Ais returned to the Familia in a daze.
It felt as though there were a hole inside her, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
She ignored Tiona and the others when they greeted her. The moment she returned to the manor, she locked herself in her room, curled up on her bed, and refused to say a word to anyone who came knocking.
Her thoughts were a complete mess. The knocking only made her already miserable mood worse. She wanted to scream and vent her frustration, but in the end, she held it in.
After a while, the knocking finally stopped.
Ais felt slightly relieved.
But not long afterward, the door was unlocked with a key.
"Ais, Tiona said you weren't feeling well?"
The familiar, dignified voice of Elven Royalty came from the doorway.
Riveria, dressed in the sacred robes of an Elf, entered the room and pulled open the curtains, allowing sunlight to flood the dark space.
She had a spare key to Ais's room.
She turned around to look at the girl on the bed, only to suddenly freeze.
"You're crying?"
'Crying?'
Ais looked up blankly and touched her cheek.
It really was wet.
It seemed that she had desperately held back her tears while she was outside, only to finally let everything out once she returned to the safety of her own room.
"What happened?" Riveria's expression gradually darkened.
Ais was an incredibly strong-willed girl.
Ever since Riveria had found her nine years ago, she had rarely seen Ais cry. Even when she showed signs of wanting to sob, she would sniffle and force herself to hold it back.
She had already shed all the tears she had in her during the tragedy nine years ago.
Yet now, someone had actually made her precious Ais cry?
That was unforgivable!
"…Riveria, let me be alone for a while." Ais turned her head away, unwilling to say anything more.
"Ais, I know you've grown up and prefer to keep many things to yourself. But you need to remember that I… and Finn and the others… are your family."
Riveria had originally wanted to say that she herself was Ais's family, but after thinking about it, she felt a little embarrassed and dragged Finn and the others into it as well.
It wasn't wrong, either. Finn and Gareth had taken good care of Ais when she was young.
Of course, no one had devoted quite as much time and effort to her as Riveria had.
Ais hesitated.
From childhood to adulthood, Riveria had always been the person most willing to accept and understand her.
"…Today, I saw Ryoji with another woman." After struggling with it for a while, Ais finally murmured the words.
"And then?" Riveria frowned.
"They looked very close… and she did this…" Ais imitated Freya and awkwardly blew a kiss into the air.
"Hmm… Is that all?" Riveria thought for a moment before continuing.
"?" Ais was slightly stunned.
'Wasn't that enough? Just seeing that scene had made her feel as though her heart had shattered.'
"What was Ryoji's reaction?" Riveria rested her delicate fingers against her chin, her eyes shining with wisdom. "Ais, you have to understand that Ryoji is extremely popular. If he goes outside without his cloak, plenty of women will blow kisses at him."
Forget blowing kisses, it wouldn't even be surprising if some Amazoness tried to rush over and drag him away on the spot. After all, the openness of the Amazoness race was well known.
Of course, Riveria, being an Elf, absolutely refused to imagine such a scene. It would be an assault on her mind.
She spoke seriously: "So when judging Ryoji's relationship with a woman, you can't only look at the woman's behavior. You also have to look at Ryoji's reaction. When she blew him that kiss, how did he react? Was he happy?"
'His reaction?'
Ais had no idea.
Her face was full of confusion.
The moment she saw Freya blow that kiss, her entire world had gone dark. She couldn't accept it and immediately ran away.
She hadn't even looked at Ryoji's reaction.
"So that's what happened." Riveria finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, an extremely relieved smile appeared on her face.
Her daughter had finally grown up!
Ais, who had never cared about anything except fighting monsters and growing stronger, was finally starting to care about someone of the opposite sex.
And she was even jealous.
This was proof that she had finally come to understand her own feelings.
Riveria felt incredibly proud.
But she also felt a faint sense of lingering sadness.
Ais wasn't even sixteen and already had someone she liked. Meanwhile, Riveria was nearly a century old and still hadn't found a single man she was interested in.
It was rather discouraging.
'Of course, I'm Elven Royalty and can live for five hundred years. I'm basically only twenty in human terms. I still have plenty of time!' Riveria tried to convince herself of this.
In reality, the close friends who had left their village with her back then had long since married. One of them even had a child three years older than Ais.
Riveria was actually quite anxious about it herself, but for the sake of Elven dignity, she simply kept it bottled up.
"Jealous?" Ais raised her confused eyes. What did that word mean?
"Listen carefully, Ais. You've fallen in love with Ryoji, just like your mother fell in love with your father," Riveria patiently explained. "It's simply a type of emotion. It's perfectly normal. Just like Tione likes Finn. There's no need to be afraid or feel embarrassed about it."
Ais nodded slowly as the concept began to form in her mind.
"Think about it. You probably want to be alone with Ryoji, right? You don't want other women around him. And when another woman gets close to him, you feel uncomfortable and unhappy. That feeling is jealousy."
Riveria searched for the simplest way to explain it.
"For example, when you saw Tiona getting close to Ryoji, did you feel uncomfortable?"
Ais suddenly understood.
'Yes! That was exactly how she had felt!'
That night, she had already taken a bath. She shouldn't have been doing anything that would make her sweat again. Yet the moment she saw Tiona clinging to Ryoji, she had rushed over without even thinking.
She had even forgotten to dry her hair.
At the time, she hadn't thought about anything else, she simply felt that she couldn't let those two be alone together.
So she had used sword practice as an excuse to force herself into the situation.
"Listen carefully, Ais. You have to fight for your own happiness!" Riveria looked like a teacher giving an important lecture. "Ryoji is extremely popular, and plenty of women want to be with him. Since he hasn't made his choice yet, you can't just sit here and wait. You need to take the initiative. That's how you win him over!"
Riveria was completely confident. Ais was incredibly cute, there was no man in the world who could remain indifferent to her! As long as Ais was willing to take the initiative, there was no man she couldn't win over!
'Sorry, Tiona. But I really do want Ais and Ryoji to end up together.'
"So that's it!" Ais finally understood.
Looking back, she really had been an idiot. She hadn't even seen Ryoji's reaction to Freya before running away from the battlefield.
Wasn't that basically the same as giving up the fight herself?
(End of Chapter)
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