Chapter 112 - A Heartfelt Conversation

'What's she doing?'

Rynold saw Lissa curled up in the corner, visibly shaking. It was clear that his threats had been far too effective in scaring the young Princess.

With a clear sign of regret, Rynold was dumbfounded as to what to do next.

Obviously, it wasn't necessarily easy for Rynold to deal with someone he had threatened to kill. In hindsight, Rynold might've gone overboard with it as well.

He sat down across from Lissa was and looked at her intently.

Suffice it to say, Rynold was at a complete loss of words. He truly didn't know how to approach a situation such as this one. Well, considering the circumstances, it wasn't really a farfetched assumption to say that he had screwed up.

"Can we talk?" Rynold asked with the calmest and most soothing voice he could muster. Frankly, it was a bit creepy to hear himself say it like that.

However, despite his somewhat lackluster efforts, Lissa didn't respond.

The young Princess was still shaking over Rynold's earlier threats. She couldn't help but feel that she had poked a sleeping dragon, encountering its wrath because of her own actions.

Rynold let out a deep sigh, knowing full well of what he had done. From his perspective, he could visibly see the result of his actions.

To scare someone to that extent. It wasn't something that he expected would happen. So, Rynold did what he usually did when it came to awkward social circumstances.

"Look," Rynold started to talk, "I'm sorry for going too far with that. The truth is I get carried away when people push too far. I screwed up. That's on me."

Pausing for a second, Rynold checked on Lissa to see if there were any changes. Noticing that she wasn't trembling as badly as before, Rynold continued.

"Heh. I don't really know what else to say," Rynold added with a genuine tone of confusion. "I can't really say that I expected those kinds of things. And, even if I did, I wasn't sure what you wanted in the first place. So, will you be so kind as to explain things?"

Rynold went with the kind and concerning approach. An approach that he maybe should've started with in the first place. Well, there's not really a way for him to turn back now.

"I'm not going to force you to say anything that you don't want to," Rynold assured Lissa, who had visibly stopped shaking but still covered her face. "If you want me to leave you alone, I'll gladly do so. You have to know that you're in control of what'll happen next. I'll just take whatever you want me to do and run with it."

It was a nice change of tone for Rynold to say these things.

Despite the unnatural and rather emotional tone of the conversation, Rynold preferred to deal with things in a more democratic manner. Only ever using violence as a last resort, Rynold knew that punching his way through this one would probably be the worst thing to do.

Naturally, after Rynold had said his piece, silence ensued.

It wasn't always that people immediately found the right words to say. In fact, Rynold's experiences with these sorts of things took some time before they'd ever move past the awkward stage.

Regardless, Rynold waited.

There really wasn't much to do anyway since he couldn't grab the Exanite that was in the cave down below. As much as he wanted to, it was practically impossible unless he removed the Mana that was in his body. That, in itself, sounds insane.

Seeing as how Lissa wasn't going to talk anytime soon, Rynold scooched to the wall that Lissa was leaning on.

Rynold sat still and waited. The initial tense atmosphere became slightly awkward as both of them sat quietly without speaking a word to each other.

Seconds turned to minutes as the two continued the silence of the room. Rynold didn't dare to break his silence by offering some sort of underhanded joke.

The awkward silence did nothing but carry on for a few more minutes. Rynold was determined that he would stay true to his words and patiently wait for Lissa to talk.

But, his determination could only hold out for so long.

With the amount of time that Rynold had spent waiting nearly reaching an hour, he was close to passing out. It was understandable, considering that it was well past midnight and the boredom had started to take over.

He started to feel the weight in his eyelids as the boredom and tiredness enveloped him. With each blink, Rynold felt himself slowly reaching the escape to his own dreams.

It was then that Lissa suddenly spoke.

"H- how did you do that thing with your hand?" she said with a somewhat hesitant tone.

Whatever Rynold did to her seemed to completely shatter her pride.

The pride of the young Princess was utterly obliterated with just a simple threat from a being who she deemed was lower than him. If it weren't for the current atmosphere of the place, Rynold would've laughed at the thought.

Now was not the time for it, though.

Rynold immediately snapped from his drowsiness. He let out a low yawn before saying, "magic," in the most casual tone ever.

Lissa, on the other hand, thought that Rynold was mocking her even further. Since she had no perception or idea that magic even exists, it wasn't a stretch to see why.

"I'm not kidding," Rynold added after a brief moment of pause. "I get that it's hard to believe or even understand that magic exists, but it does. For some reason, most of the citizens and possibly your parents don't know about it. But, at the same time, the existence of magical creatures is known to everyone. Something's going down but I just can't figure out what."

Shifting his weary eyes onto Lissa, Rynold noticed that her eyes sparkled as if she had realized something. Something in which would help him figure things out. But, at the same time, it doesn't seem like the young Princess will disclose information any time soon.

Without much of a choice, Rynold continued.

"We can't honestly point fingers at random people and hope that it'll stick. Obviously, it's just not something we can blindly do and bark up the wrong trees," Rynold added to his explanation. "Whatever is going on, I'm getting to the bottom of it. That's mostly why I'm here."

Rynold disclosed the reason why he was brought to this place without any sort of hesitation. He knew full well that the best way to approach one with a secret is to disclose some of his own. Besides, it's not like she can go out and tell everyone.

"Why else are you here?" Lissa's head popped up and finally looked back at Rynold, meeting him in the eye.

"Well, I can't say all of my secrets now, can I?" Rynold chuckled and smiled, "There are some things that I don't think you should know. Just a fair warning, though, you should probably lay low the next couple of days."

The young Princess was surprised by Rynold's casual warning.

Although it wasn't anything that she would consider, it seemed as if Rynold was truly warning her of the dangers ahead. A danger that he himself was the center of.

"Listen," Rynold scoffed at the thought of what he was going to say next, "I have no idea who you are or why you decided to do that. But, for some reason, you don't seem like the person who'd do bad things. You're probably just misguided at best. It's a good thing that somebody called you out on it now before you'd do anything you would regret."

Lissa's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Suffice it to say, she wasn't expecting Rynold to say something like that so suddenly. What's more, is that she had felt genuine concern and emotion from Rynold's words then and there.

Rynold, on the other hand, considered his options carefully to the point where even his words were carefully selected. At the same time, however, his words weren't lies.

He genuinely meant what he said and, out of respect for Leo, he had to at least say something that would stir her away from bad things.

"Let's run away together," Lissa murmured at the purse of her lips.

Despite the low volume of her voice, Rynold completely heard what she said. Whether or not Rynold had to respond to such a statement was something he wasn't sure of. That and the fact that whatever feelings she harbored for him from this point on would be decided by his response.

"Whatever reason you came here for, you should probably find it from someone else," Rynold decided to respond coldly. "For one thing, your brother would probably kill me if he found out. And for another... Well, let's just say I'm already spoken for."

That was a lie, obviously. To Rynold, though, it was the best thing he could think of right now.