“*Sniff sniff*” [Evelyn]

Four hundred years had passed since Ryner died and Evelyn begun her research into world teleportation. Although she swore she would definitely meet her foster-father again, her continuous failures were taking a toll on her mind.

“*Sniff sniff sniff*” [Evelyn]

However, it was not like she didn’t make any progress. Her newest magic formation didn’t melt glasses of water, but caused them to literally disintegrate into fine particles like sand.

“*Sniff sniff sniff* haa, haa *sniff sniff*” [Evelyn]

But, even for the vampires that had a long lifespan, to not succeed for four hundred years was tiring. As such, she was now once again in the process of charging up her energy reserves inside Ryner’s room.

“*Sniff sniff sniff sniff* haa, haa, haa *sniff sniff sniff* haa, Ryner~.” [Evelyn]

Having given precise instructions to the maids working in the mansion, the room had been left undisturbed all these years with Evelyn being the only one allowed to enter. She was lying on the bed and greedily sniffing the sheets for the scent of the room’s original owner. Unfortunately for her, after four hundred years, his smell was already long gone, but even so, she buried her face in the pillow and kept trying to find any trace of him that was still there while calling out his name.

She used to always find him lazing around in his bed whenever he had time and he would always let her snuggle up to him while showing her his sleepy yet gentle expression. But now, his scent was gone. His warmth was gone. She missed those days with him. She missed them so terribly much that whenever she dreamed of him, she wished she would never wake up again. After all, if she did, she would have to confront the cruel reality that she was alone and that she had killed him.

He had taken care of her since she was a child after her parents abandoned her and had taught her everything she knew, from reading and writing to politics and fighting. He was her hero as well as her only family. Right now, her official position was the advisor of the Minister of the Right, Lord Daniel Redheart, but her abilities were known and highly regarded by many nobles, even the king. Furthermore, she was an incredibly beautiful woman with smooth pale skin, a gorgeous body that men craved for, long blonde hair that flowed to her hips and a pair of red eyes like rubies, the vampire race’s trademark. So, she would often get marriage proposals from other nobles that were smitten with her. Even earlier today, she had to deal with a young man that was trying to woo her. Just remembering his face enraged her.

Ignoring his arrogant attitude, he touched what he never should have: her father’s honor. It was well-known that her foster-father, Ryner, betrayed the kingdom and nearly caused a war to break out. Even though he had earned the admiration of many for his great achievements, every vampire now either hated him or was disappointed in him. Although scorn and doubt was directed at Evelyn as well because she was his daughter, no one talked bad about her when they heard how he stabbed her with a sword during his revolt and how she repaid the favor, ultimately taking his life.

The beautiful and genius daughter had surpassed her eccentric, incredible and now traitorous father. Evelyn had stopped a war and the perpetrator was punished for his crimes. That was how the people remembered it. That was how history remembered it. That was how Ryner was forced to become the enemy.

“*Sniff sniff* haa, haa, I’ll find you.” [Evelyn]

Having rested long enough, she sat up from the bed and got ready to continue her research. While hugging the pillow to her face and sniffing it, she repeated her oath.

“*Sniff* haa, haa *sniff sniff* no matter what…” [Evelyn]

She lowered it and one could see in her red eyes sadness, yearning and determination.

“Ryner…” [Evelyn]

In the large dining room for the heroes, Ryner was eating his breakfast while yawning and rubbing his eyes. Unlike the master that didn’t get a wink of sleep for four days, Maya was completely energetic as she sat next to him while smiling. Her furry ears were moving up and down and her tail was wagging left and right. Ever since she slept with him, she wasn’t scared of getting nightmares nor did they come back to haunt her. If possible, she would have preferred to sleep on his lap until noon, but she couldn’t make him skip breakfast because of her too. While eating, she was drinking red wine from a bottle that she took from somewhere again. The heroes were sitting a bit away as they watched them curiously while eating and chatting among themselves.

