Chapter 23

"Nero?" Jair looked in Nero's direction and saw her smile gently at him. Jair still remembered her helping them in the battle against the group of thieves. "I don't know exactly what you did to help me, but thank you very much!"

"It's all right." Nero smiled sadly as she pretended to be dejected when she said ambiguously, "Although it was my first time..."

"Mhm, can you put me down? Damn, it's not comfortable and very unpleasant to be like this," Jair complained, jokingly.

"Ingrate! Is that how you thank me for carrying you all this way here?" Breno dropped Jair's feet, making Jair fall to the road with the sound of *Thud!*.

"Damn, I was kidding... You don't have to leave me like this!" Jair stood and shook off his pants, dusting himself off.

"..."

"Wait, what did you say before? Your first time doing what?" It was only now that Jair remembered Nero's ambiguous way of speaking earlier, and was in shock when he looked at her. 'What exactly happened while I was passed out?'

Jana, Choko, and Breno were silent, interested in what Nero was going to say to the poor and foolish Jair who was all confused.

"My, my..." Nero pretended not to be able to speak and covered her face with his hands. Jair who saw this was even more terrified.

'What exactly happened!?' Jair shouted in his mind.

"Hahaha. I'm kidding you! It wasn't a big deal. It was just my first time doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on someone, so my first time," Nero laughed and explained.

"Hahaha!" Seeing Jair's completely stunned face, not knowing what to do and being completely red with embarrassment, Jana, Choko, and Breno started laughing out loud.

"Damn, you guys are not brotherly at all..." Jair murmured.

"Well, still, I am forever grateful for what you did for me." Jair bowed to Nero.

"Relax, your sister and the rest have already thanked me plenty, and you don't have to be constantly thanking me for it either. Just be more careful next time." Nero smiled.

"I will." Jair felt more relaxed. He then looked at Breno and said, "You too, thanks for carrying me all the way here."

"It doesn't matter. Just be more sincere next time," Breno said.

"You are a great friend, man." Jair wrapped his arm around Breno's neck as he spoke from the bottom of his heart.

"Okay now, let me go!" Breno moved his shoulder, pushing Jair away.

"Little sister, how long have I been passed out?" Jair asked Jana.

"Almost two days and one night," Jana replied.

"Jair, it's good to see that you're okay now," Choko said as if a large burden on his chest had been lifted.

"Thank you for your concern." Jair smiled at her.

On the way to Esfim, Nero started getting acquainted with Jair too. Although he seemed talkative the moment he woke up, soon Nero realized that in fact, Jair was even shyer than Breno, especially when talking to her.

"Stop right there!" When they arrived at the great gate of Esfim, they were stopped by the guard in front of the gate. The guard wore iron armor and an iron helmet with a white feather on the right side.

The guard recognized Jana, Choko, Jair, and Breno, but did not know Nero. He looked at her and said, "New to Esfim Town? If so, you need to make a business card. The cost is 50 [Essence Coin]."

"Okay, I'm going to pay." Nero took the coin out of her pocket and handed it to the guard.

"Please follow me to get your business card." The guard said and Nero followed him to a cabin the size of a small room.

Inside the wooden cabin, the guard held a pen, and dipping it in some ink, said, "This card has a duration of 1 month and allows you to enter and leave the city 10 times. If you exceed that, you will need to pay a fee of 5 [Essence Coin] each time you enter Esfim Town."

"Okay."

"Alright, what's your name and age?" the guard asked.

"My name is Nero, and I'm 17 years old," Nero replied.

"Okay, it's done." The guard gave the card to her.

After that, Nero entered Esfim with Choko leading the way. Soon Nero noticed a beautiful European-style city.

As they walked, Nero was surprised; almost the whole city was built of brick. The pavement, besides being poorly laid out, was made entirely of cobbled stone bricks. She also noticed many people walking around the city, and she felt strange since she received many quizzical looks from all directions.

'As I imagined, Nero draws a lot of attention even after hiding her wings.' Choko laughed nervously. For some unknown reason, she was not comfortable seeing people looking at Nero with lust.

Even the women were mesmerized by Nero's appearance, as she was stunningly beautiful.

"Did you see that? This young lady is so beautiful!"

"Yes, she is with Miss Choko, and they seem very close."

"I wonder where she came from. There is no way for such a beautiful girl to go unnoticed."

"Well, I believe she must have met Miss Choko and the rest and they ended up becoming friends."

Although some people started to speculate where Nero came from and also cast some adoring looks at Luna, they soon lost interest when they saw Choko, Nero, and the rest walk away.

"Where are we going?" Nero asked, breaking the silence.

"Mm, come to my place," Choko offered. "As I said before, you can sleep at my place until you get a better place."

"Okay, I will accept being your guest. Thank you." Nero smiled, grateful for Choko's kindness.

*

Meanwhile, inside the Qin Clan's estate, a young girl with long purple hair entered the Qin mansion and went straight to her mother's room.

She knocked on the door. "Mom, it's me, Maia."

"Enter, my dear daughter," a voice from inside the room echoed.

Opening the door, Maia entered the room. She had a hurt expression.

Inside the room there was a lot of luxury furniture, clearly demonstrating her glamor. A beautiful chandelier hung in the center of the room while most of the furniture was gold-plated. There were even two lamps on the side of the bed made of gold.

_ _

- Drop some power stone, please <3

{Edited by: Azurtha}