The Gladiator's Soul chapter 8

Previous chapter: The Gladiator's Soul chapter 7

And one more chapter… I know it does not sound too fair coming from myself, but… isn’t Hime cute? Because here the author is drooling… Do you not feel like squeezing her, with her rosy cheeks and her funny attitude? Well, among laughs we are getting closer to the plot, bit by bit. To all who follow this series, I hope you enjoy it. And whatever is said, my Hime is amazing… XDDD

One of the many plates at the entrance of the building read ‘Education Ministry’. I observed Hime’s lively face, following me happily like a rabbit does a carrot.

“We arrived. Here is your surprise!” I said pointing with both hands at the building, as if I were a presenter of a reality show. She looked at me, then emulated my gesture turning her head to the right. The girl pulled a really strange face: “… This… ¿a building?

So big? Eh… And what am I going to do with all this?”

She was really buying that, her surprised expression was worth millions. A funny misunderstanding… and I could not hold it anymore: “prrrffff!”

“Eh?! What happens?! Why are you laughing?! Uguu! Don’t laugh at me, will you?!” Her cheeks swollen like two beautiful red balloons.

“Hahaha… ok, ok, I don’t laugh. But, how could your surprise be a building? I think it is slightly big… I will give you a hint: It is something that is inside of the building.”

“Only that?  Uguuuu give me some other hint…”

“Alright. The surprise is on the fifth floor.”

“Fifth floor? What is there?” She looked at the plate that read ‘Ministry  of Education’. “Ehhh? Ministtrry of Educ… What is that?”

“Buf, no idea. Maybe your surprise can be there, or maybe it’s a place where they jail forever the curious girls like you.”

After one of her dazzling insurance-seller grins: “Yes, sure. And there will be the evil lord magistrate waiting for me again… Come on, let’s climb up there, I am so eager!”

We got on the elevator and the girl was going to press the button for the fifth floor: “No, actually I tricked you! It’s the first floor!”

Hime looked at me askance with a pretended expression of annoyance, letting out a cute growl, and pressed the button for the first. When the doors opened I shouted: “I tricked you again, it’s in the second floor!”

She stared at me, now directly, and more annoyed than before.

“Ah!  So it’s going to be like this, eh? Now you’ll find what’s what, you kid!” following she pushed all the buttons of the elevator, from the second up to the ten floors the building had.

“No! What are you doing?!”

“I don’t care! In this way I won’t miss!”

“Aw! Look what you have done now…!”

Then we watched each other, as the elevator doors closed and it started to rise again.

“Pfffffrrrr… hahahaha…!” The inside of the lift burst into sound laughter, echoing all along the shaft (and perhaps also part of the staircase). Because of Hime’s outburst, it stopped again at the second floor. My belly ached, we could not stop laughing.

Suddenly the door opened, and right away we tried to hush with difficulty. An older man came into the lift. He was going to press a button, but he backed down after seeing all of them lit. The man looked sideways at us with a stern face, at which we reacted covering our mouths to hide the smile and blushing like tomatoes.

The journey across the next floors was rather awkward. The lift stopped at each of them, and every time the man seemed to be more anxious. He started to gesture, scratch his head, breath heavily, like angry… We lowered our heads, looking at the floor in order not to meet his expression of disapproval. And to top it all, at each stop Hime whispered something like: “Have we arrived yet?” or “Is it here?” and I: “Shhh! Shut up, shut up!”

At last we reached the fifth floor and got off the lift, dedicating him (this time me too) a heartfelt insurance seller grin, as we bade farewell with our hands. The man crinkled his nose and looked at us twisting his head and pulling a notable face of irritation.

“Come this way” I said, and grabbed my Hime’s hand. “By the way, I still haven’t given anything for all the work you did this summer at my house.”

“There’s no need, you already do many things for me…”

“Bah, not so many. You also do them for me.”

“Besides…” it seemed she found it difficult saying it.

I wanted to derail any possible attempt coming from her to reject my gift, so I hurried her, even at the risk of appearing a little rude:

“Besides, what?”

“Besides...” She blushed a Little: “Besides… I wanted to be with you all the time.”

And bang! Straight to my heart. Now I blushed more than her. <<Oh, oh… This is bad, very bad. I am running out of arguments.>> My perfect plan was going down the drain. 

The story continues here: The Gladiator's Soul chapter 9