“Um, I don’t think you should be drinking so early in the morning.” [Elena]

Elena sat in front of those two with Aria next to her as they softly greeted with a “good morning” each. While everyone was keeping their distance, the two of them brought their plates over under everyone’s wondering gaze. On a side note, Ryan and Jayce were both summoned by the king while Kelly went straight to the library after quickly finishing her meal. Hearing her uneasy words, Maya smiled at her teasingly.

“Morning, this is just a small treat to get me back in shape. I had an exhausting night with Master~.” [Maya]

“Why do you always say things that can be misunderstood? You two, don’t imagine 18+ content, we had a wholesome night.” [Ryner]

Saying tiredly, he tried to stop the girls from imagining weird things, but seeing their reactions puzzled him.

“Um… ok.” [Elena]

“Y-yeah.” [Aria]

Instead of turning red, the two of them hesitantly responded while looking away. On the other hand, the rest of the class was talking loudly as they exchanged their thoughts on the matter. These two heroes had been avoiding his stare for the last few days and keeping their distance. Their awkward demeanor was because they didn’t know how to act around him as they kept spying on him with Elena’s special ability. They approached him today simply because their conscience told them to at least greet him in the morning. Ryner noticed their behavior that was different from the rest of their classmates and decided to take this chance to confirm why.

“… It was completely wholesome, alright? We only did it once normally.” [Ryner]

He told a huge lie with a straight face which caused the entire group to go in an uproar. Some girls were squealing, some guys were jealously glaring at him, others went red in the face while others talked excitedly to their friends. Maya quizzically stared at Ryner as she took a gulp from her bottle, wondering why he lied all of a sudden. During this whole commotion, Elena and Aria didn’t make any noise and also stared at him with confusion. Just like Maya, they were wondering why he was lying to them. He then talked again in a casual tone while cutting a chunk of ham on his plate.

“Just kidding, I only wanted to mess with you a bit. But, you two didn’t react much. Could it be…” [Ryner]

He squinted his eyes and scrutinized them while leaning over the table. The chatter died down a bit after they realized it was a lie, but now everyone was focused on them, wondering what he was going to say with that serious face. Elena and Aria became stiff from his intense gaze and awkwardly looked away while panicking internally as they thought ‘does he know?!’ inside their head.

“You girls both have a lot of experience in that department!” [Ryner]

However, his loud declaration blew away their thoughts and everyone else’s as they all froze in place. It was deadly quiet as Ryner continued while Maya was care freely drinking by his side.

“So that’s why you’re not embarrassed. I need to do something even more amazing to get you to blush. But, how amazing are we talking about? How much experience did you rake in? How many boyfriends do you have? How many are you dating at the same time? What’s your favorite position?” [Ryner]

His questions that were plain sexual harassment woke them up and made an angry Aria and a flustered Elena that were both red in the face from embarrassment.

“W-what the hell are you asking us?!” [Aria]

“T-t-t-that’s right! W-w-we’re not like that!” [Elena]

The two of them tried to defend themselves while the crowd was getting rowdy.

“We-we’re still virgins!!” [Elena]

“Elena?! You didn’t need to say that!” [Aria]

“Uh? Uwaaaahh!” [Elena]

Elena loudly declared with clenched fists, but after hearing Aria’s panic voice, her face turned completely red from shame and she waved her hands rapidly in front of her.

“Virgins? Soooo, you girls aren’t popular with guys?” [Ryner]

Ryner asked while tilting his head and the class answered him instead of Elena who was hiding her face with her hands and Aria who was patting her friend’s back to calm her down.

“What the hell were you asking them, you pervert!?” [Random hero]

“Of course they’re popular! Way more than you!” [Random hero]

“To sexually harass two high school girls so shamelessly… Just kill yourself.” [Random hero]

While everyone was angrily yelling at him, Ryner kept eating calmly. Maya became a spectator and kept quiet as she watched what he was doing.

“So *munch munch* they’re actually popular in your school?” [Ryner]

“That’s right! They’re the twin idols of our school!” [Random hero]

A girl that got along with them proudly declared while pointing at the two that were at a loss.

“A lot of people confessed to them, but they were all rejected!” [Random hero]

A guy said while gritting his teeth and raised his fist since he was one of the rejected.

