Chapter 95 - Stare

"As Ryuu stated before, she will fight alongside Ais and Tiona. Instead, I will have different roles based on the power of the monster in question..."

Hearing his words, Ryuu nodded as she replied

"For our formation.. We will protect Lefiya-san by putting her in the centre of our circle."

Staring at her, Ais nodded as well while Tiona added

"Ethan's role will be the Supporter, me, Ais and Ryuu will be The front, and Lefiya will be the Magician, right?"

Without hesitation, he turned towards where Raul's party was supposed to be before replying with a 'yes'...

Seeing someone interesting next to Raul, Ethan smiled without thinking as he returned his focus on his own party..

'I didn't expect to see her, but in the end, we're in the same Familia, so it isn't like I never had the occasion to talk to her if I wanted to.'

Thinking about this for a moment, brought him to space out as always while Lefiya was trying to ask something to him...

"Ethan!!"

Finally, understanding he was losing himself in his thoughts as always, he immediately smiled as he replied in an apologetic tone.

"I was thinking about things..sorry"

Knowing that as well, she stared at him before repeating her question again

"...As I was a-asking, now that our formation is done, we actually never talked about our abilities, even though we're here from quite a some time.. So w-why we aren't trying to understand each other..? It will be easy if we do that before fighting""

Understanding she was right, Ethan thought about it before replying

"My strongest ability is magic."

"Please, be more specific. Otherwise, it won't change anything"

Making an 'oh', Ethan knew he had to try to explain himself better.

"...My magic is actually called [Boost Magic]. I'll explain my magic again for Ryuu..."

Telling her everything that could have been necessary for them, Ethan looked at Ais as he added

"Now, it's your turn"

Being stared at by him, she thought about it for a moment before replying

"...My strongest ability is [Ariel]. I can control the wind"

Even though the poor explanation wouldn't be that useful, Ethan couldn't ask her to give them a detailed either. This because, he didn't really want to put her in a 'difficult' situation.

'At least they know that she can control wind....'

Sighing, he looked at Lefiya while she made an 'ah' before looking down.

"My speciality..is m-magic as well. I can..c-cast..."

Slowly telling them the best points of her magic, brought a shocked expression on Ryuu's face.

"You're able to..use every single magic of the Elves? I see, the nickname Thousand Elf really suits you then"

Replying while she quickly brooded over it, she was about to ask something more before Lefiya added

"Y-Yes..but I h-have to know their chants and the story behind them before being able to use them..."

Understanding her magic was powerful, but had a huge flaw brought her to nod. This is because, to Ryuu, every overpowered power had a huge flaw, and this proved, in this case, to be true...

Closing her eyes, she didn't say anything more while she opened her mouth to start telling them about her abilities, but...

"Hehe, I guess It's my turn now, right...? I would say that all I can do is throw punches, but..I also have this weapon!"

Having [Urga] proudly 'standing' next to her, she made a smile as Ethan knew she didn't really have any weakness they had to know...

"I have [Luminous Wind], a wind and light magic that is for attack and [Noah Heal]. I use the latter for..."

Even though she was finally entering the 'interesting' point of the conversation, she was stopped by a voice.

"Ethan!"

Remembering who the owner of the voice was, brought Ryuu to stare at him while he looked at Ethan

"Oh. Raul. I guess the fact you came all the way to our party means we have to enter the Dungeon?"

Shaking his head, he replied

"There are still a few minutes before Tsubaki would say anything, I am here because I want to introduce you to my party, as well as the other one who will be in our group. We have to at least know each other before entering..."

Nodding, he thought about it for a moment before returning his focus to Ryuu while the latter just continued to stare at them without saying anything. Doubtful he might've hurt her feelings in focusing on Raul while she was talking, he added

"...I'm sorry Ryuu"

"It's not your fault Hyogumi-san. Don't worry about it"

Even though he wanted to sigh as well, he decided to move onto more important matters while Tiona made a smirk

"If you want, I can hear the rest of what you were saying"

Hearing these words, Ryuu thought about it before shaking her head

"It's fine, I'll explain something about my abilities if there will be an occasion in the future."

With an 'eeeh', she wanted her to be more 'honest' with her feelings. This because, she felt everyone had problems with it but, knowing the situation would likely end up with Ethan asking her to stop, she made a 'tche' while looking away.

As this was happening, they were already where Raul's party was supposed to be as Ethan saw the cat girl that he knew from the anime, but this time, his reaction wasn't the same as always. The fact he had impressed in his mind that danmachi girls and this new world's girls were two different things, brought him the same feeling you would feel when you have to talk to a stranger.

With a smile, Ethan said

"Nice to meet you, I'm sure you know me already, but I'm Ethan..."

'Wait, should I tell her my last name? I wouldn't mind, but..'

