Chapter 148: Track
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An anomaly that sat outside conventional living. They liked the way his rebelliousness brought no consequence. Society truly liked bad boys, Babara confirmed it with this investigation. No one seemed to be bothered by the fact that he was a madman. Indeed it seemed as if they liked that part of him.
The usually xenophobic community of Victoria City didn't seem to mind the fact that he was a foreigner. If anything, his foreignness added an extra flair to his already spicy personality, making him exotic, and attributing this feature to his dangerousness. As Babara delved deeper and deeper into her investigation, she tried to uncover a dark side of Xzavier, hoping to see some skeletons in his closet. But the more she pried open, the less she saw in that regard.
Babara was stunned. It simply didn't add up. As someone whose instincts had been refined over time due to her own hardships in life, she knew that powerful men often had a sadistic part of themselves. Even if she had wrongfully dismissed Xzavier as a fraud due to his lack of mana, she knew that she couldn't possibly be wrong to expect Xzavier to be a bully. After all, all that power on one ordinary person was definitely sure to make them veer left.
However, yet again, she found out that she couldn't have been any more wrong. For a man with such a fearsome reputation, she didn't think it would be hard to find any dirt on him, and yet, whenever she questioned people if Xzavier was proud, or offish, or maybe even abrasive, she was met with either a firm shake of the head, or a puzzled frown! Babara couldn't believe it! She recalled her own brief encounter with him that first day at the office, and saw that this was indeed true!
Even though she had clearly given Xzavier every reason to hate her or at least be offish with her, Xzavier had maintained a certain coolness of head that had made her look down on him. Yes, Xzavier was not a bully. In fact, from her investigations, it seemed like he was quite the opposite actually. It was very queer. It was very odd indeed. It wasn't every day that one would hear of a madman with a fearsome reputation that was known for helping maids and humiliating the ruling class. It was the very definition of a paradox.
Babara was thorough with her investigations. Her targets weren't just random people. After getting information on the places Xzavier had been to in the past, she went there to interview the parties involved. She interviewed the store owners from the marketplace where Xzavier had visited with Adalia, she spoke to some of the staff at Spring, she even spoke to some of those staff whom had served as waiters and waitresses at Xzavier's award ceremony. It was a very thorough investigation.
At the end of it all, judging from all that she had gathered from those who had come in contact with him, Xzavier respected and treated everyone curtly. Whether they were servants, waiters, store owners or nobles. He had nothing but warmth for them all. But then again, they were all people who hadn't looked down on him the way she had stupidly done on their first meeting. So, she decided to take her investigation to the next level- surveillance.
If Babara hadn't been an official in government, she would have probably made a pretty good detective. Operation watch Xzavier was in full effect now. For days on end, with the compulsive obsession of a stalker, she watched Xzavier furtively, observing his every move and shadowing him like a second shadow. Of course she kept herself hidden in order not to blow her cover. Babara maintained a distance as she trailed Xzavier's every move, and as she did, she wasn't disappointed.
It seemed that the stories of his non-preferential treatment weren't exaggerated at all. With keen eyes, she watched as Xzavier went about his interaction with regular people. Looking at him as he did his thing, it was difficult, (almost impossible) to believe that he was actually the same person whom people spoke about. The orc slayer, the mad baron, the monster killer, all of these were titles that followed Xzavier's name in the streets. And yet, looking at this man who was the embodiment of humility and decency, Babara couldn't help but be in awe.
Never had she found a man like him before. Never had she ever thought that she ever would. Even the homeless people received his warmth.
At this point, Babara was virtually obsessed. Xzavier was something of an enigma. He was a puzzle she just couldn't figure out. Everything about him was in direct contrast with everything she thought she knew about powerful men. He tempered fame with humility, power with modesty, and prestige with graciousness. As Babara surveyed his every move, she looked hard to see if she could find any element of pretentiousness. Of course it was common for politicians to mask their intentions with the public.
It truly seemed like Babara was desperately looking for a chink in Xzavier's armor. She looked for anything, a repulsive look when he shook hands, a slight gesture of detachment when he was in public. Again and again, Babara found herself backed up against a concrete wall in this regard. She found nothing. Xzavier wasn't a hypocrite. There was nothing ostensible about his social interactions. Babara knew that if indeed he had indeed been putting on a show all this while, then he would have slipped up at some point.