“Elena Coleaf, seventeen years-old, straight A student. With a gentle nature, a kind smile and a mature personality, she is the most popular girl among guys. Aria Kayfield, seventeen years-old, straight A student. With a cool look, a tough personality and excelling in sports, she is popular among both guys and girls.” [Random hero]

Another guy with glasses declared with a serious face as he pushed his glasses up with his index finger which caused his peers to give him weird looks for knowing all that. Hearing them, Ryner took a bite from his toast and stared at the two girls in question that were still blushing while chewing his food. While the crowd was being noisy and calling him a pervert, he kept chewing with a carefree attitude as Elena and Aria stared back uneasily.

“*Chew chew chew gulp*… Are you sure you’re virgins?” [Ryner]

““YES!!!”” [Elena and Aria]

In the end, his harassment made his reputation worse among the students, though he didn’t really care about that. What mattered were the stories about Elena and Aria they were telling him along with the insults.

After breakfast, everyone moved to the training grounds where they began to run along the walls without using body strengthening. Since they had their magic to supplement their muscles, Ryner had them build up their stamina. As such, for thirty minutes, he would have them run, take a break, and then run again… as a warmup. Most of them dropped out during the start of the second half and were lying on the ground trying to catch their breath.

“Come on people! Cardio is good for you! It lets you keep fighting when you have to, and run away when you need to!” [Ryner]

To counter their complaints, he was also running alongside them and this got some of them to be more motivated. Ryan, after returning with Jayce from his meeting with the royalties, was doing his best to keep up with Ryner as he forced his body to move. His lungs felt like they were burning up as he desperately sucked in oxygen. His best friend, Jayce, was also running by his side with all his might. The two of them were the only ones that were keeping up with Ryner while the rest that were still standing were slowly jogging or walking. Aria, who was just as fit as them, stopped and worriedly went to Elena’s side that was crouching on the ground and trying hard not to puke from running too much.

Another unusual person was running with them: Prince Alex. He had joined their training on the second day because of his desire to become stronger. He was a powerful C rank magic user, but after being surrounded by S rank heroes, he wanted to try and reach new heights. Ryner’s training focused less on magic than what he was used to and his style of teaching was different in some areas which intrigued him. It might be more effective than what he went through since he was a child. Besides, according to the beastman, she became an S rank thanks to his training, so he could definitely become stronger as well.

The three of them couldn’t believe it. Even though they were at the second half and running for nearly an hour in total, their instructor was only sweating a bit. He didn’t look like he was going to collapse from exhaustion unlike them. Once again, they realized the difference between them when it came to physical fitness, but that man couldn’t use magic from what they saw. So, besides Alex, they believed that in a real fight, they would definitely win. That was how Ryan consoled himself after his loss. He rarely ever lost to someone in his world and when he did, he would always win the next time. Losing to Ryner threw him off his game, but he just needed to win the next time they fought.

“Alright, that’s thirty minutes. Everyone take a break! We’ll start the real thing in ten minutes!” [Ryner]

He shouted out and everyone fell on the ground from fatigue and relief. Ryan, Jayce and Alex forced themselves to keep walking as they tried to calm down their wildly beating hearts while gasping for air. Ryner walked over to Maya who was sitting in the center of the field and leisurely watching everyone work up a sweat. Once he got close enough, she threw a bottle of water at him… was what he thought but upon drinking it, it turned out to be beer.

“Maya, how much of these did you steal so far?” [Ryner]

He asked while wiping his mouth with his hand and shaking the bottle in front of him.

“That’s a rude thing to say Master. I asked them before taking some.” [Maya]

She answered while drinking from another bottle. Right next to her, a few empty bottles were lying around.

“… But they said no and you still took some, right?” [Ryner]

“That’s right~. So now I just take from their supplies without asking. It saves time for all of us~.” [Maya]

She said while grinning at her master. He looked at her tiredly for a second before raising his index finger in front of his face and sternly warned her.

“Well make sure you don’t get caught.” [Ryner]

“Understood~.” [Maya]

She raised her bottle in acknowledgement while playfully smiling.

