She hurried to her room and disappeared behind a harshly-closed door. As soon as she was gone, Nolan let out a pent-up breath. Man, is my heart racing, he sighed, doing his best to regain his composure. Good thing I took the initiative there. If he had learned anything from the girls that he had gotten to know, it was that he couldn’t allow himself to be played around in their palms. Take Hala, who had taken Liv’s place as the young miss of the Varai clan, for instance. Almost all of his interactions with her had consisted of him being decisive, aggressive, and forthright. Whether it had been acting indifferent when talking to her about Barton, her previous fiancé from the Towering Eaves clan that Nolan himself had killed in battle, or going out of his way to talk to her at social gatherings where she had clearly been uncomfortable, the end result was that she had fallen hard for him. What he had taken away from those experiences was that when it came to interacting with women that he was interested in, the best approach was to dictate the pace.

Alright, he decided, I’ll pick the places where we’ll go. At the very end, I’ll ask her what she wants to do, and then we’ll follow her lead for the last bit of the night.

As Nolan began to plan out their evening together, he thought about the golden hairpin that Hala had given him just before he had left the valley several months ago and the fact that they were technically engaged. He couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty that he had developed feelings for other girls as well, but he quickly quelled his anxieties and assured himself that it would be foolish to judge himself by Earth’s standards. Since the Interspatial Migration, he had seen plenty of powerful women with reverse harems in this world, a fairly common sight on the streets of most cities. On Venara, strength was valued above all regardless of gender, and he was far from some simple pushover.

That’s right. Even if I wanted to go live in some big kingdom and marry a hundred women and live that life, no one would say anything about it. In places like the Easterly Kingdoms, cultivators like him were one in a million, after all, and they were naturally viewed with the utmost respect and reverence. Yeah…on Earth it would have been greasy, but here it’s all good.

“Why do you look so conflicted?” asked May, who had just emerged from her room. “You’re not thinking something dirty, are you?”

“Are you kidding? I would never.”

“We’ll see,” she smiled, hoisting up the hems of her frilly blue dress and doing a mock courtesy. “How do I look?”

She was in the appearance of her younger self, her hair winding over her shoulders like waves of dark honey. Her neckline was enticingly low, her bust threatening to reveal the sacred fringes of their central focus. Anticipating his response with a coy smile, she let go of her skirts and placed her hands on her hips in a confident manner, her chest rising and falling with her movements. Not only that, but her outfit was a perfect match for his.

That bounce though…

“Nolan?”

“You look like a million spirit stones,” he said, wondering if she understood the phrase. “Speaking of, I heard about an auction that’s happening in one of Weston’s auction houses. Why don’t we go and make some money?”

“Whatever you want,” she smiled, grasping his hand and pulling him along.

Seeing this, he quickened his pace and took the lead with a pounding heart. A short while later as he was walking down the busy streets with May in tow, he found himself enjoying the slight anxiety that came with spending time with such a pretty, coolheaded girl, and the awkward pleasantness of holding hands with her as they made their way to the other end of the city without any rush.

This feeling will never get old, thought Nolan, revelling in the moment. As far as anybody else could tell, they were simply a young couple enjoying a nice evening walk. My high school life might have been cut short—university too, I guess—but even I can still have moments like these.

He ignored the fact that May drew a ridiculous amount of stares from the men that they happened to pass by, as he wasn’t oblivious to the glances that he received from some of the passing girls and women. Sure, the attention he garnered was a fraction of what May was given, but even that was enough to inflate his ego by a slight degree. His clothes easily met the standards of the rich merchants that ran the city, while his cultivation level was now high enough on the surface to command a certain degree of respect no matter where he went, especially considering his outward age. Not only that, but he was likely the only person with a modern haircut that most of the townsfolk had ever seen, strands cut about a centimetre short at the sides and back with a bit more length on the top, a crisp idiosyncrasy that provided an appreciated boost to his confidence.

Together, he and May passed the next few hours at a leisurely pace, stopping by at the grand marketplace that was located nearby to the central fortress where the evening was alive with the bustle of thousands of people. They perused countless stalls and set-up shops, finding interest in the vast variety of jewelry, clothing, and silverware. There were also dozens of merchants selling alchemic tools and ingredients, while others dealt with arms, talismans, rare minerals and the like. Most interesting was the fact that all of the items gathered were the products of countless cultures, for there were so many distinct styles of everything that Nolan had a difficult time keeping track.

“This truly is a giant continent,” he muttered shortly after leaving the marketplace. “The CMA’s no joke, huh? They’re clearly all over the map, since an out of the way city like this has so much variety.”

They had found a stall owner that was selling shaved ice doused in juice, so Nolan had purchased two of them and led May over to a nearby park. They were currently sitting on a stone bench that was covered with intricate carvings of angelic figures along the backrest, a large water fountain visible from a ways down the winding pathway that traced its way through a network of tall oak trees.

“It’s like they say,” said May, “kings might run kingdoms but merchants run the continent.”

“That’s a saying?”

“A pretty common one. Did you grow up in a hole or someth…?” Trailing off, she began to laugh, a light, sweet sound that was pleasant on the ears. “How dare an Otherworlder like you be ignorant of such things?”

She wagged a finger at him in a joking manner, but he caught it in his hand before lightly letting go.

“You should eat that before it melts.”

As he was surprised at the smallness of her index finger, a handful of little grey birds swooped down to stand along the fringes of a nearby birdbath. He and May couldn’t help but watch them begin to bathe with light, innocent motions, the sound of fountaining water adding a comforting tone to the backdrop.

“I’m glad that you’re a man of your word.” Eyes peaceful, May set aside her unfinished snack and leaned against the back of the bench. “It might sound surprising, but this is the first time that I’ve ever gotten to walk around a town like this. It’s almost like a reminder on how to live like a normal person.”

“You’ve never gone shopping before?”

She shook her head, eyes set on something unseen. “Me and my mother often struggled to make it to the next meal, so there was never any extra money for such things. If it weren’t for the little apple orchard behind our house, we would have gone hungry far more often.” Seeing the sympathy in his eyes, she rushed to say, “This isn’t a call for pity, of course. Mother had hands made for sewing, so I was lucky enough to have a healthy stock of clothes.”

“What about later on in your life? You were a great elder, so I’m sure you were allowed anywhere on that island. I saw dozens of cities there, so didn’t you ever get the chance to shop at them? Also, how did you end up joining the sect anyhow?”

“After Shellson was destroyed—that is, my hometown—I spent a lot of time wandering through the coastal towns around the lake, trying to survive as best I could.” Blushing a bit, she said, “It turned out that my body has a special constitution, so I managed to reach the Genesis stage without ever relying on a core cultivation method. That was just before I turned eighteen. To this day, I only ever meditate when I train, and that seems to be enough.”