An unexpected meeting

The wooden walls looked clean. No one could tell that the building was rebuilt in just a few days. Aiena was healing people who had incurred wounds, small or big, due to a previous stampede,

Ryu, with a paper and pen in hand, stood near, waiting for Aiena to be done with the patient,

"What happened, Ryu?" Aiena turned towards Ryu while casting a healing miracle on an elderly's leg,

"I was writing a letter to home Aiena. Is there something you want to add?" asked Ryu as he turned the paper towards Aiena, who thought for a bit and spoke,

"Tell Lina, big sister, to take care" she didn't have anything else, and Ryu nodded as he finished. It was always a surprise for Ryu how quickly letters were delivered in a world filled with monsters,

After Aiena was done healing people, they both went out to meet Jue at the Blacksmith's shop. Ryu was utterly unaware of what was waiting for him at the smithy,

*

"Jue, right? What are you doing here?" Fiona asked with a positively surprised look,

Jue's mind went blank as he faced the exact scenario he despised. He had to choose between lying to his teacher or disappointing Ryu,

Seeing Jue completely quiet, Fiona thought.

'Could it be… that brat did he leave Jue on his own' she stared up and down at Jue, who looked sad and confused. Rafa was confused because she could feel heaviness in the air.

'If that is the case….' Thought Fiona and moved forward towards Jue,

"Jue, did you get into a fight with Ryu?" she asked. Jue wasn't replying, and Fiona took it as a yes blacksmith laughed heartedly as he spoke.

"It seems you already know these bastards' kid; it'll be easy for you to talk with them," Jue thought,

'If possible, I want to teleport to big brother rather than talk right now!!' it didn't take long for Fiona to strengthen her resolve as she spoke,

"Jue, join our party. We will take your guard too. That kid is not worthy of having you," and Jue's spoke,

"No, it is not that!! I won't be at any other party than big brother's."

And suddenly, the door to the smithy opened, a smooth and crips voice entered everyone's year,

"Even if your other tactics using your small…." But before the voice could complete what it was saying, Fiona threw a kukri toward the source of the voice without even looking back,

"Let me finish for once!!!!" shouted Ryu and continued,

"It is downright shameless bullying someone to join your party!!"

"I didn't bully anyone," said Fiona as she turned back and rushed toward Ryu, as she noticed the earlier thrown kukri was evaded. The two girls from her party moved in her way.

"Fiona leader calm down!!" said the girl carrying a bow on her back with blond hair,

"He is just a kid!!" said another girl with a somewhat muscular build with a broad two-handed sword on her side.

"Leave me Silvia, Flan!! Let me finish this disrespectful brat once and for all!!" Fiona waved her one kukri wildly, trying to break free when Ryu spoke.

"I am legally an adult, though…. Just saying," Silvia and Flan looked backward, still holding on to Fiona, and Flan spoke,

"Kid, you like courting death, do ya? Haha," she laughed, and now Ryu just shrugged as he moved towards Jue and spoke in a low voice,

"Did you tell her anything?" Jue moved his head to say no, and Ryu patted Jue's head as he knew how hard it must've been for him to hold back in front of Fiona. Aiena also went to Jue and Rafa, and both parties now calmly faced each other, Ryu standing in the middle of fusion souls and Fiona in the middle of her party,

"What are you doing here? and why did you leave Jue alone?" Fiona pointed at Ryu, who tilted his head as he spoke.

"Who is Jue?"

Fiona felt taken aback by the sudden unexpected reply.

"What do you mean, who is Jue? He is right there?" she pointed at Jue. Jue himself was confused, along with Aiena, both staring at Ryu while Rafa looked sleepy.

