Chapter 180 - Laziness

When he arrived, Ethan looked around for the group of girls, but to his surprise, only Hestia and Maple were present in the room.

Although he should have been reassured that Riveria was not nearby, Ethan could feel he was feeling something different from what he expected. Instead of relaxing his mind in fact, the thing seemed almost to have... disappointed him a little...

'I wonder why...'

He had no idea why he felt this feeling, but deciding to ignore it for the time being, Ethan sat next to Hestia and the latter, having finally noticed his presence jumped for a second before realizing it was Ethan next to her.

Pouting, Hestia pointed out

"You... at least make your presence known before approaching people..!"

To her words, Ethan smiled back

"There are few people who wouldn't have noticed my presence, any adventurer would have been able to detect me easily, you should be more alert if you don't want to be scared next time.."

With her words implying Hestia had to protect herself better, the latter crossed her arms on her c.h.e.s.t as she looked away

"Don't you think it's excessive? I'm in your house anyway, shouldn't this be a safe place?"

To her words, Ethan answered without a shred of hesitation

"No, just because the place is safe doesn't mean it's truly safe. The only reason we haven't already been attacked is because everyone is afraid of the Loki familia, so trying to slaughter me without a valid reason wouldn't lead to any profit now.."

Hestia sighed at these words, thinking that Ethan was worrying a little too much, but even if that was the case, she didn't add anything about that subject anymore.

"By the way...where are the others?"

To his question, Hestia answered by explaining to him what had happened with Lili and, from the moment Hestia had told him Riveria and Tiona would stay for the night, Ethan felt reassured, which he still couldn't explain well, but ignoring again, Ethan could hear Hestia's explanation continue until he reached Lefiya who, according to what he had told them, had things to do but as soon as she was done, she would come back...

Having heard the full explanation, Ethan sighed as he took a look at Maple and saw how the latter seemed to prefer to be on the couch where he had left her to prepare dinner with the others the day before, and on top of that, he was sure that Maple didn't just go to that particular spot of the couch by accident, but instead became entirely attached to that spot on the couch itself...

But the thing that was strange to him was that Maple seemed to like staying still at one point without doing anything in particular, and although at first he was convinced it was the d.e.s.i.r.e to satisfy all her pent-up tiredness leading her to sleep all day, now it seemed to be more serious than before, which led Ethan to think...

'Is she..just lazy...?'

Although he couldn't treat the fox like a human child, Ethan believed it was normal for children to be cheerful all the time, or hyperactive, but Maple seemed the exact opposite of what he had imagined...

'...Or does she prefer that I am the one to ask her something like this because of her shyness...? At this point I don't think it would even surprise me'

Her thoughts led Maple, previously on the verge of falling asleep again, to look up and head her gaze next to her, so that she could look at Ethan in the eyes and, upon achieving eye contact, Ethan had realized that if Maple could be able to freely speak with him, she would have said something like, "You're thinking of something really rude right now, aren't you?"

Instead, she remained silent and watched as Ethan, insecure as to what to do, decided that it was better to experiment something instead of wasting time trying to communicate.

As Ethan got up from the couch, Hestia asked him what had happened but at her question he shook his hand to make it clear that everything was fine and, with Maple still having eye contact with him, he decided it was time for some action for Maple as well, since she hadn't really done anything else in these 2 days except sleep and rest...

Taking her in his arms without hesitation, Maple sighed into her mind knowing that something like this would happen sooner or later, and although she was aware of the fact whatever Ethan was leading her to do would certainly require her attention, Maple was annoyed but at the same time, the heat from Ethan's body was enough to make her feel at ease..

After about a minute, Ethan had just left his house and in his sight, he could see the training that Lili was undergoing with Riveria and Tiona that Hestia had told him about and, at the sight of that, Maple felt like a tremor running behind her back.

'He doesn't want to train..now..right?'

Although this question couldn't receive an answer though, Maple knew the two had no way to communicate without the use of the book, so Maple had decided to ignore trying useless attempts to stop him when he couldn't even understand what she was saying. While she slowly accepted her destiny, Ethan had other plans in mind

'...It shouldn't be difficult to replicate it..but I don't know the precise weight I should give it..'

