บท 37: Chloe Baxter.
The night sky was certainly beautiful, but Chloe Baxter was still prettier. Raymond had to admit that he had underestimated her charm before. Maybe it was because of the gentle moonlight highlighting her figure, or because of his deteriorating mental state, but Raymond admired her beauty a lot. To others, he was blind, but that wasn't really the case, if anything, Raymond's vision was more than exceptional.
"Sigh... it's been a rough couple of days huh?"
To Raymond's surprise, the quiet and cold beauty was the first to break the ice, prompting a delay in his response. "That would be the understatement of the century."
A soft chuckle could be heard after Raymond's slightly deprecating joke.
Silence quickly ensued, making the situation a little awkward. Raymond was used to the awkwardness since it was something he had experienced plenty of times before, but to Chloe, it was a rather foreign concept. Usually, men would jump at the chance to converse with her and make small talk, but Raymond was rather indifferent about it. This was also partly because of the emotions he was currently trying his hardest to contain.
"Are you... all right?"
"Hmm?"
"I just wanted to make sure you're ok. Although I'm sure you wouldn't want to talk about it with someone like me, if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm all ears."
"I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm ok, I just need some time to think."
"Alright, I'll leave you be, just let me know if you need anything, without you, we might've all died after all."
Without saying anything else, Chloe slowly walked back to the camp, leaving Raymond to stargaze all by himself. As she left, she gazed at him with a curious look in her eyes for a bit, but she didn't stare for too long, she wasn't sure if Raymond could perceive her stare or not after all. Some people had such monstrous perceptions that they could know if someone so much as looked their way, and considering how well Raymond could move around despite being blind, Chloe wouldn't be surprised if he was such a person.
Raymond noticed this curious look, but he wasn't sure about what it implied. It was hard to guess someone's intentions, especially a woman's intentions. At least he could easily see things from a man's point of view since he was a man after all. But to see things from a woman's point of view? That was a completely different story. Whether she had approached him out of goodwill or not wasn't that hard to guess.
From the small amount he had gathered about her, she didn't seem like a bad person. Raymond thought that the most likely reason she approached him was to establish some grounds for future collaboration, or maybe even recruitment. He was a very talented young cultivator after all, and he could even be said to have a good relationship with them since he had played a big part in this escort mission.
Unfortunately for them, Raymond wasn't interested. Especially not right now, considering the mood he was in, but he probably wouldn't have much to do with them in the future either. Raymond was more interested in cultivating and trying to become as strong as possible. For now, he erected some sturdy walls around his heart. He didn't want to invest any feelings into relationships right now, at least not until he had some strength to protect those feelings.
He wasn't delusional enough to try and completely shut himself off from others since he knew he needed some human interaction to even want to keep living in the first place, but he didn't feel like getting himself too many friends or such for now. Whilst he was pondering upon a myriad of thoughts, Raymond decided to examine himself a little. He had noticed the abnormality of his sword force in the earlier mayhem, but he had been too preoccupied to realise in what way it had actually changed.
Not only had his sword force grown more ferocious, but it had also become sharper and larger in quantity. From the intermediate realm, his sword force had actually stepped into the superior realm! Raymond was pleasantly surprised, but he was still in a bad mood. If a small breakthrough was all it took to cheer him up, then his life would be much easier in the future. Whilst he still retained some of his motivation from before, Raymond closed his eyes and started cultivating again.
Like this, Raymond sat and cultivated under the brilliant night sky until morning arrived. Through his hard work, Raymond had opened up his 20th energy channel, effectively taking another small step forward on his path of cultivation. He didn't have time to fill it to the brim, since that would probably take a few days, but he was still a little stronger than before, which was satisfying enough to Raymond.
Since it was morning, Raymond simply washed his face before he walked back to the center of the camp. Whilst he was walking, he received gazes of admiration and respect from the other mercenaries. His feats from the day before were still freshly imprinted in their minds, and it would probably take them a while to forget about it. Raymond felt a little uncomfortable, since he had tried his hardest to not think about what had happened the day before, he just wanted to put it behind him, and move on.
After some discussion, the journey towards Bluemont started again, and before night fell, they arrived. When Raymond finally saw the walls of Bluemont city, he felt some relief. He really needed to relax for a while and gather his spirits. After the convoy had gotten into the city, the mercenaries were free to do whatever they wanted for the day, and Raymond instantly wandered off on his own.
Before he could get too far though, a voice suddenly interrupted him.
"Raymond! Wait up!"
As he turned around, a refreshing fragrance entered his nose, and the beautiful Chloe Baxter was standing in front of him.
"Can I help you with something?" Raymond simply replied with a dull voice.
"Are you busy? If not, would you like to grab something to eat?"
Her suggestion surprised Raymond a little, and he didn't know what to answer. He had planned on just grabbing something to eat by himself, but if he could have the company of a beautiful lady, was there really any reason to refuse? It's not like he wanted to offend her or something either.
"Sure, do you have a place in mind?"
"Yeah, I heard that Bluemont Pavilion has the best food in the city. Don't worry about the price though, it's on me."
"Sounds good!"
With a smile, Raymond replied casually. This small and polite smile of his dazzled Chloe a little. She had never seen him really smile before, and she had to admit, it was a really nice smile. If she could see his captivating eyes, she might've fallen in love on the spot. As for Raymond, he didn't really like having other people pay for him, but since he had saved her the day before, he didn't decline, he didn't have much money to splurge anyways.
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