As someone whose primary sense was hearing, she was able to read sound to a far greater degree than normal Martial Artists. She could peer into the depths of voice to a much greater degree than anybody else could.
She could see that this wasn't merely a request to help fulfill his task, he truly wanted her to survive.
Yet, while his concern touched her, that did not mean she would just go with what he said.
ραndαsΝοvεl ƈοm "I am a guardian of the Floating Sect, I fight to protect the Floating Sect." She replied with a more serious tone. "I cannot, I will not abandon my duties."
Rui furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean? I'm not asking you to abandon them."
"I will need to if I prioritize my own life over the safety of the sect."
Rui raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather heavy interpretation of being a guardian. I do not hold myself to that standard, nor do the other Squire-level guardians."
"That is because you are not the ultimate protectors of the Floating Sect," She replied. "You are subjects that we protect."
Rui stared at her. "Does the Floating Sect really mean that much to you? Do you have family here or something?"
She shook her head. "The Floating Sect is a place that I have committed myself to protecting. Thus I will protect it, simple as that."
Rui realized that he was listening to what was probably her Martial drive. This was the desire that drove her forward to become stronger, perhaps what drove her forward to becoming a Martial Senior.
He didn't know. He didn't know her well enough, and he didn't want to try and pry open her heart forcefully. He felt a little awkward.
Their relationship wasn't platonic. However, Rui did not have a good idea of how to build relationships with women non-platonically. He was lacking in experience even in his first life, and he didn't even have much of a reference point because the media he used to consume was centered around Martial Art.
"I appreciate your concern," She smiled, walking closer to him.
She stood on her toes, kissing him softly on his cheek.
It was the softest of gestures, yet it made him feel warm inside.
"You don't have any objection to fulfilling your duties as a guardian and surviving, I presume?" Rui asked lightheartedly.
"Of course not, silly." She giggled softly.
Rui enjoyed making her smile.
For a brief moment, Rui considered spending the night with her. He could tell that if he made the move at the moment, she would not refuse him.
He wanted to.
Badly.
Yet he exhaled deeply, reigning himself in. Tomorrow was an important day, he could not afford to get distracted and lose his focus, nor could she.
She was waiting for him to make a choice in her silence.
"Well…" Rui sighed. "It's getting late, I should get going. Tomorrow is going to decide the fate of the Floating Sect, after all."
She smiled ruefully. "Of course. Get some rest, you're going to need it."
Even after he left, his thoughts lingered on her.
Her voice.
Her scent.
Her skin.
('I need to focus,') Rui narrowed his eyes.
He hadn't forgotten the sheer difficulty of the task that he was responsible for tomorrow.
He felt a strange sense of protectiveness over Senior Xanarn. This was weird because she was a whole Realm of power above him.
Yet he felt the drive to protect her from things he wasn't even qualified to fight against.
Regardless, it worked in his favor as he was more driven to ensure that he succeeded.
He spent quite some time fleshing out his plans, he created multiple plans for multiple different circumstances based on various possibilities on whether or not Senior Xanarn would be forced to face an extra Martial Senior and the kind of Martial Path that an extra Martial Senior would have.
It took an immense amount of mental and psychological preparation before he was confident about fulfilling his role tomorrow.
However, it wasn't just enough for him to create good plans and be done with it. A lot of his plans involved Kane, and he needed to bring the man into them in order to make sure that they were on the same page.
Thankfully, Rui had the most developed predictive model on Kane that he ever had, and it meant that his plans were highly tailored to include Kane seamlessly. He did not need to spend any time on what he was or wasn't capable of.
In fact, he knew better than Kane what he was most apt at!
Rui didn't even sleep that night, relying on mental rejuvenation potions to keep his brain fresh. Thankfully, he had slept the night prior, so he didn't have to worry about not being at his peak due to too much potion abuse.
"Finally," Kane collapsed into a chair. "Are you satisfied with your preparations?"
Rui nodded. "They're definitely not bad."
Kane stared at him with an incredulous expression. "You're kidding, right?"
"What makes you say that?"
"You just spent half a day working on those and optimizing them!"
"Like I said," Rui replied seriously. "Not bad."
Kane just stared at him with furrowed eyebrows even as Rui delved into his own world about the upcoming fight.
He was serious when he said that he intended to win the war.
And he actually had a very concrete plan that would allow him to trigger a chain of events that would result in that.
There were some tricky elements and hurdles that he needed to get past, but once he did, it was actually smooth sailing after that. There were several key elements that he needed to focus on in that regard.
And luck. He did need a bit of luck to pull it off, unfortunately. But such was life. There were always going to be things that were out of his control, the best he could do was his best.
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