139 “Don’t try to look cute by pouting.” 

"I really can't make head and tail of things when it comes to your party," Fiona pouted, and Ryu, who stepped towards her, suddenly spoke while poking her cheek with two of his fingers, puffing out the air from her mouth,

"Don't try to look cute by pouting."

Fiona's eyes were wide open as she looked directly at him. She felt an indescribable shame as she looked at Ryu's face, which had a wide grin. She had never missed her kukri more than this very moment,

'How… how…!!' she thought and finally couldn't hold back before shouting,

"How dare you treat me like a kid brat!!" she pounced at Ryu with her punch, and Ryu thought,

'Mission distraction from questions successful!!' he dodged it to the side, with Fiona chasing after him to punch. He began dodging fluidly,

Ryu felt as if he was playing with a younger Jue who used to try to win in practice.

'Back then, he really was bratty', Ryu smirked, looking at Fiona, who tried chasing her and remembering an attack he used on Jue to make a fool of him.

He waited for her to rush near him, and as she was about to hit him, he bent his back backward as Fiona moved forward with her inertia. Ryu put his hand on her chest to throw her back, and that was when he realized,

"Eiyaaa!!! You perverted kid! What are you doing!?" Fiona shouted as her chest was being touched. She wasn't even wearing her armor because it was home, Ryu who felt panic at what he did, tried to explain,

"You know I possibly can't do it intentionally right!?" Fiona looked at him with enraged eyes,

"You know, right like there is no way anyone would wanna touch these flat…" before Ryu could complete, a punch came flying towards his chin, and Fiona shouted,

"You ain't making anything right!!!"

'I deserved it… but surprisingly, they were soft…' Ryu thought without a single dissatisfaction as he fell on his back,

"Here, get up" Fiona gave her hand to Ryu, who was on his back, and Ryu looked up, confused,

"What are you up to punching me down to pick me up? Either way, thanks."

Ryu took her hand and stood on his legs, Fiona who helped him, looked him dead in the eyes as she spoke,

"You tell anyone this, and you'll die" Ryu nodded for the time being, thinking how he would use it later to tease her,

"Either way, despite distraction, I still have a question left," Fiona said with a serious expression on her face, and Ryu felt sour as he thought,

'Mission failed'

"Ask what is it?" Ryu's eyes looked disinterested, but he was going to fulfill his promise, even just for the looks of it.

"How can you believe in Rafa? Don't get me wrong, but with her strength, she isn't a regular adventurer, at least S rank."

"So what if she is super strong?" Ryu asked with a calm expression,

"I mean that much even you must know; S rankers are usually known throughout the continents, if not the world… how is she unknown by any adventurer's guild you've been through so far… that only means she is not an adventurer… I mean…" Fiona wanted to continue but couldn't find the right words, and Ryu interjected,

"So you are worried if she is an outlaw or someone dangerous because she is too strong?" Ryu said simply in a manner of speaking as his [Instantaneous detection] detected something nearby; Fiona nodded to Ryu and added,

"Only people who do evil are usually that powerful… while remaining in shadows."

What Fiona said wasn't wrong, and many cases prove that in this world, people who weren't known changed the flow of wars and created seas of blood. In a world like this, there were many cases of monsters in human skin too. The question wasn't a weird one, especially with someone amnesiac.

'what if she was someone evil, who turned good under the effect of amnesia' Fiona thought, but Ryu just smiled serenely under the moon, his crimson eyes shining and reflecting the hue of the moon as he spoke,

"I honestly don't care. I already owe her my life. She had saved Aiena more times than I can count; she is already one of us" Ryu took a deep breath as he continued,

"And at this point, she is already my older sister, and I believe she was pure. Even if she weren't, I am sure she is good at heart, so we don't need to worry."

"But…"

Ryu was about to stand up when Fiona held her hand,

"What if someday someone came to get her?"

Ryu's face was filled with weird emotions; for him, people he cares about leaving him or being taken away is one of the biggest fear and despair. He sensed the presence nearby again and spoke blatantly,

"If it is someone she doesn't wanna go with, I'll take care of that person… but if it is someone she wanna leave with…."