“*Cough cough*” [Kelly]

Hearing someone deliberately coughing behind him, he turned around and saw Kelly looking at him while frowning with her hands on her hips and a bag on her shoulder. It was the teacher that had the young face of a teenager and the developed body of an adult. She was quite mad since after coming back from the library, the man in charge of training her students was talking about stealing and not getting caught.

““…”” [Ryner and Kelly]

They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Ryner broke eye contact and turned to Maya again.

“And if anyone asks about the empty bottles, tell them that we bought them.” [Ryner]

“You’re going to ignore me?!? Eii! It’s lecture time! Sit down right now!!!” [Kelly]

For the next ten minutes, the master and slave were being scolded by the teacher. Unfortunately for Kelly, neither of them was listening because one was care freely drinking while the other achieved a Zen state and basically zoned out.

“… You always act like that! Can’t you take things more seriously?! Be mature for once?! And-” [Kelly]

“Um… Miss Skye?” [Elena]

The heroes had gathered around them since the break was over and watched how their teacher was scolding their instructor. As they were unsure of what to do, Elena was the one that uneasily called out to the teacher as the representative. Kelly stopped talking and looked at her student quizzically, urging her to go on.

“The break is over, so we’d like to resume our training with Ryner.” [Elena]

“Oh! Oh right!” [Kelly]

Realizing that she was getting in the way, she became flustered and was about to tell Ryner that the lecture was over, but she then noticed that he was gone and only Maya was sitting in front of her.

“Alright people! For the next step, you’re going to play magic tag!” [Ryner]

“Kya!” [Kelly]

Before she knew it, he was standing behind her, which made her jump in surprise as she took some distance and quickly turned around.

“The rules are the same! Whoever gets tagged will also be it and we’ll keep playing until there’s only one person left! You can use body strengthening, but don’t wreck the place! Maya will be running around and throwing pebbles at you! If you get hit, tag or not, you’re out of the game and need to kneel down! Spread out and get ready! The guy with curly brown hair over there will be it!” [Ryner]

Ignoring the frightened teacher that was glaring at him, he went over the rules again and pointed at the student who wasn’t listening. Everyone then moved to different locations in the large training field while grumbling because they had to run again. Maya also stood up and grabbed a pouch filled with pebbles that her master handed over to her before gulping down the contents of the bottle in her hand in one go. After everyone spread around the field, Ryner announced the start of the game.

“Start!” [Ryner]

With his signal, everyone strengthened their bodies and ran around the field at high speed, trying to avoid the tagger. A few people got caught and started chasing after the others to tag them too. Alex, who was only C rank, quickly got tagged and tried to keep up with the S ranks. This game wasn’t fair for him, but he didn’t complain since he was the one who intruded on the training. Unlike his father, he didn’t use his authority to get what he wanted. This was mostly thanks to his mother’s education that he was subjected to since young.

Maya, who was also running among them, was throwing pebbles left and right at regular intervals, eliminating people from the game. After throwing rocks at Ryner during their training in the forest, accurate throwing became easy for her. However, to not harm the students, she made sure to hold back, so the pebbles didn’t fly as fast as they would normally. As such, with their augmented senses, some of the heroes managed to dodge them. Furthermore, she was purposely missing sometimes as per Ryner’s instructions. During this fierce game of tag, players moved at infernal speeds and pebbles kept whizzing past their heads like bullets.

“How can you sit here so calmly in all of this?!” [Kelly]

Kelly yelled at Ryner while crouching down and covering her head with both hands. Clouds of dust were raised and small holes appeared here and there from the pebbles’ impacts. To her, it was like staying in the middle of a war zone.

“Relax, we have Maya to cover for us in case of stray shots. Besides, staying here is also good for their training.” [Ryner]

Ryner and Kelly were right in the middle of this game of tag. While the teacher was trying her best to curl into a ball, Ryner was sitting cross-legged and calmly observing the flow of the game around him, watching as more and more people either got tagged or eliminated.

