Chapter 29 - Ring

The unstoppable flow of time advanced, uncaring of the mortals who could only accept the advance helplessly. Fourteen days had passed since Rio was resurrected in the Temple of the Holy Church in Tortus. Rio's slow and leisure life continued until a change graced the unchanging schedule for almost two weeks.

The location was the training field. Two dozens of students, the sole teacher from another world, and Rio were fixing their attention on Captain Meld. The afternoon training session for that day had ended, but they hadn't left yet. Captain Meld had told them before the training that there would be an announcement at the end of their training session.

"Attention!" Captain Meld's sonorous voice spread in the whole field, informing everyone to put their attention on his next words. "Tomorrow, as part of your practical training, we will be going on an expedition to the Great Orcus Labyrinth. I'll prepare all the necessary equipment you guys will need, but don't think this is going to be anything like the monster hunts you've been going on outside the capital! You guys better prepare yourselves! Get as much rest as possible tonight so you're ready! That's all, dismissed!"

When the students heard the content of the announcement, they broke out into chatters. Rio seemed uncaring of this announcement, but he was actually very pleased with this inside.

'So it is still following the schedule in the canonical materials, huh? And here I thought that the schedule will change because of my meddling. Regardless, tomorrow is the true start of my second life!' Rio mused silently.

Afterward, Rio and the others left the training field. As they walked up towards the castle, Rio could be seen amidst a small conversation with Kouki's group. He would skillfully guide the conversation to be enjoyable. And before long, they arrived in the castle and broke up as they headed to their respective rooms.

When Rio arrived in his room, he discovered that Liselotte had been waiting for him. They exchanged a short greeting before Liselotte dragged Rio to his private bathroom. Afterward, well, no need to explain what they were doing in there. They left the bathroom half an hour later. Rio was carrying Liselotte in a bridal style and brought her to the bed. He'd dried both himself and Liselotte before coming out. Surprisingly, they didn't continue their play from the bathroom, opting to cuddle. Before long, they fell asleep in each other embrace.

When the morning came, Rio woke up alone in bed. He was confused due to Liselotte's absence but not for long. Liselotte came out of the bathroom shortly after Rio woke up.

"Good morning, honey," Liselotte greeted Rio as she stood at the side of the bed.

"Morning, Liselotte." Rio greeted her in return as he stretched himself.

"Well, today you are going to have an expedition in Great Orcus Labyrinth, are you not?"

"Yeah..." Rio replied shortly and became thoughtful. When Liselotte saw Rio's behavior, she tilted her head in confusion but said nothing. She wouldn't ask a question and chose to wait for Rio to tell him instead.

"Speaking of which, I want to ask you something," Rio suddenly stated, grabbing Liselotte's attention. He feigned his troubled expression when he said that.

"By all means, ask whatever you want!" Liselotte asked him with an expression full of curiosity.

Rio was silent. He was thinking about how he should tell Liselotte of his plan. After all, he had a plan to send the heroes back to their original world. Their version of Earth. There was no way he would tell her that he would intentionally sabotage the expedition just to get the chance to fall into the true layer of Great Orcus Labyrinth. Though it sounds hypocrite, he didn't want to worry his first woman. He also intended to tell Liselotte that the god 90% humans in Tortus worshipped wasn't like how they believed them to be.

It was fortunate that Liselotte wasn't a zealot of Holy Church's doctrine despite being raised in an orphanage with both the kingdom and the Holy Church as the sponsor. It could be said that Liselotte was following the Holy Church's doctrine for her own convenience. Liselotte was surprisingly a pragmatic girl despite her youth. And it wasn't anything strange.

In fact, back in Rio's original world, fake believers of a certain religion weren't something rare. Although they acknowledged that they worshiped this God and believed in that religion's doctrine, they still committed something considered as sins and wrong by said religions. It sounds like they chose to follow this or that religion not because of their own heartfelt d.e.s.i.r.e but due to the environment or their parents.

All that aside, back to the present situation. Rio wanted to tell Liselotte about the truth of Holy Church's doctrine and what kind of crazy motherf*cker Ehit is. However, he needed to have proofs for his accusations towards Ehit's true nature.

'Well, there is the information in that magic circle in the deepest part of each Labyrinth of the Liberators. It's the most unquestionable proof about Ehit's true nature.' Rio mused silently.

He had the sudden idea to take Liselotte into Great Orcus Labyrinth, but he decided to dismiss the idea because it was crazy. After all, Great Orcus Labyrinth was actually the hardest, meanest, craziest of seven Labyrinth because of Oscar Orcus's thoughts that were similar to that of eight grader syndrome victim. Do you think Miledy Raisen's Labyrinth is the meanest in the physical aspect? Nope, Great Orcus surpassed it! Do you think Lyutilis Haltina's Labyrinth is the worst in the mental aspect? Nope, and again, Oscar Orcus's Labyrinth surpassed it by far. The Great Orcus Labyrinth is even called the hardest and 'last' Labyrinth the challenger should attempt by the rest of Liberators other than Oscar Orcus himself.

'I should take her with me, I think. She can level up here by surpassing her current limits.' Rio thought and stared at Liselotte with a scary glint in his eyes.

"Alright, Liselotte. I've made up my mind!" Rio suddenly declared aloud.

Liselotte stared at Rio with an uncomprehending stare, wondering what Rio had decided. The next moment, she saw Rio using his magic. He summoned random ironware in the room and reform its shape into a ring. Then, he did something to it, but Rio didn't tell Liselotte what he'd done.

Rio then told Liselotte, "Don't take off this ring. Don't tell anyone about this. And I hope that you will promise that you won't tell anyone else about our talk this time."

Despite her perplexity, Liselotte didn't ask any question. "I'm not sure, but if it's very serious, I'll follow your instruction without hesitation," Liselotte responded positively and bowed at Rio respectfully. At this moment, she was both exclusive attendant of Rio Kevin as well as his lover.

When Rio saw that, he couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. At least, he could trust Liselotte.