But there had been nothing of the sort. No one could act so well. Babara knew this, but her mind was so cynically twisted that she only saw the twisted version of things. It took a while before she came to accept the fact Xzavier was definitely not acting, no actor was that good. It was impossible to keep up the charade at every single moment. There was bound to be a slip up. And so far, there had been none.
Slowly but surely, Babara's interest in Xzavier began to grow into a kind of infatuation. That infatuation began to nurture some deep feelings in her that she could no longer ignore. She had never seen a man like Xzavier in all her life. His manner was suavely persuasive that he would have been able to charm demons. And it wasn't the fake type. It was all a hundred percent genuine. Each time she remembered how she treated him at their first meeting, Babara felt like kicking herself several times over in the gut.
That had been her one true chance to make a decent first impression. She had botched it like an ignorant fool. And now, instead of approaching him the way any normal person would, she was now stalking him from a far like a creep. Worse still, she was falling for him by the day. Every minute she didn't have eyes on him, she found herself twitching like a heroin addict, wondering where he was at that moment, who he was with, and what he was doing. It was an unhealthy addiction that bordered on obsession.
In more than one way, Babara was taken in by this stranger. It was very weird. They weren't friends, they hadn't even had a single conversation with each other, and yet Babara felt like she had known him for a really long time. Well, actually, it wasn't exactly weird since she had been invested in knowing everything about him by word of mouth and by sheer stalking.
???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????
Babara was ashamed to admit this, but if this business hadn't been all about her sister, she would have been thinking of wooing Xzavier right now. He had somehow managed to slither into the crevice of her heart like a snake, nosing about the chambers of her inner sanctum, defiling her thoughts with sinful images that stemmed on sensual desires. The young woman was smitten. It was the first time in her young, cold existence that she had felt even the slightest trace of affection for any male.
Her feelings started to interfere with her ethics as an investigator. She started getting sloppy. Deciding that she was way too far away from the man of her dreams, she decided to get more adventurous. Disguising herself under veils and elaborate clothing, she would brazenly walk up to him and linger for a moment at his side, hoping to catch a whiff of what he smelled like. Or at least brush up against his thick biceps. Anything to get close to him. Anything to put him in her sights and within range of touch.
One of those days was going to be her undoing. She was well aware of this. However, what she didn't know was that it was going to be much sooner than she would expect.
One fateful day, during one of those her stalking rounds, something unusual happened. As usual, she had tailed Xzavier into town. He seemed to be talking one of his leisure walks in the surburbs of the city. Babara had been careful that day, and had maintained a decent distance from her target. But in the blink of an eye, before she could say jack, she suddenly lost track of Xzavier! Babara instantly picked up her speed, hoping to catch a glance of him that would be enough to keep him in her sights.
As she ran up along the corner where she had last seen him, she heard a cold voice come out from the shadows in the alley behind her;
"FREEZE!" She froze up. "DON'T MOVE!!" She didn't dare move an inch. She didn't even as much as dare to think. Her heart was racing with all sorts of possibilities. How exactly did she end up here?
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An anomaly that sat outside conventional living. They liked the way his rebelliousness brought no consequence. Society truly liked bad boys, Babara confirmed it with this investigation. No one seemed to be bothered by the fact that he was a madman. Indeed it seemed as if they liked that part of him.
The usually xenophobic community of Victoria City didn't seem to mind the fact that he was a foreigner. If anything, his foreignness added an extra flair to his already spicy personality, making him exotic, and attributing this feature to his dangerousness. As Babara delved deeper and deeper into her investigation, she tried to uncover a dark side of Xzavier, hoping to see some skeletons in his closet. But the more she pried open, the less she saw in that regard.
Babara was stunned. It simply didn't add up. As someone whose instincts had been refined over time due to her own hardships in life, she knew that powerful men often had a sadistic part of themselves. Even if she had wrongfully dismissed Xzavier as a fraud due to his lack of mana, she knew that she couldn't possibly be wrong to expect Xzavier to be a bully. After all, all that power on one ordinary person was definitely sure to make them veer left.
However, yet again, she found out that she couldn't have been any more wrong. For a man with such a fearsome reputation, she didn't think it would be hard to find any dirt on him, and yet, whenever she questioned people if Xzavier was proud, or offish, or maybe even abrasive, she was met with either a firm shake of the head, or a puzzled frown! Babara couldn't believe it! She recalled her own brief encounter with him that first day at the office, and saw that this was indeed true!
