Chapter 173 - Genuineness

Lunch wasn't at all difficult to prepare, this was because thanks to the help of Riveria, Lefiya, Ethan and Lili, it wasn't difficult for them to produce good quality dishes, and although Tiona would have liked to help, Riveria had strangely decided not to let her participate, which had surprised Ethan, but if Riveria said it was for the best, then Ethan had no choice but to think the same way.

And with Tiona complaining that Riveria hadn't admitted her to the kitchen, the group ate quickly while Lili, now tired from her training, got up declaring she would go for a bath, which caused Lefiya to jump over for the careless way in which she said these words while Tiona, pondering for a second, approached her before asking if she could use the bath too, and of course, before Lefiya could refuse, Tiona was already trying to persuade her as well.

While this was happening though, Lefiya turned to look him in the eye, and this led him to have a confused expression on his face as he didn't expect she would have indirectly asked him what to do, but knowing it was all okay, Ethan nodded to make her understand it was okay to go have a bath with them, which made her take off the hands she had previously in front of her to 'protect' her face since Tiona had the bad habit of getting too close to someone else's face.

Looking down, Lefiya nodded as Tiona, happy she had decided to come, brought both hands on her shoulders as a sign of encouragement before turning to be guided by Lili to what was the area to bathe..

With Lefiya following Tiona and Lili, Ethan saw the trio enter the bathroom and, as this was happening, Riveria turned to look at him as now it was just the two of them sitting on the chairs.

"So..you had something to say to me?"

When asked, Ethan brought a hand to the side of his hair, passing it through them as he tried to calm down and put aside unnecessary things...

"You see...I feel like there's something inside me that needs to be unlocked. I haven't told anyone in depth yet, but I think I have some kind of power, I just can't wake it up properly...let's just say that from the beginning I've only managed to take a few steps to figure out how to unlock this skill, but I think I'm still a long way from the goal.."

To his unexpected words, Riveria was truly surprised. Of all the things she could expect from him, this had reached its peak, also because in the foreground, she didn't remember that this kind of thing had happened since she was born. This is because normally you acquire skills, choose them, or third you are given as a reward for something that the person in question had accomplished, but the representation of a skill that the user could feel even before its awakening was...unheard of.

"Can you tell me more...I don't think I can understand based on so little information.."

To his words, Ethan nodded before starting to explain by omitting only parts that he couldn't really include in his explanation...

"At first nothing happened, but recently you started receiving strange messages in your head that somehow helped you solve parts of the puzzle, and these aren't ordinary messages, but coded messages..."

Repeating these words in her mind, Riveria had few ideas about what was happening but, many of these started from the fact Ethan wasn't telling her how he obtained the skill, but this caused doubts in Riveria since although it was true that actually, as long as their relationship has improved a lot in the last period, the two of them didn't know each other long enough to immediately rule out this kind of alternative, Riveria felt she would betray the trust Ethan had placed in her to talk about this situation, which from what she had understood, was the only one aware of other than Ethan himself

Leaving aside these questions that would lead nowhere, Riveria decided to rely purely on what she was telling him and, if what Ethan was telling her was true, then that meant the skill had to, without a shadow of a doubt, be something very important and difficult to unlock, if the skill itself had decided to 'show' by itself, also providing aid to Ethan indirectly on how to get to the skill...

Ethan also specified the content of the messages the system had sent him, now considered much more important by him, and similarly by Riveria. Studying in detail what it meant in fact, both came to the conclusion 'meditating' was the best way to achieve the goal, but even though they had tidied up the pieces together, Riveria decided to proceed differently from the classical theories.

"Since this skill is able to suggest small details in a cryptic way, maybe you just have to continue your training as you described it, and if some new information turns up, then I'll help you decipher the content of the message, even if I am not confident of succeeding precisely because I do not possess this ability, and therefore I will never really understand it as you could in direct contact with it..."

At the level of deciphering the content of skills, the common ones are obviously much easier to understand, a development ability like [Hunter], has very precise conditions to be obtained, And as you kill monsters your skill as hunter increases hand in hand, this means that everyone can become hunters, but only those who will be able to kill more monsters will benefit from greater effects, but that's not all that matters.

Normally, skills always have a direction to follow, skills have conditions to be improved, and that's for all abilities, but if there's one no one has ever possessed it before, and therefore is not normally decipherable by anyone but by the person who possesses the ability, then it's much more difficult to increase, since the way to better understand how to use the skill has to be built by the same owner latter, without anyone who had previously cleared that same path for you...

