“Eh?”
After both of them listened to Nathan's brief, solid, and clear explanation, Dadan and Nisa were really confused and felt they were being played by Ryan the Storm Rage or the Boss of the Scratched Eyebrow Team.
Of course, Nathan's explanation was not a fact of what had happened. He simply explained visually what people had seen. While what Ryan experienced was originally an illusion that no one could see.
"But, thank goodness. The problem has been solved without anyone getting hurt..." said Nisa with a smile etched on her lips. She as an adult woman must have been fascinated by Nathan's appearance and now her eyes were fixed on the handsome face of the tall man.
Nisa who is known by people is a woman who is indifferent to the opposite sex. Maybe it was because she didn't feel anything had caught her attention so far.
“Ehem...”
Dadan felt alienated because of it. In addition, he really found another side of a Nisa that was so different, like she became a real woman. However, that is not something that needs further attention. There are more things that need to be prioritized right now.
“Um… We have other business to attend to. So, we say goodbye..."
"Eh, b-but..." Nisa seems to still want to fulfill her ego this time. Previously, she had felt stupid, for not realizing there was such a rare handsome man as Nathan. However, she didn't get a chance to at least ask for his number. Dadan pulled her hand to immediately follow him.
Alina had been sullen all this time and her heart was pounding as long as Nisa was near Nathan. As far as she was concerned, the woman named Nisa seemed to show her interest in Nathan. She didn't know why, but she felt bad seeing another woman trying to get close to Nathan. But, she was still self-aware as well that she had no right to prevent that from happening.
After all, Alina is also just Nathan's acquaintance who met last night.
The atmosphere around the Monster Gate has returned to being conducive, or even more conducive than before despite the fact that there are still many people hanging around here.
That's the right time to start selling snacks for Alina. She asked Nathan to find the right corner to serve as a place to sell snacks. Unknowingly, her hand grabbed Nathan's hand and pulled her along.
The women around who saw her couldn't help but snort in annoyance, because they were envious of seeing an ordinary girl who could treat Nathan like a couple who, in fact, were handsome and tall grown men.
"Ah! This seems like a suitable place. Right, Nathan?"
It was only after Alina said that and looked back, did she realize that her actions were shameful and self-conscious. Her face immediately turned red. After all, this was a public place and everyone could see the treatment she just did. She immediately let go of her hand and bowed apologetically to Nathan.
Nathan, who just nodded in agreement with Alina's opinion, raised his eyebrows. He didn't understand the reason why Alina was apologizing until she bent down after releasing her hand that had been held while Alina was looking for a place to sell. However, he felt it was not a matter of concern.
“What do I need to forgive, Miss Alina? I don't think you’ve done anything wrong. Moreover, wouldn't it be better for us to quickly prepare the merchandise?”
"AH!? Yeah, that's right..." Alina laughed awkwardly, then she shook her head for a moment before starting to prepare her merchandise which Nathan also helped.
Alina can now sell casually without getting into trouble. Quite a few also buy snacks. Nathan also helps serve the people. What's more, the women who deliberately went there for snacks just to be able to talk to Nathan. In fact, to attract Nathan's attention, they even fought over who could buy the most snacks.
Alina, besides herself feeling happy because she got a lot of profit, a fire of jealousy was also ignited. She could only hold it in as he served the numerous male shoppers.
Both are so busy serving their respective customers. This went on until the disheveled-looking hunters emerged from the Monster Gate. People who were waiting for news outside immediately rushed there to find out information or news from the hunters.
Finally, time to be alone was created.
This is what Alina had been waiting for after being tired of serving people who bought her snacks. But, it seems like she's not the only one waiting for a moment like this.
Nathan also seemed to be waiting for this to happen.
Don't know who will start the conversation, when they were silent for a long time, they looked at each other, that's when the two of them started to talk. The two of them spoke at the same time. Alina must have been excited, because she didn't expect that when she was about to speak, Nathan would also speak. However, Nathan only responded casually and immediately allowed Alina to convey her point first.
"Nathan, you first..."
“Hm… Well then, if that's Miss Alina's wish. Actually, I feel quite attracted by the ring on Miss's ring finger. May I take a closer look?” Nathan spoke lightly without seeing Alina's shy expression. She seemed to have misunderstood what Nathan was saying. She thought that Nathan was scapegoating the ring, so he could hold her hand. But she didn't expect Nathan to bend down just to see the ring on her ring finger.
"This isn't an ordinary ring, is it?" Nathan asked after observing it for a moment.
"Y-yes. This ring was a low-grade artifact that served as a storage capacity with a cubic meter of space. Really, Nathan doesn't know yet, right?" Alina felt embarrassed to be looked down upon by Nathan like that.
"You could say that. Then, regarding this artifact, is it some kind of magic tool? Doesn't Miss Alina have the chaotic energy to activate it? Or is Miss Alina hiding lady's true power?” Nathan wondered.
In his former world, the thing called artifact was known as a magic tool that had a specific function, and even then, it required external chaos energy to activate. What made him feel unreasonable was that Alina didn't have chaotic energy, but could activate the function of the ring.
“Magic tools? I don't know what it is. However, what I know about the artifact was obtained from the Monster Gate. Killed monsters are said to sometimes drop artifacts from their bodies. This ring is considered the most commonly used by people, because monsters drop things like this quite often…” explained Alina.
“Miss Alina said, this ring was obtained from killing the monsters in the Monster Gate? Did Miss-...”
"No. It's not like I don't have this chaotic energy risking my life to get it at the Monster Gate. I only bought it at an artifact seller on the street which was cheap. Hehe..."
The ring in Alina's hand could be said to be an illegal artifact, not having a license from the Hunter's Union. So, she spoke the origin of the ring very quietly for fear that someone would eavesdrop on her. But Nathan could still hear her.
“Then yeah, about how I can activate it is because most artifacts don't require chaotic energy to function, only need to make a blood contract with them in order to connect with them. As for some high-level artifacts, they have unique functions. Thus, it requires chaotic energy to activate…” Alina explained as she knew.
“Is it like that? Thank you for the explanation, Miss Alina...”
Nathan looked relaxed like that, but actually he was surprised to hear the explanation about this artifact. Even though the function of the ring was small, he thought it was a high-level magic development that could manipulate runes. Thus, this artifact can negate its need for chaotic energy to activate with less effect.
'Blood contract eh?' thought Nathan who looked like he was looking at Alina, but actually he wasn't.
"Then, it's Miss Alina's turn..." Nathan saw no sign of Alina speaking and seemed to be speechless after he finished his business, so he who felt that Alina had forgotten her need to speak reminded her again.
“Y-yes… I… I feel weird these days when I'm with Nathan. Honestly, I don't like it when I see other women trying to get close to you. My heart feels hot and hurts. Did Nathan know something?” Alina innocently poured out her heart, because she basically didn't understand it.
Nathan frowned, he himself even misunderstood the outpouring of Alina's heart that he thought someone was trying to harm Alina secretly.