“More like, shouldn’t you be used to this by now?” [Ryner]

“How can anyone get used to this!”[Kelly]

“We’ve been doing this for three days though.” [Ryner]

“I feel like my heart is going to stop!” [Kelly]

He talked while waving his hand to dismiss her complaints.

“Oh well, it’s not important.” [Ryner]

“It IS important!” [Kelly]

She angrily shouted at his irresponsible comment. For some reason, she always ended up yelling at him whenever she was with him, even when they were sitting in the middle of this chaotic situation. She wondered why.

“Ok, then it is important. But more importantly~, do you have the materials for your class?” [Ryner]

Seeing him jokingly talk to her reminded her why. This sleepy-looking man was just plain annoying.

“Yes, I do! So, could you tell them to stop?!” [Kelly]

“Don’t need to. The game’s over.” [Ryner]

Ryner pointed to Ryan who was the last man standing as everyone stopped moving. It was a close call, but just as the group of survivors were surrounded by the taggers, he managed to weave his way through them and obtained victory. With this, the first out of six matches was over. Just as they were about to spread out to begin the second round, they saw Ryner waving them over, so they went towards him while wondering what he wanted.

“Ok kids, your teacher is crankier than usual, so we’ll start biology class right away.” [Ryner]

Kelly pouted at being called cranky, but held her tongue and took out notebooks as well as pens from her bag, enough for everyone. She passed them to their respective owners before taking out a book as well as a large sheet of paper with the human anatomy drawn on it. The group then sat in front of her without complaining and began to listen to her lecture on the human body from where they left off yesterday while taking notes. They would study for one hour before playing tag again and repeat the process three times. Although Kelly was happy to be able to teach again, she had mixed feelings knowing that her students would be using what she taught them to fight. During this time, Ryner and Maya went towards the entrance where a group of knights were walking in their direction. Among them were the siblings of Alex that was in the middle of writing down some notes with a serious face: Princess Lillian and Prince Carl.

“Ryner! I’ll definitely defeat you this time!” [Carl]

Carl declared while one of the knights spread a sheet of cloth on the ground for them to sit on as Carl placed the chessboard that he was holding in his hands on it. Lillian sat next to him while the knights stood behind them.

“I’m glad to see you haven’t given up on your dreams kid.” [Ryner]

Once he reached them, Ryner helped to place his black pieces in their place while Maya sat down next to him. After a few seconds, the chess game began.

“Don’t think you’ll be walking out of this victoriously.” [Carl]

“Says the guy that keeps losing.” [Ryner]

As the two fought intellectually, Lillian and Maya were watching while smiling.

“Ha! I just captured your queen! You’ve got a pretty bad start, don’t you think kid?” [Ryner]

“It-it doesn’t matter! Even if I have just the king left, I will definitely win!” [Carl]

“You want to fight? Then, do you know rock, paper, scissors?” After Ryner told that to the unhappy prince who barged in on their training on the second day and picked a fight with him, the two of them would do this every time during Kelly’s lectures.

“No more rooks. You’ll soon only have the king left for real. Are you sure you don’t want to give up now?” [Ryner]

“Quit talking and play! There! It’s your turn!” [Carl]

As such, they would play chess every day, a game that Carl was familiar with and agreed to play, unlike the other games Ryner suggested such as rock, paper, scissors and tic tac toe.

“Obvious, you’re being too obvious with your plan there~.” [Ryner]

“No, I’m not! Just move your bishop there! Ah! I didn’t mean there!” [Carl]

So far, Carl never won once, which greatly frustrated him, but he kept challenging Ryner to a match every single time.

“Oho~, not a bad move there kid. I see you’ve improved since the last time we fought.” [Ryner]

“Of course I did. I kept playing chess until it was time to sleep!” [Carl]

“I see, I see… But! It is still not enough to defeat me!” [Ryner]

After breakfast they would train, Kelly would come to teach them, Carl would show up for a fight and they would resume training after lunch.

“Always think at least two steps ahead kid! Checkmate!” [Ryner]

“Wha-! … I lost…” [Carl]

“You’re eight hundred thousand years too early to beat me in chess.” [Ryner]

“Uuu~! One more time!” [Carl]

“You’re on!” [Ryner]

This had been the routine for three days after Ryner came up with the training menu once he gauged the heroes’ strength on his first day as their instructor.

