Chapter 26

Ayda ran with all her might but soon her lungs called her back to reality. She had to slow down and continued while walking. She knew immediately where to find Nifsara and without any surprise, the latter was at the training grounds, training as usual.

Nifsara immediately felt Ayda's presence and even if she didn't, she would have noticed because of all her knights staring behind her. Ayda didn't try making herself small, wanting to make sure that Nifsara saw her. But at the same time, she didn't come up to Nifsara either. She pictured the creepy male lead in the book she had read and imitated him. She stopped in a corner and started staring at Nifsara.

As she was doing so, she suddenly realized that she had no idea what kind of face the male lead was making while stalking the main character. Was he making a specific face? Was he smiling? That would be even creepier. Therefore Ayda chose not to smile and she just left her face expressionless.

The knights waited for Ayda to come up to Nifsara and just say something and seeing her frozen confused them. Everyone imitated Ayda and froze. It became an awkward staring contest and even Nifsara turned around with a frown.

Ayda didn't expect Nifsara to turn around so fast. In the book the main character needed hours to notice that she was being followed. Ayda knew that Nifsara wouldn't need so long but she didn't have time to think about the next step yet.

She looked away and pretended that she didn't want to be noticed. She hid slightly behind a pillar and continued staring at Nifsara. Seeing her do so, the latter didn't ask any more questions and went back to training. It was kind of frustrating seeing her do so. Nifsara just saw Ayda staring at her and she didn't ask any questions? It was annoying but Ayda forced herself to be patient and continued hiding.

While Ayda was staring à Nifsara, some knights did come up to her to see what was going on:

"Lady Maganti? Do you... Perhaps need something?"

Ayda shook her head:

"No, thank you.

-Then, are you perhaps looking for the Commander?"

Ayda shook her head again. A stalker would never admit stalking someone.

"No, I was just passing by and thought that I would stay here for a bit.

-You should come closer. We brought a chair specifically for you.

-Thank you, that's very nice but I prefer to stay here."

The knights didn't have time to ask more because Nifsara turned to them suddenly:

"I didn't know that you were paid to chat."

The knights jumped hearing their Commander's harsh tone. They grimaced at Ayda before crawling back to training. Being left alone, Ayda continued staring at Nifsara and soon she realized how boring being a stalker actually was. She was just standing there and had to stare at Nifsara. She couldn't do anything else and her eyes started getting tired. She had to rub them a few times but every time she closed her eyes, she could still see Nifsara's figure. It was getting rather uncomfortable and Ayda had to change positions and moved behind a different pillar to stalk from.

She didn't know how long she needed to just stare but she started regretting that plan. It was too late to abandon now and she forced herself to stay focused. Nifsara on the other hand didn't even seem to notice Ayda's presence. The longer it was taking, the more frustrated Ayda was getting.

How different was this from what she was doing before? She had already followed Nifsara everywhere to annoy her by being clingy. Now she was doing the same except she was following from afar. She couldn't even talk to Nifsara or do anything apart from looking at her. By then Ayda could have drawn Nifsara with her eyes closed. Ayda was getting so bored that she started counting the folds on Nifsara's shirt. It turned out to be more time consuming than Ayda would have thought. Because Nifsara couldn't stay put, her shirt didn't stop moving either and the number and positions of folds changed as well.

Ayda got completely lost in thought and continued counting. Unfortunately, soon the distraction turned into frustration and Ayda wanted to scream at Nifsara to stop moving for three seconds. She realized that she was overreacting and tried finding another way to spend time but there was just nothing to do.

Ayda got fed up with staring at Nifsara all the time. She decided to take a break and come back later to follow her again. That way she would still be a creepy stalker but she wouldn't die of boredom. Satisfied by her decision, Ayda turned around, and left. She rushed back to her room and relaxed before going back to the training grounds and stalking Nifsara all over again.

The second time she came, Nifsara was towards the end of her training session and five minutes after Ayda's arrival, she dismissed the knights. Ayda greeted the men and when there were only the two of them left, she didn't say one word to Nifsara and rushed away. The same cycle got repeated the next day. Ayda didn't wake up early, she wasn't crazy, but she did go to the training grounds immediately after waking up.

She hid back behind her favorite pillar and started counting five minutes in her head. Maybe five minutes wasn't a long time but it was already more than enough for Ayda and she left. When she came back in the afternoon she thought about staying only for five minutes as well but Nifsara had other plans in mind.

As soon as she felt Ayda she let go of her sword and walked up to her. Ayda thought that it was a good sign and pretended to be shy, not daring look directly at Nifsara's eyes:

"Lady Ayda? Are you bored by any chance?

-Bored? Why would you say such things?

-I noticed that you have been visiting the training grounds more than usual. I fear that you aren't in a good enough condition to join us yet."

Ayda quickly shook her head. Anything but that!

"No, I just... I just wanted to see you..."

She looked up at Nifsara before quickly looking away.

"I missed you..."

Hearing Nifsara hesitate was a good sign:

"Lady Ayda, I apologize. It seems I have neglected you lately."

Ayda's head jerked up. That wasn't the reaction she was expecting.

"What?

-I have spent way more time training than taking care of you and I apologize for that. I promise that it won't happen again.

-Wait? What?

-I forgot that this isn't your home. I will pay more attention to you in the future."

Ayda was fed up with Nifsara never understanding anything.

"No! That's not it. I came because I missed you. Because I want to be with you all the time. That's why I came here. To look at you.

-I am glad that you came. Once you get better we could train together."

Ayda blinked a few times. She really needed to make Nifsara understand how creepyly in love she was. For some reason it seemed Nifsara didn't want to admit it. Was it because she was a stupidly humble hero?

"I fear that there has been a misunderstanding here. I didn't come here because I was bored or lacked exercise. I came because I love you.

-And you are always welcome. I will come to you too."

Why wasn't it going according to plan? Ayda thought that either Nifsara would be disgusted because she finally realized that she loved her or at least she would be disgusted because of her stalker behavior. Why was none of it working?

"I followed you! I followed you for days and stared at you without saying anything!"

Nifsara tilted her head as if Ayda was saying something obvious:

"And in the future I will be the one to come up to you, Lady Ayda."

No!

"Don't you find me creepy? I stared at you from afar.

-Have I perhaps scared you in any way?"

Ayda froze:

"What?

-I apologize if I made you feel that you couldn't come up to me.

-No, that's not...

-You don't have to hide. If you want to see me then you can just come up to me any time. I am always glad to see you."

Ayda thought she would cry. Not only Nifsara didn't understand her feelings, she wasn't disgusted by her behavior at all. Did she just spend days staring at her for nothing? She had to quickly come up with another plan.