Volume 6, Chapter 37 – The Fire Cat’s Fluttering Heart

In the end, Fia was dragged by Nola to the market of Brinkat City.

Although Brinkat City was a small city with a population of only thirty to fifty thousand, because it was a city of the Charm Cat Tribe, which consisted only of females, there were surprisingly many shops selling accessories, clothes, and perfume. While the liveliness couldn’t compare to Blossom, the hushed whispers of people trading and the cleanliness of the streets were no different from Blossom.

There were even benches and black street lamps commonly seen in parks on both sides of the roads here. If not for the merchants being unable to afford glass products and the stone buildings being covered with a layer of moss, Fia would have thought she had arrived in the Noble District of Blossom—the ground was paved with stone bricks, which even the Fire Cat Tribe’s city didn’t have. Cleanliness and order were revealed everywhere. It was the kind of place where one would involuntarily care about their attire and worry about whether their behavior was appropriate after stepping in.

“Your Cold Night has a place like this.”

“No, this is my first time here too. Didn’t you see me asking someone where to buy things just now to find this street?”

Facing Fia’s exclamation, Nola’s expression seemed a bit unnatural.

This wasn’t because she hadn’t seen the world, but because the street itself was embarrassing. It was morning, and the street was full of pedestrians coming and going. However, the pedestrians here were somewhat special; almost all of them were couples. The women were often beautifully dressed Charm Cat women who had clearly put effort into their appearance, while the men were mostly other beastmen. In addition, there were humans, elves, and some sea folk Fia had never seen before—except for fin-shaped ears and hair like blue earthworms, they weren’t much different from humans.

Surrounded by couples everywhere, Nola and Fia, the two oddities, naturally seemed out of place. One must know that these couples were either holding arms, poking each other’s faces and teasing, or feeding each other desserts on benches.

At this moment, Fia and Nola felt like two grown men going out to watch a movie together, only to find the theater full of couples, and the screen playing a touching romance film. Their attention was focused more on the awkwardness than on the movie. The aura of fulfilling lives and romance rushed toward them, making any reaction from them seem inappropriate.

“Fia, I think we can go to Blossom to buy. You have teleportation magic, right? Let’s use that.”

“No,” Fia, walking beside Nola, flatly refused. “Flying back and forth is too much trouble. Besides, Anna—Erin Slate must be tired of things from Blossom. Things bought in Cold Night have more of a Cold Night style. The intention of giving a gift is one thing, but it’s also important for the gift itself to have irreplaceable value.”

It was like the difference between giving someone a silver coin directly for their birthday versus using that silver coin to buy an exquisite souvenir for them. The feeling was completely different. The former would be spent and forgotten over time, perhaps very quickly. The latter would be displayed at home forever. Whenever seen, the other person’s voice and appearance, and even the scene of receiving the gift, would surface in the mind.

More crucially, Fia’s trip wasn’t just to accompany Nola. Just as Nola wanted to buy something for Erin Slate as an apology, she also wanted to buy a gift for Anastasia as an apology. She felt guilty for making a tasteless joke to Anastasia on the Flying Eagle, causing Anastasia to show a disappointed expression.

Nola was speechless. She glanced at the couples passing by again and touched the tip of her nose in embarrassment.

“…That’s true.”

In terms of feeling awkward, Nola far surpassed Fia. This had to do with self-confidence. Fia consciously considered herself a cute and beautiful girl, and she often appeared in crowded occasions, so her resistance to awkwardness was extremely high. Nola, on the other hand, lacked confidence in herself and rarely appeared in such places full of girlish atmosphere and couples. That was why she felt constrained, as if she were a village girl who hadn’t seen the world. Even wearing a formal dress, she felt her behavior wasn’t appropriate enough.

Not missing Nola’s embarrassment, Fia tilted her head slightly.

“Does Nola feel very unaccustomed?”

“Generally, anyone would feel awkward… Everyone here is a couple; we two look out of place here.”

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If it were her and Ying, she would have fled in panic already.

Noticing the embarrassment hidden under Nola’s red hair, a thought of teasing suddenly arose in Fia’s heart. She curled her lips mischievously, her ruby-like eyes full of slyness, and deliberately nudged Nola’s waist with her elbow.

“If you care so much, why don’t we just pretend to be like them? As long as you silently recite in your heart that you are the same kind of people as them, you won’t feel awkward.”

“You want me to hold your arm?”

“What else? If you feel embarrassed, it’s fine for me to hold your arm.”

No, no, that’s not the point, is it? If you were Ying, it would be fine, but you are Dofilia, the person who stole Claire.

Nola’s expression was complicated. She completely couldn’t understand why Fia would make such a baffling, even nasty request. They were romantic rivals. If she had to say, she was the loser of the struggle. For the loser to hold the arm of the winner and pretend to be a couple… What kind of prank was this? It could be said to be torture for both her and Fia.

However, what Nola didn’t know was that Fia was deliberately teasing her because of her shyness from the start. If she hadn’t wanted to see Nola’s embarrassed expression, knowing Nola wouldn’t fall for her no matter what, she would never have come up with this idea.

