Not that he was keeping it so that the person that he was with wouldn't recognize that fact. "Ranchan? You okay?"
"I'm fine, Ucchan," he told her with a mild raise of his brows. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, you do seem to be a bit... off. I mean, you really aren't all that interested in this sort of stuff back home."
"What? Walking, or this whole trip."
"Are you feeling bad about this trip?" Ukyo asked him, her worry showing clearly on her face.
"Not 'bad'.... More like... 'bleh'."
"You were hand picked for this task. Do you want to go back to the Court and tell them that you were bored with it?"
A smirk worked onto his face. "Ucchan, ya do realize that this is just simple work."
"But it's a job from our ruler...."
"It's a message carrying job. We're letter carriers, or were, until we dropped it off."
"That's true," she found herself unable to stop admitting. "You were picked because it was an important letter though, and you're such a good fighter."
"That's about all the real benefit from it that we get. I mean, it ain't the most challenging job around, now is it?"
"I get your point. But I just want you to remember how special you are. I mean, you're the heir to your family holdings, and their fortunes are rising...."
"And who took them down before?" Ranma flatly asked.
Her expression turned sour. "At least your father's known as a strong warrior."
"With a stronger belly. I mean, my father isn't exactly the most respected guy, is he? You should be the one to know."
His words set Ukyo's mouth to twisting as she remembered just how Genma Saotome had nearly screwed up her life. If it hadn't been for his son, a simple cook's daughter would never have grown to be the 'second' of the lord's heir. It boiled down to her being honor bound to serve Ranma, but then she was already completely loyal to him as it was, so it wasn't hard for her to stay with him, once she had the chance.
"See?"
"I understand.... Though, you did get this task over Lord Kuno's son."
"That jackass doesn't have the brains to come up with a complete idea. I mean, he gets mad when I get sent out ta another nation, but then he puts the job down as being 'beneath him'."
"He's just mad that he's been passed over for representing our country."
"Would you want anyone thinking that he's an example of what we're like?"
"No."
"Just what I was thinking. After all, he's a big jerk, and would be treating it as a bigger deal than it was," he said, and then gave a big shrug. "Though I'm pretty sure that the only thing that I can do is wonder what a place like this is supposed to be like."
"Well, they say that the princess here in Agmoon is actually the sort of person that even the peasants hold in high esteem. Apparently, she cares about everyone so much that she keeps on trying to help people, no matter how big the problem is."
"I heard about that. She's the one who insists on doing things even with those 'Yewmans' around."
"With those monsters roaming about, I guess that they need all the happiness that they can get," the brown haired girl commented.
"I know. Maybe they should go to that shrine north of us. Well, where we live...."
"The one near the artificer's school?"
"Yeah. I hear that people get really good luck from the three goddesses who are supposed to have blessed the place. 'Course, they could have been talking about the three girls who live there...."
"Could be."
"Still.... Why should we be worrying about things like this? I mean, you and I aren't exactly here to talk about all that political stuff," he reminded her.
"Then what do you want to do?"
"Take a walk with you in the gardens?"
A slow blush worked up Ukyo's cheeks as she considered what it would be like to walk alone with her lord in a garden. Certainly, the gardens here were set up along geometric lines, unlike the attempt to recreate a 'natural setting' that an eastern kingdom garden would attempt, like the ones back home. But the idea of a guy and a girl going to walk together alone in such a romantic spot was rather intense. She might have sworn her allegiance to him, but she was still a young woman who'd harbored secret fantasies for him to sweep her off her feet. Even if he were to only keep her as his lover, she would at least treasure those moments, though she did wonder what it would be like to be his bride.
"Hey, it'd be relaxing, and we have time to kill before we start to head back tomorrow."
All of her romantic fantasies were quickly stuffed back into their mental 'crate'. "I understand...."
"Well then, let's get walking, shall we?"
"Yes, my lord...."
He nodded at her, and led the way, as they walked along the precisely prepared paths, until they came across:
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(Posted Sat, 05 Aug 2006 11:22)
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