“S***! We have to go back to bed or they’ll scold us!” → Ronald
Ronald woke up from his dazed state first and shook Marina to wake her up.
“Eh? Ah! Y-yeah. Then I’ll take my leave now! Good night!” → Marina
Marina got up from her chair and rushed to the door. Right when she opened it, she saw Gregor and Lissa looking at her and Ronald with scary smiles.
“What are you brats doing together inside one room at this hour~?” → Lissa
“I-I was just looking after you! And hey! Here I see you all healthy~.” → Marina
Both of them smiled awkwardly while sweating bullets
“Oh, how nice of you~, let’s go to our room and talk some more about how healthy I am~.” → Lissa
Lissa grabbed Marina by the collar and dragged her along the way inside their room. One could hear a pitiful ‘Nooo~~’ from Marina, looking at Ronald and George with pleading eyes.
“…….”
Both Gregor and Ronald looked at them until they disappeared after the next corner, both of their foreheads sweating profoundly.
After both of them entered the room, George started to scold Ronald with a stern voice of a 15 years young boy-tiger.
“You brats staying alone in one room. What were you thinking?” → Gregor
“Wah-? The 2 of you were kissing right in front of the inn! What’s so bad for us to visit each other for a few minutes?” → Ronald
“Don’t forget that I’m a 30 years old adult while she is more than 20 years. We can do most of the things you brats cant.” → Gregor
George said with an air of superiority
“…Even doing lewd things in front of an inn?” → Ronald asking plainly.
“You brat! Go to sleep already!” → Gregor
He was struck by a heavy hit without having any comebacks, so he used the let’s sleep strategy.
“Buuh~.” → Ronald
“T-that was really intense. Hey, what do you think they were doing?” → Theodore
Theodore turned around to look at Melinda. For some reasons, his heart was racing like crazy. He was able to feel the wild and weird aura Gregor and Lissa emanated together, feeling a weird fire in his stomach and chest.
Was that a form of fighting? But why would they even fight? → Theodore
“T-that was kissing. You don’t know what that is?” → Melinda
Melinda was even redder than Theodore and answered back while looking a little bit surprised.
“No. I never heard or saw such a thing before. How does it work?” → Theodore
Theo tilted his head and waited for Melinda’s explanation. He was a curious boy, so he ought to ask what he doesn’t understand.
“Ugh…w-well~…” → Melinda
Melinda was only one year older than him and she felt really awkward explaining to him about kissing. Especially because she couldn’t understand it herself all that well.
“I-is something like a magic seal! Yeah! If you seal your lips with the person you love, that forms a seal which represents the bond between the two as lovers!” → Melinda
How’s that! → Melinda
She felt proud of her explanation she just came up with.
“I see. Then should we make it? That seal.” → Theodore
I see her as an important person to me, so I ‘love’ her, right? Oh! Then I also have to make this seal with master as well! → Theodore
After he understood in his own way, Theodore dropped the bomb over Melinda, making her redden like a tomato.
“W-w-what are you saying?! You want to kiss?! B-b-but that’s only between lovers!” → Melinda
She tried to calm herself but the thought of kissing Theo made her stutter uncontrollably, turning even redder.
Theo looked confused at her reaction. He couldn’t understand the idea of ‘Lovers’ all that well. He only thought of it as a show of true and deep trust with another person.
“Yes. And I want to do so because I like Melinda, perhaps Melinda doesn’t feel the same…?” → Theodore
Theodore dropped another bomb, making Melinda blush and feel dazed.
“R-really? Ehehe~. Of course I love Theodore, but… a kiss is…” → Melinda
Isn’t that comparable to stepping into adulthood?! I-I’m going to step into adulthood with Theo? So soon?! → Melinda
Melinda’s mind started to get fuzzy when she suddenly heard a familiar voice inside her head.
‘Theodore, kissing is something that only men and women do to express their love for each other… Which means you can’t do it with me, only with a woman. But for now, you are still too young and you don’t need to express it that way. What you can do in exchange, is to hug the person you love, while you can keep kissing for the future when you’ll grow a little bit older.’ → Shen
Both children were able to hear Shen’s voice and together with it, a strong soul wave that warmed the heart and relaxed the body.