As if urging her, Fia nudged Nola with her arm again, her face full of reluctance.

“Decide quickly if you don’t want to be treated as an oddity. I’m only willing to cooperate with you because your walking posture has become strange.”

Because of the height difference, Nola looked down at Fia’s face. The latter puffed out her cheeks and turned her head away. That exquisite, doll-like face, combined with her sulking emotion, was so cute that for a moment, Nola felt she had gained a lively and cute younger sister—calling her a younger sister was too euphemistic. Facing her true heart, it should be gaining a cute and emotionally rich girlfriend, even if this was just her illusion and fantasy.

Simply a fairy deliberately seducing people…

Nola felt a heat flow pass through her chest for no reason, making her heart beat faster and her emotions active.

She exerted great effort to suppress the affirmative sentence about to burst from her lips. Tensing her ears and tail, she barely managed to refuse.

“…Better not. I don’t want to be looked at with strange eyes. Not to mention I have Claire in my heart; I can’t do this kind of thing.”

Otherwise, it would feel like betraying Claire, even if it was just a formality.

However, Fia didn’t let it go. She chose to pursue, her left hand near Nola intentionally or unintentionally touching Nola’s arm, ready to wrap around it at any time. Pouting, she said:

“It’s just pretending. As long as you don’t have that kind of thought in your heart, it’s fine, right? Besides, Claire rejected you. Shouldn’t you be more free and let yourself go?”

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“No. I have my principles. Even pretending won’t do.”

Serious on her lips, in reality, Nola had already wavered. Fia was right; Claire had rejected her. This was just a formal pretense. Moreover, Fia was both her friend and Claire’s fiancée. Using Fia as the object of pretense would never be misunderstood by Claire, after all, she and Fia were “enemies.”

However, she couldn’t save face and felt embarrassed to go back on her word at this time. Added to the love-hate resistance she felt toward Fia in her heart, making herself rely on Fia like a little girl… leaving aside digging a hole to bury herself if caught by acquaintances, she couldn’t even pass the hurdle in her own heart.

To make Fia give up, she added solemnly while looking straight ahead.

“Besides, we are both women. Even if we hold arms, we won’t be seen as a couple.”

“That’s no problem. As long as we act the part, it doesn’t matter. It’s not impossible for me to feed cake into your mouth like them.”

As she spoke, Fia pointed to a couple sitting on a park bench by the roadside. The woman was feeding a wooden spoon filled with dessert to the man’s mouth. The happiness overflowing on their smiling faces was blinding.

“Didn’t you cooperate with me to avoid awkwardness? Why do I feel you are looking forward to it…”

At this point, even Nola sensed that Fia might be pranking her. She looked down at Fia’s face again, but all she saw was Fia turning her head away, seemingly embarrassed—this was, of course, the result of Fia relying on her extremely fast reaction speed and excellent control of her facial muscles to pretend.

She had never had someone like Nola around her—someone who would absolutely not like her, yet wasn’t so serious that she couldn’t take a joke at all. Most importantly, Nola was a dense idiot.

Having such a person around and not teasing them would be a waste of heavenly gifts.

To use an analogy, Fia at this moment was like a special type of male netizen in the virtual world. Upon meeting a cute boy, he couldn’t help but tease him verbally, throwing out all kinds of flowery language, full of deliberate embarrassing remarks like calling him “waifu” (sometimes even going crazy like a lunatic), enjoying the other party’s cute reactions.

But if the other party suddenly revealed their identity one day, saying they were actually a beautiful girl, then the joking party would keep a respectful distance as if seeing a scourge. They would hurriedly return to seriousness, formally apologizing for the previous rude jokes, and even rolling on the floor in embarrassment alone in bed over their chaotic remarks after the apology.

Fia was like this. Because she knew Nola was an upright beautiful girl who wouldn’t be interested in her, she dared to joke about Nola unscrupulously. If it were her elf companions, she would never dare to be this flippant.

However, from Nola’s perspective, things were completely different. After confirming Fia wasn’t teasing her, she had to continue explaining.

“We beastmen aren’t like you elves. Same-sex love isn’t just gossiped about; here, same-sex marriage is something everyone shouts to beat, something discriminated against. Acting too much like it will only make us more conspicuous—hey!”

Before Nola could finish, Fia wrapped her arm around Nola’s right arm on her own accord. Then, bending her waist, she looked up at Nola with wide eyes, using a cautious gaze, like a timid girl testing if Nola would be angry.

Seeing Fia’s timid and cute performance, the anger just rising in Nola’s heart froze instantly, then dissipated without a trace. Admittedly, she had resistance toward Fia, but no one could refuse the cute expression of a delicate and moving girl trying to look at them with wide eyes.

So having a beautiful girlfriend feels like this…

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Inner turmoil rising, Nola’s breath hitched.

“Ugh.”