Even though she had clearly given Xzavier every reason to hate her or at least be offish with her, Xzavier had maintained a certain coolness of head that had made her look down on him. Yes, Xzavier was not a bully. In fact, from her investigations, it seemed like he was quite the opposite actually. It was very queer. It was very odd indeed. It wasn't every day that one would hear of a madman with a fearsome reputation that was known for helping maids and humiliating the ruling class. It was the very definition of a paradox.
Babara was thorough with her investigations. Her targets weren't just random people. After getting information on the places Xzavier had been to in the past, she went there to interview the parties involved. She interviewed the store owners from the marketplace where Xzavier had visited with Adalia, she spoke to some of the staff at Spring, she even spoke to some of those staff whom had served as waiters and waitresses at Xzavier's award ceremony. It was a very thorough investigation.
At the end of it all, judging from all that she had gathered from those who had come in contact with him, Xzavier respected and treated everyone curtly. Whether they were servants, waiters, store owners or nobles. He had nothing but warmth for them all. But then again, they were all people who hadn't looked down on him the way she had stupidly done on their first meeting. So, she decided to take her investigation to the next level- surveillance.
If Babara hadn't been an official in government, she would have probably made a pretty good detective. Operation watch Xzavier was in full effect now. For days on end, with the compulsive obsession of a stalker, she watched Xzavier furtively, observing his every move and shadowing him like a second shadow. Of course she kept herself hidden in order not to blow her cover. Babara maintained a distance as she trailed Xzavier's every move, and as she did, she wasn't disappointed.
It seemed that the stories of his non-preferential treatment weren't exaggerated at all. With keen eyes, she watched as Xzavier went about his interaction with regular people. Looking at him as he did his thing, it was difficult, (almost impossible) to believe that he was actually the same person whom people spoke about. The orc slayer, the mad baron, the monster killer, all of these were titles that followed Xzavier's name in the streets. And yet, looking at this man who was the embodiment of humility and decency, Babara couldn't help but be in awe.
Never had she found a man like him before. Never had she ever thought that she ever would. Even the homeless people received his warmth.
At this point, Babara was virtually obsessed. Xzavier was something of an enigma. He was a puzzle she just couldn't figure out. Everything about him was in direct contrast with everything she thought she knew about powerful men. He tempered fame with humility, power with modesty, and prestige with graciousness. As Babara surveyed his every move, she looked hard to see if she could find any element of pretentiousness. Of course it was common for politicians to mask their intentions with the public.
It truly seemed like Babara was desperately looking for a chink in Xzavier's armor. She looked for anything, a repulsive look when he shook hands, a slight gesture of detachment when he was in public. Again and again, Babara found herself backed up against a concrete wall in this regard. She found nothing. Xzavier wasn't a hypocrite. There was nothing ostensible about his social interactions. Babara knew that if indeed he had indeed been putting on a show all this while, then he would have slipped up at some point.
But there had been nothing of the sort. No one could act so well. Babara knew this, but her mind was so cynically twisted that she only saw the twisted version of things. It took a while before she came to accept the fact Xzavier was definitely not acting, no actor was that good. It was impossible to keep up the charade at every single moment. There was bound to be a slip up. And so far, there had been none.
Slowly but surely, Babara's interest in Xzavier began to grow into a kind of infatuation. That infatuation began to nurture some deep feelings in her that she could no longer ignore. She had never seen a man like Xzavier in all her life. His manner was suavely persuasive that he would have been able to charm demons. And it wasn't the fake type. It was all a hundred percent genuine. Each time she remembered how she treated him at their first meeting, Babara felt like kicking herself several times over in the gut.
That had been her one true chance to make a decent first impression. She had botched it like an ignorant fool. And now, instead of approaching him the way any normal person would, she was now stalking him from a far like a creep. Worse still, she was falling for him by the day. Every minute she didn't have eyes on him, she found herself twitching like a heroin addict, wondering where he was at that moment, who he was with, and what he was doing. It was an unhealthy addiction that bordered on obsession.
In more than one way, Babara was taken in by this stranger. It was very weird. They weren't friends, they hadn't even had a single conversation with each other, and yet Babara felt like she had known him for a really long time. Well, actually, it wasn't exactly weird since she had been invested in knowing everything about him by word of mouth and by sheer stalking.
???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????