“Master! Where are you right now?” → Melinda
I’m together with Sylvia. Don’t worry about me, you two just go to bed and sleep. Is already late. → Shen
“…”
The children looked at one another then entered their beds.
“Yes, master~.”
From his voice, the two could tell that he was feeling weak and tired but they still did as told, succumbing into the world of dreams.
When Gregor and Lissa entered their rooms, Shen flew above the inn and landed on a balcony. It was the balcony of Sylvia’s room. After he landed, the doors opened and he saw a beautiful white goddess in a white night-dress smiling at him. She had a long beautiful white hair to the elbows, silvery bright eyes which reflected the light from the moon, white skin with a petite but well-proportioned body. Round where it was supposed to be round and fit where it was supposed to be fit, ‘White Goddess’ was the right title for such a picture. The white night-dress wasn’t see-through but wasn’t enough to hide the perfect lines under the bright moon.
“Welcome, Shen.” → Syliva
Her voice was calm and sweet, while in her eyes one could see happiness and traces of worry.
“…”
Shen’s mind was numb.
She looks exactly like her…
His heart was beating fast and a sudden pain resurfaced, making his eyes turn wet. Sylvia looked exactly like the girl from his premonition which died by having her heart pierced.
I won’t let her die. Now that I know what’s coming, I won’t let it happen.
Shen tried to control his overflowing emotions and simply answered.
“Y-yeah. I’m sorry for the sudden intrusion.” → Shen
Shen was covered in bloody wounds. His white coat was full of bloody cuts with two bigger ones, one in front and one at the back. His left eye was dripping blood while his left arm was broken and swollen purple. He looked miserable and even his face showed some pain.
When she saw him in such a way, she couldn’t help but let out a trembling sigh. She grabbed his healthy arm and walked him inside while saying nothing. She seated him on the bed and took out his ragged and dirty clothes. He was left only with his pants, his top being completely naked. She almost started crying after seeing his muscular but fit body, full of cuts and bluish-dark bruises. The worst parts were the deep cuts from back and front, the broken ribs that made the wounded parts swell up with a dark purple color, the broken shoulder where it was swollen horribly, and finally the bleeding eye. Even though it wasn’t damaged to the point of not being able to use it any longer, the vertical cut damaged the eyelid, making it hard to open the eye. Inside his wounds, traces of foreign energy was still present, making them unable to heal.
While she healed Shen, she muttered in a low voice.
“I’m sorry…” → Syliva
“Huh? For what?” → Shen
Shen was finally able to relax after 10 days of constant fights and another 2 days of flight. Right now he couldn’t think of any reason why Sylvia had to say sorry.
“If I wouldn’t have told you about the Kraken, you wouldn’t have rushed like this, completely ignoring your body and adventuring in battle head-on…” → Syliva
While talking, tears started forming inside her eyes.
“Sigh…please don’t think like that. You have no fault in this. Besides, it was me who told you to report everything that happened, didn’t I? If there is someone to blame then blame me, I rushed head-first on my own. That’s why, please stop crying. Almost every time we start a conversation, you start crying. It makes me feel like I’m the cause of your sufferings…” –Shen
Shen felt down after seeing her tearing eyes. He felt guilty for making her cry again and again. He really didn’t know what to do so she would start laughing instead of crying.
While taking care of the wounds from the back, after hearing his words, she stopped and embraced his back tightly.
“Wah! Sylvia…?” → Shen
After feeling something warm and soft pressing on his back, he felt his face burning. He normally hated hugs, but this time he couldn’t stop himself from feeling only happiness.
“This is a first…”
He said so quietly.
“You’ve done nothing wrong so please don’t feel guilty. You always wish to help everyone and would show mercy even to the enemy… Being chosen by such a person like you makes me the happiest woman on Sario. I’m just sad about my inability to be of more help to you. You’re fighting the corrupted and evil to save the world together with those who did wrong while I just get protected… it makes me feel quite shameful, you know?” → Shen
Sylvia said while pressing her head on Shen’s right shoulder.
Pff what? I only fought against some players and angry old farts, what is she-… → Shen
He wanted to ask her in a joking tone but after seeing her so downed, he felt like showing a more serious face would help a little bit more in this situation.
“Stop looking down Sylvia, I didn’t fell in love with a hopeless little puppy.” → Shen
“Eh?”
Sylvia looked up with shocked eyes.
