Chapter 34

It was Saturday evening, and Ryouta had not woken up from his deep sleep for an entire day and half.

His beautiful little sister was full of worry for her brother, but with time, she calmed down too. She could see that Ryou was peacefully sleeping, and after Keith assured her that he was a very capable doctor and told her again and again that her brother was fine, she decided to not fret over it and calmly wait for him to wake up.

And right now, the little girl, whose name was Minami, was happily giggling as she shook the dice in her hands before letting them roll on the board.

She clapped excitedly before sending both the tokens of Victor back to his yard, making the man nearly cry at his miserable luck.

"Why me?!" He complained as he looked at the board, where all his Tokens were resting in his yard.

The little girl could have taken out Yingying's Token, who was winning the game, but no, she chose to annihilate his all hopes of making a comeback.

Keith could only lightly chuckle at the misfortune of Victor, and then sighed when he looked at his situation. He was faring a little better than Victor, but there was no way now that he could come second.

Yingying managed to get her last token to her Home Column, and the little girl had her remaining two token all safe and ready to travel to her own Home Column.

The game of Ludo ended as expected, with Yingying as the winner, Minami as the Runner-Up, and Keith coming third.

Victor folded his hands on his chest and refused to look at the girls who happily shared a high-five on beating the boys in the game, but then he suddenly tensed up as his instincts kicked in.

He could feel someone staring at them, and when he turned around, he found Ryouta, almost looking like a mummy in those bandages, lost in a trance, gazing their way.

Minami, who was happy after coming second, sensed Victor looking away, and giggled a little before inadvertently glancing in the direction he was looking in.

Her eyes immediately turned misty, and tears threatened to fall out, but she managed to keep them in till she rushed into the arms of her brother.

She was really careful to not hurt his wounds, but cried her heart out, staining his bandages with her tears.

And the young boy was no different. He did not shed tears, but one could sense his emotions looking at his slightly trembling body.

Yingying was now back to her cold persona. She only opened up to the little girl because Keith had asked her to, and now that Ryouta was awake, she was fully focused on keeping an eye on him.

She still considered him a dangerous person to keep around, and she had no qualms in her heart about killing him and his little sister if he showed any intention of harming her Master.

After Ryou consoled his little sister, he stood up and calmly walked towards the three of them, with his sister right behind her.

"Thank you for saving my little sister!" He gratefully said and dropped on his knees, prostrating to them.

Minami only hesitated for a moment before she followed her brother's example, making Keith sigh and shake his head.

The young Demiliore stood up and calmly waked towards the siblings. He ignored the boy and crouched down to help the girl stand up.

<Don't do that again.> He narrowed his eyes at her and the timid girl obediently nodded to him, before repeatedly bowing to him to apologise for her action.

"Come with me." Keith said to the boy who was still prostrating, and walked inside the study room of the Suite. "Stay here." He raised his hand and stopped Yingying and Victor from following him.

Yingying was a little hesitant to let Keith stay alone with Ryouta, but after she looked at the little girl, she nodded to her Master.

Keith instructed Ryou to close the door behind him, and then calmly sat on the seat behind the table.

"You can sit." He said, but Ryou simply shook his head, and curiously looked at him playing with a paperweight.

"You should know that you were late to save your little sister." He indifferently said, and paid no heed to rage that built up in the heart of the Japanese boy. "If I was not there, those Ninjas would have raped your little sister before slitting her throat." He coldly smiled before looking at the boy, whose body was shaking in fear and rage. "So, don't you think you owe me your life for saving the only person you care about in your life?"

Ryouta lowered his head and stayed silent for a good minute, trying his best to contain his emotions.

"What do you want?" He indifferently asked in a light voice.

Keith smiled when he saw Ryouta pry into his intentions, but kept playing with the paperweight, letting the tension cave into the boy.

"Sit." This time, it was a command, and Ryou could sense it. "Tell me about yourself. Everything!" Keith put the paperweight aside, and leaned back in his chair, looking the boy right into his eyes.

Of course he knew a lot about the latter, but he still wanted to hear everything from Ryou's mouth to understand him better.

The boy felt quite awkward at his question and the frown on his face was a clear indication of his confusion.

