An Unordinary Adventure of An Ordinary Girl

Your POV:

“Aya, you are spacing out again,” you heard Hyuga say and lifted your head up from the papers you were staring at.

“Huh?” You muttered, trying to remember what he was asking of you, but your head was completely empty.

He gave you a small smile and then said, “I was asking you to dictate me the Land Agreement code number.”

You smiled sheepishly and nodded, “I’m so sorry, master. Right away.”

“I told you to call me Hyuga, didn’t I?” You rummaged through the contract pages, shaking your head in disagreement.

“Oh, no, I really couldn’t,” you quickly scanned the first page of the land selling agreement for the long row of digits. “You are my superior, after all. AH, here it is. Are you ready to write it down?”

“Yes,” Hyuga replied, but he didn’t sound very content.

You decided it was your fault for spacing out previously and quickly dictated him the numbers. Today you were a bit off and you spaced out far too often. But you just couldn’t help it. It was as if you just couldn’t concentrate on anything and your mind kept slipping away.

You sighed as you averted your eyes from the papers to the landscape passing by. Today was one of the days you accompanied Hyuga on his business trip. At first you thought your job would only involve paperwork and similar stuff, but lately Hyuga had decided he’d be taking you together with him and that was how you ended up sticking to him like glue almost every day.

You visited nearby settlements settling various disputes or gathering the needed information. And even though it all was very interesting, you were way too scared to step away any further from Hyuga than needed and so you trailed after him everywhere. Not that you actually had any time for sightseeing. Hyuga was always strictly business-like and so you never really got the chance to stray away anywhere. Not that you wanted to, of course.

You leaned back, putting your head against the headrest, your eyes staring at the scenery emptily. Sometimes you just felt so alien to this whole world and its people. Sure, you had friends in Hyuga’s castle and everyone seemed to like you, but there was no one you could confide in. No one you could pour your heart out to. You felt lonely and abandoned. You wandered what Leiru was doing and if he knew you were alive and fine. And above all, you hoped he was okay too. You thought back to the day you slipped and fell and hit your head, the day that you woke up in the hospital room in a universe so different from yours. The moment you first met Leiru, Asiel and Kyo. Ah, Kyo.

Your eyes narrowed and simmered with longing as you bit your lip in anguish. Kyo. How long ago this seemed to be. Like a long lost dream, a strange vision that came and passed by momentarily. It hurt, it hurt whenever you thought of him. Kyo was your first love, your first crush. Right now, thinking back, you felt so silly that you just could not see it, could not acknowledge your feelings in time. When you did, it was all too late, too late for anything. But what hurt the most, was that he did not recognize you and did not believe you when you needed him most. He did not see your soul in a shell of your real body. You knew it was impossible, you told it to yourself so many times. How could he recognize you? How could he? And still, it gnawed at you, it dug into your heart as if a pin was stuck in it and it kept going deeper and deeper. You felt betrayed. So betrayed.

You blinked quickly a few times as soon as you realized that your eyes were getting watery, but it was a bit too late. You bit your lip even harder as you felt a tear leaking out and rolling down your cheek. You quickly bent your head, letting your hair fall onto your eyes, hoping it would cover your tears. You did not want Hyuga to see you cry. It would raise questions. Questions that you did not want to answer. You quickly brushed away the tear with your fingers and blinked a few more times, pushing the tears back.

Now is not the time to cry. You just had to do your best and hope that everything would unfold by itself. But what if it wouldn’t? You stared down at the papers in your lap, as you thought back to your old life. Your normal life. Will Leiru be able to find you, when everything is over? Will he take you home, then? But will it really end so peacefully? Your birthday was in about a month. Yuki’s too. What will happen on that day?.. Perhaps, you were condemned to spend the rest of your days in this alien universe among demons and devils, serving the Demon Lord for the rest of your life. What a sick joke that would be…

“What are you thinking of?” Hyuga asked quietly, his voice almost tender.

“What rotten fate I have,” you whispered and suddenly shot up, realizing you said it without even thinking much.

“Fate?” Hyuga echoed and you bit your lip once again, averting your eyes from his piercing ones. “Fate is only something humans tend to blame when things go awry.”

“Then…” You glanced at him again. “There is no fate?”

“Who knows,” he replied with a mild shrug of his broad shoulders. “I intend to keep my life in my own hands though. Why would I entrust it to something that, perhaps, doesn’t even exist?”

You stayed silent for a while and then nodded, chuckling. “That is so like you, master Hyuga.”

“Is it?” He mused and you nodded again.

“And you’re right. I should take the matters into my own hands!” You suddenly exclaimed.

