A Bond Through Worlds

38. Chance Meeting

(A/n: Super sorry for being almost three weeks late for the update. During July, I was mainly focused on finding housing since there were multiple people who wound up signing others before me, and writing was largely put on the backburner. The good news is that I hopefully will have a room by tomorrow and can finally put this whole thing behind me. If that winds up being the case, it will be a huge load off my shoulders and I should have another chapter out by either Friday or Saturday.)

The past six weeks of the occupation of Van has been, quite honestly, stellar from Souma's point of view. In fact, he has had very little to complain about. The main thing was that due to encouraging the people of Van to be more free in their expression and day to day lives, this led to plenty of added paperwork on Souma's end. This was offset a bit thanks to a surprising amount of help from Rimuru and Testa, but he was still honestly shocked to see a city that basically looked like a town out of the Great Depression turn so vibrant so quickly.

Not only that, true to his word, the food situation has increased dramatically thanks to their efforts. Not least of which was due to Tomoe's and Poncho's help. Without Tomoe, they wouldn't have been able to solve the situation so smoothly, and without Poncho, they likely wouldn't have even known about it. In fact, Poncho has been getting himself quite the reputation for his part thanks to his efforts being very public. Not a day went by where he wasn't serving food to the people, and many of them, specifically those wanting to marry their daughters away, took to him quite fondly.

It might have worked, had it not been for Serina, the head maid, looking after him. Liscia initially sent him with her, partly because she noticed the surprising chemistry between them, but mainly so that she wouldn't be able to bother for the time being. In fact, nearly everyone noticed how fond Serina was of Poncho, largely because whenever she ate his food, her characteristically neutral expression turned incredibly delighted.

In any case, Serina's presence around Poncho deterred many of the people wanting to either use him for their own benefits or try to marry off their daughters to guarantee an easy life for them. While the latter wasn't in any sort of bad faith, it could quickly be a problem if someone so high up the totem pole was so 'easy.'

The only thing that hasn't gone so smoothly, per say, would be Aisha. Specifically, her relationship with Testa. While the other two girls slowly came around to the fact of her differing nature, the two were ultimately content with her as long as she didn't seem to be a threat. And with Rimuru guaranteeing that he couldn't see a situation where he would turn on Souma, that matter was settled for them. He did at times have a propensity for half-truths and insinuations, but two things that he has never done for them was lie nor go back on his word. With him additionally saying that he would take responsibility for anything negative that Testa did, the two let the matters rest.

Aisha, however, wasn't as content to just let things go. This was mainly due to her seeing the demon as her friend, and with that sort of trust being broken, she felt it difficult to simply move past. Part of her admitted that she was just being stubborn, as she understood the reasoning behind Testa's actions, but there was some sort of feeling in her chest, a certain discomfort that she was clinging onto.

"You know, I do wish that you wouldn't look at me like I'm some sort of monster."

"I'm not looking at you like some sort of monster." Aisha explained with a pout. "I'm just still not over what you actually are."

The two were currently situated in a room by themselves as the others went off to do their own things. Since Souma was out and about taking a much-needed break with Tomoe and Juna, this meant that there wasn't a whole lot to be done right now outside of basic bureaucracy stuff. Rimuru and Liscia were helping out while Hinata was helping out with the food distribution. This allowed for the rare event where Testa was by herself, and Aisha so happened to spot her.