Chapter 149 - Pain

The next morning around 7:00 a.m., Ethan was woken up by strange noises. As soon as he opened his eyes, he turned his gaze for a moment to Lefiya and Ais, and he could see they were both asleep.

Even though this brought him to furrow his brows, he heard the noises increase exponentially at some point and, bringing his sight to look at the origin of those sounds, Ethan saw as Maple was making them, and now she sounded more and more pained as every moment that passed. This immediately caused him to open his eyes wide before he got out of bed

While in his head he wondered what might have happened, Ais and Lefiya woke up both by the way Ethan had got out of bed and by the sounds that Maple was emitting, but the first to be immediately operational was Ais that, seeing Ethan near Maple as the latter tried to understand what was happening to her, she also got out of bed while Lefiya rubbed her eyes. Although she was quite used to having to wake up early, she still had problems with reactivity as soon as she woke up...

As Ais approached him to try to figure out what was going on, Ethan immediately asked the system if there was anything he could use to help Maple, and to this, the system reacted by making a panel appear in front of him

[The system needs to know the cause of the problem to be able to give an answer(an analysis would be the optimal situation)]

Ethan was surprised to hear that. He had no idea how to 'analyse' someone or something, since he never had to do it by himself, but he also knew it wasn't the time to think about it.

Without having to repeat it twice, he started looking for something that could be the cause of the problem, he wanted to buy something like a skill that could help him in the shop, but to this question the system simply answered him

[There is no method to learn such a skill, and it's not for sale in the system. Even if it was, the host doesn't have enough SP to afford it.]

As he sighed in his mind at this response, Ethan had decided it was time to check out the shop, it was too strange for him that some things were easily found and affordable while others weren't, but it was not really the time to think about it now as Maple's situation seemed to be getting worse...

Ethan's serious expression led Ais to check for irregularities in Maple and, although she was undecided whether to call Riveria or not, Ais noticed some sort of black symbol on Maple's body.

As Ethan kept looking for irregularities, Ais approached him before pointing to where the black sign was

"Here.. I think that's the problem"

As Ais pointed out to Ethan the symbol, Lefiya now awake, was about to get out of bed before she could feel a great power coming from Maple...

Surprised, Lefiya felt something was very strange in that symbol and that it was better not to touch it, but before she could say this, Maple gradually stopped making noises in pain as the power she could see a few seconds ago vanished completely from her sight.

Being able to see the symbol itself disappear from Maple's fur, Ethan and Ais were much shaken, as well as Lefiya before Ais suggested

"Maybe...it's better to bring her to Riveria?"

It was the best choice they could make at the time, go to Riveria, explain everything to her and hope at least her could give an answer to what seemed to be an enigma, but as Ais said these words, Ethan shrunk his teeth in anger. This was because once again he was unable to be of any help, and for this he couldn't blame anyone but his lack of power.

Although the system had its share of the blame, Ethan couldn't force the system to find a solution if it isn't predictable even by the system itself, but he still wanted to develop knowledge that could help him in such situations, so that at that moment, the only person to blame for his misdeeds was himself, as well as all his accomplishments.

But putting this choice of study aside, Ethan decided to do as Ais suggested.

"It's the best choice, but first..."

Before she was able to continue, however, Ethan could see how Maple slowly opened her eyes before looking around, and seeing that she had returned to Ethan's house, she could only sigh into her mind as she realized that everyone, even Lefiya, now were all gathered around her.

While Maple wondered in her mind why everyone seemed so worried about her even though she was fine, Ethan bought another [Hon'yaku-sha] to explain to Maple what happened.

Using another use of the book and having communicated to Maple what had happened, she was complaining even more about the lack of a way to communicate. Since in addition to wanting to go back, Maple had to explain the strange dream she had had, and the fact the symbol had materialized just as that fox had said, made it clear to Maple that it wasn't just a dream, but something else.

Seeing that Maple didn't seem shocked by the situation at all, Ethan could only think about it, but knowing this would lead to nothing, he decided to do as he could barely explain in the last words that remained after explaining everything else.

Taking her in his arms as usual, Ethan was careful to see if she felt any pain or anything, which was part of his analysis. He was determined to avoid being useless from now on, and the first thing to do to improve for him was to start analysing the signals, not having yet access to the theoretical part.

