The Pegasi descended onto the grass, and Sir Leopold was already before them the instant they landed.
"Princess Elfie, are you okay?"
Was the first question he asked as Ryuk passed the princess in his arms to his.
"I’m fine, Sir Leopald," Elfie said, irritation returning—mostly from having to go away from his warmth.
But when Ryuk looked at Sir Leopald’s face, he could see fear in the man’s eyes as he scanned every inch of Elfie’s outer body before he commanded:
"Coachman Percival?"
"Yes, Sir Leopald."
"Lead Mr. Ryuk to the family’s guest room."
"I’ll be with you soon, Mr. Ryuk," he said, and an instant later, he was gone, rushing back into the Royal House with Elfie in his arms.
"Why does he seem like he would die all of a sudden?" Ryuk couldn’t help but mutter under his breath.
Footsteps drew closer behind him—it was none other than Coachman Percival.
He watched as the coachman glanced in Sir Leopold’s direction before turning to him with a low voice.
"That’s because... he probably would die if any harm came to Elfie."
"While the princess might seem spoiled and lucky to be born royalty, her family... they’re something else. Living angelic monsters."
"She’s the odd one out... because she was born last."
"If harm came to her—Sir Leopold, you, and even me—we’d all be dead,"
He said.
But Ryuk shrugged it off and kept walking.
’If her family was a group of monsters, then the assassins not only would have never come in the first place, but would’ve backed off on the mere mention of their name, but they didn’t.’
’So much for a family of monsters.’
"Hey, where are you going?" he asked, but got no reply from Ryuk, who continued his walk.
"I’m supposed to be leading you to the guest house!" Percival shouted behind him as he finally stopped, pausing to give him a look.
"Isn’t the guest house in my direction?" Ryuk asked, and it was Percival’s turn to pause
He wanted so badly to refute the young man, but unfortunately, he was right.
’Tch, that cocky bastard. I can’t wait for him to be done with this mission and be chased away.’
But as much as Coachman Percival hated the cocky boy—deep in his heart—he was thankful.
He knew well it was only due to his presence that they had survived.
He had been knocked out in the first strike, crashing onto the ground, but before he fell unconscious, he had been able to feel that aura.
He counted two Apocrypha stage beings and one Eternity Stage being.
While they weren’t exactly after him, and had ignored him like a plague not worth killing...
They would’ve killed the princess.
And if they had, he would have died in the hands of her family.
He was alive right now only because the princess was safe.
And that... was due to this cocky man’s presence.
That, he was at least grateful for.
_________
TAP
TAP
TAP
The sound of tapping echoed through the golden room, its source from none other than a young man who sat on a bench at the side, fingers tapping against the armrest.
Tapping on the seat had now become Ryuk’s second nature, because his very sensitive hearing came with a disadvantage—which was forming various images in his head based on what he could draw from his surroundings.
The more silent he was, the clearer he listened, the more vivid the image, making his thoughts trail away.
But with him tapping his fingers close to him, and loudly enough, his hearing would focus on that, anchoring him back to himself, and drowning out the other noise and images in his head.
But soon enough—
STEP
STEP
He could hear the sound of steps as he sat upright, turning to look at the entrance.
The knob twisted and in came Sir Leopald, who held his coat in his arms.
When he reached, he took off his hat and gave a bow that was low enough to surprise Ryuk himself.
"I’ve heard everything from the lips of Percival."
"I could imagine worse would have happened without your presence, and hope to be forgiven for my initial acts of negligence towards you," he said—his voice low, like that of a man who had brutally rid himself of pride.
Ryuk took off his hat before responding.
"I’m only doing my job, Sir Leopald," he said, leading to the man rising as his hardened exterior finally broke into a small smile.
"And you did it well, Mr. Ryuk."
"I’ve marked your mission as successful and written a review, along with doubling your initial pay for the mission," he said, to which Ryuk’s eyebrows gleamed.
The mission he had accepted to take on, only because the amount of Ammoran points they were paying for something so easy was ridiculous—and that was due to the princess being who he was to guard.
Even the pay itself was already good enough: 200,000 Amma Notes. And now it would be doubled.
"Thank you. Since you have marked my mission complete, I will take my leave now," he said, to which the man nodded his head.
"Very well. I’ll accompany you to the entrance, Mr. Ryuk."
_______
"Finally got rid of my negative point value," Ryuk muttered to himself as he sat on the back of an Amun.
In his hands was a golden card, and on it was the count:
Ammamoran Points: 1,300 / 100,000
He previously had a negative of 3,700 points.
But after completing the mission, which rewarded 5,000 points, he had cleared his debt and was now in the positive.
A small beam of golden light emitted from his pupils, and three golden panels appeared.
One of them was the panel for the Arch Guard comms, and the other stated his mission complete—the review he got, which was a 10-star rating out of a 1,000-star scale—and the last was the blinking reward of his mission:
(500,000 Ammoran Points Rewarded)
His initial reward was just 200,000, but Sir Leopold had added an extra 300,000.
It made Ryuk smile a bit.
When he looked at the amount of money that was present in the joint bank account created by Mrs. Lynia, he saw 5,000 Amma notes
It wasn’t much, but he had eventually come to learn that it was enough for the average Fallen to live on for a week at least.
They had all just come to this world, and they didn’t have much at all, although Mrs. Lynia never made him feel like that.
For that reason, Ryuk made his choice.
He transferred 300,000 Ammoran points to the joint bank account, leaving 200,000 in his Archguard account.
"Life should be a bit easier with this."