Nola’s frozen expression made Fia understand that Nola didn’t hate her. She relaxed, withdrawing the cuteness she had tried hard to feign, and instead pouted, putting on a sulking look as if Nola owed her something.

“I only did this because Nola is the first friend I made. Don’t think just anyone can do this.”

“You were the one who stuck to me…”

“That’s because Nola’s hesitation is annoying. Make a decision quickly when you should. Isn’t it because you made decisions too late that you didn’t let Claire realize your feelings?”

After speaking, Fia paused suddenly, then secretly observed Nola’s expression from the corner of her eye. The second half of the sentence was a remark she made casually without thinking. Claire was a sore spot in Nola’s heart. She worried Nola would be angry because of her slip of the tongue. Even if stating facts, one should consider the occasion.

However, Nola wasn’t angry or melancholy. She just tensed her body, as if thinking about how to refute Fia, then drooped her shoulders and ears, sighing helplessly.

“You’re right. If I had said it earlier, you wouldn’t be in the picture. But speaking of which, why are you suddenly telling me these things? It seems like you want to teach me how to be with Claire. Could it be…”

“Don’t, no such thing. I just accidentally let it slip. Leaving aside that I can’t agree with you and Claire, firstly, Claire never liked you. Unpleasant things aside, today is for shopping.”

“But I think before shopping, you should let go of my arm. People around are starting to look at us.”

“Isn’t it fine for Nola to let go? Saying you want me to let go, but actually enjoying it. Not honest at all. Ah~ Ah~ I get it, I get it. Being held by such a cute and charming elf princess, even the hardest heart would be moved, right?”

“I’m afraid of hurting your feelings…”

“Alright, alright, stop dwelling on these trivial matters. Finding an accessory shop is the priority.”

Ignoring Nola’s words, Fia dragged Nola forward. Just as Nola said, the street was full of heterosexual couples; there were no strange combinations like theirs. So when the two walked forward arm in arm, they naturally attracted the gaze of other couples. The vast majority of people would turn their heads to point and whisper from a distance, covering their mouths to snicker, after passing Fia and Nola.

Therefore, Nola, afraid of being misunderstood, naturally tensed up all over. In just a few minutes, not only did fine sweat appear on her forehead, but her back was also covered in sweat. Her expression was extremely unnatural, as if facing a formidable enemy. The feeling of being watched and snickered at made her sit on pins and needles. Her face was red enough to resemble a ripe apple from embarrassment.

In the end, her ears were completely flattened against her head, and her back was slightly hunched. She lowered her head, afraid to look at the passersby’s expressions, as if terrified of being recognized. She leaned her body toward Fia on the inner side of the street, whispering as if pleading.

“F-Fia, let’s forget it… This is more embarrassing than not holding hands…”

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“Is that so.”

Teasing should stop in moderation. The people passersby were snickering at weren’t just Nola, but also herself. Honestly, if Nola hadn’t been far more embarrassed than her, Fia would have chosen to let go of Nola long ago—being stared at as a couple was indeed very embarrassing.

She put on a look of “it can’t be helped.”

“If Nola is unwilling, I shouldn’t force it. Wipe the sweat off your forehead first.”

Saying this, Fia withdrew the hand holding Nola and took out a handkerchief from her spatial backpack instead. She wiped the sweat from Nola’s forehead while she was at it. After all, she was the one who made Nola like this; she would feel uneasy if she didn’t do something.

However, in Nola’s eyes, this was another matter. Her freed hand, ready to take the handkerchief, had nowhere to go. She thought Fia would hand her the handkerchief to wipe herself; she didn’t expect Fia to take advantage of her lowered head to wipe the sweat for her.

She subconsciously looked at Fia’s face—those magnificent ruby eyes were full of sincere concern. This concern caused a warm current to surge in her heart, as if just this one action had brought Fia much closer to her.

This girl is too defenseless. Doesn’t she know how attractive and beautiful she is?

As an elf princess, at this moment, there was only delicacy and gentleness. Nola’s attention was completely attracted by Fia’s exquisite face. It wasn’t until she suddenly realized she shouldn’t be like this that she looked away awkwardly and whispered.

“I can do it myself…”

“I was just doing it in passing. After all, I took your arm on my own accord and made you like this. Remember to wash the handkerchief clean and return it to me.”

Saying this, Fia slapped the sweat-soaked handkerchief into Nola’s hand with a smack .

“I think that shop looks good; let’s go there first.”

Then, Fia took the initiative to take a step forward, leaving Nola, holding the pure white handkerchief and somewhat dazed, standing in place. In her short cat life, it was the first time she had met such a girl. Or rather, the first time a ticklish feeling rose in her heart, as if teased by something, her heart pounding non-stop.

It must be my illusion.

Warning herself in her heart, Nola’s gaze lingered on the handkerchief in her palm. She picked up the handkerchief and subconsciously brought it to her nose to sniff lightly. But she suddenly remembered this was on the street, so she hurriedly stopped. Instead, she carefully folded the handkerchief and put it away, quickly chasing after Fia, who had walked far ahead.