After Ryu left to try to take out the monster lord, Brolvan began causing a fuss once more. “What was that all about!? Are you planning to side with these humans!? If we act now, we can just destr… Urk… Anames!? You traito…” 

Anames looked at Brolvan and then down at her arm that had stabbed through his chest. It protruded out of his back, and in her hand was a blue beating heart.  Her eyes were without emotion as she squeezed the heart in her hand, crushing it. “You never know when to just shut up. Sadly I can not allow you to be by Ryu’s side. You will end up causing nothing but harm to the one I have decided upon. I only think about me and my sister’s future. I can tell by that man’s wife that Ryu is a good person. As we can not live without being bound to a master, I will choose my master for myself. And Ryu is the one I have decided upon.. What right do you have to judge me?”

Anames pulled her arm out of Brolvan chest and kicked him to the monsters, who immediately went crazy ripping into him. She looked at the blue blood on her hand and sighed. “If he would just listen, this would not have had to happen, but I can not let him destroy the only opportunity for me and Arkin’s survival.”

When Anames saw the twenty people standing behind Ryu and saw that he was able to have these people trust him with their lives, she couldn’t help but want to know how it felt to be able to trust someone with your own life on your own accord like that. She was taking a huge risk, but so far from what she could tell, things may just work out. She wanted to trust him to the point that she was willing to send Arkin with him. Sadly she would have gone by herself if not for this monster horde behind her. Right now, she could only hope that Ryu and his people would succeed.

While Anames was lost in thought, Ryu was furrowing his brow when he saw the quest update notification in front of him. 

[Special Harlin Heights Chain Quest: The Monster Lord Awakens]

[Quest update: Trusting Him]

There was no other information, just the name. Ryu really didn’t understand it, but it seemed something may have happened after he had left. He could only hope it was nothing bad. As they traveled and the days passed, Ryu could feel Arkin sneaking peeks at him as if she wanted to ask him a question. “If you have a question, just ask.”

Arkin blushed, knowing she had been seen, and lowered her head. “I want to know why you are so willing to help us. You didn’t even question if this was a trap or not. You just agreed without much thought.”

Ryu chuckled and shook his head. “It’s because if Anames really wanted to fight, she would not have come over to greet us. She may have come over acting like she was there for a reason other than her true intentions, but when she did not react to how Chi treated you and instead tried to mediate the situation, I already knew that she wanted something else. I just never expected it to be this. 

“Tell me, why did she ask me to be your master instead of wanting complete freedom? This is what I do not understand.” Ryu really did not understand why Anames wanted to be his follower if she wanted freedom from the other person. It really didn’t make sense. Once one gained their freedom what was the point of rushing back into slavery.

“This…. Since you are willing to help us, I will tell you the truth. We can not live without a master. No master means we will disappear for good. I am fine with anything as long as Anames agrees to it or wants it. She is all I care about.” Arkin explained.

“It’s good to see you two can be close. Hopefully, I can help you two out. But to be honest, I am not sure if we will even be able to live through this upcoming fight. Depending on how strong this monster lord is will depend on whether or not we can win. If he is much more powerful than us, then it would be difficult. But we will have to see. Only when we begin the fight will we know.” Ryu spoke honestly. He could tell this was much different than the other dungeons. It seems that these NPCs were no different from the ones outside. Otherwise, his quest shouldn’t have been updated without him even doing anything. This meant that Anames had done something on her end to change the quest.

Arkin looked at Ryu in shock. She did not understand why this man was willing to rush headlong into danger for them without even knowing if he could win or not. It did not make sense to her. This made her take a good long look at Ryu. She realized he was not just a handsome face. He was a man who was decisive in all his actions. He did things because he felt they were right. If such a man were to become her master, she felt that warming his bed would not be so bad. 

“Don’t even think about it…” Chi suddenly blocked Arkin’s view of Ryu, breaking her out of her thoughts. 

She looked at Chi and lowered her head. She would not cause trouble. It would be bad. But that did not mean she would not try to show her good side to him. Chi’s intuition told her that this girl had her eyes on Ryu, which was a big no no in her book! Because of this, she made sure to block her line of sight of Ryu. No one was allowed to have ideas about her Ryu but since Ryu needed her she would not kill her, maybe rough her up but nothing more.