Lys walked home with the late afternoon sun on his back, boots still caked in forest dirt.

His mind kept circling back to the merchant.

He hadn’t drawn his sword. Hadn’t raised his voice. He just simply stood there and let the new skill do the work. And that worked? Is this new skill that much powerful or something?

He was thinking about this kind of stuff while walking.

Aura of Intimidation (Tier 2): Emit a subtle aura on activation that makes the Target hesitant to approach or attack. Only works on low-level people. 

Cost: 600 SP.

It had cost him six hundred system points. But if this really works the way he thinks it works, then it had been worth every single SP he spent on it. He knows it.

He remembered the exact moment it clicked. The way the merchant’s smirk had faltered, how the big man’s eyes had flicked to the black sword at Lys’s hip and then away again, like he suddenly wasn’t sure the fight was worth it. 

‘So that’s what it feels like’, Lys thought, a small, smug smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Not flashy. Not loud. Just… enough to make him happy after all the hard work of today on that forest with Vessa.

He still wasn’t sure how far the skill could go. The description said “low-level people,” but the merchant had looked plenty tough. Yet one calm stare and the man had backed down without a single punch thrown. It made Lys wonder what would happen when he faced someone stronger. Would the aura of intimidation even work then? Or would he need something expensive, something of a higher-tier skill?

He shook the thought away as his house came into view. The front door stood half-open, the way it usually did when someone was home. 

But the moment he stepped inside, the quietness inside hit him.

There were no voices.

No clatter from the kitchen.

No, Mira laughing like a maniac at something silly..

Just the soft creak of floorboards under his boots as he entered and the faint rustle of wind through the open windows.

“Mom?” he called. “Mira? Anyone home?”

But there was nothing. No reply.

Suddenly, a cold thread of worry tightened in his chest. After the day he’d had, the silence felt too wrong. Too unusual. Too different. 

His hand drifted toward CorpseSlayer’s hilt without thinking as he moved through the common room, checked the kitchen, then the hallway.

As he looked upstairs, Selene’s door looked half-open, but the room was dark and empty.

He stopped at the top of the stairs, heart beating a little faster.

But then, easing him a little, he heard it.

Low laughter. Mira’s voice, subtle and light. Also, the soft scrape of a wooden chair on stone.

All these sounds came from the back of the house.

Lys walked to the window in Selene’s room quickly to find the source of the sounds. He unlatched the window and pushed it open. 

Warm evening air spilled in, carrying the smell of fresh dirt and flowers.

Down in the backyard, the garden his family had started planting from the day they came into this house was finally alive with quiet activity.

Mira and Mitsu were crouched side by side in the dirt, heads close together, carefully pressing small green seedlings into the soil. Mira was saying something that made Mitsu giggle and cover her mouth with dirty fingers. 

While Elara and Helga worked a little farther down the row, side by side, pulling weeds and chatting in low voices. 

Selene sat on her own, a few feet away in an old wooden chair, legs tucked under her, watching them all with a soft expression Lys had never seen on her face before, relaxed, almost peaceful.

For a second, he just stood there, leaning on the windowsill, letting the tightness in his chest loosen slowly.

They were safe. All of them. 

Just… being a family. 

And here he was worrying about something silly like they disappeared or something, when he was not here.

Selene glanced up and caught him watching. Her eyebrows lifted.

“Hey, what are you doing up there in my room?” she called, voice carrying easily across the yard. “Come down here. Everyone’s here.”

Lys smiled at her. “Yeah, coming.”

He took the stairs two at a time and stepped out the back door almost in a hurry. 

The late afternoon sun felt warm on his face as he stepped into the backyard garden. The garden smelled like turned earth and growing things.

He dropped into the empty chair beside Selene without saying anything dramatic. No “I got worried” or “I thought something happened to you guys.” 

He just sat.

Selene looked him over before he sat down, the forest dirt on his boots, the tired slump of his shoulders, the faint sweat and dust still clinging to him.

“You look terrible,” she said, but there was no bite in it. Just a quiet tease.

Lys let out a short laugh. “Yeah. Let's not get into it.”

---

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment. 

After a while, noticing Lys, Mira glanced up and finally noticed how close they were sitting, and grinned.

“Ohhh, look at you two,” she called, loud enough for everyone to hear. “All cozy in the garden. Should we leave you lovebirds alone, or do we need to bring in a bard here to sing you two songs to enjoy the moment a little more, huh?”

Mitsu’s face went bright red. She covered her mouth again, but her shoulders shook with silent laughter.

Selene’s ears turned pink. She didn’t pull away, though. She just shot Mira a half-hearted glare. “Shut up, Mira. Do whatever you were doing.”

Elara looked over from her row of seedlings. Her eyes softened when she saw Lys and Selene sitting together. There was warmth there, real warmth, and also something like quiet acceptance. She didn’t say anything. She just smiled to herself and went back to patting the soil around a new plant.

On the other hand, Lys didn't move. He stayed right where he was, his shoulder almost touching Selene's.

After a while, Selene spoke again, changing the subject, her voice low so only he could hear.

"Father came by earlier."

Lys turned his head slightly. "Priest John?"

She nodded. "Yeah, he was…kind of… in a good mood, I think. Ate lunch with us. Drank tea. Stayed almost an hour or so. He said he just wanted to visit Helga and me. See how we were doing here."

She let out a small, disbelieving breath. "I still don't know what to make of it. This sudden change of his."

Lys stayed quiet, letting her talk.

"I keep waiting for his other part to slip," she added softly. "But it didn't! He was just… normal. For once! Which somehow is freaking me out for some reason."

Lys considered her worry for a moment. "I don’t know, Selene. Maybe that's the point."

She looked at him.

"Maybe he's just trying, you know," Lys said. "Doesn't mean he's fixed. Doesn't mean you owe him anything. I know people don’t change all of a sudden. They take a step. Maybe that’s his step, you know. Who knows?"

Selene was quiet for a long moment. "That's very forgiving of you."

"It's not forgiveness," Lys said. "It's just… watching. Seeing what he does next."

She let out a slow breath. "Okay, if you say so. I’ll think of it like that. If I could!"

Selene's shoulder brushed against Lys's. Neither of them commented on it. They just sat there as the sun dipped lower, painting the backyard in soft gold.

Down in the garden, Mira and Mitsu had stopped pretending not to look. Mira caught Lys's eye and wiggled her eyebrows dramatically. Mitsu swatted her arm, laughing, but Mira's smile didn't quite reach her eyes the way it usually does. There was something else underneath, something she tucked away behind the jokes she was making up.

She was still grinning, still teasing Mitsu under her breath. But her hands moved a little faster than they needed to. Pressing dirt down harder than the plants required.

She didn't look up at the chair again.

Lys noticed that. But he didn't say anything. He knew what was going on in her head. It was jealousy. At least that's what it looked like from his point.

But some things weren't for fixing right now. Some things just needed time to settle.

So, he left the way things are. For now.

The sun kept sinking. The garden kept growing.

And the house, for the first time in a long while, didn't feel like it was about to vanish when he woke up from a sleep, as if all of this was his dream or something.

It felt real. It felt like a real home to him.

Author note: There is an extra chapter on my Patreon page. Title is Chapter 134.5. It is about Priest John's weird behaviour till now. If you want to read it, go and check it out from the link below.