After listening to my argument, Rin didn’t speak. She only stared quietly at me for a moment before repeating herself, “You promised. No unnecessary risks.”

Instead of getting upset, I replied calmly with a steady voice. “You cannot take the risks for the both of us. It’s not fair on either of us. We are partners, any risks we take we share together.”

I watched as Rin closed her eyes and breathed out. Rin bit her lip, clutched my cloak wrapped around her and confirmed. “So, you absolutely refuse?”

“Yes. I won’t sit aside whilst you’re in danger.” I answered calmly.

This wasn’t something I was willing to back down on.

“I understand.” Rin’s voice wavered and she turned away from me. She reached into her bag, took out several vials and drank from one. Before handing another green vial to me and said, “Drink.”

I reached out and took the potion, whilst Rin applied another vial to her sword. Glancing toward the potion in my hand, I felt odd. Her surrender had been too quick and strange.

Normally I would just drink whatever she gave me without hesitation, yet… something doesn’t seem right.

Analyze.

{Sleep potion – An extremely potent sedative, ingestion causes tiredness and general sleepiness.}

I felt speechless at the analyze results.

Are you that determined to keep me out of this battle?

“Rin, this is a sedative.” I deadpanned.

“It is.” Rin nodded. Turning back toward me as she calmly confirming the information.

In other words, you haven’t given up on keeping me out of battles at all.

Staring at the green liquid in the vial, I stated. “I’m not taking a sedative. You cannot protect me from every battle.”

“I know and apologize.” Rin immediately admitted her mistake without arguing with me.

However, her lack of persistence set off more alarm bells in my mind. Rin wouldn’t normally give up on a course of action this easily. Nor did it seem like she’d given up.

Narrowing my eyes toward her, I tried to ponder what she was plotting.

My eyes landed on the black sword in her hand. She had applied another vial to her sword earlier. A backup plan?

Another stray thought ran through my mind. Why did Rin apologize?

“Instead of doing something drastic, why don’t we talk this through a bit more?” I quietly asked, putting away the potion. I slowly backed away from her whilst watching for any sudden movements.

I needed more information.

Rin shouldn't be apologizing for attempting to sedate me. That’s impossible. She definitely considers putting me to sleep to be the correct course of action and Rin wouldn’t apologize for that.

Question: If she wasn’t apologizing for attempt to sedate me, what exactly was Rin apologizing for?

Answer: Rin was apologizing for something she is going to do. Something she believes to be a wrong, but necessary.

“No, I should’ve realized it earlier.” Rin said, whilst shaking her head before taking up a battle stance. “We’re not partners. Only people with equal strength can be called partners.”

Hearing that, I realized the situation was far more drastic than I’d previously realized. “What are you talking about, Rin?”

Determination and sadness flashed throughout Rin’s eyes. “I’ve been selfishly bringing you into more danger than necessary.”

“Any danger I’ve been in has always been entirely voluntary.” I swiftly retorted.

“Regardless, I’ve always brought you into more dangerous situations than necessary because of my selfishness.” Rin refuted and continued on to state, “Since you refuse to sit aside whilst I’m in danger, it’s best if I stop bringing you into those situations.”

Rin had gone into a battle stance and clearly intended to fight with me.

“What do you plan on doing? Abandoning me?” I asked, whilst taking out God-hunter.

Sadness flashed through her eyes, but Rin merely nodded and affirmed my postulation. “Yes.”

As I watched her from afar, I saw the determination in her eyes and knew. She'd already made up her mind. I had merely been trying to produce guilt my previous question, potentially delaying or having her think about it further... but she'd just directly affirmed it.

Everything seemed to going along peacefully moments ago, yet she decided to abandon me? However, that didn’t mean I would accept it.

“Fine. I’ll stand aside whilst we’re in dangerous situations.” I relented.

It was better to temporarily take a step back, instead of being entirely abandoned by her. With time and guilt, I’m confident I could get Rin to reverse her decision. She shouldn’t be in any major danger at the moment anyway, thus temporarily staying on the sidelines wouldn’t hurt much.

Rin merely shook her head. “If you can defeat me, then you can stick around. Otherwise…”

Is… is she serious? I can barely move my body properly.

Even if I was completely healed, the chances of me successfully defeating her were… low.

“You do realize that I’m injured and in an extremely weaken state at the moment.” I asked for confirmation.

“Do you think your enemies will care are whether you’re weak or not?” Rin retorted, using the words I constantly berated my complaining apprentices with. “Also, weren’t you the one just refusing to sit on the sidelines?”

Rin’s words left no room for complains or arguments.

Gritting my teeth, I realized there was no way I was getting out of this. I either played along or got left behind.

“Fine, but I won’t hold back.” I said, getting into a battle stance with God-hunter.

“Neither will I.” Rin said while stepped forward.

I backed down the stairs and watched as she approached.

I have no other options besides not holding back. A fair fight means I have no chance of victory.

Sorry, Rin.

Immediately activating petrifying gaze, I turned my gaze toward Rin.

Except nothing happened.

She continued walking toward me with her weapon drawn.

It’s definitely active, though? How…

My mind drifted back to the first potion she drank.

The anti-petrification potions. Damn it. She purposefully dealt with my petrifying gaze, even before handing over the sleep potion. This has all been planned out.

God-hunter, I need help. Flame on.

The blade of God-hunter burst into a dark blue flame and God-hunter began to speak in her typical complaining voice.

Just so you know, this is a terrible idea. It would be better escape quickly and defeat her at another time.

Obviously, but I don’t have much of choice.