And why not? How long where you gonna act like a damsel in distress and wait for someone to come and save you? If Yuki could cross across the worlds and get here, why couldn’t you? Perhaps, there was something you could do too. And you just had to find that out.

You nodded to yourself, feeling refreshed and determined, and then smiled at Hyuga.

“Thank you, master Hyuga,” you beamed at him and then bent down to continue sorting the documents in your lap. You had to get them all in order before you reached your destination.

“How many times will I have to tell you to call me by my name?” The Demon Lord in front of you asked with slight irritation in his soft voice, but you merely giggled.

“I’d say about nine hundred and seventy two.”

“Hmmm,” he mused and his lips carved into an amused smile.

Hyuga’s POV:

She cried. She tried to hide it, but she was sad and crying. Why? What was it that brought her to the verge of tears? These thoughts were haunting me all day. I wanted to ask her at first, but Aya clearly did not want me to notice it, so how could I? She did not trust me enough to spill her heart out to me and that was fine with me.

The girl was like an abandoned kitten, lost and confused, unable to trust those around her. What I needed was time. To get her used to me, to get her warmed up to me. And time is something I have. When the right moment comes, she will tell me everything herself.

I smiled contently and watched her snooze on the seat in front of me. The day was very long and tiring. Aya was still not used to going on trips with me. I could sense she felt flustered and unsure. She’d rarely leave my sight and followed me everywhere, which was actually good. I did not like the curious and admiring glances the demons sometimes gave her. Aya was a very pretty girl, though she herself did not seem to be aware of that. Even more, there was something about her that attracted others. Something very peculiar, something intangible. Just a feeling one got when being around her and I felt it too. Whenever I was with her, I was… at ease. I felt comfortable and unbothered, which was very rare. Usually, I hated company more than anything, but Aya was different.

Perhaps, it was her character. She tried her best at everything and she was always ready to do her job without any complaints. She was always there, when I needed her and whatever I required, she had it ready for me. Sometimes I even forgot she was just a human. She tired easily, most probably, due to her human nature and it was surprising how she coped with all the work load I gave her. Still, Aya always acted strong and I found it queer how often I had to remind myself that she was far more fragile than what she looked.

Meanwhile, Aya rustled in her seat, her brows knitting together in a slight frown. She was dreaming of something. I watched her attentively, trying to figure her out. And yet, she was a total mystery to me. I had tried to find out more about her, but no one had ever heard of her and I could not risk placing another spy in Kyo’s mansion. Furthermore, he seemed to be more wary nowadays and the security was rather tight. And so I was left guessing, my curiosity at its peak.

I glanced back at the sleeping girl and noticed her lips carve into a soft smile. Was she dreaming of something good? While I contemplated that, her eyelids quivered and she opened her eyes. For a while, she looked confused and then she suddenly sat up properly, her black orbs staring at me apologetically.

“I’m so sorry, master!” Aya exclaimed. “I just… I… I’m sorry I fell as-”

“It is fine,” I interrupted her. “You have been working very hard these past few days. There is no harm done in you getting some rest.”

It seemed like Aya wanted to say something, but then she changed her mind and simply nodded.

“Did you dream of something good?” I asked quietly, watching her attentively.

She looked away and for a moment her gaze seemed to be very distant, as if her thoughts and her mind had travelled so very far from here.

“Perhaps,” she whispered and I cocked my head, narrowing my eyes on her.

“What did you dream of?”

“My family,” she replied softly after a short moment of silence.

“You miss them,” I stated and she nodded. “Would you like to go visit them?”

I could sense her sudden confusion and surprise as she turned to me, her eyes wide in shock.

“Would you?” I repeated my question, but Aya’s eyes only saddened and she shook her head.

“No, thank you.”

I raised my brow questioningly, but the girl looked almost heart-broken and I did not pry deeper into the matter. There will come a time when she will trust me enough to tell her secrets.

“If you have any troubles, you can always come to me,” I said quietly. “There are many things that are in my capabilities.”

She seemed baffled for a moment and then nodded her head again, surprise still evident in her eyes, “Thank… you.”

“Rest some more,” I said and tore my gaze away from her. “The journey will take a few hours. We will be arriving shortly before dawn.”

Aya shifted in her seat and I glanced at her again, watching her lean her head at the coach pane. She closed her eyes again, and there was a calm expression on her pretty face as she drifted off to sleep. I noticed it before too, but Aya seemed to be weak against rocking. She often got sleepy in carriages.

For the rest of the journey, I kept watching her, wondering how empty my days were until I picked up this stray human girl. So many things had changed in so little time. Her existence and the moments I had spent with her had become important to me… precious.

She had become precious to me.