"You’re definitely crazy," I commented, looking at the girl walking beside me. But as soon as I uttered the last word, I had to lean my body to the side. From right behind me, a gleaming sword whizzed past, sending a chilling sensation up my spine.

"The crazy one is telling me that I'm crazy," Aria scoffed, as she sheathed her sword and rolled her eyes.

After staring at her for a few seconds, I continued walking ahead, and continued speaking, "If you're not crazy, then why did you have to destroy the entire street? If we hadn't escaped quickly, those two would have clearly blamed us for it."

"Hmmph," she just snorted in response to my words.

"By the way, we still haven't resolved the issue of how you'll repay me for what you did to me," I muttered while suppressing my anger, recalling the reason I ended up in that situation, enduring so much pain.

"What do you mean, 'repay'? I did it for your own good," she said, looking at me. What I read in her eyes was a clear misunderstanding. She genuinely didn't understand my situation at that time.

I couldn't help but inwardly sigh at her actions. In these two minutes of walking, I somewhat understood her character. Unrestrained, crazy, and lacking common sense. But considering what she had been through, it made some sense.

Taking a deep breath, I pondered as I looked into her face, and an idea came to mind. I instinctively swallowed such thoughts.

"No, you must repay me. I'm not asking for anything valuable from you. But first, you must agree to a condition," I stared at her expectantly, contemplating the possibility of her agreement.

"Hmm, I don't think it's necessary," she snorted again, glancing away.

"You almost killed me, and you say it's not necessary? Hmm... Then I won't help you with this matter either," I said as I began walking away from her.

"Wait!... Alright, what do you want..." Her voice came from a few steps behind, within which I also detected a sense of helplessness.

Turning to her, a smirk spread across my face.

"Then I want you to do something first," I said, standing in front of her and looking into her eyes.

"Hmm... fine, tell me," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her head. 

"I need you to close your eyes and do nothing for 30 seconds. If you don't do that, I won't help you." Though she was strong, she was clearly very naive.

"You're not trying to hit me again, are you?" she questioned, her eyes narrowing slightly with doubt.

"Of course not. I won't cause you any pain, I promise." As I spoke, I waited as she finally sighed and shut her eyes. The smirk on my face grew wider as I approached her slowly.

"What... what are you doing so close–" As she spoke, I abruptly grabbed the back of her neck with my hands and leaned in, pressing my lips against hers.

The feeling of soft and fragrant lips, and watching her eyes widen and dilate, was so wonderful that I wanted to go further.

She still hadn't reacted, subconsciously parting her lips slightly, giving me the opportunity to go further. Still holding onto the back of her neck and deeply engaged in the kiss, I used my tongue and entered her mouth.

After our lips met, I couldn't control my actions and wanted to go further. Now feeling the aroma of her lips on the other side, and then her tongue, I became even more aroused.

I noticed a pink hue spreading across her cheeks, as she finally reacted and pushed me away with both hands, interrupting our kiss.

"You... " Her eyes wide open, she clearly couldn't say anything because of my actions. But in the next moment, I saw her raise her sword again to strike.

"Stop, stop!" I hastily waved my hands, trying to stop her as she spoke.

"You... now I... now I can't..." For some reason, as she spoke those words, tears began to glisten in her eyes.

"E-ehh? What’s wrong… it was just a kiss..." Confused by her reaction, I couldn't help but ask.

"Just a kiss…?! Because of you, now I can't become stronger to seek revenge!" She shouted her last words, which didn't match her usual demeanor. Even when I had hit her in the face before, she wasn't this enraged.

"What are you talking about? How can a simple kiss do that?" I was still puzzled. Could it be that there were things in this world based on such superstitions?

"My... my... teacher said... that I shouldn't let boys kiss me or do anything improper... because I won't be able to become stronger afterward... Teacher said... I don't know how..." Listening to her words, I ruminated. Could it be a precaution from her teacher to prevent her from falling into traps with boys?

"Listen, what's your name?" When I wanted to calm her, I suddenly realized that I didn't even know her name yet.

"...My... my... Aria..." The crying became quieter, her voice hoarse.

"Well, Aria, it should be alright then... I'm not a boy, after all." As I spoke, I watched her reaction, and as expected, as soon as she heard that, her voice faltered. After that, she raised her head and looked at me, also wearing a puzzled expression.

"What!?" Finally realizing her mistake, she quickly straightened up, wiped the tears from her face, and snorted with a cold expression.

"...If you feel uncomfortable about it, you can do the same to me so we're even,” I suggested, seeing how she was behaving, and waited for her reaction.

She stared at me for a few seconds. Then, taking two steps towards me, she did the same thing I did.

She held me by the back of my neck and brought her face close to mine, starting to kiss me.

The familiar scent and taste of her lips touched mine, creating a kind of intoxication.

But it didn't last long; she pulled her lips away from mine and spoke with a fearful voice.

"I...I feel...strange after doing this...what's happening?" Her face clearly showed a puzzled expression.

"Oh, if you really want to know...I can tell you all about it later, okay?" Finally understanding her sheltered state, I realized she didn't comprehend such things at all. I really wanted to show her all the delights of it right now, but thinking that there would be time for that later, I sighed to calm my inner excitement.

"Oh, one more thing, your teacher was right. Don't let anyone kiss you, okay...except me...alright?" I said, considering her naive thoughts on the matter.

"Okay..." She seemed to still be in that state, but she nodded and agreed nonetheless.

"Well...I'll be off now... Let's meet in two days at that café where you first followed me." After I spoke and saw her agreement, I started walking towards my house. I noticed a few missed calls on my phone, but I didn't want to call back. The main reason being that I didn't want to spoil my mood.

