself. For an Arenia, a split-second glance would be enough for it to become aware of a watcher. With the artifact, however, one would have to keep their eyes on him for roughly three to five seconds for him to become aware that he was being watched. If his watcher kept looking at him for ten seconds, Greg would get a sense of which direction he was being watched from. After fifteen seconds, the artifact would allow him to zero in on exactly where he was being watched from. The only way in which the artifact was equal to an actual Arenia was its ability to tell when someone was scrying on him. It wouldn't give him the direction or location of the scrying, but it would let him know that it was happening.
Greg understood why the artifact needed to be weaker than the actual beast. If it picked up on every single glance, not only would it be very distracting, but it wouldn't be able to distinguish between those who were only giving you a passing glance and those who were focused on you. Of course, the downside was that someone who knew how the artifact worked could easily beat it. It wasn't like the artifact compiled all the time that one had looked your way. All a knowledgeable opponent would have to do is ensure they never looked your way for more than a second and the artifact would never pick up on it. In this small town, however, there was no danger of anyone knowing this. Ironically, the artifact was part of the set of things he'd bought to face the Town-head if things went south with him. It, however, might have been the very thing that saved his daughter's life.
The first thing Greg did after revealing that they were being followed was to stop Shalia from turning around and seeking out their stalker. He didn't want their pursuer to figure out that they were already exposed. Whoever it was that had been following them, however, proved to be rather skittish. Greg had planned to first get Shalia home safely before summoning Olivia to chase down and capture their stalker. As soon as they moved past his house and it became clear he intended to escort Shalia back home, however, their stalker had ceased his pursuit and disappeared into the night. Despite this, Greg had stayed with Shalia right up until they came to her gate and she was escorted by The Town-head's guards to her house.
The next day, Greg arrived at the infirmary to find Hakor standing guard. When he walked inside, he found Shalia who explained what had transpired after she'd arrived home. Spooked by the experience of having someone sent after her, Shalia had revealed what had happened to her parents. Naturally, both had been scared of what could have happened and thankful to Greg for keeping her safe. According to Shalia, her father, the Town-head, was preparing some kind of gift for him for what he'd done. Still, despite this, her father had released Shalia from the punishment of having to be his servant. Hakor had been assigned to be her guard and she had been strictly forbidden from going anywhere without the man. Although he was disappointed to lose the chance to have Shalia to himself from time to time, Greg wasn't too surprised by this move on the Town-head's part. Shalia was their only daughter. If it was Greg in their shoes, he too would do everything in his power to protect her.
Greg found it slightly frustrating that he could not figure out which of the three families had sent the stalker. Each of the three would gain something if Shalia was taken out of the picture. For the Valla household, not only would Shalia's death sever any ties that Greg had to the Town-head, but it would also eliminate any competition Naiya would have in gaining his affections. Both boons that, perhaps, they would be willing to kill for. For the other two families, Killing Shalia would not only sever his ties to the Town-head but there was also a chance that the Town-head would blame the Valla household for it, seeing as they were the last group in contact with her. Having two of their enemies fight and possibly either critically weaken or eliminate each other, could only benefit them.
The only people in the town's upper echelons that Greg didn't suspect thus far were Shalia's parents. Not only did they have no reason to kill their daughter, but they wouldn't benefit from her death in any way. Of course, there was a small chance that it was he that their stalker was after, but Greg doubted it. None of the three families were either brave or stupid enough to try and make an enemy out of the healer. If any one of them tried, the other two would probably laugh themselves half to death as they sat back and awaited the destruction of the responsible family. As such, Greg didn't waste any time with this line of thinking. Greg quietly nodded to Hakor as he walked past. The man nodded back in acknowledgment before his eyes went back to scanning around for any possible threats to Shalia's safety.
Inside, Greg walked to the room where he knew Shalia would be working on the ingredients left to her by the healer. This was the same room where Greg had his first lesson with the healer. True enough, Greg found the girl standing at her workstation struggling to straighten a thrashing yellow vine full of thorns. Looking at the thing, there were several thorns tinged red with the girl's blood and from the sharp way in which she withdrew her hand with a hiss, Shalia was having a hard time. Walking up behind the girl who had her bleeding thumb in her mouth, Greg wrapped his hand around her torso, his hands coming to cup Shalia's D-cup breasts. The girl was momentarily startled by Greg's actions before she melted into him. Almost unconsciously, she ground her ass against his groin as Greg lightly nibble on the lower tip of her earlobe.
With a guard watching her for almost all hours of the day, there wasn't much that Greg could do with her sexually. And while Hakor didn't watch the girl as closely while she was inside the infirmary, this was the healer's domain. Out of both respect and a healthy dose of fear, there were lines beyond which Greg wouldn't go. This, however, didn't stop Greg from relentlessly teasing her whenever he could. Part of it was to satisfy his desires. The girl had given herself to him, at least as far as her body was concerned and Greg enjoyed it every chance he got. Her generous curves, her supple skin that flushed with arousal whenever he was around, the way she bit down on her lower lip at his touch, it all came together to leave him barely able to keep himself from taking her right there and then. The other part, however, was his desire to imprint himself into her very psyche. Every chance he had Greg would subtly remind the girl both overtly and subtly that she was his.
"You do know that you are supposed to place the coiling thorn vine in warm water before you try to remove the thorns right?" He asked even as he played with her nipples through her dress.
Shalia hissed a curse under her breath. "I knew I was forgetting something," she said but made no move to resume her work. Instead, she continued to indulge herself in the sensations that his touch evoked in her. She knew, just like he did that they couldn't go too much further than this. But with no other avenues for privacy for them, she'd have to content herself with what she got. It was a double-edged sword. While it momentarily relieved her body's craving for him, it in the end always left her feeling unsatisfied and wanting him even more. This was why, whenever he came onto her, she didn't bother with being coy or acting the part of a reserved noble girl as she should. Instead, she just gave in wholeheartedly to his kisses, his caresses, his hands roaming all over her body, everything else forgotten. It was a short and pure moment of bliss, and all too quickly, it came to an end.
