40 Misunderstanding

The morning bell gonged throughout Dunbarton. Birds were chirping throughout the horizon and the sun was creeping up, radiating the earth all around. In the 2nd floor of Simon's Clothing Shop, a young man and woman laid side to side, their breathes blasting on each other's faces.

Suddenly, the young woman work up and her eyelids struggled to split out. As she rubbed her eye boogers away, a hazy but slowly clear picture came into her line of sight. Face to face, was a robed young man. She almost swallowed her breath in one gulp and screamed,

"Kkkkkyyyyaaaaaaa!!!!!!"

The shrilling, high pitched sound alarmed Axel and he rolled off his bed in the opposite direction of the young woman. The young woman who had screeched almost had tears jerking out of her eyes, and had her arms crossed like a x-shape over her chest.

"Uhhh, I didn't do anything last night.....I carried you all the way from the outskirts of town and it was late so I fell asleep right beside you after setting you down..."

"Hmph! There's no way you didn't do anything like a cute lady like me!" the girl replied.

"...Anyway, what's your name? And where do you live in town?" Axel asked.

"I have no name to tell a hooligan like you!" the girl barked back.

"You probably don't remember, but I saved you from that bandit...." Axel said as he scratched his head.

"I don't believe you!! Even if I did, how does saving someone go from taking a young girl like me onto the bed!" the girl started to wail loudly.

Axel started to get up, and started to walk towards the door.

"If you don't believe me it can't be helped, but at least let me send you back to where you live in town. That's the least I can do." Axel replied.

"Pfft!!!! I can walk on my own." the girl said, storming out of the room.

...

It was bustling with noises in the main plaza of Dunbarton when they both trotted off in the open after leaving Simon's Clothing Shop. Although the girl was moderately speeding along, Axel easily kept up with her brisk walking speed with his natural physique as an adventurer.

"Stop following me!" the girl yelled.

"The name's Azel, at least tell me your name to the one and only savior!" Axel chuckled.

"Annabelle!, now leave me alone!" the girl snapped back and her legs started bursting like a cartwheel into a running motion.

Axel chased the girl almost halfway across town from the Adventurer's Guild to Aeira's Bookstore. At this point, the girl was so out of breath, she fell to her knees and looked at the bright sun.

"S-to--p cha-sing m-e..... I can't take it anymore....." Annabelle strained to talk as her breath fell short. "I get it, your an adventurer and maybe you did save me from that bandit....."

"Finally we can talk face to face for once....I just wanted to send you back to your place but you're making this so hard for me!" Axel sighed.

"Fine, let's go together back to my place. But no funny business Mister!" Annabelle said with an ugly face.

"Whatever." Axel replied as they went to the south part of town.

By the time they arrived at the girl's place, it was already noon and time to eat lunch. Remembering that he had rushed out to accompany the girl early in the morning, he was so desperately hungry that he felt his blood tingle coldly.

"Do you want to eat a meal here since it's almost half past noon?" Annabelle asked reluctantly.

"Sure." Axel replied.

Right as they were about to enter the simple looking stone shingled house, Axel read the large signpost above the main double door of the house.

"Manus' Healing Shop"

Now that Axel had stumbled upon the healer's shop, he never really paid attention to in game features like this carefully before. For the dwellers of Erinn in this world would prove to be much different than what the game had shown him before.

Upon entering inside, a middle aged white Caucasian male in a healer's robe could be seen flipping through his potions busily. He had neatly trimmed golden hair which was decorated into two braids which hanged down naturally like a waterfall.

"Dad I'm home!" Annabelle chirped as she went into the man's arms in tight embrace.

"Where have you been my sweet angel???!!!!" I thought you had been ambushed by bandits on the way home gathering herbs!" the middle aged man barked.

"I did almost get ruined by the hands of a lone bandit, but luckily this young man saved me in the nick of time." Annabelle said.

"Oh by the gods! I am so blessed to have such a savior appear in my daughter's times of crisis! I thank you with all my heart young man!" the middle aged man said with a mellow voice. "By the way, the name's Manus, and I'm the town's healer."

Axel's eyes almost popped out. Manus? This pale skinned Caucasian? What the f*ck was going on? Manus had been adapted to an African American healer in the game of Mabinogi when the game was first released in the North American continent a century and half ago. The only places that retained the Caucasian features were countries in the old Asia continent that also had Mabinogi servers. Not to mention Manus had a daughter? When did this development take in place during the game? It seemed that he needed to take this reality one step at a time and digest it as he went.

"Hmm, what's wrong? Is there something on my face?" Manus asked.

"No it's nothing, haha.... I'm Azel by the way." Axel replied.

"Well Azel, let's have some lunch since it's almost time for my break! You're more than welcome to eat with us savior!" Manus said with a joyous face.

"Then I'll be in your company sir!" Axel said.

"Please--call me Manus! I'm just the average healer everywhere you go!" Manus laughed.

Together, the three of them moved to a room on the other side of the shop.