Peace Maker - Chapter 221

Adia flinched as she looked up into Kalmin’s eyes. They were threatening her, like a viper pressing down on its prey, like a king looking down on a criminal, she was being inspected. A little smirk wandered onto her face, it was interesting. Being watched like this.

“The places on the map?”

“Don’t play dumb,”

“I can’t even repeat the question that you asked?” Adia rolled her eyes. She turned back to Kalmin and grinned, propping herself on the table, “am I not allowed to know simple geography?”

“You’re a sc- you were picked up from the streets and tossed into this position,” Kalmin muttered, leaning one hand against the bookshelf, his body leaning over Adia now forcing her to press her body into the books. “I doubt the prince’s temporary predecessor would bother to educate you on the geography of this place.”

“Are you saying I’m not worth being educated?” Adia asked.

“I’m saying you don’t need to know all of this. I could go into the streets today in the afternoon and bring a random person off the streets to a teahouse to looks at a map of the kingdom-”

“I extremely doubt the fact that they would allow you to advance towards them,”

“-and they wouldn’t be able to spot out the places on the map,”

“Well then I guess I’m just one of the smart ones,” Adia shrugged, “I find it very disturbing that you underestimate us like this though… We may only be the peasants and the lowest class in the kingdom, but we’ve been around the longest and been through the most. It’s not that surprising that I know all of this stuff.”

“No. It is. And you know it too,” Kalmin pressed, his eyes stabbing through Adia’s, “it’s not normal. You and Boris, you know too much and you know more than you’re letting off. You… you aren’t just peasants, right? Maybe some fallen nobles? There’s no way such… Lower class… like you are this well educated.”

Adia sat there silently for a moment, her eyes locked with Kalmin’s. She smiled and a shudder ran down his spine. Her eyes, though the same color as his, held some kind of venom that snapped at him for a second, a flash of anger crossing her eyes.

“Hey,” she muttered, her hand rising up and propping up on Kalmin’s shoulder, “I’ve been thinking about it for a while and realized that aren’t you a little too close to me for this to be just a questioning?”

“What?” Kalmin muttered.

“Look, you’re a very handsome man and all but that won’t make me feel like kissing you even when you’re this close to me,” Adia chuckled, her hand running down his shoulder to his chest and pressing against his breast pocket. “Can you imagine what people would think if they walked in on this? Certainly not that you were questioning me,” she giggled, her hand wandering up to his chin and lifting his head up, their eyes still looking at each other, “if you wanted more, you could have just asked. I’d still refuse you though.”

Kalmin flinched, taken aback by her comment. A smirk slides onto his lips, “Don’t flatter yourself. There’s no way I would involve myself with someone of you lev-”

“Hey,” Adia interrupted, her face pulling closer to Kalmin’s, her sly smile still remaining on her face but this time, her aura was different, her eyes darker. “I don’t think you caught my drift.”

“That’s not surprising. But stop trying to change the subject and answer my question. Where are you from? I have never met a street person as smart as you,” Kalmin continued, he stayed in thought for a moment before turning back to her, “are there more of you out there? Are you threats to the kingd-”

“Shut up,” Adia snapped, her grip on his chin tightening, her fingers digging into his cheeks as she squished them.

“Whaf?” he asked.

“I said,” Adia muttered, her head tilting to the side with a stoic expression on her face. They stared for a moment before she beamed brightly, “shut the fuck up.”

Kalmin flinched another shudder running down his spine.

“For someone so educated, you have absolutely no self-awareness for where we are, right?” Adia chuckled, leaning against the bookshelf as she pulled his face closer, dragging it down to a level below her, making him look up to her. “Aren’t you aware that this is an empty room?”

“Sof Wast?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowing with slight anger showing in his eyes.

Adia stared for a second before chuckling and flicking off his head, pushing it back. “No.. I think you are aware,” she grinned.

Kalmin’s jaw clenched as he glared at her, “wha-”

“Or else you would have pushed my hands away, right?” she grinned, patting his shoulder. “You were well aware.”

“Of what??!” Kalmin snapped.

“Of the fact that I could hurt you,” Adia chortled, “you’re in an empty room with someone raised on the streets. Someone with half a brain cell would know that I’m already sensitive about the levels in the system and wouldn’t dare to bring up the topic to me. After all, I’m a scrap. I was raised on dirt roads, who knows what I have in plan…”

She glanced down at the pen in his breast pocket and then back up to him. “…or all the many ways I could decide to harm you,” to which Kalmin quivered, his eyes showing glimpses of fear, “afterall I’m just a peasant, I’m rash and violent and have no idea of where I belong.” She pulled out the pen, glanced at the sharp tip that was already out and locked eyes with Kalmin as she pressed the top, the tip retracting into the ballpoint pen.

They maintained eye contact for a few moments as the tension rested heavily on the room.

A few seconds later, Adia’s stoic face twisted into a grin and then burst into laughter, “Hahahahahha! You should see your face right now, you look so tense!” she teased, “don’t worry about your life or anything. I won’t hurt you-”

She leaned into his ears, “I don’t have the energy, right now,” she whispered, her eyes locking with Kalmin’s as she continued in a gentle low tone, “but just to be sure, don’t push it.” She pulled away from him and stared straight into his face with a dark, clouded unsettling gaze. Her hands rise once again to his chest, this time Kalmin flinching from contact.

She placed the pen back into its spot and then brushed his chest as if she was getting off some dust. Her head tipped to the side as she smiled. “Understand?”

Kalmin stared at her silently and she giggled, her smile wiping off her face as she pushed his shoulder, shoving him out of her way. “That’s better.”

She stood up from the table and stood behind him, ignoring his stare as she brushed her dress pants and straightened out her suit. Her movements were followed as she walked to the chair beside the table and sat down, resting one of her legs on top of the other as she looked up at him.

“Are you just going to stay like that?” she asked with a sly grin, “you look like a statue standing there stupidly.” Kalmin flinched and pulled himself out of his position over the table and walked to the couch and sat down on the chair beside it.

“Oh-” Adia called out and Kalmin’s shoulders rose suddenly as they turned to her.

“What is it?” he asked, slight anger still showing in his eyes.

She patted her own cheeks lightly and nodded at him, “Make sure to wash your face after this, they were a bit oily,” she chuckled, “and besides, you wouldn’t want a dirty peasant’s claw marks on your face, right?”

“Claw wha-”

“I’m backkk!” Boris announced as he pushed open the doors to the room. He froze when he locked eyes with Kalmin and then turned to look at Adia, “I see you’ve come before me.”

“Well duh, cuz you were taking such a long time to finish,” Adia shrugged, “I thought you would stay there permanently. Did you start singing as you showered again?”

“Can you not tease me with the head council member present?” Boris snapped back, a long sigh leaving his lips. “You really did mean that you were going to have fun while being here, didn’t you?” he asked as he walked over to her and patted her head slightly.

“Yup,” Adia giggled.

Boris turned to Kalmin, his golden gaze peering down at him for a moment before he smiled. He began walking towards Dominic’s desk, “I’m so sorry for the inconvenience if she did something she wasn’t supposed to do,” He sat down on the chair behind the desk and looked at the both of them. “What did you talk about while I was gone?”

Adia shrugged and turned to Kalmin, her gaze pulling Kalmin’s in as she tilted her head to the side. They stared for a moment before Adia grinned, turning back to Boris.. “Nothing,” she replied as she locked eyes with him, “Nothing at all.”