Veggies stew

The sky was orange from the sun going down the horizon. It seemed as if an artist had drawn abstract art over the sky.

"Ryu, was it necessary to leave this soon?" Aiena asked Ryu as she looked out of the window.

Ryu nodded as he kept channelling the mana into heat and cold glyphs carved inside the carriage. He was too focused to reply.

"I wanted to stay too. But big brother told me already we will leave right away," Jue bite the apple he was holding and then spoke,

"This is amazing!!" he said as he took another bite.

"Aiena, Ryu, let's set camp here. I am hungry too...." Rafa, who was driving the carriage, said as she noticed the neat and clean area beside the path,

"Sure, we have a lot of vegetables!!" Aiena said with a shine in her eyes as she looked over at the vegetables gifted by the villagers.

Ryu, who was busy cultivating mana, thought,

'Giving vegetables and apples in exchange for dungeon core…. Those villagers are shameless!!'

As he remembered how he gifted the dungeon core to the villagers. So, they can get money for getting through their leftover issues, and also, they could misguide Lord Hathi about who cleared the dungeon by showing the core as proof,

'I was wrong when I thought you were completely rotten, Ryu… you are great!!'

'No matter what dungeon, you clear now!! Tell them you are a paladin of a Holy knight of Goddess bounty and harvest.'

'Sadly, I need to go to church. Otherwise, I would have helped you.' Ryu felt chills as he remembered the change in Ardian's attitude, and suddenly Ryu felt someone pick him up.

"Rafa, big sister? What are you doing?" he asked in a calm voice, and Rafa pouted.

"I tried calling Ryu three times, but you would not move!! So, I picked you up. "

"I see that makes perfect sense," Ryu replied with a hint of sarcasm, and finally Rafa put him down and spoke,

"I do not like it when Ryu takes too long to reply!!" she complained, and Ryu patted her head, and Rafa tried complaining still,

"Pat is not the solution!!" she still tried complaining, suppressing a smile, but Ryu patted a bit more and spoke with a grin.

"But it seems to be working well," as he saw Rafa's tail shake,

Aiena, who was looking at this thought,

'I want pat too!! But I am a big sister…. But Rafa is also a big sister.'

Ryu had patted her many times when she slept or without thinking much in certain situations. But she had never asked Ryu for them as Rafa does; she was comparing the pros and cons of asking Ryu for a pat,

'Ryu's pats are amazing!! But what if he thought I am childish?' while Aiena was in an internal conflict. Jue walked toward Ryu and spoke something in a little voice.

"I see…" Ryu replied, and Jue nodded, and Ryu moved towards Aiena and spoke.

"Aiena, can Jue and I go for a little walk?" Aiena looked confused, as Ryu usually does not ask for permission. And Ryu, too, realized he did something unnecessary due to overthinking,

"I mean, Jue, let's go for a walk,"

"Yes, big brother!!" Jue replied, and Aiena held the hem of Ryu's shirt.

"Ryu, don't hunt anything! We will have vegetable stew tonight." Ryu's moved his neck back slowly like a gear deprived of oil for decades and spoke with an awkward smile,

"Sure, I love vegetable stew!!" he lied to reassure Aiena, who loved vegetables most out of all the three and also,

'I need to make sure Ryu eats healthily! He cannot be like Mr. Faltar!!' she resolved.

'Those idiotic villagers!! And who gave only green vegetables? There isn't even a potato!!' thought Ryu as he tried keeping a smile on his face,

In the end, he decided to go along with Aiena's wish. It was not like he hated vegetables as a whole, but he didn't like green vegetables, he thought,

'They can't be worse than beygan!' Aiena began cooking the stew of all the green vegetables while Jue asked,

"Big brother, are we really going to raid all the 20 dungeons?"

"Yes, it will give us a lot of experience," Ryu replied, and Jue punched a bit in the sky as he spoke,

"In the next dungeon, I will kill the boss!!" his voice filled with excitement, and seeing it, Ryu nodded,

"Yes, yes, if you get a chance, go for it." he could not care less for the next dungeon boss as he was mentally preparing himself for the meal.