After taking a few steps, I realized something that embarrassed me. Just from two kisses, I was wet and now felt a slight slickness between my legs.

A thought struck my mind: what if I didn't rush today and spent the night somewhere with Aria to teach her all the good things? With such thoughts, I turned my head to look at Aria.

But she was already gone, which made me feel disappointed.

"I missed such a good chance, I'm so foolish!"

==================

Approaching my house, I opened the door and went inside. The lights were on, and Vanessa was sitting on the couch in the living room. Looking at her, I pondered for a moment and walked into the living room.

Sitting in front of her, I silently watched her. Meanwhile, she also looked at me, observing me. It was strange that this time she didn't say anything or ask where I had been and what I had been doing.

Several minutes passed in this position. If it were before I awakened my mana, I would have been flustered by such silence. But it seemed that after the awakening and going through that pain, my emotions became more stable.

Even during and after the fight with Aria, my {Collapsing Consciousness} meter had not increased once. I hadn't checked what new things had been added to the statistics; I could do that later.

Right now, I was curious why she was silently sitting in this place. I didn't think of speaking at first.

Finally, after 10 minutes, she spoke.

"Where were you?"

Observing her emotions, I couldn't discern any significant changes.

"Hunting demons, what about it?" I calmly replied, continuing to look at her, wondering what she would say next.

"Demon hunting...how many did you manage to find?" She asked, but it seemed like she was only pretending to be interested.

"Oh, about a hundred," I answered, wanting to observe her reaction. Surprisingly, for the first time, I saw a flicker of disbelief on her face.

"I'm serious, I don't need jokes,” she said again, after she let her visage return to normal.

"Well, I was just curious, you know. I know my words don't mean anything to you. Why do you think I would joke about this?" Pausing for a moment, I raised my hand to gather some mana energy in my palm. Seeing her widened eyes, I continued.

"Or do you think I won't be able to hunt so many demons? Am I weak?" I asked, watching her carefully. After everything I went through last night, my consciousness seemed to have changed.

I was no longer interested in hiding anything. Along the way, I decided to become more proactive than before. I wanted to know what Vanessa's connection to Amber really was.

But I also didn't want her to act the way she used to.

Because no matter what she does or hides from me, it clearly indicates that she doesn't want to talk, and if she has decided that for herself...

Although when I talked to Amber I promised to protect Vanessa, it didn't mean I'd always be by her side.

For a moment, the taste of Aria's lips came to mind. If things work out, I could live a good life with her while killing demons. Another option was to distance myself from heroes and heroines to avoid spoiling the story.

In the event that the world came to an end, maybe I would become strong enough to decide.

"How... how did you awaken your mana..." Her voice trembled slightly, as she forced herself to calm down and speak.

"It doesn't matter. What matters now is that my actions depend on your answer. If you continue to hide things from me and do your own thing without telling me, I'll just leave this house."

I wanted to have a drastic impact on her attitude towards me, to make her reveal some things. I wanted to know what she planned and why she was so cold towards me, unlike that guy at the café.

"You..." She cut herself off and pursed her lips. It seemed like she realized I was serious.

"So, since all of this depends on you, my dear sister, I would like us to have an honest conversation. And if you continue to hide everything from me, I will definitely leave."

She sighed at my words, then leaned back on the couch.

"What do you want to ask..." Her voice became weaker than before.

"First, I'm very curious... Do you hate me?" As soon as I uttered those words, I saw her sit up straight. Looking at me, she quickly started talking.

"How can you say such a thing?" Her voice trembled, along with her hands. Though the trembling of her hands was barely noticeable, I still saw it.

Seeing her like that, deep inside me, I felt a glimmer of hope. Her reaction was definitely abnormal.

"Answer me." I continued to ask for a response.

She hesitated for a while, and that behavior clearly puzzled me. If you don't hate your sister, then why do you continue to act this way?

"I don't hate you..." After taking a breath, she finally answered, but her answer didn't satisfy me.

"Your words don't seem convincing for some reason..." I said, thinking, and feigned a sigh as I looked away.

"No! I really don't hate you, it's just–" Watching her tumultuous emotions that were not visible before, I felt a slight annoyance. Although it wasn't that strong.

"Just what? If you don't hate me, why do you show such a cold face only to me... and can even smile in front of others?" The last words slipped out of me spontaneously as I remembered that scene where she freely smiled in front of that guy.

I was jealous at that moment, but now I wanted to understand why. She was clearly cold in front of her sister, but opened up in front of others.

My words seemed to puzzle her, but after a minute of silence, she suddenly showed expressions of panic for some reason.

Seeing that, I wanted to ask another question, but she just got up and left, saying,

"We'll talk later." Her voice was clearly quieter, and her expression showed that she was running away from me.

The anger that I had been controlling until this moment, starting with what Aria did to me, and then with this entire situation, finally came out like a dam bursting.

I shot up from my seat, instinctively kicking the coffee table in front of me. As it fell apart, split into two, words came spilling out of my mouth.

"Fuck you, go to hell!"

Even though I saw her turn around to look at me, I ignored her and walked straight out of the house.

With a sharp movement, slamming the door, I walked down the street towards the metro.

I didn't want to stay here anymore and keep having to speculate about my sister’s feelings all the time.

"Sorry, Amber,  I think I understand some of your feelings now,” I muttered to myself.

Several times when she called, I immediately denied it, and then when she started to irritate me, I blocked her.

"It's so annoying. Why can't we just sit and talk? Why run away without explaining anything..." I complained aloud.

Thoughts were swirling in my head until I finally dialed the number of the hotel I had paid for.