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As everything was ready for going to the village with my parents, we quickly gathered back with them and use the carriage we used the other time to enter the previous village we went into. This one was way larger and seemed like a small city, it even had paved floor and large houses surrounding a hill where a castle surrounded by many manors reseeded. This place was governed by several noble families with the Lord governing most of this Fiefdom. The Village was very advanced and had gone through many expansions, with thousands of people living in here and several Noble Families that were mostly descendants or family members of the Lord himself.
Sometimes commoners would also be given Noble Titles in rare occasions, or can purchase it directly from the Lord too, gaining Noble Status and many things. Most of those capable of purchasing Noble Status were Merchants who had a lot of money to begin with. Those that usually paid a lot of taxes would hold higher authority within the other noble families as well and could take part of political affairs and even make decisions with the Lord, or even for the Lord himself.
I didn't knew much more than that, as what I knew was mostly common sense of this world imparted to me by my parents over the years since I was born and taught everything I know by them. However, aside from that, this village has a church temple, and several guild offices. One of them is the Adventurer's Guild, where we are moving towards.
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Aquarina and Zack were quite surprised when Sylphy suddenly hugged them and said she loved them. The two had been her friends for years by now, especially Aquarina who knew Sylphy since she was a year of age. The two had gone through many adventures together, and Zack had also gone through adventurers with the two girls.
But what did the two thought about her? what were their opinion in the entire situation? And the trip as a whole? Well, to say the least, the two had been moving with the flow, as children they don't have much to say about anything, and much like Sylph, they had been simply enjoying the trip and the beautiful scenery while traveling.
However, quite recently, something happened that sparked some rivalry between Aquarina and Zack. Although their rivalry had been there for a while now. Since Zack emerged on Sylphy's life that he had felt a certain attraction to her. She had always been hyperactive, adventuring around at any time, doing many things, and always showing both maturity and strength, with a certain lady-like charm and even a slightly tomboyish personality.
Zack had never felt like this to anybody ever before than with her, and without realizing she became someone quite important to him… And well, with Aquarina, it was more like friendship, he did found her cute but she was often quite rude and overprotective of Sylphy, which Zack wanted to approach to the most, so they ended becoming more rivals than actual friends for some time. Although these last years they had been strengthening their friendship and their insults against one another already stopped.
Zack's appreciation and love for Sylphy had not stopped though, and it had only grown stronger with each passing year. Realizing that Aquarina was also overprotective of her and might like her as well, he had felt like she had been her rival for a while.
The two were children, they were immature and had yet to experience many things, so they were childishly having a rivalry for Sylphy's love. Ninhursag had noticed this rivalry and the feelings that Zack had for Sylphy, and how oblivious Sylphy was about the whole situation, perhaps she knew but simply acted like this to not make her friends fight for her even more… she seemed to want the two to get along, but as their emotions and personalities developed more, and as they got closer to their teens, such emotions of love simply developed even further, becoming rather heated.
Ninhursag noticed how Sylphy's and Aquarina's parents had decided to simply not intervene in children's love, thinking it would be something that would eventually pass away, but as she saw her boy suffering over his love for Sylphy and how he wanted her attention, she decided to impart on him her knowledge as a member of the Skin Changers and also the Amazon Tribe (partially).
Zack still remembers that conversation she had with Ninhursag.
"So you really like Sylphy, huh? Yeah, it was pretty obvious dear." Sighed Ninhursag, sitting at the side of her adoptive son.
Zack was cleaning his tears because he felt very frustrated about everything and had ended crying over Ninhursag's lap. He was a child after all, not a grown man, and he was prone of letting out his emotions strongly.
"Ugh… I-I am an idiot, right? I shouldn't be thinking about this when we should be getting stronger… I just… I want to be at her side." Sighed Zack. "I want her to recognize my strength at the very least…"
"So you want her to praise you?" Wondered Ninhursag. Zack didn't exactly wanted her to be his girlfriend or something, as such concepts didn't seem to exist within their culture.
Males and females came together at adulthood when the either of the two impressed the other. Males and female Amazon both were equal in this regard, and if they really liked someone, they hunted down strong beasts and offered these beasts to them, or even crafted weapons, armor, or accessories out of them as offerings.
Of course, they could be rejected, the most desired males or females often were competed furiously by the other Amazon that wanted to get together with them in hunting competitions that could take years to decide a winner.
"I-I… Maybe…" Sighed Zack. "I know its unrealistic to think she'll even become my wife or something… She's too strong and carefree, I doubt she'll ever chain herself with anybody."
"Hm… You may be right there." Said Ninhursag. "But that doesn't mean you can't try, right?"
"But… what can I do?" He sighed.
"Hunt! Bring her a strong beast! That's what you people do to impress a female, right?" Asked Ninhursag.
"Hunting…"
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