I’d chosen to step downstairs because the low ground provides a massive advantage in melee fights. I knew I wouldn't be able to deal with her if I surrendered that advantage to her. However, that also means Rin is blocking my exit. My teleportation had been used earlier, thus the upstairs escape route had been cut off.

However, that didn’t mean I was out of tricks. For example, I still had the <Glove of the Hated One> that could block one strike and several other tricks.

As Rin was stepping down the stairs toward me, I released a massive breathe of burning flames in her direction. The strange upgrades to my basilisk inheritance allowed the flame to reach a far greater distance and surrounded Rin in a sea of flames.

My initial reaction was worrying for her safety. Rin hadn’t even tried to dodge my flames.

However, I quickly remembered exactly how pointless that was as Rin continued walked toward me as though nothing had happened. I'd momentarily forgotten that Rin had swam through a sea of lava in the third zone, no amount of flames or fire were going to harm her.

Rin clearly wasn’t putting effort into this fight. She was just slowly and quietly walking toward me.

I bit my lip. I’d completely forgotten about her immunity to fire. I need to temporarily retreat and figure out another strategy.

Racing down the stairs, I arrived at a basement door that I swiftly opened and raced into the room.

Examining the room I quickly came to a conclusion. I’m screwed.

The basement had been repurposed into some sort of living quarters and was clearly far nicer than the rest of the building. There was a fancy bed and bookshelf filled with books. Lights shone throughout the room with warm carpet, preventing it from being dark. Overall, the room was very comfortable and nice.

However, there was no windows or other exits.

I’m trapped.

I had nothing to block the door as I used my rope on the other door, and even I did, Rin could easily break through it.

My only option was to utilize my ability to the maximum and properly fight.

Listening to Rin’s footsteps getting closer and closer, I quickly shattered all the nearby lights in the basement and hid. Realizing God-hunter still blazed with a blue flame, I mentally shouted at her to turn it off.

The flame disappeared moments before Rin pushed open the door and began looking throughout the room. Whilst I began tucking myself deeper into a corner.

God-hunter, make sure to avoid accidentally devouring Rin’s soul if I actually manage to hit her.

Relax, Dad. I can control myself. You just need to worry about yourself.

Controlling my presence, I tried to make myself as unnoticeable as possible.

Surprisingly, it worked. Rin clearly didn’t notice my presence as she observed the room. It seems Rank 5 of The Unnoticed is good enough to avoid her supernatural perception when utilized to the maximum.

Rin quietly stood by the entrance, blocking it, as she searched for me.

This might be my only chance for victory. Although it’s also possible that Rin is simply pretending to not notice me.

However, I had little doubt that if I gave Rin enough time, she would be able to find me regardless of my ability. In other words, while this might be a trap. I had to take that chance.

Moving out of the corner I was hiding in, I slowly stepped crept closer to Rin.

Just before I was about to strike my pupils contracted and I immediately retreated.

I saw Rin’s lips slowly nonverbally mouthing words without speaking. More specifically, Rin was counting. Nonverbally counting numbers in her language.

When I strike, Rin will immediately reload and utilize her counting to know my location at a specific time to counterattack. It’s one of her strategies for dealing with stealth type abilities.

I never had chance to win.

More specifically, I cannot win. If it was a true enemy, I could utilize soul attacks to kill them outright… but I could never be that cruel against Rin.

Yet, she’d plans to reload if she lost in order to win.

Damn it! This is plain cheating.

No! I refuse to lose like this. Even if Rin reloads, I won’t make it easy for her. The first step is to mess up her counting.

Taking my musket, I began reprogramming it to add a delay to the loud blank shot. After doing that, my plan was set in motion.

Triggering it and inputting mana, I placed it on the floor and observed Rin’s reaction.

Rin covered her wolf ears while continuing to count, I knew my theory was correct. She was utilizing her ability to reload.

Bang!

The musket triggered, but Rin didn’t pay it any attention. Nor did she stop counting numbers.

I’d been prepared to strike after she’d been stunned and stopped counting. However, at least in this timeline, she’d never stopped counting.

Annoying. How could you possibly win against someone who can prepare for whatever strategies you come up with?

Bang!

The musket fired again, this time Rin hadn’t covered her sensitive wolf ears. She instinctively jerked to cover them after it fired.

Immediately taking advantage of this last opportunity, I struck toward her.

Rin clearly anticipated my strike and dodged by rolling forward. Before turning around and striking toward me with her black sword.

I couldn’t respond fast enough to dodge her attack. A barrier from the <Glove of the Hated One> appeared and deflected the strike, allowing me to back up.

“You’re cheating.” I stated plainly.

Rin shook her head and prepared to attack again. “There’s no such thing as cheating in war.”

I begged to differ. If I’d decided to target her soul, she never would’ve had a chance to reload. My chances of winning were already low enough without her abusing her ability. Her actions were clearly cheating… but I knew there was no way Rin would agree with me.

Biting my lip, I stood still and surrendered. “I give up. Congratulations, you managed to beat me in a competition where I’m heavily injured.”

Rin didn’t stop because of my surrender and stabbed toward my arm regardless. Blood poured out of the small cut that appeared on my arm.

I glanced down toward the cut, and frowned. “Happy now?”

She nodded and stepped backward, “Goodbye and good night.”

I didn’t realize what Rin meant until I remembered that she wiped her blade with a vial.

My body began to feel heavy and extremely tired. However, I refused to fall asleep that easily. Ignoring the sleepiness, I rolled my eyes, “When I’ve recovered properly, I'll find you and challenge you again. Don’t expect this result to stay the same forever.”

Rin shook her head, “The result won’t change. Stay safe, Tobias.”