Babara was ashamed to admit this, but if this business hadn't been all about her sister, she would have been thinking of wooing Xzavier right now. He had somehow managed to slither into the crevice of her heart like a snake, nosing about the chambers of her inner sanctum, defiling her thoughts with sinful images that stemmed on sensual desires. The young woman was smitten. It was the first time in her young, cold existence that she had felt even the slightest trace of affection for any male.
Her feelings started to interfere with her ethics as an investigator. She started getting sloppy. Deciding that she was way too far away from the man of her dreams, she decided to get more adventurous. Disguising herself under veils and elaborate clothing, she would brazenly walk up to him and linger for a moment at his side, hoping to catch a whiff of what he smelled like. Or at least brush up against his thick biceps. Anything to get close to him. Anything to put him in her sights and within range of touch.
One of those days was going to be her undoing. She was well aware of this. However, what she didn't know was that it was going to be much sooner than she would expect.
One fateful day, during one of those her stalking rounds, something unusual happened. As usual, she had tailed Xzavier into town. He seemed to be talking one of his leisure walks in the surburbs of the city. Babara had been careful that day, and had maintained a decent distance from her target. But in the blink of an eye, before she could say jack, she suddenly lost track of Xzavier! Babara instantly picked up her speed, hoping to catch a glance of him that would be enough to keep him in her sights.
As she ran up along the corner where she had last seen him, she heard a cold voice come out from the shadows in the alley behind her;
"FREEZE!" She froze up. "DON'T MOVE!!" She didn't dare move an inch. She didn't even as much as dare to think. Her heart was racing with all sorts of possibilities. How exactly did she end up here?
An anomaly that sat outside conventional living. They liked the way his rebelliousness brought no consequence. Society truly liked bad boys, Babara confirmed it with this investigation. No one seemed to be bothered by the fact that he was a madman. Indeed it seemed as if they liked that part of him.The usually xenophobic community of Victoria City didn't seem to mind the fact that he was a foreigner. If anything, his foreignness added an extra flair to his already spicy personality, making him exotic, and attributing this feature to his dangerousness. As Babara delved deeper and deeper into her investigation, she tried to uncover a dark side of Xzavier, hoping to see some skeletons in his closet. But the more she pried open, the less she saw in that regard.Babara was stunned. It simply didn't add up. As someone whose instincts had been refined over time due to her own hardships in life, she knew that powerful men often had a sadistic part of themselves. Even if she had wrongfully dismissed Xzavier as a fraud due to his lack of mana, she knew that she couldn't possibly be wrong to expect Xzavier to be a bully. After all, all that power on one ordinary person was definitely sure to make them veer left.However, yet again, she found out that she couldn't have been any more wrong. For a man with such a fearsome reputation, she didn't think it would be hard to find any dirt on him, and yet, whenever she questioned people if Xzavier was proud, or offish, or maybe even abrasive, she was met with either a firm shake of the head, or a puzzled frown! Babara couldn't believe it! She recalled her own brief encounter with him that first day at the office, and saw that this was indeed true!Even though she had clearly given Xzavier every reason to hate her or at least be offish with her, Xzavier had maintained a certain coolness of head that had made her look down on him. Yes, Xzavier was not a bully. In fact, from her investigations, it seemed like he was quite the opposite actually. It was very queer. It was very odd indeed. It wasn't every day that one would hear of a madman with a fearsome reputation that was known for helping maids and humiliating the ruling class. It was the very definition of a paradox.Babara was thorough with her investigations. Her targets weren't just random people. After getting information on the places Xzavier had been to in the past, she went there to interview the parties involved. She interviewed the store owners from the marketplace where Xzavier had visited with Adalia, she spoke to some of the staff at Spring, she even spoke to some of those staff whom had served as waiters and waitresses at Xzavier's award ceremony. It was a very thorough investigation.At the end of it all, judging from all that she had gathered from those who had come in contact with him, Xzavier respected and treated everyone curtly. Whether they were servants, waiters, store owners or nobles. He had nothing but warmth for them all. But then again, they were all people who hadn't looked down on him the way she had stupidly done on their first meeting. So, she decided to take her investigation to the next level- surveillance.If Babara hadn't been an official in government, she would have probably made a pretty good detective. Operation watch Xzavier was in full effect now. For days on end, with the compulsive obsession of a stalker, she watched Xzavier furtively, observing his every move and shadowing him like a second shadow. Of course she kept herself hidden in order not to blow her cover. Babara maintained a distance as she trailed Xzavier's every