"He is not Jue miss. I think you are confused; he is my cousin, Hue,"

'I am not telling you crap!!!!' thought Ryu as he continued,

"Yes, he is Hue, I am Myu, she is Jeina, and that is Safa. We are at the Diffusion Spirits party. Nice meeting you,"

"This crap!! You think I'll believe you," Fiona replied, and Silvia sighed. Ryu just turned to the Blacksmith and spoke,

"Can we have a priority order on my cousin's knuckles" Blacksmith was about to reject with the same reason as before when Ryu put a considerably large stack of silver on the counter,

"Please," he says, and seeing that amount of silver, the Blacksmith gulped and said,

"Thanks for the patronage,"

"Hey!! You still got our orders!!" Fiona shouted and turned to Jue.

"Jue, are you not going to reply to your master" she looked at Jue with puppy eyes, which made Jue feel bad, and Ryu spoke.

"Will you stop bullying my brother? He got a weak heart."

Saying this, Ryu turned to Jue, Aiena, and Rafa as he spoke.

"Let's go. We should rest when we can,"

"Okay, Ryu… I mean Myu," Aiena replied, and Rafa, who was drowsy, just yawned as she put her hand on Ryu's shoulder,

As they were about to leave the store and Ryu was thinking,

'It went well now. We need to finish a dungeon and get out of sight,' when suddenly something unexpected happens,

A sound of something falling came, and when he looked toward Jue, he noticed that a dungeon core he was holding to fell out of his pouch.

'Don't tell me you did it intentionally, you brat!!!!' Ryu looked toward Jue, and Jue looked back with a klutzy expression; hurriedly, Ryu picked it up, but it was already too late.

Silvia and Fiona already saw what it was, and it didn't take them long to figure out the reason for Fusion soul's arrival in the town and their connection to the paladins the village was informed to complain about,

'Blue-haired and crimson eyed!!' Fiona's lips curled into a smile as she spoke to particularly no one,

"I guess we will just need to inform Lord Hathi about doppelgangers of his town savior,"

'This woman!!' thought Ryu as he turned back and said,

"He-he, we were just pranking you. How are you doing?" what followed was an explanation of the events that occurred since Fusion Souls left Hinsmark. Of course, Ryu changed and hid various pieces of information, but it was basically made clear that 13 of the dungeons were destroyed by them,

"I can't believe Lord Hathi is like that," said Fiona as she remembered he funded them when they were aiming to beat the dungeon in Hinsmark,

"So either way, we are going to conquer this dungeon, so you don't need to worry," replied Ryu as he remembered that the village boy earlier mentioned the party members belonging to the village,

"You brat, do you think we will let you!! After the crap you tried to pull on us especially," then she turned to Jue and spoke,

"I am a little disappointed in you, Jue, even though I know it is this guy's teaching," she pointed to Ryu, and Jue just apologized,

"I am sorry for lying…" he didn't have anything else he could say because it was a fact that Ryu had taught him this, but Ryu spoke.

"So, what are you going to do? I am sure if you could conquer the dungeon you already have" as soon as he said this, all three of Fiona's party went quiet; their expression seemed as if they were reminiscing something, and Fiona spoke,

"Then help us. I am sure neither party is capable of clearing it alone."

"You said the same thing in Hinsmark though" Ryu shrugged. Fiona looked visibly irritated, suppressing her anger as she spoke.

"This one is different" Ryu felt the seriousness in her voice but thought it couldn't be that hard based on the description on the map he got,

"We can…" Ryu was about to speak, but before he could finish, Silvia, who was the quietest in Fiona's party, shouted with tear-filled eyes,

"Please let us do it together!! I want to help my village" her voice was full of sadness, and Ryu was taken aback.

'if I think about it… it would not be a down point to have them clear this dungeon and share blame for all dungeons half and half,' he thought, trying to reason even though he had already decided on letting them join as he saw Silvia cry,

"Big brother…" Jue looked at him, and Aiena also bit her lip, trying to hold back from asking Ryu to let them come, but Rafa was firm as she knew Ryu would do what was right.

'Why do you guys even make me leader!!!! If you are always going to blackmail me like this?' thought Ryu as he spoke,

"I am willing to work together,"

-to be continued