Chapter 8: Family Reunites (1)

"Aoi, Hina, time for breakfast!" A familiar face spoke. As all of you may have guessed, it was Reika. They were living quite a comfortable life. They found suitable jobs for themselves and were able to live a good life.

After a while, the two Aoi and Hina walked into the kitchen. Aoi, the older sister, looked absolutely exhausted, with bags under her eyes.

Reika looked extremely worried about the well-being of her daughter, so she said, "Aoi, you should really stop working too late. Take care of yourself, you look horrible!!"

Aoi just smiles bitterly as she sits down on a chair while saying, "I know… But if I don't do this, we might not be able to see Ryu ever again… Those Aura-Trackers are extremely expensive, and they're our only hope."

Reika's face turned from worried to sad as she remembered the day her son disappeared. Reika and Aoi's faces looked extremely bitter as silence ruled the room. Hina, who was on the side, just says with a light smile, "It's not good, looking so depressed this early in the morning! Nee-chan, Mom, let's not lose hope!"

"You're right. Being this sad this early can make our faces look bad, hahaha." Aoi wiped her teary eyes and spoke. Reika also wiped her eyes as she giggled lightly. "That's true. Well, eat up, it's gonna be a long day if we don't finish eating early. And Hina, you'll be late!."

"Oh, shit! You're right!" Hina said as she looked at the hanging clock.

"Hey, language, young lady." Reika reprimanded Hina. Hina laughed as she started eating as fast as she could. Aoi smiled as she ate her food at a rather slow pace. Reika turned her eyes to look at Aoi and said, "You'll be late for your work too!"

"Meh, they won't care, I'm good friends with the president. She takes care of me really well. She said that her situation was similar to me when the company had a party. Ever since then, she started helping. She even raised my position in the company! She's a really good person." Aoi wiped her mouth with a tissue.

"I'm glad. But take care fo yourself! Don't tell me the president doesn't want you to rest?" Reika said with a pout.

"Hahaha! No, in fact, she's the one who always tell me to go home. But… I just can't. I need to earn enough money to find Ryu."

"Well, at least your president is good. But Aoi, I know you miss Ryu… I miss him too… but your health is more important. Even if you find Ryu this way, do you think meeting him in your deathbed is good?" All mothers who truly love their children always nag about them, especially if it's about their health. But mothers who nag their children about random things prove how shitty of parents they are.

"Yes, mom… Thank you for being here with me…." Aoi said with a bitter smile as she sipped the water in her glass. "Can I have wine?"

"No."

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"Thank you for the information, Alex. By the way, how much is the cost?" Ryu extended his hand and shook hands with Alex. Alex smiled as he shook Ryu's hand and said, "You're welcome. And the payment is on the house, you're a guy that brat likes after all."

"Um… I have a question, why do you call Lilia a brat?" Ryu said with curiosity on his face.

Alex simply laughed as he leaned his back against the sofa and said, "Well, I took care of that kid! I'm way older than you expect!"

'If he took care of Lilia… he might be at least 50 or 60 years old… He doesn't look that age too.' Ryu pondered upon what Alex said. He shrugged it off as he smiled towards Alex. "How about you join us for breakfast?"

"Sure! I haven't eaten anything that Lilia cooked for a very long time! She should be better by now! Oh god, I still remember the things she cooked in the past… It tasted like hell!" Alex looked scared and shivered. Seeing this, Ryu chuckled.

"She's a really good cook! Oh, I forgot to ask this question earlier, but how much does it cost to hire you?" Ryu continued, his hand clasped together while looking at Alex with a serious face.

"Eh, a couple of million."

"By a couple of million, how much exactly?"

"10 million dollars minimum but it can reach 50 million. Ever since the apocalypse, normal investigators are pretty shit in figuring who someone is. But people with Aura-tracking abilities became really prominent. We became top investments and since there are only a few people with the 'Discerning Eyes,' as they called it, hiring is became really expensive."

'What an astronomical amount,' Ryu thought to himself while having a dry smile on his face. This amount was so expensive, some people with a really high status often couldn't even see the silhouette of a person with Discerning Eyes.

'The abilities the Discerning Eyes extraordinary, but it seems they only know about the Aura-tracking.' Ryu browsed his past life's memory and remembered all of the other abilities 'Discerning Eyes' held.

If you could cultivate 'Discerning Eyes' to a certain extent, you could get the abilities Oracles sought for, Clairvoyance. Ryu then thought, sighing to himself, 'If only I could find an enemy with 'Discerning Eyes,' I would gladly gouge it out of their eye socket.'

"Ryu! The food's ready! And Alex, join us too!" Lilia shouted to get the attention of the two. Alex and Ryu nodded at each other as they stood up. "Well, let's go eat. Lilia was pretty excited to cook earlier, so I'm sure it'll taste great."

"Oh, I sure hope so." Alex said as he followed Ryu to the kitchen. The aroma was indeed truly intriguing as all of them sat down and said their prayers. After that, they ate. Alex's face was in complete shock at how good Lilia's cooking was.

"Hoou! That hits the spot! I still remember your shitty cooking, Lilia. I never expected you to improve this much!" Alex said with a cheeky grin.

Lilia puffed up as her face flushed with embarrassment. She shook her head to get rid of the

shame as she said, "Well, time can improve anything, especially since I had to cook for myself to be able to survive unexpected situations."

Laughter echoed throughout the room after what happened. Ryu smiled as he stood up and said, "Well, I'm done eating. I'm gonna go somewhere for a bit."

"Eh? Ryu-chi, where are you going?" Nila asked Ryu in confusion. The other three girls did as well. Alex already knew where he was going and just nodded at him.

Ryu looked at them with beaming eyes as he said, "I'm… finally able to reunite with my family."

The four girls' expressions turned from confusion to excitement as they exclaimed in unison, "That's great! That means a celebration party!!"

Lilia looked at Ryu with a huge smile as she said, "I'm really glad that you're finally able to meet them again! Oh, and you can make them move in here! The more, the merrier, isn't that right? Go get 'em!"

Ryu nodded as he started walking. But then, Lilia pondered for a bit, "Um, how are you gonna go there? Don't you need a ride? If you can drive you can use my car."

Ryu just shook his head as he flicked his finger, "Nope, I have something even better. Don't you remember that I have wings?"

As Alex heard that, his eyes flinched. 'He's winged? Just what race does Ryu have… I must really investigate his matter.' Lilia eyes then darkened as she remembered his wings. "Oh right… You only used it once, though, when you almost killed me… Be careful, okay?"

"I'm still really sorry about that time. Alright, see you later," Ryu nodded while he went outside to the courtyard. There, he looked at his surroundings and stepped on the grass. With a deep breath, mana flowed throughout his body. He circulated the mana around and within him to rouse his wings.

"It's been such a long time… If I hadn't trained for three years, I wouldn't have been able to even awaken my wings. I can only use it for a limited amount of time though…." Ryu closed his eyes as the mana within his back suddenly burst with an incredible energy.

Wings sprouted out from his back like the beanstalks in those childhood stories. His eyes turned semi-black as he floated from the ground. "Well then, it's time to go."

A sudden burst of mana circulated as Ryu flew off. The winds were enough to create a large boom, breaking the sound barrier. Alex, on the inside who followed Ryu when he left was shocked as he observed the situation with his Discerning Eyes.

"A fallen's wings!"

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