Chapter 44: Chapter 44 - Catharina
Now if someone tells you the relationship between them and their family is complicated you always imagine the worst.
Don’t you?
So the moment I heard the crash from inside the shop, my imagination went wild.
I imagined storming into the shop to find a fiendish standoff with swords.
Maybe find Julia’s sister pointing a gun at her.
Yes, yes, I know guns aren’t a thing in this world, but you get the idea.
I absolutely did not imagine that I would walk into the scene that was before me at that moment.
In the middle of the small shop stood Julia.
And clinging to her like her life depended on it, was an absolutely stunning black haired woman.
She was wearing a pretty conservative dark red dress, and yet it could do nothing to hide her curves.
I mean seriously, they would be able to make most men drool.
But being the gentleman I am, I spent only a moment glancing over her.
"Jules! I haven’t seen you in years! I’ve missed you so much!" Her voice was like music to my ears, I didn’t think it could be possible for her to become even more beautiful, but apparently I was wrong.
The moment I got a glimpse of her eyes I was once again frozen.
If you’re from Earth, the idea of someone having red eyes is impossible, except in movies and anime of course.
But her eyes were a striking red.
I mean vampiric red.
And if I haven’t told you yet, red is my favorite color, so that was once again absolutely beautiful to me.
One thing that did kind of subvert my expectations though was her personality.
I mean if you imagine a dark haired red headed girl, you imagine her as this cold and distant person.
Someone who wouldn’t even bat an eye when her long lost sister came back.
But maybe that was a view the movies and anime I watched gave me.
Because she was basically cooing over Julia at that moment.
While Julia just stood there awkwardly with her hands at her sides, as her sister fretted over her.
"Where have you been?"
"What did you do?"
"Are you injured anywhere?"
"How long are you in Stellor for?"
"Have you eaten anything yet?"
"Where are you staying?"
"You can sleep with me if you want, my bed is pretty big."
Now as you can imagine that last one caught me pretty off guard, I’d say my mind was a fortress, and absolutely no intrusive, impure thoughts could penetrate it.
But then I would be lying.
"Calm down Cat, I can only answer one question at a time." Julia finally got out, retreating a few steps away from her sister, to come and stand next to me.
The smile on Cat’s face dimmed slightly when she saw this, but her eyes never left Julia, she didn’t even notice me standing there.
And honestly I was in no rush to make my presence known.
You know, giving them a few moments to catch up and all that.
"We’re staying at the Forest Flute." Julia said.
At those words the light in Cat’s eyes visibly dimmed, and a frown marred her pristine skin.
"We?" She asked, her voice had changed completely, no longer holding the warmth and joy it had a few moments ago as she turned her gaze to me.
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
Those eyes no longer held anything remotely close to joy, instead they held only... contempt?
What the hell I did to deserve that though I have no idea.
But I do have to say, at least she met my previous expectations of her when she looked at me.
Even though she had to look up significantly to look at me, to me it felt like she was a mountain looking down at an ant.
"This is Daniel... my husband." Julia said as she took my hand.
Apparently that made the situation a bit worse.
Okay maybe more like a whole hell of a lot worse, because those eyes became even colder than they already were.
Still beautiful though.
I could swear I even saw some murderous intent flit through them for a split-second.
"Husband you say?" She muttered.
Julia only nodded at this.
"Daniel, this is Catharina, my sister." She said, turning to me and pointing at her sister.
The moment Julia’s gaze was away from her, Cat sent a pretty menacing sneer my way.
Why?
I mean come on, my charm was basically turned up to the max at that moment, and all I got was a menacing sneer.
I had even plastered on my most charming smile.
"Nice to meet you, Cat." I said as I extended my hand to her.
"Hmpf! Only my sister gets to call me Cat." She said, completely ignoring my hand.
The smile on my face slowly faded away, as I drew back my hand.
"Don’t be rude to my husband, Cat." Julia said, pretty menacingly if I have to say.
I turned to her, cupping her chin and tilting her gaze up to mine.
"Calm down, she’s just surprised," I whispered to her. "Why don’t you two spend some time together, I’ll wait for you at the inn."
I turned to look back at the surprised expression of Cat.
"Catharina, I have some business I would like to discuss with you, but we can do that at another time," I said.
"But for now, I’ll leave the two of you to spend some time together."
Without giving either of them time to respond, I gently pried my hand from Julia’s, and left the store.
Of course it wasn’t that I was fleeing a very uncomfortable situation, I really just wanted the two sisters to spend some time together.
Without them getting in a fight because of me.
I mean it’s not like I’m a person that’s terrified of conflict.
I just hoped that Julia could maybe start to lay the groundwork for me to be able to convince Catharina to move to the village with us.
But after seeing the prices of everything in that city, I wasn’t all that hopeful.
I mean Catharina wouldn’t be able to charge nearly as much for her products in the village as she would be able to there.
Obviously it wouldn’t be long before she would make a lot more money than she would’ve made there, I had big plans for exports and trade after all.
