Arriving in front of him, elevated to his eye level, with both of their eyes meeting, she stated, “Why don’t we do some intense exercise together?”
“Fine, but don’t cry,” Ryuk gestured his hand, motioning her beside him, and moved forward to leave the place, which reeked of rotten flesh and a metallic, numbing smell.
….
Creeeeak~
SWISH
The moment Ryuk opened the mansion’s wooden gate, a sharp spear arrived just a meter away from him, but dissapeared even before he could react or deflect it.
BANG!
“Who did it?”
A voice reverberated through the place, causing Ryuk, who had just came out of the mansion, ignoring the crowd just outside the mansion gates, to turn towards the steps of the mansion where that spear was now embedded in the tiles, with a fluttering white-dressed woman standing on it.
At that moment, when the spear had arrived at his face, Ryuk had seen Esme arriving instantly while vanishing with the spear.
‘System, were her stats correct?’ Ryuk had never believed someone’s ranking making them stronger, but stats don’t lie. If she is weaker than the average human and still can easily balance herself on the thin rod of a spear, then he doesn’t have words to express his surprise.
[Host, Values mentioned in stats were correct.]
“I repeat, who threw this?” Standing on the vertical spear with an elegant posture, the woman’s golden pupil reflected the huge crowd of Dariants holding several weapons, visibly angry and glaring at her.
“WE THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO KILL HIM, NOT LET HIM ENTER THE MAYOR’S MANSION!” Man, leading the crowd, loudly spoke out, ensuring everyone could hear his voice, igniting a chain reaction.
“Yes! You have sided with them!”
“I never thought Young Miss would do something like this!”
“Yes, she is a traitor—SPLASH!” Before the man leading the crowd could finish his sentence, his body turned into a blood mist, causing the woman’s golden pupil to widen before falling on the figure calmly walking past her.
“Hello, dear natives. At the request of Miss Esme, I am here to save your children.” With a smile, Ryuk stepped forward, holding two of the children while the other five floated beside him in the air.
GASP
A unified gasp escaped from everyone’s mouths, witnessing first the guard of the mansion, somewhat strong in rank, being turned into a blood pulp, and now the cursed objects he was carrying.
‘Where is the other side of them?’ Ryuk already anticipated their repulsive behavior, calmly waiting for some of them to reveal the other side of humanity, which is what still keeps his faith from completely fading.
“MY CHILD!” A woman pushed past everyone, running forward without caring about the blood scattered on the ground or that the man holding her child was one of the most hated flagbearers.
Her only concern was her child, who was in pain.
thud
“No, no, what happened to him, my child, ah… sob,” the woman cried out, taking her child whose weight was now 50 kg, and fell to the ground, clutching him tightly while the boy’s eyes turned teary, unable to speak anything except, “mmm..uu…”
“No! That is my child!”
One after another, other five women ran through the crowd, directly towards Ryuk, their eyes reflecting only pain for their children, falling down while clutching each one of them.
Seeing such a sight, Ryuk didn’t feel much, as it only reminded him that he also needed to search for his mother. But right now, more important things were at hand.
Slowly lifting his gaze, his eyes fell on a woman standing in the crowd, her eyes widened in horror.
‘He promised me money, now what,’ her eyes reflected a child who was dead, with only movement being that lump of rotten flesh, making her slowly retreat.
Ryuk didn’t care much about her; after all, there was always one such person in a million who didn’t deserve a child.
But that 0.01% didn’t matter.
An amusing thing was that such people often realized the value of such things only after losing them, when it was already too late.
Thud
“Woah, I thought you were gonna kill everyone here,” Esme jumped beside him, looking down at the children and the situation, then looked towards Ryuk.
But following his gaze, her eyes fell on the disappearing back of the woman, blending into the crowd.
“…I am lucky to not have such a mother,” she uttered, the first thing that came to her mind.
“Me too,” Ryuk replied, stretching his hand towards Esme, prompting her to instantly give her hand, feeling confused. But his voice reached her ears again, “Let’s leave.”
SWISH
.
.
.
.
“So, how are we going to heal them?” Ryuk finally placed a small stone tablet on the grave where he had just laid the already deceased child’s body, inquiring to the woman standing beside him.
“It can’t be cured by any normal method; we need the help of the Demon Queen herself,” Esme prayed for the peace of the little soul before replying.
“It will already be late; I need some time,” Ryuk looked at the woman, not thinking highly of himself to just barge into another land without any strength.
“I can delay the growth for some period,” Esme informed, her eyes turning towards the town before returning to Ryuk, inquiring, “but what will you do till then?”
“Nothing, just move towards the center of this continent while training or something, I don’t know,” his response wasn’t accurate since he was just thrown here without any complete knowledge of what to do.
“Then, why don’t you stay here and train?” Esme’s words caused Ryuk’s gaze to turn towards her.
“You will be disappointed, Esme,” approaching her figure, Ryuk intensely looked into her golden eyes as he declared.
“Why?” Her voice remained unhindered, reciprocating his gaze.
“Because you are not getting what you want?” A smile formed on his face as he traced his finger on her mask.
“Make a bet then.” Lifting her delicate fingers, she held his wrist, while lost in those Amber eyes.
“Fine.” Ryuk accepted.
.
.
.
.
“They seem to have much calmer expressions,” moving inside the town streets, Ryuk observed the expressions of the natives, who seemed to either avert their gaze or grit their teeth.
“…Yes, why not?” Esme couldn’t even believe how horrified these people were, making them avert their eyes in fear, with one even having snot falling with gritted teeth, as if prepared to die at any moment.
Creeek~
“Now, what do you want to do? It’s already getting late,” Esme opened her house’s door, entering with Ryuk following behind.
“Isn’t it obvious,” Ryuk spoke, entering the room and coming in front of Esme, who halted. He continued, “We are going to do some intense physical exercise tonight.”
“Nah, not today, I don’t have any energy left in me,” already not having any big expectations, Esme yawned before turning towards the stairs leading to her room.
But remembering something, she halted, turning towards him and pointing at the sofa, she added, “Also, you can sleep there tonight. Bye.”
“….”
[Did you just get rejected, Host?]
‘Don’t spread confusion, idiot,’ Ryuk muttered, moving before removing his shoes and directly lying on the sofa. Already feeling tired, he fell asleep.
[Goodnight, Host.]