Ryu felt quiet; he didn't know saying it would be hard even though they had just met recently, but he felt attached to Rafa,

'I want to point out he didn't look genuine when he said I'll take care…' Fiona thought but couldn't say anything due to a sad look in Ryu's eyes, and Ryu just breathed out as he spoke,

"If someone she wanna leave with come, I'll see it then… either way, Rafa sister is important to us and is also precious to me" as Ryu said this, a loud voice came from near the corner of the backyard,

"Let's go; it's cold," Ryu said to Fiona, and as they walked towards the direction of the gate, the corner seemed to have restless noises, and as soon as they both turned, they came face to face with Rafa, who tried hiding her face with her hands,

"I am sorry for overhearing Ryu", she apologized, but Ryu was more embarrassed and just patted her on the head while whispering,

"Sorry to talk about you behind your back, Rafa sister."

"It's Rafa, big sister!! And it is fine. Ryu is good… I would never ever leave Ryu!!" with that said, Rafa hugged Ryu tight. There was a noise of something cracking, but Ryu could manage that much, and after seeing the two like that, Fiona thought,

'Maybe I was worrying for nothing…' she felt that the gap between how Ryu usually behaved and his honest feeling was quite attractive, but she instantly reprimanded herself,

'He is way younger than me!! Way younger than me!!'

After that, they went back inside the house. The food Lina and Silvia's mother prepared was quite tasty. Silvia's brothers were hoarding around Jue as they asked him questions,

"How many push-ups should I do, Jue?"

"Will I also be able to break a boulder with a knuckle!!"

"I never knew Knuckles were so cool!!" all three's eyes were shining with amazement, and Jue was also smiling proudly,

"So you are expanding knuckle sect here because you couldn't back in Zerah" Ryu smirked, and Jue replied with an embarrassed voice,

"That's not it big brother!!"

The dinner went well without any problems. At night Silvia's parents offered Ryu their own room to sleep in as he was sick earlier, but as he was about to accept, Aiena made him deny it because it was terrible to impose on them,

"But I got a gift for them too!!" Ryu spoke particularly to no one as Jue beside him had already fallen asleep; Ryu made sure that Jue had fallen asleep and got off the bed. He stepped to the window and looked out as he thought,

'Is this fine time to let out my disappointment… I guess it is' Ryu sighed and took a deep breath as he created a vortex of wind around him using a glyph that can nullify sound from leaving by cutting off vibrations,

"This trash skill!! Just why do you have so many conditions!! And requirement are you a gold-digging girlfriend!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs because he was super disappointed because,

"This f@cking skill won't work even after fulfilling 2 conditions!! It wants an awakening now… second condition fulfillment nearly had me taken by a strange mana. What does it want now!? Should I go eat some poison or jump off a cliff?" Ryu shouted again, although no one heard it. Still, it was relieving.

He was stressed about how he'll awaken the [Dark Reinforcement III] now; it had his head banging to complete the second condition, but it wasn't over yet. He shouted his frustrations out a bit more and demanded a refund from an imaginary admiral of the skill system, and finally, after exhausting himself to the brim, went to bed.

The night was calm; Ryu didn't take long to sleep due to previous exhaustion and shouting.

The moon went down, and the sky was slowly turning blue, Ryu who was sleepy calmly, was awoken by the sound of Aiena,

"Ryu, wake up; Fiona and Pearl party are leaving… we need to leave soon too."

"Ahh 2 mins Aiena" Ryu said, but Aiena just pulled at his hand until he sat up and woke up properly,

Aiena was shocked as she couldn't remember when was the last time she had to wake Ryu this hard. Maybe it was back when they were still in the mansion at Epnir,

'He must be really exhausted', she thought,

After preparing and freshening up, Ryu noticed that everyone was already ready; Ryu joined Jue in maintaining the carriage. After finishing the preparations, Fiona came near Ryu,

"So where will you be going now?"

"Fusion Souls will go to Illusory city now", replied Ryu with a smile as he made a gesture of squeezing with his hand, Fiona stared dead at him but just sighed as she spoke,

"Are you sure about this?" she shook a piece of map in front of his face, and Ryu gave her a thumbs up,

"it is a fair deal; you get to raid 3 dungeons and keep core, 1 you will donate or sell for the help of the poor villages near them and in return, you will take half of our blame", Ryu finished explaining, and Fiona who stood in front of him spoke,

"You are strangely charitable kid… although they fall in our route we wouldn't have known if you didn't give us this map."

"It is sharing the blame, don't think much," Ryu said as Rafa spoke,

"Ryu get on already horses are getting restless" with that as single Ryu sat beside Rafa on the carriage and waved his hand to the Pearl party,

"Bye Fiona master!!"

"Bye everyone thanks for the help!!" Jue and Aiena said their byes and thanks, and after they were a considerable distance away, Jue asked Ryu,

"Big brother, was it okay to give the dungeons to them?"