Chapter 478: Time to go home
Hinata’s smile quickly changed looking at the condition Damon was currently in, and her face became worried. "Is everything alright? What happened just now? Were you in a dangerous situation, forced to use the teleportation scroll?"
Damon could only bitterly smile.
"I see," Hinata nodded. "I thought I had dragged you into needless danger and put your life at risk, but now I can see you’re doing fine on your own." She laughed lightly and leaned forward to give a hand to Damon. "Why don’t you come with me first? I think I have someone you might be looking for."
Damon raised a brow. He then remembered the elven girl whom he had almost once again forgotten. What the hell was with that? Sure he had many things going on his mind but he had never been this forgetful before.
He got up and walked next to Hinata, drawing many eyes in their direction.
Hinata was a beautiful woman. She was wearing a dark green robe that accentuated her body, studded with many valuable gems and enchantments, something that commoners would never be able to afford. Even some of the nobles were looking at her with envy.
More importantly, they were staring at the new face who was walking alongside such a high-status figure.
Soon they walked over to one of the rooms in the adventure hall. "She is inside here." Hinata nodded.
Damon opened the door and immediately he could see the elven girl, sitting in a corner holding her knees and trembling. Surprisingly, the moment she saw Damon, she ran over and hugged him tightly.
Damon was a little taken aback and from the looks of it, so was the elven girl as she quickly backed away and stood frozen like a little scared bunny.
"Thank you for getting her. I had to send her before I could get here because of a situation and hoped that she would be safe here. Thankfully, you saw to that."
Hinata nodded gently and stepped out of the room, leaving them alone with a polite smile. "I’ll give you two a moment."
The door clicked shut, and silence filled the room again.
The elven girl didn’t say a word. She simply stood there, wringing the edge of her sleeve, eyes flickering between Damon’s face and the ground. Her earlier hug seemed to have surprised her even more than it surprised him.
"Are you fine?" Damon asked and the girl did not answer.
"I am sorry to send you like that all alone. You must have been scared. I only did that to protect your life. Well, I guess I shouldn’t have dragged you along in the first place but things happened. Let’s just leave it. In the future, I will try not to drag you along into complicated situations."
The elf still did not respond but Damon now knew that she atleast trusted him a little bit.
"Anyways. Let’s go home now. You can meet a lot more new characters there. Hopefully you will like someone there and be able to talk to them freely."
He opened the door and Hinata was standing there, waiting patiently. "You didn’t have to wait outside. There is really nothing to talk about."
Hinata smiled faintly at Damon’s remark but didn’t reply immediately. She glanced past him at the elven girl still peeking from behind his shoulder and simply said, "She waited the whole time for you. Even though she was clearly starving, she refused to eat unless we told her you were coming."
Damon blinked. He turned to look at the girl again, who quickly lowered her gaze and pressed her lips together. Her ears drooped slightly, and her fingers clutched the hem of her dress tighter.
He turned back to Hinata. "Thanks... really."
Hinata only shrugged. "You may act cold and ruthless, but you clearly don’t leave people behind."
"I try not to," Damon muttered. "But this world doesn’t make it easy."
"So if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your plan now? I heard some things through the grapevine. There is going to be a major war in the light faction continent? They are trying to take back the city you captured?"
"Yes, something big is indeed going to go down." Damon smiled. Of course, she would know. A big family like hers probably had all information on their fingertips. "I have made some preparations already and now I have to wait and see whether that would be enough or not."
Damon knew where this conversation was headed to but he did not want to suggest it himself. Else he might ruin the whole thing. Besides, it looked like Hinata was clearly interested in the matter. Otherwise, why would she even bring it up?
And just like he expected, the vampiress made the offer.
"If you don’t mind, may I say something?" Hinata hesitantly spoke. "My family... we have some interests on the light faction continent as well. Strategic, of course. Until now we’ve kept a low profile, observing rather than interfering. But the tide is changing. If you are truly planning to hold that city, against what’s coming, then I think... maybe it’s time we stopped observing."
Damon smiled. "And started investing?"
Hinata tilted her head with a sly smile. "You could say that."
He folded his arms and raised a brow. "And what would you expect in return?"
"Nothing much. I know you paid the full price for the reinforcements, so I do not want to overstep my limits and ask for something. Maybe we can-" Hinata started talking but Damon quickly interrupted her.
"Let me stop you right there. There is no need to be polite. If you want a stake in this fight, then how about a real one? How would you like to control an entire city? After this battle is over or perhaps even during this battle, there is a chance we can raid a nearby city and take it under our control."
Hinata’s eyes widened. "Are you sure?"