"For now, you could try to follow your training as usual, I will stay here in your house since what I have to do today does not require my presence elsewhere.. It's okay for you, isn't it?"

When asked by Riveria, Ethan responded by shaking her hand to make her understand it was okay to sleep here, but as soon as they finished talking about serious things, Ethan again had the image in his mind of that moment when Riveria had acted so out of the ordinary, But to his concern, Riveria ended up suspecting something was wrong

"You seem pretty nervous.. Did something happen that I should be aware of?"

To her question, Ethan avoided answering as he really didn't know what to say to her and, while Riveria stared at him with a look that would almost be able to dig into every secret he may have had if their eyes met, Riveria sighed as she looked elsewhere.

"If it's something you don't want to talk about, that's fine, but I hope you're not forgetting the important things, whatever happened"

Riveria was sure something had happened, and had suspicions it was about the relationship that encompassed them as it wasn't uncommon for this kind of relationsh.i.p.s to have many quarrels, and many problems, especially at the beginning, but instead of asking directly, Riveria opted to generalize and was convinced that, with some time, Ethan would tell her what had happened.

In fact, Riveria's words were useful to Ethan, and that's because while he was telling her, Ethan had remembered in his mind all of Riveria's lessons and, just during the first of them, a sentence that Riveria uttered, very simple but at the same time able to make him open his eyes in surprise, flooded in his mind.

"Convey your feelings, whatever the outcome, the reason, or the story itself, they will never be genuine unless you express them"

Even though he used to feel pretty nervous about expressing his doubts, his anxieties, his worries, that seemed futile to Ethan at the moment...as she herself had said in fact, whatever the situation, the context and the result, his feelings wouldn't be genuine if he wouldn't express them, and this was something that, strangely, made him feel a pain he had never felt before, and he had no intention of feeling it for long.

Looking back at him, both Ethan and Riveria were still sitting at their respective chairs, but without hesitation, he rose from the chair without responding in any way to Riveria's words, who on the other hand shifted her gaze now upon him but, seeing that he didn't seem to have any reaction, Riveria was confused for a moment before Ethan approached her

"If that's how you put it, I really can't refuse to tell you..."

Surprised by his words, Riveria was about to add something, but before she could even open her mouth to express her doubts about his sudden change, Riveria saw Ethan wrap his arms around her neck as he lowered slightly so that he was at the same height as hers.

Now Riveria was totally shocked that the words previously about to escape from her lips a second ago didn't cross her mouth. She would have expected him to go and try to get his new skill, expected him to somehow talk to her about the other problem, expected there to be some kind of misunderstanding, but she never expected Ethan to do such a thing.

She was very tempted to drive him away now, as this action was rather sudden and Riveria didn't feel too comfortable knowing this was the man Ais had next to him, as well as Lefiya, but just as she was deciding to do so, Ethan began to speak slowly, but with a decided tone.

"Remember when you told me not to worry and you consoled me when we couldn't figure out if the entity was good or bad...you comforted me by saying that everything was okay, that somehow we would do... when you took care of me.. I felt happiness.. but at the same time I felt a strange sadness, and the combination of the two feelings had made me unable to understand how I should behave with you. Today... I was trying to avoid your gaze as much as I could, I was trying to avoid remembering that feeling, because I was unable to comprehend it, and that was precisely why when we finished our conversation about my ability, I was nervous again, I didn't know how to deal with you, but when you asked me if I'd forgotten the important things, I remembered one of your lessons... Feelings aren't genuine if we don't express them.. As soon as I remembered this sentence and understood the meaning behind it, a feeling of pain somehow made me understand I had to follow that advice. As it was my duty to express that feeling.. although I do not understand it myself...I had to express it.."

Having begun to speak, Riveria could hear his words straight in her ear, and although this was rather embarrassing, Riveria decided to not intervene. This was because she understood the level of seriousness with which Ethan was conveying his feelings, so during his speech, Riveria continued to pay attention as she tried in vain to contain the embarrassment, and by the end of his words, his cheeks were visibly red, but she still had the force to remain in a calm state.

Although she was calm, Riveria didn't know how to respond. Ethan had used her own words against her, and having no other way but to respond openly to these feelings, Riveria sighed into her mind.

'I am terribly sorry Ais, Lefiya. Although Ethan may end up opening up to me, I hope this won't be troublesome to you...'

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(Alternate Titles: "Riveria..I love y-- Or maybe not!?", "Ais, Lefiya, you two may be the ones Ethan opened his heart to, but Riveria will have an huge advantage on both now..", "Ethan, the man who never had a motherly figure in his life, finally has one in the Danmachi World?")