Chapter 111 - An Unwelcomed Advance

'Well, I'm screwed.'

Those were the first words that popped into Rynold's head as he stared at the girl that was standing in front of him. Since she was shorter than Rynold, there was no way of telling what she was thinking.

Despite that, though, Rynold was immediately screwed because Lissa was now inside of his cage.

There were the documents that were scattered across the floor that Leo had brought to him. There was also the hold in the ground that led to the underground cave where the Exanite was.

Both of these things were clear signs that Rynold had more ability than he had initially shown. Abilities that he didn't want to disclose to anybody aside from the people that he trusts.

"Princess," Rynold started the conversation, "Is there a reason for you to actually do something as stupid as locking yourself in a room with me?"

Ultimately, Rynold knew that it didn't matter what she says. He knew for a fact that he couldn't get away with things if the Princess told everyone about his secrets.

Rynold calculated that the best chance for him to keep quiet about everything was to keep Lissa from getting out. It was an unfortunate turn of events, but the circumstances forced him to act this way. The risks that both Leo and Rynold would end up facing would be catastrophic otherwise.

But, before that, he at least had to know why she did such a stupid thing.

"Hello? Are you there, Princess?" Rynold asked once more, "You know, I thought that you would actually be smart with some things. But, coming here without any guards? Then, locking yourself in this room? I gotta say, the bar that you set for yourself has been getting lower."

Rynold tried to provoke Lissa to have her say something. Anything would be better than standing in this awkward silence for so long.

Too bad, though, it didn't seem to work.

Just inches apart from each other, Rynold didn't know what else he could do. With Lissa just looking down at the ground beneath her feet like that, Rynold was truly at a loss for words. It wasn't like he could force the words out of her mouth forcefully.

After a few more seconds, Rynold clicked his tongue with audible disdain.

"Okay," he said, disappointingly, "How about this? I-"

It was then that Lissa finally looked up and matched his gaze. Rynold stopped when he saw that Lissa had finally moved, thinking that it was her time to speak.

But, it was still silence.

Under the lights that were emitted through the small gaps near the ceiling, Rynold glimpsed at Lissa's eyes filled with determination. He couldn't figure out why, but it was as if the Princess actually had a point of getting in there with him. Rynold was clueless, though, as to why.

"Shut up for a second," Lissa spoke in a calm yet sweet voice. It was uncanny for Rynold to hear such a tone from someone like her, but, ultimately, decided to listen to what she had to say.

Rynold let out a breath. For some reason, Rynold found it even more awkward that she was staring at him so intently. For a second there, he thought that Lissa was actually going to get on with why she was here. Too bad it didn't always go how he expected it would go.

Because, for some odd reason, Lissa slowly shifted her weight to her toes to reach a taller height. It didn't stop there, though. She took a half-step forward and leaned towards Rynold, putting her left hand on Rynold's chest for support.

Suffice it to say, Rynold did not like where this was going.

"What are you do-"

Lissa put her right index finger on the purse of Rynold's lips, stopping him from speaking any more than he already did. Interrupted once again, Rynold's instincts were telling him to get the hell out of dodge.

With the Princess's weight on Rynold, he couldn't simply let go. Now that Lissa was moving ever closer to Rynold's face to the point where it would be misunderstood from a glance.

"Do you think I'm pretty?" she whispered loud enough for Rynold to hear.

"Tsk."

Rynold immediately grabbed both of Lissa's shoulders and gave her a gentle push to the side. It was the best way for him to get her away. Rynold knew that now was not the best time to about those things, especially not with the Spirit of Fire eagerly listening.

Throwing a glance at the tunnel that he had dug out earlier, Rynold could sense that the Spirit was so curious about what was happening. So, with that, he knew that he had to deal with this nonsense here and now.

However, before Rynold could actually say anything, Lissa was the one who first spoke. Well, scream was more like it.

"How dare you push me away!? How dare you push me away when I'm the one who's advancing towards you, huh?! HMPH! I never thought I'd be any more offended by you but you suddenly do this! Truly inconceivable! I would have your head for this!!"

Lissa continued rambling on for about ten more minutes while Rynold simply laid back, nonchalant as always. There wasn't anything good for him if he interrupts the Princess's dignified scolding.

'Fucking hell. She's a lot worse than Neana ever was. Reminds of someone, though..."

With no signs of stopping, Rynold decided that it might be time to get it over with. Lissa has been consistently rambling on about how much she wanted to kill Rynold and have his head mounted on the wall.

So, with that, Rynold thought that he might give her a little example of what might happen if she tried to have him executed.

"Enough with the bullshit," Rynold said as he shifted his Mana Gauntlets to Strength-form. "You keep saying that you'll kill me and have my head hanging off your wall. But, really, I'd like to see you try."

Rynold fully extended his drill at the very end of his sentence. Looking at Lissa with eyes that would kill if provoked, Rynold truly didn't hold back in intimidating the young Princess.

"So," Rynold spoke once more, this time with an intimidating voice to match. "I'm going to ask you one more time and I hope this will be the last time I would ever need to ask you this. What. Do. You. Want?"

"I- I..."

Lissa's voice was audibly shaking this time around. Clearly, Rynold's intimidation tactics work. It might've worked a little too well, in fact, seeing as how Lissa was stunned and speechless.

With a deep sigh, Rynold gave up. He admitted the fact that his approach may have been counterintuitive. But, there were other things he had to focus on.

Rynold retracted the drill and changed his gauntlets back to normal. Without sparing a glance back at the terrified Lissa, Rynold turned around and jumped down the tunnel that led to the cave.

"I thought you humans were always so fickle when it comes to others of the same species," Prominence Alpha's judgemental tone echoed within Rynold's head.

"Don't care. Did you find a solution to the problem yet?" Rynold asked as he walked a few steps forward, observing the purple light as he got closer to it.

The Spirit of Fire circled Rynold and grunted with its oversized whiskers. With its impressions of Rynold changed, it knew that this particular human may not be as simple as those he encountered a few centuries ago.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we can do anything about this," Prominence Alpha expressed his concern, "There aren't any ways for us to carry the thing out. Unless you have a person that's never been exposed to Mana, I don't think there's a way for you to get that thing out of here."

Rynold raised his hand to his chin to think.

How badly did he actually want this thing? Is it worth finding somebody that would fit the criteria just so that he could bring this out of here? Rynold considered his options with the main issue being he won't so easily trust someone who would want to help him out.

It wasn't going to be that simple. Just going out and trying to find somebody was a hard task on its own.

With a deep sigh, Rynold seemed defeated.

Well, who could blame him? With the sudden appearance of Lissa out of nowhere, Rynold was truly confused as to what he would have to do about her. Seeing as how there wasn't anything he could do about the Exanite now, he would have no choice but to deal with Lissa.

"Fine then," he said as he walked back to the tunnel exit. "Do you want to stay here or go back and rest?"

"I shall keep watch over the Exanite for now," the Spirit of Fire responded, "It gets stuffy inside that damned thing you made."

Shooting the grapple towards the ceiling of the cage, Rynold headed out and braced himself for what was about to come.