move, and as she did, she wasn't disappointed.It seemed that the stories of his non-preferential treatment weren't exaggerated at all. With keen eyes, she watched as Xzavier went about his interaction with regular people. Looking at him as he did his thing, it was difficult, almost impossible to believe that he was actually the same person whom people spoke about. The orc slayer, the mad baron, the monster killer, all of these were titles that followed Xzavier's name in the streets. And yet, looking at this man who was the embodiment of humility and decency, Babara couldn't help but be in awe.Never had she found a man like him before. Never had she ever thought that she ever would. Even the homeless people received his warmth.At this point, Babara was virtually obsessed. Xzavier was something of an enigma. He was a puzzle she just couldn't figure out. Everything about him was in direct contrast with everything she thought she knew about powerful men. He tempered fame with humility, power with modesty, and prestige with graciousness. As Babara surveyed his every move, she looked hard to see if she could find any element of pretentiousness. Of course it was common for politicians to mask their intentions with the public.It truly seemed like Babara was desperately looking for a chink in Xzavier's armor. She looked for anything, a repulsive look when he shook hands, a slight gesture of detachment when he was in public. Again and again, Babara found herself backed up against a concrete wall in this regard. She found nothing. Xzavier wasn't a hypocrite. There was nothing ostensible about his social interactions. Babara knew that if indeed he had indeed been putting on a show all this while, then he would have slipped up at some point.But there had been nothing of the sort. No one could act so well. Babara knew this, but her mind was so cynically twisted that she only saw the twisted version of things. It took a while before she came to accept the fact Xzavier was definitely not acting, no actor was that good. It was impossible to keep up the charade at every single moment. There was bound to be a slip up. And so far, there had been none.Slowly but surely, Babara's interest in Xzavier began to grow into a kind of infatuation. That infatuation began to nurture some deep feelings in her that she could no longer ignore. She had never seen a man like Xzavier in all her life. His manner was suavely persuasive that he would have been able to charm demons. And it wasn't the fake type. It was all a hundred percent genuine. Each time she remembered how she treated him at their first meeting, Babara felt like kicking herself several times over in the gut.That had been her one true chance to make a decent first impression. She had botched it like an ignorant fool. And now, instead of approaching him the way any normal person would, she was now stalking him from a far like a creep. Worse still, she was falling for him by the day. Every minute she didn't have eyes on him, she found herself twitching like a heroin addict, wondering where he was at that moment, who he was with, and what he was doing. It was an unhealthy addiction that bordered on obsession.In more than one way, Babara was taken in by this stranger. It was very weird. They weren't friends, they hadn't even had a single conversation with each other, and yet Babara felt like she had known him for a really long time. Well, actually, it wasn't exactly weird since she had been invested in knowing everything about him by word of mouth and by sheer stalking.???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????Babara was ashamed to admit this, but if this business hadn't been all about her sister, she would have been thinking of wooing Xzavier right now. He had somehow managed to slither into the crevice of her heart like a snake, nosing about the chambers of her inner sanctum, defiling her thoughts with sinful images that stemmed on sensual desires. The young woman was smitten. It was the first time in her young, cold existence that she had felt even the slightest trace of affection for any male.Her feelings started to interfere with her ethics as an investigator. She started getting sloppy. Deciding that she was way too far away from the man of her dreams, she decided to get more adventurous. Disguising herself under veils and elaborate clothing, she would brazenly walk up to him and linger for a moment at his side, hoping to catch a whiff of what he smelled like. Or at least brush up against his thick biceps. Anything to get close to him. Anything to put him in her sights and within range of touch.One of those days was going to be her undoing. She was well aware of this. However, what she didn't know was that it was going to be much sooner than she would expect.One fateful day, during one of those her stalking rounds, something unusual happened. As usual, she had tailed Xzavier into town. He seemed to be talking one of his leisure walks in the surburbs of the city. Babara had been careful that day, and had maintained a decent distance from her target. But in the blink of an eye, before she could say jack, she suddenly lost track of Xzavier! Babara instantly picked up her speed, hoping to catch a glance of him that would be enough to keep him in her sights.As she ran up along the corner where she had last seen him, she heard a cold voice come out from the shadows in the alley behind her;"FREEZE!" She froze up. "DON'T MOVE!!" She didn't dare move an inch. She didn't even as much as dare to think. Her heart was racing with all sorts of possibilities. How exactly did she end up here?
