Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Year 1, Day 2 (Part 2): Growing Map

With the worst headache of my life that only grew worse throughout the day, I returned to my tent with Enna and sat down on my bed before opening up the system menu.

First, a question came to mind. “I remember you said one unit of population can only work a single building,” I said to Enna. “Does that apply to all buildings?”

“Ah! No,” Enna answered. “I suppose I phrased it too vaguely yesterday. “Buildings that are built within the city—well, camp, will be staffed by default and you do not have to worry about having enough population for all of the buildings. The buildings placed on other tiles are the ones that need population assigned to them.”

“Makes sense. So, rather than assigning pops to a specific work type like labor or science, they need assigned to actual buildings that we place on the map.”

“Right! The first unit of population cannot be assigned anywhere as… well, a settlement needs at least somebody to stay within it, but all future units of population will be open for free assignment!”

“Got it. Thanks for the explanation. Now… it looks like our scouts discovered a good amount.”

Enna stood on the tips of her toes to get a look at the menu. Seeing as how she was in front of me, behind the menu, and it was floating in the air at a height that made it easiest for me to read, she wasn’t exactly in a good position for looking at it with me.

So, I went back over to my bed to sit on it and patted the spot next to me. “You’ll be able to read it better over here.”

“A-ah, it’s alright! I have to admit that I’m a little curious, but…” she looked at the open spot next to me and blushed just enough for me to notice a slight color change in her cheeks, “I… have never shared a bed with a man before,” she mumbled under her breath. “I mean! Even when leaders do bring assistants, it’s to serve them like—well, like servants, so there is no need for me to—”

Thankfully, for as anxiety-riddled as I could be, I was never anxious around women. That was why it was no problem to get up, grab Enna’s hand, and pull her over to the bed to sit her down on it before sitting again myself next to her. I noticed that there was still a bit of space between us, though, so I wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her right up next to me before summoning the menu screen again.

“Can you see it better now?” I asked her.

That subtle blush from before turned into a full blown, nervous and twitching smile with bright cheeks as she sat there in silence. All she could do was shakily reach her hand up to adjust her glasses and nod.

Keeping my arm around her waist probably didn’t help when it came to her being nervous.

I kept it there anyways.

She was cute when nervous. Plus she looked happy. I would have stopped if she looked bothered or unhappy. Sure, she looked uncomfortable, but in an excited way.

That aside, I pulled up the map to see how things have changed.

I realized I would be looking at the map for a while to learn more about it as soon as I saw just how much land was discovered. Not to mention that I needed to come up with a plan for expansion.

Our options dramatically expanded.

But first, I had another question.

“Enna,” I said, giving her side a soft squeeze at the same time.

The squeak that left her mouth from the squeeze was music to my ears. “Y-ye-yes!”

“Games typically only reveal the land immediately around a unit instead of revealing entire regions all at once like it seems we’re doing here. Either we’re going to discover the entire world pretty quickly, or it works this way because the world is too big to do it the traditional way. How much of the world would you say we’ve discovered so far?”

“Pr-probably… less… less than—than a percent of it? Y-you can—”

“You’re stuttering a lot.” I brought my head closer to her and lowered my voice. “Is something wrong?”

Enna’s face was incredible to look at. I never saw somebody look both as nervous and as excited as her at the same time.

Then she rapidly shook her head. Or at least, she tried to. She only managed to shake it once before realizing that she bumped into my own head.

Well, she did more than bump it.

I probably should have taken into consideration that she had horns and that I lowered my head to the point where my face was right behind them. If anything, I was lucky that nothing worse happened.

Her shaking her head caused her nearest horn to cut across my cheek.

Realizing what happened, she looked up at me and no longer wore an expression of excited nervousness. Instead, her eyes quivered and the color drained from her face as she tried to back away from me.

But when she realized that I still wasn’t letting go of her waist, she looked confused. “I-it’s not safe for me to be this close to you! I’ve already hurt you!”

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“And?” I asked. “It was my fault for putting my face there. But I will admit, next time you make me bleed, I’d rather you do it by biting me.”

Her eyes widened for a moment and her cheeks began to redden again, but she—carefully this time—shook her head as if to get whatever was on her mind out of her head. “This isn’t alright! I hurt you! I’ve always been so clumsy, and you’re the last person I’d ever want to hurt, but now I’ve—”

“I used to tease my ex by saying that every mark I left on her was proof that she belonged to me. Is this your way of claiming ownership? Didn’t take you as the kind of girl to own a man so soon after meeting him.”

That blush returned again, prompting her to shake her head even harder that time to clear her mind. “I’m serious! I—”

“So am I. Enna, it was an accident.” I took my free hand and swiped my thumb across the cut, collecting the blood onto it and then licking it off while looking at her. “There. All better.”

“There’s already more blood…”

“Alright. Maybe I didn’t think that one through.”

She smiled a little.

“But I’m serious. It’s fine. An accident is an accident, and this is nothing to me.”

“I still feel bad even if you say that…”

“Then let me get even.”

“Ge-get even?”

“Sure. Show me your neck. I’ll bite it until a mark is left for everybody to see.”

That did it. Enna returned to how she was before she cut my cheek. Her lips moved in a frantic way as if she was trying to make noise, but nothing actually came out of her mouth as her eyes struggled to look directly at me. “I—I—”

I reached my hand out toward her head… and placed it on top of her to pet her.

“I won’t tolerate you feeling bad for an accident. Understand?” I asked.

Enna gulped and nodded. “I… thank you. It’s just—no, never mind. I don’t want to bother you with stories. You have more important matters to attend to.”

“I’m the leader of everybody here. You’re under my command. That means you are my matter to attend to. If you have something you want to say, I command you to say it and to never hold back around me.”

“A-ah… well… if it’s really alright, then it’s just that… I’ve always been clumsy. And I don’t mean… well, when I’ve told people that I’m clumsy before, they thought it was cute. They never understood how stressful it is. My eyesight has never been good and I’m not the most aware of my body, so I often break things and… I’ve lost important things to me because of it, and I’ve gotten myself and others hurt. It happens no matter how hard I try to prevent it. I hoped I would be able to stop here and prevent you from ever seeing that, but…”

Enna stopped and blinked a few times at me.

“Something wrong?” I asked her.

“I—I’m sorry!” Enna said. “I didn’t mean to get into a long speech about it! You—you have more important matters—”

“I already told you. You are my matter. That being said, I plan on keeping you as my assistant no matter how clumsy you might be. Now, if you want to talk about it even more, you’re welcome to. It sounded like you were getting some things off your chest there. I’m all ears for the rest of it.”

“I can’t take advantage of you like that.”

“It’s not taking advantage of me. It’s me doing my job. What good is a leader who refuses to listen to those following him? Whether it’s you, Thad, or anybody else working alongside us. Any one of you could come to me at any time of the day, and I would be happy to listen to your problems and see if there’s a way that I can help. That’s what being a leader is about.”

“I fear you would never get anything done if you listen to all of my problems.”

“Helping you is getting something done.”

Enna sighed and reached out to hold my arm. “Thank you. I… I may take you up on that sometime. But! For now, please focus on the game! I would feel horrible if I distract you from it any more than I already have!”

“So long as you promise to rely on me, I will.”

“I feel bad still, but… I promise.”

“Good girl.”

Enna’s cheeks turned red again as she adjusted her glasses with a smile.

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