Free Web NovelChapter 412: A Normal Adult Woman’s Room!
That memory has been replaying in my head as I stand outside her door, and I cannot help but wonder if that was the moment she decided I was disgusting.
Was that the moment she looked at me and saw something she did not like?
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I cannot say for sure whether Marina is celibate or even a virgin, and to be perfectly honest... I do not think it is any of my business either way. freewebnσvel.cøm
People have their own preferences, and their own reasons for choosing the lives they lead.
I have always believed that those choices deserve respect rather than judgment or scrutiny.
I respect people’s choices, except when I just want to tease them a little.
But I sure hope she is not in some kind of trouble.
I hope she does not need help with something that she has been too proud, stubborn, or too afraid to ask for.
Because if she is carrying some burden alone, some weight that she has been hiding behind that calm and composed exterior, then I want to know about it.
I want to help her carry it... of course, if only she will let me.
With that conviction set firmly in my mind, I now moved to knock on her door.
My knuckles rapped against the solid wood — that heavy, proper door that stood out so starkly against the open-doored huts of the other Amazons — and I waited, my heart beating a little faster than I wanted it to.
"Come inside..." Her deep feminine voice replied from within, smooth, measured and carrying that same authoritative calm that always made me feel like a schoolboy called before the headmistress.
It seriously was a western door with a door knob and everything. I turned the brass handle, pushed the door open, and stepped inside.
I entered to find the place absolutely marvelous.
And yes, totally devoid of Amazon heritage and culture in every possible way.
It was like stepping into the room of an ancient European aristocrat, some noblewoman from a human kingdom who had filled her home with the trappings of civilized refinement rather than the raw, practical simplicity of the Amazons.
Nothing was overly large or ostentatious.
There was no excessive decoration, no gaudy displays of wealth or status.
But everything was tasteful, measured, and seemingly carefully chosen.
There was a section that seemed to serve as the sitting room — or at least the area where people would visit her first, where she would receive guests and entertain them before deciding whether to invite them deeper into her more private space.
It had comfortable-looking couches arranged around a low table, a few stools placed strategically near the windows, and shelves on the walls that held what appeared to be old-looking books and small decorative objects.
And there was another section deeper in, connected to the first through a brown door that stood slightly ajar.
That area looked like a bedroom, from what I could see.
I was extending my senses there, letting my perception drift through the walls and the spaces between, so I could see it clearly without having to physically intrude.
Invasion of privacy, some might call it out. I have no defense.
The bed was enough to say nice, but not luxurious — a comfortable bed with a mattress that looked soft and supportive, and pillows that were arranged neatly at the headboard.
It was a normal bed, the kind you might find in any well-kept home in a human kingdom, not the woven hammocks or leaf-strewn sleeping platforms that the other Amazons used.
Amazons only mimic things like these for fun, and they do not always get it remotely right.
They are warriors, hunters and builders, not interior decorators, after all.
But Marina definitely has spent a lot of time overseas, as I can clearly see from every detail of that room.
There was a night lamp on a small table beside the bed, with small glowing creatures trapped inside the glass.
They were sleeping, apparently, so the lights were a bit dim — a soft, warm glow that cast gentle shadows across the room rather than the bright, harsh illumination of a fully active lamp.
The creatures themselves were beautiful in a strange way, their tiny bodies pulsing with a faint inner light that seemed to breathe in rhythm with their slumber.
Were they pets of some sort?
The floor was wooden as expected, smooth planks that had been carefully laid and polished to a soft sheen.
But some sides were stone floors and things even resembling ceramic tiles, creating a subtle contrast that added texture and visual interest to the space.
She had couches, stools, and a table, all arranged with the kind of care that spoke to someone who actually enjoyed their living space rather than just tolerating it.
Heck, this was just a normal adult woman’s room!
A well-decorated, thoughtfully designed, genuinely comfortable room that could have belonged to anyone in any human kingdom across the continent.
Ah, it smells nice too.
Something floral and clean, like lavender or jasmine, with a hint of something warmer underneath — wood smoke or vanilla or maybe just the natural scent of a space that is well-cared for and lived in.
"Are you finished burning the interior into your retinas?" Marina suddenly asked, her voice cutting through my observations with dry amusement.
She was standing on an open spot that looked like a big balcony, her figure silhouetted against the sky, her posture relaxed but alert.
"Ah, forgive me," I said, walking to meet her at the balcony where ten people could fit in — a space large enough for several people to stand comfortably and look out over the village below. "This place is nothing like the rest of the village. I could not help but take it all in. You must understand foreign culture and norms, right? Having lived among humans for so long, I mean. This room is proof of that."
"Yes, I spent a very long time living in human kingdoms with my mother and sister," Marina nodded, her very deep emerald eyes blinking once, slow and deliberate, as if she were measuring every word before she spoke it. "But I returned at the cusp of my youth to serve Queen Irina."
...Yikes.
She had been alive when the legendary Queen Irina was still queen.
At the cusp of her youth too.
That meant she had definitely been around for many millennia, and she had served one of the most famous and powerful Amazon queens in history.
Ah, but she had a mother?
