"What are you staring at?"
Ash made the system interface vanish from his vision and looked at her.
"Nothing," he answered. "Just thinking about sothing."
Lissa watched him.
It had been another thing he noticed about her - she never reacted instantly. Whenever he said sothing, she always considered it for a mont first, analyzing, reflecting, and judging according to so internal standard before giving any reaction at all.
This wasn’t a sign of slowness on her part; rather, it seed to indicate that she never threw away her words in haste.
She took a mont and then spoke.
"I saw how you defeated those fang wolves," she said, with her usual flat tone of voice, lacking anything warm or soothing about it. "You’re quite skilled with a sword."
Ash blinked.
’A complint? Am I getting a complint from Lissa?’
He examined her face. Her gaze was narrowed and set upon him, with that sa analytical nature about it. But this wasn’t the look a complint usually brought. Rather, it seed more like the gaze of soone who had found a detail inconsistent with the image being ford in their mind.
That is to say - it was more of a warning disguised as praise.
He decided to take the comnt at face value and left it at that.
"Have you completed your quest?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Oh - yes." Rinna’s soft voice ca from right beside Lissa, where she had apparently appeared without him noticing. "We successfully escorted Mister Bowen to safety, so yes, the quest is completed."
"What happens next?" Ash asked. "Where are you going?"
"Back to Vaeltris," Rinna replied, her gaze directed at the sky overhead, which had grown steadily darker, with the two suns having vanished completely, leaving only a faint trace of amber coloring the farthest horizon. "But it’s already too late to travel anymore today. We’ll spend the night here and then leave for the city tomorrow morning."
"I see," Ash said.
And indeed, the silence that settled between the three was now comfortable. Around them, Miren was busy recovering from the attack - villagers moving among each other, checking on their neighbors, the guardsn walking among them with their weapons still ready. The sll of wood smoke in the air grew stronger, as hearths were lit.
Ash stood there and thought.
It had been less than a day since his arrival in this world and he knew hardly anything about it. The na of one village, of one city, the nas of two sisters, and the old rchant.
No wars, no demon lords, no great disasters that required intervention - nothing of what he might expect in a world that required him to step in and save it. Everything Rinna told him before seed to confirm her claim of relative peace.
And that ant that whatever had to be prevented had either not happened yet or hadn’t shown itself yet.
But it didn’t matter either way; the answer was the sa. He needed more ti, more knowledge and much greater power.
There was no better place to acquire all of that than in a city - and the only inhabitants of this world he knew at present were standing two feet away, heading straight for the aforentioned city tomorrow.
’Would it be too much to ask?’
He turned back to the two of them.
"May I go with you to Vaeltris?"
The reply from Rinna ca fast, as well as unhesitatingly.
"Of cou - "
"No."
Before Rinna could finish her sentence, Lissa cut in, with a decisiveness that shut everyone up instantly.
"If you want to go to Vaeltris, that’s your business," she continued. "But you’re not going there with us. We let you travel with us today. That was enough."
A short pause followed.
"Fair enough," Ash agreed, smiling with sincerity. "I’m asking for too much from you guys. Thank you for letting join you earlier."
Lissa said nothing. Not a word, nor even glanced at him.
"Lissa," Rinna tried to change her sister’s opinion. Her voice now sounded different, not carrying that softness usually characteristic for her but having so backbone behind it instead. "If we’re all heading in the sa direction, why can’t he travel with us?"
"Why are you pushing this?" Lissa turned around to address her sister. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Rinna, then at Ash and back at her sister. "Do you like him or sothing?"
The question hung in the air for a brief mont.
Ash went very still.
Rinna went red.
It happened fast - the flush rising from her neck and spreading across both cheeks with the imdiacy of sothing that had been there waiting to be triggered, her crimson eyes going wide in a way that was entirely different from her usual calm.
She stared back at Ash, who was already looking back at her, and it felt like they both froze, unable to do anything with their eyes.
"What are you saying?" Rinna’s voice ca out a little higher than its usual pitch. She turned and gave Lissa a push - not hard, the kind of push that was more expression than force, a punctuation mark rather than a shove. Lissa absorbed it without moving.
Rinna buried her face in her palms.
Lissa looked at her sister, then back at Ash, then back at her sister once again.
Then she sighed, long and drawn-out, the sound of soone finally conceding defeat.
"Fine," she said. "The mory-loss guy can co with us."
"Really?" Rinna’s hands ca down from her face.
"Yeah." Another sigh, marginally larger than the first. "Don’t make say it again."
"Thank you, Lissa," Ash said.
She didn’t reply. She didn’t even look at him.
Ash turned to Rinna.
"Thank you," he said.
Rinna said nothing in return. She just smiled, the sa open and friendly smile she had been wearing all day long. He returned the smile, and felt that warmth that nearly reminded him of sothing.
"Lissa. Rinna. Ash."
They all turned.
Bowen was coming towards them from the nearest house, his weathered face carrying a grateful expression.
"Thank you," he said. "All of you. For protecting my village tonight."
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