Inspiration Through Competition

The annoyance in the shape of this woman was now sitting across from me, still in her work attire, consisting of a black dress coupled with a white vest as well as some white shoes. Generally speaking, the so-called "work attire" of Barbara's is mostly anything with a black and white color scheme; so long as it is appropriate, of course. I also knew this situation was unavoidable as looking at the time, her shift had ended, meaning she doesn't need to get back to work.

Nevertheless, female I have yet to know the name of simply sat there, devoid of any shame and fear as she gazed through my eyes with a smile forming on her cherry-red lips. Her long ginger hair slid down past her shoulders in small waves of manifested beauty. Her skin and face also happened to complement her beauty through her elegant facial features as well as pale skin, both of which further highlighted her attire, hair, and lips.

I knew perfectly well that she was attempting to provoke me, not by being provocative, but by instilling interest in herself as she shrouds herself in mystery. After all, psychologically speaking, the more we think about a person, the greater the likelihood of our thoughts and feelings expanding towards them. Naturally so, seeing as how she has done absolutely nothing wrong to me, she is betting on the fact that I would develop a positive train of thought regarding her, filled with my own assumptions and expectations due to a lack of information I have on her.

As long as one is aware of it happening, it is wholly possible to prevent being caught up in the schemes of said individuals; I entertained her efforts for a while, especially so since I have my own motives.

This woman is a predator, even if a kind one.

As for me, I just found my test subject.

Having indulged myself in her looks for much longer than already needed, there was need to break the awfully quiet tension between the two of us; the sounds of the people below yapping about their daily lives was akin to drowned out noise rather than anything else. With the primary objective established, I mentally note a secondary objective of finding out as much as possible about her in order to pursue my other objectives.

In order to these two objectives, the following needs to be done.

There is a need to establish a conversation flow favorable to me, in other words, one in which I hold more dominant position; and in pursuit of which, she falls for my questions as much as possible. Naturally, it's not meant to be easy, and with the potential display of control she exhibited, this would likely turn into a game of sorts for the two of us.

A game in which the cat would hunt the mouse.

Amusingly, in this sort of game the objective isn't actually to 'not' be hunted, it's actually who can be the cat. As for the why, it is relatively simple. For people of intellectual prowess such as me, information regarding everything around us supersedes information regarding ourselves in its value. Thus, if she seems to be as who I think she is, she will aim to fish for information more than she will try to hide her own; something I will be doing myself, and fortunately, nevertheless works in my favor.

Perhaps this game will allow me to relieve the saved up boredom I have received after I've begun to hide myself.

"I've known Barbara for quite a while now, and while she is a naïve woman, I refuse to believe she doesn't have the eyes to see whether or not someone is good, or bad. So, how'd you end up in here, Rezia, of all places anyways?"

"She is quite the kind woman indeed, in fact, we have met each other a few years ago, Thought I doubt she remembers me, a shame. As for getting here, well, let's say that the story is long, but it ends in a young and beautiful maiden such as myself needing to find a new place to live."

She answered well. Instead of asking for her name, I first attempted to probe for her intentions. While most people consider language to be useless, a lot about 'how' a person phrases their thoughts is important, especially with people who have control over ourselves; our words have intentions.

I used Barbara as an opening statement as she is a person we both seem acquainted, and by voicing my suspicions, I've made it obvious that I care for Barbara and wish to know her intentions in working her. At least, that was the bare minimum I needed, the question regarding her arrival in Rezia was only secondary, there to get the ball of a seemingly normal conversation, rolling.

In her response, she agreed on what Barbara's nature is, and by stating that she knew her from a few years ago with Barbara not remembering her, as well as the words "a shame"; she evidently made her stance clear. She desired to continue working here and show a relatively long-term commitment to staying here by expressing regret of Barbara not recognizing her. Whether or not such a situation had occurred is irrelevant, what she expressed is that she wished to get closer to her and possibly settle down, which could be understood from the purposeful lack of information she provided in her latter half of her answer.

"Oh? It's a shame to hear that something so awful could have possibly happened, and I hope you enjoy your stay in this town. Ah! Where are my manners, I have yet to formerly introduce myself and ask for your name; I am Louis Durand, an aspiring writer, would you be kind enough so as to allow me to know your name?

"I am glad to hear your concern, so thank you." - a smile yet again curved into shape as she continued - "My name is Elle, Elle Betson. A pleasure to meet you, Louis."

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The conversation continued for some half an hour, with Barbara coming in to check up on me and ending up being surprised seeing me talking with Elle; though it seemed like there was something more than just that emotion that she portrayed.

In any case, the game we both played ended up having no clear winner, emphasis on 'clear'; we both got majority of what we wished to find out, though I had to give up less important information on my past, instead focusing on what I would like to accomplish. In retrospect, Elle focused on making it clear to me what her past was and current motives, rather than her future goals.

Neither of us particularly held any sway in this game, as both of us counter-attacked when we felt our opponent was weak to leakage of information. Though, I suppose that at some point during our conversation, we both relaxed our guards and ignored some of the breadcrumbs we left in our words.

As far as I could tell, Elle came from a relatively well-off family, which made some complications to arise. her mastery over magic has also left me with more questions than answers, since I personally know that cancellation of magic can only be done by high tier magicians, the kind you don't simply happen to stumble upon.

Whichever bits of information she has given me were right or wrong poses no significance to me as of now , so long as she shows no intentions of harming people in my territory.

Seeing the crowd-filled streets around me with children playing and some people watching a street show of an elf using water magic, as well as a family of six, and more; I further instill myself with the understanding that I want no fool trashing upon this peace of mine.

I paid no further heed to the new feelings that began to manifest inside of me, as I ignored them in favor of reviewing my mental notes about the person I've come to know as Elle Betson.

Out of everyone I have seen today, the catch for today's practice story would seem to be her.

The conclusion is fairly easy to come, really. Not only has she proven to be more than what meets the eye, she still holds some mystery as well as the complicated history of her past close to her; which makes for a great main character seeing how I can attempt to fill in the blanks on my own.

In contrast, the numerous other people I have seen throughout the day seemed rather bland, while of course, everyone has an interesting life they live; all of those details about their life can be mostly seen through. Something, which had no occurred with Elle.

With racing thoughts pacing about in my mind about her, one might say I have even fallen for her; or that she was succeeded in her attempts to become closer with me. Though the former is utter garbage, the latter may have some truth in it. I suppose that on an emotional side of things, this is something one may call excitement.

An interesting occurrence for me, a man who has been waiting to write a little practice story with better materials than just bland-tasting ones.

In fact, it would appear that I have walked so quickly amidst my racing thoughts that I have already made my way back my apartment building. I head inside and get up to the sixth floor, the highest floor of the building, and turn towards my apartment door, opening it by simply imbuing a little bit of mana into it; an optional locking choice for those who know mana.

Making my way inside, my I first take off my cloak, hanging it on a hanger near me, leaving my shoes right below on the floor. Deeper inside my apartment, I change inside my bedroom, simply throwing off both my pants and turtle-neck, coupled with my underwear and socks onto the bed; proceeding to put on a robe.

Then, I head into the kitchen to pick up a glass of water to satisfy my thirst only to quickly head back to the bedroom and sit at my desk, located right beside the bed. On which, one may find pieces of paper all about, its own share of notebooks, as well as a plugged in laptop.

This sudden burst of desire to write won't be with me for long, and as such, I happily indulge myself.

A story needs a teller, after all.