"I want to know how and why a Cold-blooded Assassin like you possesses such familial love for his little sister. It makes me quite curious." Keith helped the boy a little, telling him exactly what he was after.

Ryou took a deep breath, and the image of his little sister playing with Keith and the rest flashed in his mind. She looked so happy, and all of them seemed to treat her very well. Of course, he did not fully trust them, but he still decided to tell Keith what he wanted to know.

Keith got to know a lot about the siblings than what he had read in that story in his Dream. He learned that boy's affection for his little sister stemmed from his memories of his late mother, who had lived a miserable life.

Their mother was a slave to their father, who had taken her in after killing her entire family when she was only thirteen years old.

She hated him with all her heart, and he never showed any affection to her. For her, the only reason to keep on living was her son, who was conceived after his father had raped her. And even if she hated him, she loved Ryou dearly.

The six years he spent with his mother were the happiest days of his life, but then on his sixth birthday, his father snatched him away from her, putting him under training to become an Assassin.

He rarely saw his mother after that day, and he was not even there when Minami was born. For the next three years, he went through hell to become someone capable in his father's eyes. The naive boy had thought that if he got the recognition of his father, the latter would treat his mother better. But all of it proved to be his foolish thinking.

His mother was thrown by his father under another man after he had lost a bet, and that was the last memory of him of his mother, being dragged by an Elder inside his cottage.

She died a few weeks later of unknown reasons, but Ryou knew that it was his father who had killed her after he felt that he had no need for her in his life anymore.

Ryou had already vowed on the ashes of his mother that he would kill his father one day, and the day his father decided to turn Minami into a prostitute, he knew he could not wait any longer unless he sacrificed his little sister, which he was not willing to do at any cost.

"I do owe you my life. But I can not leave my little sister in harm's way or alone in this world." Ryou finished his story and intently looked at Keith, trying to read through his expressions.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Keith smiled at him and asked. "You have no identity. And you can not simply kill the Assassin inside of you and live like a normal man. Even if you somehow manage to live like a normal person, I am sure it will be filled with hardships for your little sister."

Ryou frowned at his words and was about to say something when Keith cut him off.

"Hear my proposal first before refusing it." He smiled at the boy. "Swear your life to me, and I shall keep your little sister happy." Ryou was again about to refuse his offer by shaking his head, but Keith continued speaking. "I will keep her safe, cherished, and loved. You will have a place to call it your home and you can see her whenever you want. And if you agree to swear your life to me, I will even cure your little sister's hearing disability."

His last sentence took Ryou by surprise, and he narrowed his eyes at him.

"Her disability is genetic."

"Nothing that I can not fix." Keith smirked at him. "It will take a few years, but I am 100% confident in fixing her problem."

Of course, he could not treat a genetic disability with his current Medical Skills, but he was sure that one day his skills with be advanced enough to treat even a genetic disability. The system will be there to help him too, and Keith knew very well that a genetic disability of hearing was only a minor issue in the eyes of someone who possessed a little more medical knowledge than him and had better control over his Aura.

He only needed to upgrade his Expert-Level Medicine Skills to Master-Level Medicine Skills to help Minami.

"I can help you understand your special Physique better, and make you immensely stronger, so you can protect me and your little sister better." He chuckled at Ryou's thoughtful look and then let the silence linger between them.

"You want to use my little sister as a leverage?" He coldly asked.

"No." Keith shook his head. "I like her, and so I want to help her. And I am only willing to keep you by my side because you are her brother. Why else would I keep a dangerous person like you by my side?" He lied with such confidence, that even a trained Assasin like Ryou fell for it.

"If you harm her, I will kill you." Ryou stood up after contemplating for a while, and then knelt down to him, proceeding to swear his allegiance to him.

"Don't worry. Even if you betray me, I won't harm Minami because of your actions." Keith sighed and stood up.

He did not lie this time. He really did not want to harm such an innocent girl like her.

Even if he knew that Ryou was only doing it to repay his debt and in hope that he would abide by his words, curing his little sister's disability, Keith was confident that one day, this boy would swear his life to him with all his heart.

"Let's go. It's dinner time."