Corrupted Love| XIAOVEN

Chapter 1: a proud woman

Verr Goldet, the young boss woman from Whangshu-inn looked down sternly on the sleeping Adepti, who was leaning against a post of her railing, sleeping there restlessly.

Brown eyes focused on the young man. It was her job to support Xiao as a Yaksha as much as possible, and she too had noticed that something was wrong with him.

She had woken up not too long ago and like usual was beaming with confidence. Her skin was glowing and her long brownish hair elegantly fell over her shoulders.

The long green dress, which was tied around her slim waist, shone in the morning sunlight. She was the boss here, something she was very proud of, and accordingly, she took pleasure in using Mora for just the right purpose, shopping.

As an agent of the Quixing, it was her job to look after the young man, but with that, she had developed a certain sense of responsibility for Xiao by now.

Which was why she now carefully leaned down to the adepti, concern in her cunning eyes. Xiao slowly woke up to her presence. Ordinary people would have taken a few minutes to be fully awake, but not Xiao.

In case of an emergency, he needed to be awake immediately to fight and probably even kill. The only reason he had not been awakened immediately by Verr Goldet was the simple fact that he felt safe enough here to the point, he needn't wake up to every slight sound.

"Good morning." She said, seriously pleased. Xiao just nodded. This was his way of fulfilling human courtesies.

He didn't really understand the reason for these actions anyway, but had decided at some point that it would be easier to conform to his surroundings.

Verr was silent for a while, then opened her mouth, but decided not to say anything. Xiao didn't care. He stood up and walked past her without another glance.

Most would have seen this as a rude gesture, an insult to this nice and pretty young lady, but Xiao had no intention of harming someone with his behavior.

For him, social conventions were something he found difficult to understand. He saw no value in such things.

That is why many did not understand that his behavior was just a too honest version of man. Without question, it was not surprising that many others then treated him the same way back.

What had quickly ensured that Xiao was not particularly popular among many of the common people. However, this only applied until they learned of his identity as an Adepti.

They then treated him less like a piece of trash and more like a noble Hero. But for Xiao, it did not matter how they treated him anyways.

He had no great interest in people. He had other duties to perform and that left him with no time for friends or acquaintances. At least that was how Xiao saw it.

However, Verr Goldet had spent enough time with the young man to know this behaviour. By now she was aware that Xiao was not necessarily unfriendly, but just a bit too honest.

She sighed. True, she was not here to spy on the yaksha, but if he was ever behaving weirdly, she had to report this directly to Lady Ninggung and thus to the Quixing.

And Xiao had definitely been acting strange lately. More nightmares, gloomier mood, and he was talking even less than usual.

Verr could also swear that his anemo vison was foggier than usual.

That worried her the most, as she didn't understand why. She just knew that this was not a good sign. Absolutely not. She needed to call for help, or at least inform her superiors, or things might go completely off track.

She didn't even want to think about how much Xiao was suffering emotionally at the moment.

But she didn't know why. Nothing significant had happened recently that could have had such an effect. Worried, she sat down at her desk and wrote a report to the Quixing headquarters.

She explained everything that she found peculiar about Xiaos current behavior. Then she consulted with her husband for a while and thus sent the letter that same evening.

A strange form of relief ran through her, as she had now in a sense relinquished responsibility. With that she had done her job great, as always.

Business and work always came first for her. She nodded with satisfaction and sat down at her usual workstation.

Five days had passed.

Xiao had been sleeping even less than before, so he was having quite the trouble getting in his morning workout. His spear felt heavier than ever and his movements were slower and more uncontrolled than usual.

Therefore the Yaksha had decided to train twice as long, so after several hours of morning training, his vision darkened and he threw up from exhaustion.

Cold sweat ran down his back and stomach and only slowly did his circulation recover from the overload. At the nearby river he recovered with shaky legs.

His chest rose and fell heavily. He poured the cold river water over his face and groaning due to the cold. Clear water flowed down the small stream and birds chirped.

It was a beautiful day. Warm, blue skies and hardly any clouds. But Xiao shivered exhaustedly to a nearby tree where he dropped down.

He leaned against the trunk, trembling, his whole body screaming from exhaustion. "Shut it!" he growled viciously to himself.

But his body did not listen to its master anymore and Xiao involuntarily fell into a semiconscious slumber in broad daylight.

When he woke up, the sun was already setting. He had probably slept the whole day away. A blood-red ray stretched along the horizon, while the rest of the world was engulfed in the orange light of the setting sun.

Dusk had taken control of the entire land. Breathtaking and dreamlike. Xiao shot up into the air. His whole body was tense with readiness.

But there seemed to be no immediate danger nearby. He exhaled quickly. But as briefly as he had relaxed, all relaxation fell off of him quickly when he noticed that another human (or other being) was now comfortably leaning against the same tree trunk.