But at his question, the system shown itself once again

[..There's no need for that. You can adjust the weight slowly until you find what suits you most of these, and anyway I don't think your partner is able to hold too much weight...]

Knowing that this particular would be useful to reduce the radius within which the object he wanted to create had to weigh, so Ethan silently thanked the system as he decided the weight that seemed more normal to him and, laying Maple on the ground for a second, she had her first contact with what was the grass, although very similar to that of the world 1999 in fact, was of a different colour.

What Ethan wanted to show Maple, wasn't any kind of training, what he had in mind was to use his mana to create a kind of sphere with which Maple could play for a limited period of time, this because not knowing whether she would like the game or not, it was better to avoid buying something based only on his assumptions.

Having a great familiarity with mana, Ethan didn't take long to condense what was a sphere with physical properties, this because if he had left the mana in its pure state, it would have been classified as bubbles, and having the same properties as the latter consequently meant having the risk the ball could explode in contact with Maple.

If he had managed to give physical form to the mana, then Ethan would have been able to continue further in the manual, so without hesitation, he performed all the necessary steps to acc.u.mulate outer mana so that he could consecrate a small circle and, Once he got the shape while adding his mana to give it the effect he wanted, Ethan continued to condense it for a few minutes under Maple and Riveria's shocked expressions. The latter in fact noticed almost a second after he started condensing the outer mana that the disturbances in the mana were abnormal, and within seconds, Riveria already knew Ethan was near her, and so she spotted his presence almost as easily, which had stopped the training that was going on between Tiona, Lili and Riveria...

After a couple of seconds, Ethan had finished making the ball while at the same time explaining his uses and how she could play it, but this really didn't help much for Maple who was used to playing this kind of thing in from her childhood..

Seeing that Maple didn't seem to despise the ball he had created, and indeed it seemed that she was trying some possible things with it, Ethan sighed with his doubts that she could potentially be lazy cleared...

But while Ethan was engaged in these thoughts, Riveria entrusted Tiona with the task of continuing to train Lili and that she would return to confirm the situation shortly, this because her curiosity about what he had done a few seconds earlier, made her immune even to the strange situation they were in.

In the same way that Ethan had sat next to Hestia without a single word out of his mouth and with the utmost calm, Riveria did exactly the same and, walking naturally towards him, she stopped only when the two were side by side and, while looking at an indeterminate point of the walls surrounding the house, she was the one to start the conversation.

"It seems that the surprises will never cease to show up by staying at your side..."

To his words, Ethan winced visibly, this because what Riveria was implying, or at least for him, was that she had decided to stay at his side, and although this thing was very pleasant to know, Ethan was still pretty indecisive about what kind of feelings she made him feel.

'Am I..really in love with her..? It's a shame to not be able to understand your feelings when you need them the most, and I can't act like before just for this selfish reason...what a mess.'

"If that's what you wish to do, know that I won't drive you away from me. Although I don't quite understand what we're supposed to be from now on, I don't mind your closeness at all."

It was one of the things Ethan understood by embracing her, the closeness to Riveria, unexpectedly, was quite pleasant, and above all the calm that he could find in her arms was something rather new for Ethan, accustomed to Lefiya's flicker, generated from her doubts between being afraid to go further and the d.e.s.i.r.e to continue, and Ais, who many times were a source of excitement, others of comfort, but the heat emitted by her body was pleasant in that sense, while instead Riveria maintained a state of calm and serenity that Ethan knew he could also find in Ais, and perhaps even in Lefiya given enough time to make her fully accept his closeness, but in any case, Ethan had decided not to compare the 3 girls that, At the time, were the closest to his heart, even wanting to exclude Light and Maple.

At her words that essentially "allowed" Riveria to approach if she wanted to, the conversation that at first she wanted to bet on the way he had managed to create the ball, quickly stopped and, with Riveria's cheeks red from embarrassment, she looked the other way without adding anything in particular and, seeing her return to Tiona and Lili shortly after, Ethan had realized that it was perhaps better to avoid talking about it at the moment...

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(Alternate Titles: "Maple ain't lazy Ethan, don't worry UwU", "Riveria's attempt failed miserabily xD, Ethan is too focused on emotions to talk about such stuff!!", "Hestia's pout is the best!")