Published at 4th of December 2024 10:18 am

Chapter 2062 Small Fry

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Ryu stared at the man for a long time.

It was truly odd. He was spending more time looking at this sorry excuse of a Fiend more than he was the beautiful woman in front of him, but he felt like his mind was churning.

He couldn't remember the last time he hesitated with a decision like this, and he was finding it hard to even look toward Ailsa in the first place because if he did so, then he felt like there was only one choice he could make.

No matter what sort of hard stance he took, he would always have a soft spot for his women. He could be a hard ass in any other situation, but he didn't have it in him when it came to situations like these.

Maybe that was because of guilt. No... he felt that it almost certainly was.

For a hypocrite like him, it was funny that he even had such worries to begin with. But that had always been a part of him.

In his first life, he didn't even want to touch Elena for fear of what her life might be like once he was no longer around. He held himself back for the sake of sparing her feelings, when in any other situation, he would never do such a thing.

That guilt carried on into his second life, and he had treated Ailsa worse than he probably had anyone else as a result of it. He had been staunchly opposed to ever having a second wife so that he could repay Elena for everything that she had done for him. He wanted to help her to live a life that she deserved, one that her man should give her.

That was the sort of responsibility he took for himself, and it was the kind of thing he felt was only natural.

However, in the end, his feelings for Ailsa also grew to the point that he couldn't ignore them.

What maybe even Ailsa didn't know was that her response to his initial rudeness hadn't given him a bad impression of her. If anything, it was what had creaked the door between them open.

He remembered back then when he said that the Heavens didn't have a right to pick his partner in love. He could remember how angry, how closed off, how completely infuriated he was about every aspect of the world. He wanted nothing more than to scorn the Heavens at every turn, even if there was this gorgeous woman before him. And yet Ailsa had given him a check on his reality. For the first time, rather than receiving the coddling of his parents and the sympathy of his grandparents, someone told him to his face that despite everything he had been through...

He was lucky.

He had talent that others couldn't imagine, and even if he felt aggrieved about things that he couldn't control, didn't he now have the opportunity to change everything? So what was he moping about?

Maybe Ailsa had only said those words out of frustration, but it was the first time anyone had ever said anything like that to Ryu. And even if he was still stubborn at the time, that didn't mean that it didn't cause a slight crack in his armor.

By then, it was already too late.

That sort of blunt, confident, arrogant sort of woman that could meet his coldness with her own... he had always had a weakness for it.

No. That wasn't true.

Before Elena, Ryu had never had feelings for a woman. Before his Awakening, he was too young to have such thoughts. And after his failed Awakening, the only thing he could think about was improving his life and not being useless anymore.

But Elena wasn't that type of arrogant woman. She was carefree, always looking for fun, and had a cheery personality that even if most might not see, was her down to the very core.

It was only after he met. Ailsa that he grew this fondness for arrogant women; then he began saying that that was the woman he liked most when in reality, it was nothing more than a new taste to his palate.

He didn't know how to resolve much of these emotions. That soft part of him that wanted to protect his women was combating that part of him that wanted to look down on the world.

The fact that Ailsa had come here silently, as though offering a proposal she couldn't be bothered to say with words, was somewhat annoying.

However, by the same token... describing it as something she just couldn't be "bothered" to say was very clearly his anger and rage talking. This sort of thing wasn't the sort of matter you said out loud. Otherwise, it would completely defeat the

purpose.

If she had to explain it... Ryu might as well not do it at all.

Ryu looked away from the Fiend and back toward Ailsa for the first time. He stared into those deep crimson irises, feeling a trembling sort of weight to them.

It was the first time he had truly looked at someone so powerful, and even if Ailsa wasn't trying to pressure him, she wasn't particularly hiding her aura as well. She probably knew him all too well. Doing such a thing would probably just piss him off

more.

The request couldn't have been simpler.

This Fiend meant nothing at all to Ailsa. She should have killed him on the first blow. Why would she bother to carry him around like this?

There were plenty of others that had pissed her off. The Griffins had enraged her by taking Little Gem, the Heavenly Court was an existence she had her own clashes with, or what about just the other Fiends of this world in general? Why not them? The difference between all of those events was that Ryu hadn't been there to witness her get bullied... but he was there when this man spoke those foul words. So... was he going to be her husband and deal with the situation for her or not?

If he killed the Fiend for her, it would be acknowledging his husbandly duties. If he didn't kill it, then it would probably sever the last of their relationship.

The fact that Ailsa was lugging around this fool whose eyes had long gone vacant was for no other reason than this was the only recent grievance that Ryu had been privy

to.

He remembered that day when his master sent him to Ailsa's side. He remembered how what should have been their touching reunion was ruined by the crude jokes of a bastard who didn't know how to shut his mouth... he remembered the kind of sheer, unbridled killing intent that he had had at the time...

And yet how he was able to do nothing to change the situation at the time because he was nothing more than an astral projection sent across worlds.

A silence hung in the air and no one spoke. Even if there was danger lying in the surroundings, they probably didn't even dare to approach at this point. All they cared about was getting as far away as they could. What a joke. Who would attack with both Ailsa and Eska present? It would be a suicide mission.

Ryu felt a shift in his hair. Little Gem moved slightly before collapsing into what she probably thought was an even more comfortable position.

The distraction seemed to make him wonder if it was worth it.

However... he already knew why he was dragging his feet like this. In reality, he had already made his decision. But...

Ryu looked off into the distance toward the remnants of the Ruin Master Guild, and then up into the skies where the residual boundaries of the Heaven's Gate had been.

He sighed.

The sigh seemed to echo across the world, filling the folds of reality as though it was sighing along with him.

Ailsa's pupils trembled. And though she controlled it well enough that almost no one saw, Eska certainly did.

Ryu took a step, and then another until he was no longer three meters from Ailsa, but rather so close that their noses almost touched.

At this distance, he could feel a natural weighted pressure coming from Ailsa that almost crushed all of his bones... the very same bones that he had forged from the

bodies of ten different Bone Structures.

This woman's power was truly beyond his imagination.

"Don't waste my time," Ryu said coldly, looking Ailsa in the eye. "Kill him yourself."

Ailsa stared back at Ryu, her trembling pupils having already been reined under control by her. The two of them just stared at one another, and it felt as though something had ended.

However, it was then that Ailsa suddenly jolted, and her body jumped involuntarily. At

the same time, Ryu winced before quickly regaining his composure, burying the pain

he was feeling deep as he turned away.

"I don't kill small fry, I'll give you the head of the Ruin Master Guild instead."

Share