"Is that you?"
"Ryuk!?"
The voice, mixed with intense disbelief and emotion, rang out as Ryuk’s eyebrows creased.
He watched as Seraphis blinked out and reappeared right before him, her face tilting down.
Ryuk instinctively leaned back as he saw those silvery blue eyes scan every inch of his eyes, before they beamed.
"It’s you. It’s really you!"Seraphis voiced out, barely able to keep her excitement down, as Ryuk replied,
"Good to see you too, Seraphis?"
"Get a hold of yourself, Seraphis. You’re acting like a lover girl," Queen Snowardo said out loud, immediately bringing Seraphis out of it.
She backed off from Ryuk, her face turning red.
"I..." she tried to say, but then forced it down as she turned to look at Queen Snowardo before bowing her head.
"My Queen," she voiced out, as she slithered off with speed and took her position behind her.
"Seraphis and Isha are quite very close," Queen Snowardo explained, and Ryuk nodded his head.
"True. The only person who touched Isha without her flinching, after me, was Seraphis. They had quite the chemistry even back in the Ascension Academy..." Ryuk said as the Queen nodded.
"A year of being together has deepened their bonds, and since Isha wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing you are, Seraphis herself came to miss your absence. Almost as much as Isha herself does."
"Hence her behavior when she saw you’re alive," Queen Snowardo explained, as realization dawned on Ryuk.
He turned a side glance to Seraphis, who turned her head to the side, hiding the pink hue in her cheeks.
"That’s quite heartwarming, and unexpected too."
"What would I know? You do have that aura of being able to get quite quickly into people’s good shoes. Especially that of young girls."
"I would never imagine there would be a day when I’d see a beast missing its beast tamer so much after his ’death’—and taking so amazingly about him—enough to thaw the heart of someone as cold as Seraphis."
"My heart is not cold," Seraphis whispered from behind the throne as Elder Celine grinned.
"Oh really? If I remember correctly, your mother found her true love when she was 17 and they married five years later. Your grandmother found hers when she was 18, and they married four years later."
"How many years old is Seraphis again?" Elder Celine asked, turning to Queen Snowardo who replied,
"20."
"20 years, and all the poor men who have tried to court her only get a single fate: banned from entering the Royal Palace!"
"Talk of someone who doesn’t have a cold heart," Elder Celine said, smiling mischievously at Seraphis, who could only grumble behind her mother.
"Void?" Isha’s voice suddenly rang out as she turned to look at the dark cat who was sitting leisurely on Ryuk’s shoulder, picking its nails.
"I thought it would take years to recognize..." Void said with a deep hmph.
Isha flinched a little, seeing Void able to talk, but then her hands reached for him.
Despite his protests, he was silenced when Isha held him close to her bosom, his eyes widening to saucers.
"Ahhhh... Heavenly," he called out, resulting in a scoff from everyone sitting in the room, including Ryuk himself.
"Been a long time, Isha. I’ve missed your presence. You were the only thing I thought about morning and night."
"Yeah, right," Ryuk said as he rolled his eyes mockingly at Void.
"And just so you know, you and I weren’t Ryuk’s priority during your absence."
"All that selfish bozo cared about was getting his neck off the hands of an evil scientist that turned him into his lab rat because of his new robot body he fused him with or whatever."
"My point is—I was the only one who thought of you day and night," Void said as Ryuk clapped his head.
’The bastard just revealed my secret. Seems like I’ll have to get a Voice Silencer Artifact for Void...’ he thought, and true to his thoughts, the gazes of everyone in the room were now on him.
"No wonder I felt you were different. You got your body fused with something else?" Elder Celine asked confusedly.
"And by an evil scientist too? What type of Ruin is that?" Queen Snowardo asked, and Ryuk shrugged.
"It’s a long story."
"I want to hear it..." Isha said as she took her seat close to Ryuk, blinking her eyes at him.
When he turned to look at her, he couldn’t find a way to say no to her first request, so he could only sigh in the end and give the most basic summary he could manage to all of them.
"Now it makes more sense—your absence. So you were more or less stuck in another world, with a massive time difference," Queen Snowardo mused.
"Two weeks to a year here. That’s some truly massive time dilation. The world must be incredibly far away from Endearth for such to happen. Galaxy-level distance," Elder Celine uttered beneath her breath.
"And your current strength—being able to match a Knull King solo—I’m guessing is tied to this fusion of yours..." Elder Celine exclaimed as Ryuk firmly nodded.
"Yes. It holds massive power, not understood even by the one who fused it with me—and hence why I could break out of their control."
"I’m glad you’re okay..." Isha voiced out by his side.
"Just wished... You summoned me to your side. I would have been able to help," she whispered, resting on him as Ryuk swerved her snow-white hair to the back of her ear.
"Summoning you so far away might’ve put you in danger. Wouldn’t be worth the risk, especially when I could handle it all myself..." Ryuk said, resulting in a sweet smile from Isha.
"Okay. You two lovebirds will make me miss my late husband. Hey, Isha—we’ve agreed to allow you to leave with Ryuk, but on the condition you get to choose what date from now."
"When will you be leaving with him?" Queen Snowardo asked, and Isha replied almost instantly.
"Now."
"Tsk," Elder Celine clicked her tongue as Ryuk flashed her a grin.
"I told you she’ll always choose my side..." he whispered to her as she hmphed coldly.
------
A/N:
If you’re enjoying the novel, consider voting the novel with Golden Tickets and Power stones. It helps I, the author, with visibility on the Webnovel app.
In and Out_SnowySmoos