He could simply ask the system to buy books on the subject, but after what had just happened, Ethan preferred to rely on Light rather than the system, and given the latter's absence, what he had left was to prepare himself as he could.

While Ais and Ethan had their own determinations, dreams and goals so evident on their faces as they headed to the exit, Lefiya looked down before tightening both hands in fists. This is because like Ais and Ethan, she also had several goals, she also wanted to become strong to not be a burden, and she also had dreams to realize...

But knowing all the things that pushed her weren't really comparable to what drove Ais and Ethan to move forward, that didn't matter to Ethan at all.

"What are you waiting for...Lefiya?"

Ethan had noticed Lefiya wasn't following behind him, so before he left the room, he turned to her uttering these words that, like an alarm clock, made her blink in surprise as she stammered some word before she hastily answered

"I'm coming.."

With these words, Lefiya hurried to get close to Ais while Ethan added

"Finally we are reunited. Let's go talking to Riveria now..."

Saying the first sentence with even more emphasis, Ethan tried to send the signal that Lefiya, and strangely even Ais, had perfectly understood.

And although her words had led Lefiya to be all red in the face since he had just implied that a group without her wasn't complete, it also led her to smile. It was unavoidable, unfortunately, that doubts might befall her from time to time, but she also felt that one day she would be able to no longer doubt the importance she had in this group, and also the importance in Ethan's heart.

---

".. So, this is a fox Ethan found in the Dungeon you told me about..."

At this statement, Riveria carefully examined the fox while Ethan could only sigh. It wasn't his intention to reveal to Riveria his 'secret card' so quickly, but this was completely ruined when Lefiya, to the various questions of Riveria, spilled the beans in panic.

But even though this had happened, Ethan wasn't angry with Lefiya because he would have decided to tell her in the future while apologizing for telling her lies, but he still wanted to make sure Lefiya didn't do the same thing with anyone else, which Lefiya promised in a trembling voice that she wouldn't say a word until Ethan decided to talk about it, since, on the other hand, his life could be decided by the people in possession of this information...

Going beyond these events, however, what had surprised Riveria was that a being considered so similar to a demi-human of the 'outer world' might be able to live in a place continually attacked by monsters, but after a little more detailed explanation of the way Ethan found her, Riveria decided to ignore this point completely, but still focused on the 'uniqueness of the fox and what she could do to help since as Ethan had specified several times, the fox had no intention of attacking other living beings, also because Maple didn't possess such power, although Lefiya now doubted this point from what she could see.

Just remembering this, Lefiya had also explained in detail what she had seen, which had very surprised Ethan and Ais who hadn't been able to see the same.

But, although doubts and doubts emerged out of their conversation, Riveria ignored them before trying to understand what was that 'symbol' they had been able to glimpse before but unfortunately, the explanation of the symbol reminded her of nothing. As described, the symbol was shaped like a cross, two lines that curved in waves and at the bottom of the cross, there was a circle attached to it.

But this seemed to have disappeared, and it was with a more in-depth look that Riveria realized an outdated detail.

'There are remnants of mana...'

By telling them what she had discovered, Ethan used another use of his [Hon'yaku-sha] to tell Maple the new information and if she knew anything about it, of course she had to answer in the way Ethan had taught her.

When asked, Maple opened her eyes while in her mind, the last words the fox had told her before she fell asleep resurfaced in his mind. She had to 'train' to be able to use the symbol, but there was always the problem of communication that blocked them.

Seeing Ethan writing words in a language she didn't know in the air using a book, Riveria asked why Ethan didn't ask Maple for information as she seemed to know something, but when Ethan replied it wasn't possible for her to write in the book like no other, Riveria wasn't 'defeated' by this as she brought her hand on her chin before looking at the book another time.

"If she can't write in the book, isn't it enough for her to write something on paper and you rewrite it on the book so that it translates it to you if the problem is that you have to write it?"

To her simple solution to the problem, Ethan stopped to think about it for a second and, after realizing it could actually work, he felt the dumbest person in the room for not having thought of such a simple alternative...

---

(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. 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.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Who do you prefer? Qienta or Light? | Cat-girl or Renard(Fox) | Are you liking the interactions between Maple and Ethan?)

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(Alternate Titles: "Maple's in danger? A Symbol? Wha-?", "OwO This group sure is determined!", "I wonder how Ethan felt when he saw Maple again in pain like not long ago?")