Thinking hard about this, he spaced out again while Anakitty stared at him before replying

"Nice to meet you-nya! My name's Anakitty Autumn. By the way, I know you because Raul was talking about you quite a lot before you came here-nya!"

Her words embarrassed Raul who, to reply to her words, went towards her as he added

"...Aki! You shouldn't tell him such things..!"

With a "Nyahaha" she didn't listen to his words while she was waiting for him to answer, but, understanding he wasn't really listening to her words made her curious.

Waving her hand in front of his eyesight, she saw as he returned to look at her, as if previously, he couldn't really see her at all. Finding this reaction even more interesting, made her smile as he realized that, he ended up thinking too much about things.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something important.."

Shaking her head with her smile that didn't fade from her face, she asked

"I know it may sound rude, but your eyes are really similar to a cat person's. I wonder why-nya.."

Looking in his eyes, he did the same as her eyes were quite attractive. The fact she didn't really feel anything from the two, made Ais look at the scene without doing anything to step in as she didn't feel jealous while Lefiya looked at her with a worried expression on her face.

'How come she's so calm..his lover is having a woman so close to him..they just met!!'

While Lefiya was busy thinking about this, Ethan sighed as he replied

"You think so? Yours have a really nice complexion. Although black is quite common, yours have shades that tend almost to grey, which I have never seen before, I like them."

His words slightly surprised her as, she expected him to say something regarding her black eyes, but not to this extent. Smiling, her tail waved side to side as she thanked him for the compliments.

Glancing at her ears and tail as well, he felt really satisfied by the fact he was able to see such a cute existence staring at him with intriguing. Seeing that he was looking at her cat-like 'features', brought her smile to widen as she added

"You never saw a cat-person before?"

Being asked this question again, brought Ethan to smile as well

"I actually had the opportunity to see a cat-person, but she has brown hair and brown eyes. The latter seem to have a complexion that resembles gold, which makes them rather attractive as well..."

Grasping how much he liked cat-people, made Aki laugh as she nodded in understanding

"I guess you really like cats-nya"

Knowing she was right, Ethan nodded again as he knew their conversation was pretty much finished..for the moment.

Seeing this as well, she raised her hand as she looked for a handshake.

"Well, I hope we will be able to get along, Ethan-san"

Looking at her hand for a second, Ethan didn't hesitate to grab it as they officially became acquaintances. Being a spectator throughout the whole thing, Raul stared at the scene without words before looking at Ethan.

'Aki took a liking to him...that's quite... unbelievable'

Returning next to Ais, she didn't say anything while he couldn't really understand her reasoning.

'If I am closer with a girl, but she sees that the girl in question has no 'strange' meaning behind her words or actions, she won't get jealous nor mad. Isn't it perfect? I already have a lot of misunderstandings to clear, so I guess having a little help is a good thing."

Thinking this, he held her hand as he decided to ask Raul about these supposed other members.

"By the way, where are the other members of your party?"

Hearing this question, Raul smiled sarcastically as he pointed behind him.

"Look..they're having a conversation over there. Your party, mine and 2 3rd party members."

Turning around, he saw it was indeed right...

'Was I really so focused on...Aki..?'

The fact her eyes were able to enchant him this much, made Ethan shook his head.

'..for today, I learnt that it's way better to prepare myself..'

Thinking this, he saw Aki heading towards the forest as Raul followed her...

---

While Raul was wiping out his imaginary tears, Aki thought about Ethan's eyes as they are no ordinary ones.

'Such red and gold eyes.. I never saw someone that had something as unique as him in my entire life..'

Remembering how he gave her a detailed explanation of why he liked her eyes, brought another smile to her face.

'He seems, unexpectedly..a nice guy'

Turning around to look at Raul, Aki noded with a determined expression as she added

"Treasure him Raul-nya! I couldn't understand if he's for the bad or good side, but, he will surely be a good friend!"

Raul smiled before replying

"Yeah, I...don't know how to approach him, but I'll try if it's what you say"

Nodding, she knew they had no more time to spend going around, so, without minding it, she suddenly changed the direction of her walking while he shut his mouth..

'Calling me here just to tell me that Ethan will be a good friend..?'

Knowing there was something odd, Raul asked

"Is everything..okay?"

Without replying to him, she continued to walk towards the three parties as the distance that separated them wasn't really that much...

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8 . You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". At this question, my answer would likely be: "Because it's fun? I don't know either. Just join." Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as [The Devoted Heart], so it's recommended to join. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my ******* here. w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)

(Ah, by the way, she stared at him because she wanted to 'see something' contained in the depth of his eyes, and also a way to test him. He stared at her back because her eyes are cute. He finally managed to understand that, girls from danmachi can't be compared with having their real-version in front of you...!)

(Alternate Titles: "Poor Ryuu, she couldn't speak 2 times in a row.", " Ethan & Aki's staring contest!? In the end, nobody won", "I mean, this expedition is long because of Ethan messing up with girls :p)