Hugh’s mind was blown by that confession. Sure he liked his new life here in Izgaea, but he never forgot how uncomfortable their whirlwind beginnings were. The way the three major academies of the North bargained for each of them like they were cattle. It was a story Hugh thought he had put behind him, but the memories resurfaced now.

It took a moment for him to get out of the mire of memories and emotions, but Hugh noticed Ruth had gone silent. She was still looking at the giant tree in front of them, but Hugh could tell she was waiting for his reaction. She looked calm on all fronts, but the hand on her food container was gripping and loosening which told Hugh that she was anxious for his response.

“Could you tell me more about what you mean by that?” A neutral question.

She took a deep breath. “Doron Gawain is my cousin. Well we are second cousins, but that doesn’t change anything.”

Doron. That son-of-a-bitch was Ruth’s cousin? The one who instigated the whole idea of transporting people from another world to fix their demon lord problems?

He gripped both his hands to calm down, then took a deep breath to clear his mind. Truly he wanted to punch something, but he reminded himself that this wasn’t about him, not really. And it certainly wasn’t Ruth’s fault that she got saddled with a bastard of a cousin.

He told her as much, but she shook her head.

“It’s all right if you want to be angry. You see, we always knew that Doron was the sort to push problems onto other people, but we truly underestimated his charisma. I believe you already understand how summoning people from another world is considered forbidden magic?” Hugh nodded at this. “The fact that we, the ruling line of the Gawain family, didn’t even give any notice to Doron’s movements until it was too late…”

Ruth hung her head in shame. She looked small doing that, and the thought that crossed Hugh’s mind was that he didn’t want to see his only friend look so sad. Yet, he couldn’t deny the anger he felt towards Doron.

(But am I angry at Ruth?) The answer was no, he wasn’t angry at her.

“… Doron is Doron, and you are you. Just because I’m angry at him doesn’t mean I’m angry at you. Don’t take your bastard of a cousin’s actions as your responsibility; his actions are his alone.” Hugh lifted up a finger to stop Ruth from interrupting him. Then he looked pointedly at her, straight into her eyes. “That’s really how I feel. So yeah, I don’t want my only friend to beat herself up about it.” Hugh gave Ruth a smile.

Her response was to look extremely surprised, and this one of the few moments where Hugh would see Ruth so disarmed. Then she turned away from him, and Hugh let her gather her thoughts. When she looked back at him, he saw that she had gathered up her rampant emotions.

“Thank you for your understanding.” Was her very formal reply.

Hugh shrugged. “I’m guessing this fact ate at you a bit?”

“I was very worried about it, yes. I felt that it was an obstacle to us being friends, so I kept thinking about it and just…,” she trailed off.

Hugh thought about her words a bit. He actually hadn’t noticed that she was worried about something. That made him panic a little inside: how could he call himself her aide/friend when he didn’t even notice that she was worried about something? Was his mind these past few days really so self-centred?

At any rate, he quickly put a lid on the panic and filed away that thought for later. Right now was to concentrate on Ruth. So instead he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.

“Well that means we’re closer friends now, right? I’d say it’s not a bad thing.”

The smile she gave him warmed his heart.

Shortly after that Ruth returned to her duties, leaving Hugh to pick up the five children from their school. He smiled as the five of them bickered with each other and took turns telling him about their day.

Seeing them being such good friends to each other, Hugh suddenly thought to ask them. “Hey you all, I have a quick question. Let’s say Ginny was worried about something. Would you four be able to tell that she is worried?”

“Uh, yeah, duh. Ginny has this thing where she walks back and forth in any room when she’s worried.”

“She’s sooooo obvious about it.”

“I see…”

Ginny took one look at his expression, then gave a big hug to him, wrapping her arms around his stomach.

“Whatcha doing Ginny?” her brother asked.

“I dunno, Mister Hugh seemed sad so I gave him a hug. That’s what mum used to do to me when I’m sad.”

Hugh smiled and patted her back. “Thanks Ginny.”

She let go with a “You’re welcome,” and a cute curtsy.

He thought that was the end of it but Indra tugged at his sleeves while the other four ran into the mansion.

“You’re clearly worried about something,” Indra observed. “Is it about Miss Ruth?”

Hugh was greatly surprised, but gave him a smile all the same. “Yes actually. She was worried about something, but I didn’t notice at all.”

Indra nodded sagely. “You just have to look at her more.”

“Huh?” Was the only answer Hugh could give.

“If you look at her more, then you’ll be better at telling when she’s worried about something. Like with Ginny; we only noticed her little habit because we keep looking out for her.”

“Oh, huh. I didn’t think about that. Thanks, Indra.” The Goliath nodded and entered the mansion ahead of Hugh.

Look at her more? Hugh looked out towards the statue sitting at the roundabout that led to the entrance. Yes… maybe he was looking too much at himself, and not enough at Ruth? Is that how he was being self-centred? These past few days have been a whirlwind of activity, so perhaps he could be excused for being ‘self-centred’. However, that doesn’t excuse the fact that he wasn’t being the best of friends to her.

(I have to work at being a better friend.) was his conclusion, and he turned to walk into the mansion, following the voices of the children.