Chapter 91 – Eyes
I gave him the money and he continued with another question.
"That'll be a lot to carry. How are you going to do this?"
"I bought a new carriage with horses."
"Oh? Let me see."
Following the father, the whole family stopped their meal and went out to check my new carriage.
"It looks great. That's a lot better than your previous cart."
"It's all thanks to doing great business with you. I'm very grateful to everyone here."
The parents gently smiled while Kuini avoided my gaze when I looked at her. As for the boys, they were focused on more thrilling things.
"Wow, look at those horses! Can I pet them, Tila?"
"Me too! I want to pet them too!"
"Of course, they're quite docile. Here you go."
I carried the two little bunnies, one on each arm, allowing them to reach the horses' manes. They started to pet the animals carefully, enjoying the feeling of their hair. The horses didn't care much about what was being done to them and only stirred a little from time to time. After the petting session, Zay assigned Kuini to show me to the warehouse as usual while I gave them my goodbye.
After the family members entered their home to resume eating, we were now left together on the much calmer street.
"Take a seat at the front, Kuini."
"Yes, my Lord."
She agilely climbed on it despite the carriage being made for medium-sized species. I took a seat next to her and started driving. The distance was short and we were there almost immediately. We climbed down and she unlocked the door to the warehouse for us. As we came in, I witnessed the many piles of boxes full of crops, some of which I needed to carry. It was now time for some straining effort.
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Kuini watched Tila lift a box with a lot of effort, the sight of his figure mesmerizing her as usual. To be exact, it wasn't him exactly but the flow of sel around and inside him that she was staring at. His flow was different from any other person she knew due to somehow forcefully hiding his rank. This forced sel to create some sort of tiny whirlwind around him, which was how she knew he wasn't what he claimed to be.
She was aware she saw things differently from other people but she hadn't known all along. When she was still little, she told her parents several times that she was able to see sel. However, the problem wasn't that they didn't believe her. On the contrary, they believed her and acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. This was because anyone could see sel, especially inside the body of living beings. The higher the rank, the easier it was to see sel inside them.
For a long time, she trusted her parents and thought everyone was seeing the same as her. However, as she grew up, she kept noticing small discrepancies between her and other people's sight. Eventually, she had no choice but to admit that she could see sel much more minutely than her peers.
Fortunately, she already was well aware of her position by that time. Being a bunny and having eyes of different colors on top of it meant that, except for her family and a few bunnies who had known her for a long time, she was loathed by most of the population. There was no way she would reveal that she was viewing things differently from normal people since that would only make things worse. And so, she decided to keep this fact for herself.
After being lost in thoughts for a short while, she redirected her gaze toward Tila. From the first time she saw him, she knew he was a rank 4 mage. However, that wasn't the most surprising element about him. After witnessing the flow of sel from so many people, she noticed that sel had a slightly different color depending on age, different from the one coming from their affinity. For example, if two earth sorcerers had twenty years of difference, the older one would have sel of a slightly deeper color than the younger one.
Tila's sel color was grey, a color she had never seen before, but of a very light tone. It was the same sort of brightness that she possessed, perhaps slightly more profound. She was eighteen, which meant he was at most a few years older than her, maybe around twenty.
This fact astounded her. A twenty-year-old rank 4 mage? She would have thought it to be impossible if it wasn't happening in front of her eyes. Even the greatest heroes in the legends coming from the stories of the older bunnies in the village couldn't compare to that. At best, the ones with the most talent and drive managed to reach that rank when they were twenty-five, and these were considered exceptions impossible to replicate.
She was witnessing someone above those legendary heroes every single day and that person was behaving like he was a normal merchant, hiding his rank in a manner she had never witnessed before and still couldn't comprehend. That was why she couldn't bear addressing him normally and felt the need to call him "Lord."
His affinity was also very mysterious. She always wondered what sort of incredible affinity it could be. There existed some very rare ones, like gravity, or shadow. Or maybe it could be one of the legendary affinities, which were lost long ago, like mind, space, and time?
She was also very curious about why he was hiding his rank. Sometimes, her mind wandered and she imagined him to be an exiled heroic prince from a faraway continent, hiding from danger in this faraway place. The best part was that this very prince was treating her much better than anyone else she knew except her close family and friends.
She touched the brooch he had gifted her on their first meeting in a familiar gesture. She hadn't taken it off except for sleeping since receiving it. The smooth texture of the red stone always felt reassuring to her.
Yet, she was now in a slight bind. Her lord was huffing and gasping under the effort of the fifty boxes he had to move. His furless and hairless skin became red every time he lifted a box while his brown hair soaked in his sweat. All because he was hiding his rank. The sight pained her.
In the end, she couldn't bear it anymore.
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