At that moment, her eyes began to water again, throwing Ryu off guard. Why was she still crying? Maybe he didn’t’ apologize sincerely enough?

Ryu inwardly shook his head. He was probably overvaluing his apology. Just because he said sorry, didn’t mean that Sarriel could suddenly turn off all the emotions he had forcibly turned on.

The truth was that Sarriel had truly been caught in a whirlwind that may or may not have been her fault. Everything Ryu had learned to this point pointed toward the fact that she knew and understood more than she was letting on. After all, why else would someone as powerful as Sarriel believe she needed help in a place as seemingly simple as the Tri Palace?

From what Ryu knew, the Tri Palace’s greatest challenge would just be the people you entered with. Though the trials might push one to their limits, the greatest worry was being stabbed in the back.

Beyond that, Ryu still found the fact Sarriel hadn’t broken into Path Extinction Realm to be odd, especially after meeting Zanlis. There was clearly something very deliberate about her actions, yet she had kept it to herself this entire time.

Still, Ryu felt that maybe he had gone overboard. Though he would still press for answers, there wasn’t any reason to become enraged unless Sarriel refused to answer.

Ryu opened his mouth to try and see if he could say something more sincere. But, before he could, his pupils constricted.

Sarriel was too fast. Ryu couldn’t even react before her lips closed over his. He truly couldn’t fathom how a woman who seemed to be at the end of her rope could gather up so much strength all for the sake of sexually assaulting him.

Sarriel’s momentum knocked Ryu over and onto his back. Her two hands clasped onto the side of Ryu’s head as though not wanting him to run away.

Her body lay on top of him, her bottom placed quite conspicuously. Even though she didn’t seem to be doing it on purpose, Ryu could feel her two soft cheeks pushing against his lower half.

At the same time, an unpracticed, confused and embarrassed tongue seemed to want to enter his mouth.

Ryu felt as though his veins were running with lava. In one instant he was stunned, and in the next, he was nearly at full mast. The amount of pure Yin Sarriel was exuding almost made him lose his mind completely.

For a moment, his irises became a striking crimson, his pupils elongating into reptilian slits.

A hand of his, as though having a mind of its own, firmly grabbed out and took a handful of Sarriel’s ass.

A low gasp left her lips, but her violet eyes flickered with an unconcealed excitement, especially when she felt an undeniable strength flip her from her top position.

The world spun and Sarriel suddenly found herself on the bottom. But, before she could even get excited at the thought of what Ryu might do to her, all of Ryu’s actions came to a stop.

Sarriel slowly opened her eyes, peeking through to see what was wrong. But, what she found were eyes so ruby in color that they looked like gems she could reach out and pluck.

These same eyes flickered to a sheen of blue sapphire then back to ruby, seemingly unable to decide with oppressive Yang type it want to be.

As fascinating as the sight was, though, Ryu closed them, hiding the changes from Sarriel’s view. When he opened his eyes once again, his silver irises were back, a calm reconvening within him. Even a certain prodding Sarriel felt on her lower half slowly, but surely receded.

Ryu shook his head and smiled somewhat bitterly.

”Don’t do that again, alright?”

Though he was doing his best to be gentler with Sarriel, his words were actually quite firm. Sarriel could tell that he meant them. At this moment, Ryu was drawing a very clear line.

”But…” Sarriel’s gaze dimmed.

All her excitement seemed to be washed away.

Seeing Sarriel act in this way, Ryu silently breathed a sigh of relief. If she was like Elena and kept pressing, Ryu really didn’t know what he would do.

For the first time in a while, when Ryu thought of Elena, he smiled. It was a carefree smile, the kind that was full and accepting.

Ryu’s reason for drawing this line here was very simple. He was in a stage in his life where he had only just realized how much he truly needed to mature. Just because he had realized it, doesn’t mean that he had magically flipped a switch now.

Taking on the responsibility of another woman was most definitely not at the forefront of his mind.

If Ryu felt fine using Sarriel’s body so that he could clear his mind, he would do that and feel no guilt about it. But… That was if and only if he could come to the conclusion that Sarriel was not worth his trust.

However, in the case that Sarriel was worth it, even though using her in such a way would be able to help his mind and body perform better for the coming trial, he would never do it.

At this moment, Ryu still didn’t know whether Sarriel was trustworthy or not. Something about her existence seemed off to him, but he also hadn’t quite decided for certain yet.

Ryu’s sort of backwards thinking would probably drive Sarriel mad. But the foundation of it all was that Ryu wasn’t in the headspace to accept another woman. Especially when one of his was in a coma, a second probably hated him, and a third’s life and death was completely unknown to him.

Ryu rose up, helping Sarriel to stand.

”Don’t give me that look, I’m not that amazing anyway.”

Sarriel’s dim eyes suddenly blinked in shock as she looked toward Ryu as though she was seeing a completely different person. Did she hear okay?

Ryu just made a joke? A self-deprecating one at that?

Was this the same Ryu she knew? Did something take over his body?

Sarriel involuntarily put her palm to Ryu’s forehead, checking him seriously. It must have been a high fever. Or maybe she should really think about checking his soul to see if there were any oddities.

Ryu’s eyes shifted up to look at the odd placements of Sarriel’s hand. Considering their difference in height, she had to stand to the very tips of her toes just to do this.

It was best that Ryu kept looking up too, because if he looked down, he would see that deep ravine again and he wasn’t sure if he could stop himself a second time. It definitely didn’t help, though, that her chest was barely grazing against his own right now.

”Are you… Ryu?” Sarriel asked, her delicate features curling into a frown.

Ryu shook his head and pulled Sarriel’s hand away.

”Will you answer my question, now?”

Sarriel pouted slightly. “You said you liked confident women, but you rejected me when I was being confident.”

Ryu felt a headache coming on. He had only casually told this girl that, now it was coming back to bite him.

Ryu’s love of confident, arrogant women was just the tip of the iceberg. He wanted that confidence and arrogance to feed into a drive to be the absolute best as well. But, he had a feeling that just explaining these matters to Sarriel wouldn’t make her feel any better.

He had half a mind to just go back to being as cold as possible. At least then, he wouldn’t have to deal with this at all. Or, maybe it would just be easier to vent all this pent up lust he hadn’t gotten to before Ailsa fell into a coma.

Seeing Ryu’s rapidly changing expression, Sarriel suddenly giggled.

”You aren’t so scary anymore.”

It was then that Ryu was certain. He had definitely made a mistake being so soft with this lady.

”… I don’t know much about this place, I only know that it will be dangerous. Before I was forced to leave my family, we received an invitation of sorts. We didn’t end up being able to accept, but I always remembered it because of how odd it all was.”

Ryu’s brow furrowed. “An invitation? From who?”

”I’m really not sure. My family once had the letter, but after everything happened, I couldn’t manage to keep track of it. But, I remember that the invitation made my elders especially serious as though they were all facing a common enemy.

”They refused to tell me why, or maybe even they themselves weren’t exactly certain of why.”

”Then how did you know that these matters would be related to the Tri Palace?”

”… Because my Truth Pupils told me that Tri Palace wasn’t its name.”