Chapter 159 - Deal

Explaining to both of them he had to go and deliver the warrant to Riveria and that therefore he was in need of someone who could take care of Maple, Ais stared at him for a few moments while he could feel her gaze on him.

"I decided to ask you because Maple seems more sociable with you"

Although her words were the truth, Ethan still wondered if there might be some reason for her reluctance, because during the week, he had asked Maple with some spare words of the [Hon'yaku-sha] why she didn't like Ais, but she always deflected the question and in the end, never gave him a concrete answer.

While Ethan was lost for some time in his thoughts, Ais didn't understand what Ethan meant by his words as Lefiya, glancing at her, replied

"I..I have no problem taking care of Maple while you're gone..."

Thinking about it for a moment, Lefiya looked at Ais and noticing her confusion she understood it mattered to her since she was trying to understand, so she quickly changed her words by adding

"B-But I don't think I can take care of her on my own, so Ais.. can you help me?"

At her request, Ais tilted her head slightly in confusion, but looking at the little fox now completely attached to Ethan, she couldn't help but have a little smile on her face before answering

"Yes...I can"

Moving his eyes from Ais to Lefiya and vice versa, Ethan could only sigh with a smile

"You can do whatever you want, so I respect your choice. Thanks for your help, now I need to go"

Saying this, Ethan quickly greeted the two girls before stating

"I'll see you later...Ah wait, do you want me to buy something for dinner or will we cook?"

It was a normal question to ask, to begin by establishing what and how they would eat. Although people usually preferred to cook themselves, Ethan couldn't be sure everyone agreed with his choice.

'Here it is again.. that feeling.. '

Lefiya felt strange, although what Ethan had asked wasn't new to her, accustomed now this week to dine with him and Ais, but this time she could feel as if this was the first time they were going to 'eat together'...

As Lefiya pondered the strangeness of her emotions, Ais thought about it for a second before answering. She remembered Ethan wanted to start cooking for her, and the fact he didn't decide to just try it out, made Ais think it was better to let him decide.

"I don't have a problem with anything..."

Nodding to Ais' answer, Ethan passed to Lefiya, but before he even asked her the question he saw she was lost in her thoughts, again.

'I guess I'll have to apologize to everyone for my behaviour...'

While doing this, Ethan approached Lefiya, and although his first instinct was to hit her head lightly, he avoided doing so out of fear of what she had said a few minutes earlier, which leaned towards masochism

"You think she's still worried about something, Ais?"

Ethan had realized in Ais' words their relationship wasn't posed as two distinct lines tied only by his presence, so it wasn't necessary for him to solve all the problems for the two lines to remain united. In fact, if there was something he couldn't figure out on his own, Ethan had decided to rely on both Lefiya and Ais instead of worrying about it alone, from now on.

His question, led Ais to think about it for a moment but unfortunately, the difference in Ais and Lefiya was also in the speed of adaptation to situations. For her it wasn't a problem to live under the same roof, behave like cohabitants, or even more things, and as much as she could understand the embarrassment Lefiya felt as it rarely happened to her too, Ais couldn't understand everything occurring in Lefiya's mind.

"I have..no idea. I think there's something, but maybe it's something I.... I can't understand"

All she could do was come to this conclusion while Ethan, now silent, was pondering what might be the problem now. Lefiya, feeling the atmosphere had changed around her, blinked before 'going back to look at the real world'.

Looking around, she saw they were no longer talking and worried she asked if there was any problem, but hearing this made Ethan reply

"More like you have something that you're still worried about. Do you remember what I told you earlier? Ais can be there for you if you talk to her, you could feel her kindness, haven't you?"

His question led Lefiya to nod, and while she did this, Ethan detached Maple from him, which led the latter to look at him in the eye before he smiled at her and gently placed her in Lefiya's arms.

"You know what to do then..."

Saying this, Ais and Lefiya saw him off and shortly after he had gone, Ais sighed.

"What Ethan said is true, Lefiya... I may not understand right away what you have to say.. but at least I'll listen if there's something you want to tell me..."

Ais knew she wasn't the best friend anyone could want, and she knew she wouldn't be much of a help even if Lefiya would discuss her problems with her, but she didn't want to disappoint Ethan either...

"No.. t-the problem isn't you Ais, I'm happy you are h-here...it's more me that.. maybe I have too many problems with everything, and I should enjoy life more..."

She knew herself it would have been better not to pay attention to feelings of strangeness and that it was better to enjoy her life as it was, but to her answer, Ais shook her head.