“You had the courage to open your heart to a stranger like me while I was hiding inside a stone shell. You have the power to take me out from the hell created by my own demons. You can make quick and rational judgments without being taken away by your own emotions in critical moments. You have a strong mentality and an even stronger spirit. You are a serious person and I can feel the noble heart inside you. This is what I love the most about you. That’s why I’m saying, don’t you dare say you’re useless, hopeless or whatever else. Only you I prefer. I love you the way you are and telling me all of this won’t change anything.” → Shen
Shen said this while giving his everything to remain composed and not have his voice shaken from embarrassment. It seems he misunderstood what Sylvia said, for ways of explaining herself as a not good enough person for him, while he found ways to explain to her that he wants her the way she is.
Sylvia understood what he meant and reddened. She knew Shen’s extremely shy and locked-up heart, so she didn’t expect for him to be this direct and firm with his words, making her heart melt.
“Shen!” → Syliva
She firmly hugged his back, completely forgetting about his injuries
“Eh?-Ouch! Oy! I’m still injured. Hahaha~” → Shen
He caressed her head and looked at her lovingly. That night, Sylvia tried to take out all the residual energies inside the injuries while Shen healed the free ones with low-grade healing. The strikes of a master, grandmaster or Saint, will always be imbued with a string of their chi that wouldn’t permit the injuries to heal. Sylvia had quite the work to do in taking out all that aura from inside Shen’s wounds os they had to work on it for almost half an hour. She needed to use [Soul Eyes] to identify the foreign aura and then use her chi to grab it and take it out. The healing method that Shen used to close back the injuries, was low-grade healing: he would accumulate chi in the damaged area and command his body to speed-heal that respective part. He accelerated that healing with imbuing the molecules with energy so they have a faster healing speed. The broken bones were put in place by Sylvia while Shen healed them with high-ranked healing.
High ranked healing: accumulating the mana around and materializing it in the wound where the bone has been broken, sealing it. Something like how glue works on a broken piece of wood but more complicated. It would reconnect the nerves and recreate the respective place at a molecular level, reforming it just how is written in the DNA samples from the respective zone. He found out that his [Healing palms] is actually High ranked healing and so he tried to focus this energy on the harmed area, without needing to touch it first.
“This kind of magic seems pretty complicated even though I always use it like is nothing. How did you think about such a description? I never heard of it.” → Syliva
After Shen shared the way to use such a healing ability, Sylvia was surprised by how complicated it was.
“Ah is a little bit more complicated… Yawn anyway, let’s sleep. I feel like I could sleep for three days straight.” → Shen
After healing all the injuries, it was already midnight. Shen’s injuries left some scars because of the aura that was left inside of them for too long but he didn’t care. He collapsed on the left side of the bed and tried to sleep.
Seeing that, Sylvia smiled gently, she placed the blanket over him and wanted to get out of the room when-
“Where do you think you’re going?” → Shen
Shen pulled her arm and he seated her down on the bed beside him. When Shen was tired, his judgment was also affected, making him do things that he would normally won’t even think of doing.
“Is already so late, are you thinking of renting another room? Just sleep here.” → Shen
“Fufu~ so you can be selfish too? Well, don’t worry. I only wished to go to the bathroom to wash the residual aura from my hands. I’ll return soon~.” → Syliva
Sylvia looked with mischievous eyes at Shen and gently released herself from his grab.
“Ah? Is that so? All right then.” → Shen
Feeling a little bit embarrassed, he let her go without asking anymore.
After she returned, Shen was already sound asleep. He was so tired, he didn’t even bother about the wounds they just healed, sleeping on his back without a care for the world.
With a smile, Sylvia laid down beside him. In sleep, because of the heart’s connections, they moved about until they ended up in the arms of each other, heart to heart.
The next morning, Sylvia woke up first. Seeing how she was almost on top of Shen, from her pure white color, she turned into a red like those of tomatoes in an instant.
Is this because of the heart-connection? It’s so weird, how come only we have such a thing? I never saw anybody else with something like this before. → Syliva
When she looked at their hearts, there was a spiritual thread which exchanged different kinds of energies of different beautiful colors between them, making them stronger each day.
Well, not like I mind it~. If is Shen then I’m all right with whatever. → Syliva
After that, she fell back to sleep on his chest just like before.