Once the cooking was done, Ryu was eating fastest as his aim wasn't to taste the vegetables but to swallow them in one go. Jue and Aiena both were eating slowly and calmly as Jue thought,

'I thought big brother didn't like vegetables?' Rafa was too eating without making much noise. The moon was already there in the sky when they finished their dinner.

Under the moonlight, Ryu began discussing the further course of action with everyone,

"We will conquer all the 19 dungeons left, starting from the ones nearer to the villages. "

"Yes, big brother!!" Jue replied, and Aiena nodded,

"I will protect Ryu…." Rafa said as she shifted her laying position on the blanket,

"Now remember this: whenever we are inside the villages, we are not Fusion Souls. we all are Paladins of Holy knight of Goddess of harvest and bounty,"

"Big brother, what if we meet someone, we meet at Hinsmark town?" asked Jue, and Ryu replied,

"Then…." He thought for a while and spoke with a grin.

"Act as if you've never seen them before. "

"But what if they call my name?" Jue asked, confused, and Ryu replied,

"Just say you got the wrong person and act like you don't know them."

"Okay, big brother," Jue replied, but he thought,

'What would I do if it is Fiona teacher? I don't want to lie to her,'

"Ryu, are you sure Ardian will be fine with it?" Aiena asked with a concerned face, and Ryu replied,

"He said to do that, so he will deal with it, right?" Ryu replied as he thought about how Ardian had come to believe him.

It wasn't a stretch to say he might be the person who came to believe him most and fastest out of his family,

'The amount of stuff I can see in his status went 0.5 to 95 too quickly,' Ryu thought as he remembered how he could see almost 90% of Ardian's status. Many things confused him, but the biggest was how the [Contestant] title disappeared, and Ardian had two unusual titles.

'[The Holy knight of Prakriti], [The Sword of Nature], man, Holy knights are such a cheat in this world! It was like he took years of gym and steroids in a day,' Ryu thought. But he was still relieved he could end their interaction positively. He had a feeling that being on a good note with a holy knight would come in handy in the future,

'On the other hand,' he wondered as he looked towards Rafa with [Hide and Seek]

(Name- Rafa ...)

'Still no luck… did she not believe in me?'

Ryu felt bitter as he thought that because he could feel Rafa's trust in him, he didn't believe it to be a lie.

Still, he turned to Rafa and asked in a calmness-filled voice with a hint of playfulness to make sure he could turn it down like a joke if she got pouty over it,

"Rafa, big sister, do you believe in me?" he asked straight. Aiena and Jue stared at Ryu as it was unusual for Ryu to be asking such questions.

Rafa came near Ryu and hugged him tightly as she spoke.

"I believe Ryu, big brother…. No Ryu most in the world!!" Ryu would've been happy if the hug had not completely crushed him,

"Rafa sister, you should learn to control your strength… my bones hurt!!" Ryu complained,

"It is Rafa, big sister!!" Rafa pouted and hugged tighter, and Ryu felt relieved as he replied,

"I would die like this Rafa big sister!!" and she finally loosened her grip as she spoke, patting Ryu for the first time,

"I will not let Ryu die no matter what!!" her face meant no joke as she said this. She was looking earnest,

Their planning went on for a while, in which it was decided they would start raiding dungeons and spread their name as Paladins of Holy knight of Goddess of Harvest and bounty.

Although he phrased it this way, Ryu's thoughts were.

'Let's dump all the noble bullshet on Ardian!! It is very good to have reliable friends…. Yes, I am a good person. I am not using him conveniently,' he tried justifying to himself.

They also planned that they'd visit dungeons at night. So they can rest in the villages for a while in the morning before departing to the next dungeon.

Ryu also added that instead of going directly to the nearest dungeon, they'd follow a random manner which made Aiena question,

"Why Ryu? Would it not take a long time that way?" she tilted her head in confusion, and Ryu explained,

"Yes, Aiena, but the thing is, if we go straight, Lord Hathi would understand we are going to the nearest dungeons first and might catch up with us."

"I got it, so if we go randomly, they'll not know which dungeon is next."

"Yes, that's the reason exactly," Ryu said.

As their planning ended, they all went to sleep as they needed to depart early the next morning because many unexplored dungeons were waiting for them.