"I don't think it's that wrong...As I recall, Ethan.. gave you all the time you want. You should take it... and sort things out"

At her words, Lefiya nodded as she began to slowly explain her feeling of strangeness, while Ais was a bit surprised by the speed with which she had decided to confide with her as right outside the room, Ethan sighed before bringing his gaze previously turned towards the ceiling, now on the floor deciding it wasn't appropriate to stay and eavesdrop on the entire conversation

'They'll be fine on their own...'

Thinking this, Ethan headed to the stairs leading to the first floor as he sighed.

'At least I wanted to ask what they would prefer for dinner. I will have to choose for myself what there will be to eat...'

With a small smile from this thought, Ethan walked out of his house and looked around for a moment, before nodding as if to confirm everything was alright.

---

After about 20 minutes, Ethan was already at the Twilight Manor, and on his way to Riveria's room he met someone he didn't expect to see.

"Long time no see, Shakti"

Hearing the familiar voice, Shakti turned to look at him and surprised to see him here, replied to Ethan's greeting in the same tone before Ethan asked

"What brings you here of all places?"

What he didn't know, was that during the week spent for him in the blink of an eye, all the others were also moving on and, this also encompassed Ganesha, who had promptly decided to enter into a favourable relationship with Loki.

Loki and Ganesha had met and signed a contract obliging the Loki Familia to sell monster carcasses only to Ganesha's familia, in exchange for a small percentage more on each sale, besides that, Ganesha was obliged to request monster capture missions only from members of the Loki familia, as well as any other mission, and last but not least, the two families were much more favoured to cooperate.

After the way Ethan had managed to "cheat" Loki, the latter had become even more fussy, in fact she herself had checked and rechecked the contract while at the same time trying to extort as many benefits as possible, but this was something Ganesha was prepared for from the beginning, knowing the Goddess with whom he was going to cooperate with for a long time.

This had led to today, where Shakti was personally handing over the doc.u.ment with Ganesha's signature, where only Loki's signature was missing to make their little collaboration effective.

Taking him away from where everyone could hear them, Shakti summarized all this to Ethan very quickly while the latter was surprised by this development. Normally, Loki wasn't one of the best people to bargain with given her nature, but if this had been ignored by Ganesha, Ethan was curious to know why...

When asked, Shakti looked up

"The reason why Ganesha-sama acted this way...? I think it's because he likes you very much and wants a chance to get in touch with you more easily...but not only that. The contract even if more advantageous for Loki-sama, is also advantageous for our familia, since having such a connection with the first Familia in Orario will make us more popular, and then we could earn more to go anyway in the positive even if the gains will be less than normal with the increase of the rewards as a part of the deal.."

Thinking about it for a second, Ethan knew what Shakti was saying was right, and this led him to nod satisfied with the information received as a smile formed on his face.

"I understand. You can tell Ganesha I'll be very busy in this period, but after that I'll be available... thank you so much for satisfying my curiosity"

"I heard you chose to have a home for yourself.. it's rare among adventurers to choose so, usually all of them prefer to remain protected within the walls of the Mansion of their familia.."

To her answer, Ethan responded directly because Shakti had taken the trouble to explain the whole situation to him, so he chose to clear her doubts as well.

"You see, it's not that I didn't want to have the protection this Mansion is capable of giving me, it's that my familia doesn't have rooms equipped for forging, and instead of asking Loki to create it selfishly for me, I decided to leave the additional protection to follow my d.e.s.i.r.es..."

To his words, Shakti was very surprised. This was because she had no idea that Ethan, an adventurer specialized in Dungeon exploration, could suddenly aim to become a blacksmith. But even though these doubts assailed her mind, the seriousness with which Ethan was speaking and the already known news regarding Ethan leaving Twilight Manor, led her to sigh before adding

"I understand. Pursuing your d.e.s.i.r.es is certainly something noble. But I recommend you at least to hire guards, or someone who can control the security of the house. There are many people who still have a grudge against your 'stealing' all the main goals of thousands of men, and I'd be careful about what these individuals decide to do knowing you're a level 2..."

At these words, Ethan nodded. From what he understood, Shakti wasn't aware even Lefiya and Ais had moved with him, and after answering he would do as she had said, Ethan saw Shakti off before heading to Riveria's room while the latter went in the opposite direction to the room where Loki was waiting for her...

---

(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: "GANEEESHAAAAA", "Ethan overheard the conversation between Ais and Lefiya, how l.e.w.d!", "Lefiya, you can do it!", "Ais do be the best listener"