Knock knock
Suddenly interrupting the conversation was a light knock on the door, attracting both Diana's and Alisia's gaze.
"May I come in, Mother?"
A calm voice reached Diana's ear, making her understand that the voice belonged to none other than Ryuk Devereaux, who could only refer to Alisia as such.
"Come in," Accompanied a voice reaching the door before it slowly opened with a sound.
Krieeeek
'So, he is the heir of the Devereaux family,' Diana thought as her eyes captured the image of an amber-eyed boy entering the room, making her notice the difference between Alisia and Ryuk's eyes, which, though having the same color, felt completely different.
"What happened, Ryuk?" Alisia folded her hands, looking at the boy who held a bunch of documents while switching glances between her and Diana, making her understand his hesitation.
"You can tell. She is, umm..." Alisia turned her gaze towards Diana before narrowing them, trying to think of a relationship she should introduce this girl to.
"Greetings, Your Highness. My name is Diana, and I—" Diana understanding the things, tried to introduce herself.
"It's fine," Ryuk interrupted both of them, sensing an odd situation.
It was not hard for him to understand their reluctance about revealing this girl's identity, and of course, he didn't care, after all, he was already aware of her presence here.
"Mother, I wanted to understand why the Monastery is not helping people suffering in the North." Ryuk inquired about the religion that stayed silent, even having healers who could provide relief to the people of the North, suffering from cold and diseases.
Being reincarnated in this world, from being an engineer to having been reborn in a child's body, everything seemed surreal, but one thing stayed with him from his past life—curiosity.
Even in his past life, his enthusiasm towards computers pushed him to pursue a field related to it.
Now, in this life, where he saw many interesting things, he wanted to learn and understand each one of them, whether it be political structure, geography, or energy utilization, making even a normal soldier of his kingdom far stronger than normal adults from his previous life who claimed to be heavyweight champions.
"Come, take a seat," Alisia, ignoring Diana, took her seat before gesturing for Ryuk to sit in the other chair in front of her desk.
Without further delay, Ryuk took his seat, his small hands carrying some papers, while eyes filled with curiosity seemed childish to Alisia but not to the girl standing there.
'What was that?' Diana's eyes were fixed on the floor while her pupils moved rapidly, trying to fathom the sensation she just felt a moment ago.
Alisia started to explain things that influenced the delay in providing any aid to Northern borders.
"So, Mother, you mean the nobles are corrupt. Isn't there any way to punish them?" Ryuk innocently looked at Alisia, who, seeing him like this, felt a slight pride that unlike her, who at the age of five was used to killing, her son had such a soft heart.
"Not everyone is like that, Ryuk. There are some but not many..." Alisia started to explain things to him further.
Unnoticed by Alisia, Ryuk's mind was filled with other thoughts.
'A heroine. don't kid me.'
.....
Some moments ago,
Moonlight streamed into the room, casting its glow on a small boy engrossed in reading some documents.
'So, nobles are just as they were portrayed in my past life,' Ryuk felt amused, observing the differences and similarities to his previous experiences.
As he witnessed the corruption of nobles, treating common lives as insignificant, and the royal family's helplessness despite being aware, a sense of nostalgia enveloped him.
[ DING!!!! ]
Suddenly a familiar sound interrupted his thoughts.
'This?' Ryuk's hand paused as he focused on another voice.
[ A heroine is detected nearby ]
'Show her status.' Ryuk attempted to access information about the girl, and in response, a window appeared in front of him.
╔═══━━━──── • ─────━━━═══╗
System Level is Low -> Upgrade to Lvl 3 to access the information of target.
Kill point needed is 60,000.
╚═══━━━──── • ─────━━━═══╝
'....'
Seeing the same window that had irritated him once again and understanding why he had not used this system for a year.
Ryuk realized this was a recurring issue. Whether trying to check his mother's status or Wang's, the same problem persisted.
'System,' Ryuk called.
[Yes, Host]
'Fuck off.'