“S-sexual harassment!?!” [Kelly]

At dinner, everyone was eating together in the large dining room reserved for them except for the royalties that went back to eat with their parents. Kelly exclaimed loudly after hearing the story from one of the students that was happily tattling on Ryner. It was a lively girl with short black hair and brown eyes, the same girl that called Elena and Aria the twin school idols during breakfast.

“Ryner! How could you?! Apologize to Elena and Aria right now!” [Kelly]

As usual, Kelly was angrily yelling at Ryner, but this time, he was quite happy with this situation.

“(Well, this is convenient.)” [Ryner]

He thought in his mind as he looked at the two in question that were sitting in front of him and Maya just like in the morning. However, Ryan and Jayce were also there and they were glaring at Ryner thinking that he hurt their friends.

“Ehhhh~, do I have to?” [Ryner]

“Ryneeerr!” [Kelly]

His reluctant look made her even angrier. If he wasn’t going to apologize, then she was definitely going to scold him for three hours.

“Alright, fine… *mumble* I’m sorry… *mumble*” [Ryner]

He raised both hands in front of him while leaning back, telling the angry teacher that he gave up. However, he mumbled his apology while looking away, clearly not reflecting on his actions.

“Don’t you have any shame?” [Ryan]

Ryan was getting impatient and stood up from his chair, but was stopped from doing anything further by Elena who was trying to calm him down.

“Now, now Ryan. It’s fine. We don’t really mind. Right, Aria?” [Elena]

“Y-yeah, it’s all water under the bridge. So, Jayce too, stop glaring like that.” [Aria]

Ryner looked around him and saw that the other students were also glaring at him along with the teacher. By his side, Maya seemed amused and stayed quiet, waiting to see what he would do next. Sighing, he crossed his arms and looked at the four before him again.

“What, you guys don’t think that my apology was sincere?” [Ryner]

“Obviously!” [Ryan]

“Yeah, it was kind of obvious.” [Jayce]

Ryan and Jayce spoke up before Elena and Aria could stop them. The last thing they wanted was for a fight to break out because of them.

“In that case… Here!” [Ryner]

A blue circle made of rings appeared in front of Ryner and he put his hand in it. The others watched with mild surprise at his weird ability that could store objects like the rifle from before. He pulled his hand out and held a white human skull.

“As proof of my sincerity, I will give to you this super rare, cursed item!” [Ryner]

He said proudly while showing it to Elena and Aria.

“Cursed?! A skull?! Wait! What are you trying to give to my students?! I just want you to apologize properly!” [Kelly]

Kelly was the first to react before loud chattering filled the room again.

“Our teacher’s right. Just what do you plan on giving to our friends?” [Jayce]

Jayce said while cracking his knuckles threateningly while Ryan seemed eager to start a fight. Elena was panicking and trying to stop the situation from getting any worse while Aria accusingly stared at Ryner with a ‘don’t make things worse, you idiot!’ look.

“What? You guys don’t want it? This is an awesome skull that will suddenly laugh in the middle of the night!” [Ryner]

“Don’t make things worse, you idiot!” [Aria]

Aria ended up saying her thoughts out loud because he was energetically showing off that creepy skull and earning the heroes’ ire.

“You’re giving that as a present to a girl?!” [Random hero]

“Ok, that’s just gross and creepy!” [Random hero]

“Is Miss Maya alright having someone like that as her master?” [Random hero]

“… If no one wants the skull, can I have it?” [Random hero]

Dinner ended with Ryner being lectured by the teacher under everyone’s eyes before they resumed training.

At night, once they were done taking a bath, Elena and Aria were in their room and about to spy on Ryner again. Aria wore comfortable shirt and pants to sleep in while Elena was wearing a white nightgown with laces. Just as they were preparing themselves to start their job while feeling guilty, they found something on one of the beds: a letter and two red strings with a round, golden bell attached at each ends.

