-Thoughts of a woman!-

It’s already been more than twenty minutes; Kenshin still hadn’t returned. Maria was getting worried. After the death of the guardian, Kenshin hadn’t bothered to loot the corpse. Leaving the fallen sword, shield and some gold coins on the ground. Instead, he had ventured into the place, from where the monster came from.

Looking at the discarded piece of equipment that could fetch a person enough money to live his life in luxury; she cursed at Kenshin’s carelessness. What if she were to be an unscrupulous person? Wouldn’t she run away with all these precious things?

Even though she cursed him on the front, deep down she was very happy with his trusting attitude. She believed that Kenshin trusted her and hence left her with all these precious materials. She felt sweetness creeping up just by thinking about this.

After that time with her ex-husband, she had become pessimistic towards matters of love. Nobody could blame her; if the person who swore that he would forever love her and take care of her could betray her out of jealousy, then how can she believe on something like love? Not to mention, that person happened to be her husband.

From that event five years ago, she had closed her heart to everyone except her son. She even didn’t hear her friends’ recommendations about the second marriage. She didn’t have any short of suitors. With her awakening to magic energy, she had become even more beautiful than before. Even her ex-husband had come twice or thrice to rekindle their relationship, but she never gave a single glance to them. It's not that she was proud or anything; she simply didn’t have any interest in forming a relationship.

She also didn’t have any interest in that perfect one that every girl desires. She only wants to spend her time with her son.

But today she had felt something stir in her heart from the moment Kenshin saved her from that sneak attack from Specter guardian. Later she was also impressed by the sacrificing attitude he had shown to her when facing Zombie Guardian. He was even ready to sacrifice his life for her sake.

During this battle with Zombie Guardian, she had noticed the prowess of Kenshin, raising his favourability by a few points with her. Right now, if Kenshin had to ask for a date with her, then she wouldn’t necessarily say no.

“What am I thinking!?” suddenly realizing her thought’s direction, she blushed and berated herself. Even so, her smile didn’t leave her face. It was the first time after many years that a smile like that appeared on her face.

Even she was unknown to this fact. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she was currently in a dungeon; so nobody can see it.

“He is late!” she muttered, sounding a little worried. It had been nearly half-an-hour since he had gone inside there. She was getting worried.

Within half an hour, she had already recovered more than half of his full strength. Standing up, she casually glanced towards the fallen equipment and golds, before going towards the direction Kenshin had gone to.

She was more worried towards Kenshin’s wellbeing. As she walked towards the sealed chamber, she was surprised at the grandiose inside. She was even more surprised at the tree house in the middle of a dungeon.

Unlike Kenshin, she was aware of the secrets of the dungeons. She was also aware of the dungeon cores, although she had never seen them. One of her friends from the guild was fond of collecting various information. She had heard about such interiors from her. Nevertheless, it was her first time seeing such a thing.

“Kenshin!” she shouted his name loudly. But even so, she got no response even after waiting for a few seconds.

“Kenshin! Where are you?” she called for him again but like before, got no response.

“Kenshin!? Are you here?”

Even after calling for a few more times, she got no response. Suddenly she felt her heart palpitating like crazy as she felt a weird feeling, like thousands of ants crawling on her heart. She couldn’t say what this feeling was, but she knew it wasn’t something good.

“Kenshin???” she desperately called out to him while searching for him inside the room.

Finally, after some time, she gathered enough courage to climb the stairs leading to the weird cave like tree hollow. The hollow had no light inside, hence was very dark.

“Kenshin!?” she slowly called out for him while peeking inside.

But again, she got no response.

Gathering enough courage, she slowly went inside. Holding the wall for support, she walked inside like a blind man. While she was searching for him, suddenly she felt a hand on her left shoulder.

“Kyaaaaa!!!!” in fright, she shouted from the top of her lungs.

“Aaaa!!!”

Followed by her shout, a male voice was heard.

“Kenshin??” she asked after recovering from her shock and fright.

“Yes! But what are you doing, walking like a blind man?” Kenshin asked in confusion. He can see as clearly as day inside this dark room.

“What? What do you mean by a blind man!? It was so dark that I can’t see anything!” Maria complained before suddenly realizing what Kenshin asked her.

“Do you mean, you can actually see in this dark?” she asked with a hushed voice, as if afraid of someone eavesdropping on them.

“Yes!!” Kenshin answered honestly. There was no reason to tell a lie.

“I see! But, what are you doing here? I was shouting your name since forever and you are not responding at all!” she complained while secretly being relived after finding out that he was okay.

“I was searching for something here, so, I didn’t hear you. Sorry!” Kenshin awkwardly lied as he didn’t know how he should say what he had experienced to her. Things were too serious and weird for her to understand on a short notice.

To make her understand; he must tell her everything from the beginning. Right now, he didn’t have the mental strength to repeat what he had just experienced and heard. He must go home and take a rest before digesting what he had heard today.

Although Maria couldn’t see his face; from his tone, she realized that there was something that was troubling Kenshin. She was half tempted to ask him about his problem but in the end, stopped herself. In return, she only squeezed his hand a little before telling something that even her or Kenshin had least expected.

“If you are facing any problem then you can always count on me!”

Kenshin stopped in his tracks and stared at her with widened eyes. He hadn’t expected Maria to say something like that. Their first meeting couldn’t be said as the best one or a normal one. Despite that, they had developed a unique trust between themselves while fighting two boss class monsters back to back. Kenshin smiled at her while nodding in response.

Maria’s words had made him very happy. He had finally gained a true friend. Although he was reconsidering if he should pursue a crazy person like Maria but becoming friends was no problem.

“Okay,” Kenshin said, some of his worries vanished a little.

After that, they exited the hidden floor and prepared to exit. But then suddenly Kenshin remembered his other mission.

“Wait, Maria, let me check something” saying so, Kenshin ran towards the teleportation bubble.

Suguro told him that the teleportation gate was not working for the second floor. He wanted to check if anything had changed. He now knew the reason behind the appearance of unusual monsters and all the bad things that were happening.

Reaching there, he tried to activate the teleportation gate to the second floor. But like Suguro had said, it was not working. The teleportation gate simply blinked once before going dim.

Kenshin tried two more times before giving up. With this he had completed his first mission, saving Hashimoto was not his primary focus anyway.

When he got back, Maria looked at him in wonder, as if asking him what he was doing, standing there like an idiot.

“Just a side mission” he replied to her.

Nodding her head, she stopped asking any further.

They both left the dungeon.