Ryuk stood and left the room, not wanting to miss the chance to encounter the person who would be his doom, at least according to the information he received at the age of four when the system first appeared.
The moment his system Awakened, a clear window with a lone title appeared in front of him.
It was understandable that Blue star was huge, more like unending, but...
Moving inside the hallway, Diana's narrowed gaze turned towards the vast horizon, her sharp senses catching the sounds of people bustling, laughing, and immersed in their own matters, completely unaware of the world outside this place.
She found it confusing that none of these people knew about the outside world.
After sensing the presence of Elemental Stones in this continent, which might not be valuable for Ardoros but smaller continent's silence seemed confusing.
'I need permission from Lady Alisia,' she decided to visit the North of the Selvius Kingdom to start her journey.
Her choice was influenced by the condition of that place, which seemed suspicious from her perspective—unnatural weather, monsters, and diseases.
Arriving at one of the doors in the long hallway, she heard a familiar voice.
"Mother, I want to visit the North."
'Ryuk?' Stopping at the door, Diana, listening to the nostalgic voice, calmly stood there.
She was already aware of Alisia noticing her but still wanted to hear the reply.
"Go to your room Child"
"Tch"
Tap Tap
Hearing sudden footsteps approaching the door, Diana ran to some distance and acted as if she had just arrived.
Bang
Suddenly, the door swung open due to the extra force Ryuk exerted, feeling irritated for not being able to convince his mother.
His eyes fell on the white-haired girl, who had been living in the palace for seven years.
Both had somewhat become habitual of seeing each other but not paying much attention he ignored her and left.
'She didn't even listen to him.' Standing while looking at his disappearing back in the long hallway, Diana took a glance at her letter in hand and decided to leave too.
Her perspective was rooted in the fact that if Alisia even rejected the proposal of her own son to visit the North, then why would she allow her to visit that place?
A small misunderstanding.
In reality, Alisia had rejected Ryuk because he had just turned twelve-year-old and for a child proposing to visit such a place alone— Rejection was Inevitable.
But Diana was different, she was eighteen years old and also not that important for Alisia to care about.
With her small misunderstanding, Diana left the place.
.
.
.
Slowly, the moonlight descended on the Selvius Kingdom's Royal Palace, helping the struggling lamp fight against the night's darkness by enforcing its luminescence and repelling the darkness.
Swish
Suddenly, a silhouette passed through, tearing the night.
The moonlight fell on it, slowly unraveling a cloaked figure, only two shiny amber orbs visible, fixed straight as the figure moved swiftly.
"You forced me to do it," Ryuk, holding a bag, ran towards the harbor where merchant ships moved between other parts of the Selvius Kingdom, seeming more convenient to cover a 3000-mile distance.
Swish
Diana stealthily moved behind him. Seeing the bag in his hand and remembering the day's events, she could somewhat guess that Ryuk was heading towards the North.
'!?'
"Where is he?" Suddenly, she halted in her place, noticing Ryuk's disappearance from her sight. Feeling confused, her gaze tried to search for him.
'Wait?!' Her senses suddenly started to ring, causing her to turn towards a direction.
BOOM
Her sapphire eyes reflected a hand heading for her head, causing her to swiftly deflect it by sitting, but her eyes widened the moment a kick reached her.
BANG
A swift kick collided with her crossed hands, causing a huge sound to produce, carried by a gust, covering the surrounding area in dust.
Thud
"Sorry, I didn't notice it was you, Diana." Ryuk jumped back and landed at a distance, looking at the girl whose cover was blown due to force, revealing white hair and navy blue eyes.
"It's fine." Slowly rising from her seated position, Diana calmly looked at Ryuk, observing his physical strength, which would have broken any other person's hand but she had already reached early stage of 『 MASTER』
Ryuk slowly removed his hoodie, his amber eyes enhanced by moonlight fixing itself on Diana, before coldly asking.
"So, why are you following me in the middle of the night?"