To Elena and Aria,

I had Maya sneak these in while you were away. Since you didn’t like the cursed skull, I got you these cursed bells! No matter how hard you ring them, they will never make a sound!

Ryner

Aria read the letter out loud and looked at her friend who was smiling while holding one of these so-called cursed items. To her, it was a clumsy, but adorable attempt at apologizing. Aria also picked one up and closely examined it before giving out her verdict.

“They look like one of those cheap hair ties you can get for three bucks a bundle.” [Aria]

Shaking it up and down, she didn’t hear any jingling sounds and the bells seemed to be made of plastic.

“Really? I kind of like it. The bells are cute… and they’re cursed.” [Elena]

Elena jokingly said to her friend who harshly evaluated the gift they received. The black-haired girl looked between her roommate and the string in her hand before sighing.

“(What a hopeless guy. Can’t he just apologize normally?)” [Aria]

She then sat down on her bed and proceeded to tie it around her left wrist. Once she was done, she held it up to look at it before showing a satisfied smile.

“Well, it’s not bad, way better than some creepy skull. But, I’m still kind of mad at him for this morning.” [Aria]

Elena, who was also sitting on her bed, was in the middle of braiding a lock of hair that was on the right side of her face.

“That’s true! He sure was mean! I’m not such an indecent girl! … I do want a boyfriend though…” [Elena]

While puffing her cheeks, she began to tie the string near the end of the braided lock that fell on the right side of her chest.

“In that case, you shouldn’t reject every guy that confessed to you.” [Aria]

“But I don’t feel any love, so it’s bad of me to lie and just accept a person’s confession. True love won’t happen like that.” [Elena]

Aria was talking to her while lying on her back and looking at the ceiling. Her friend was always interested in love stories and wanted it to happen to her one day, but she never fancied any guys, not even the two boys that hey hung out with all the time. Ryan, Jayce, Elena and Aria knew each other since they were in middle school and had always been good friends.

It wouldn’t be weird if romance sprouted among them since the guys were handsome and the girls were beautiful. But, Jayce was a muscle-head that loved to get into fights more than women. It was always hard to cover for him so that he wouldn’t get scolded by their school. As for Ryan, although he was the most popular guy in school and received tons of confessions, neither Elena nor Aria saw him in a romantic way. He was kind and mature, but he had a childish sense of justice which was not particularly bad, but he never thought about the consequences of his actions and jumped into the fray before thinking which sometimes caused trouble to those around him.

To Elena, the two boys were her good friends that she loved to hang out with. To Aria, they were like her little brothers that she had to look after, even if they were older than her. She was also never really interested in love, but she was embarrassed if she was involved with such a topic. Dealing with the confessions from the guys and even some of the girls at her school was really troublesome. Remembering that sleepy idiot’s harassing questions during breakfast, she felt like punching him at least once and regretted not doing it today. With her goal decided, she was going to do her best during tomorrow’s training to sock him a good one.

“And there, I’m done.” [Elena]

Turning her head, she saw Elena looking at herself in a hand mirror while touching the braid that she just made. She used her hand to comb her fringe to the right side and turned her head left and right as she checked her new hairstyle. She nodded to herself while smiling and looked at her best friend to ask for her opinion.

“Well, what do you think?” [Elena]

“I think you’re going to have to undo it when you go to sleep. Besides that, it looks great.” [Aria]

(*Author note* It’s like the hairstyle of Tifa Lockheart from Final fantasy with brown hair and a braid)

Elena thanked her before removing the string and putting it on the drawer by the bed along with the hand mirror. Her smile disappeared and she sadly looked at it while gently touching one of the bells with the tip of her fingers. Aria also untied her string and put it on her drawer while sporting a serious expression.

“Are you ready?” [Aria]

She asked her friend as she made her way to her bed. Elena bitterly nodded as she looked at Aria and made a ball of light appear in front of their faces all of a sudden. Inside the orb, they could see Ryner lying on his bed with a black pair of headphones on his head. He was wearing a grey shirt and black pants to sleep in and was simply lying there in the dark with his eyes closed.

“… Looks like he’s not doing anything bad… As usual. But, the headphones are new.” [Aria]

“… I wonder for how long we have to keep spying on him?” [Elena]

While Aria was interested in the headphones because she liked to listen to music, Elena muttered her thoughts guiltily. Although the black-haired girl was feeling bad for her actions, the brown-haired girl was feeling worse. She really was too kind to be doing this to the man that was training them, especially since they just received a gift from him.

“… Maybe, if we have nothing to report after a week, King Charles will tell us to stop. We can ask him then, how’s that?” [Aria]

“… Ok.” [Elena]

Trying to cheer her up, Aria said the first thing that came to her mind. Understanding her friend’s feelings, Elena showed her a small smile and nodded so that she wouldn’t worry so much. The two then swallowed their guilt and watched Ryner again.

“(Wow, I felt bad for eavesdropping on you guys, but now I feel a whole lot better.)” [Ryner]

Ryner thought in his mind as he listened to the two girls’ conversation. He had considered bugging their room, but when Kelly brought up his mischief and asked him to apologize, he decided to use that chance to give them accessories that they could carry anywhere instead. This way, he could track them and listen in on their conversations. As such, he showed them that skull to increase the chances of them accepting his real gift. After all, unless those girls had weird tastes, they would be more inclined to keeping hair ties than a laughing skull.

Each time, for the last part of their training, Ryner would have the heroes fight each other while he and Maya left. As such, they had time to take a bath alone before they came back and Maya also took this chance to plant the gifts in Elena’s and Aria’s room according to his instructions. The bells on the strings were actually sturdy listening devices. Thanks to them, he now knew why they were acting so suspiciously and he decided to get back at the two girls.

“(Tomorrow’s training will be twice as hard.)” [Ryner]

Since they didn’t learn any sensitive information except for his nightmares and Maya’s trauma, he didn’t care much about their spying. Furthermore, from what he heard from their classmates, those two won’t divulge this sort of thing to anyone because of their good nature, which was the main reason why he won’t really do anything to them. Also, with this as an excuse, he could now eavesdrop on them and gather intelligence without a shred of remorse.

“Master, I’m back~.” [Maya]

Wearing a simple black shirt and shorts that the castle provided as sleepwear, Maya, who had gone off to steal a bottle of alcohol, just entered the room while happily greeting her master. She ignored the weird earmuffs on his head because she got used to being surprised by him and told him what had been on her mind for a while.

“You know, I’m fine with not sleeping together for tonight. You should get some rest.” [Maya]

She said as she walked towards the bed with a bottle in her hand. Although he kept saying that he was fine, not sleeping for four days must be taking its toll on him. Hearing her concern, Ryner thought for a bit before putting the headphones in his pocket dimension and patting the pillow next to him. It was true that his body needed sleep.

“You’re right… Let’s get some sleep. Don’t do anything to me while we’re sleeping.” [Ryner]

He saved her, trained her, traveled with her, fought by her side and gave her a lap pillow. Their relationship was certainly more than just master and slave. To other people, they would be comrades, comrades that could trust each other. Also, it’s been more than a month since he met her and he didn’t see any sign of her planning on killing him, not to mention that she was already aware of his nightmares. So, maybe he could believe in her. Maybe, she was someone he could consider a true friend, like the ones that he met during his countless lifetimes. Besides, if she mustered any killing intent, he would wake up immediately.

Maya’s carefree expression didn’t change, but her animal ears were twitching and her tail was wagging left and right. She was really happy right now. After all, for Ryner to say such a thing meant that he trusted her more than before and this made her feel like rushing at her master to hug him. Keeping her self-control, she put the bottle on the drawer next to the bed, got under the blanket and hugged his right arm while smiling with blushing cheeks.

“If you don’t sleep this time, I will do something to you~.” [Maya]

“Yeah, sure *yawn*.” [Ryner]

He ignored her playful warning while yawning loudly and lazily rubbed away the tears in the corners of his eyes. Maya giggled at such a sight and blissfully closed her eyes. His lap pillows were nice, but sleeping while hugging him was even better.

“Good night Master.” [Maya]

“… Good night Maya.” [Ryner]