After talking with Alice and Tiana, Daniel planned to visit the guild to talk with Lana and her father. However, after a second thought, he decided to skip it.
He had just returned and preferred to rest for at least one day. Besides, even without him, nothing bad would happen to the guild, he was confident that girl could handle things well enough for now.
After chatting a bit longer with his two sisters, he went to see his mother. Liana smiled as soon as she saw her son, though it was clear she was struggling to hold back tears.
But she couldn’t help it and pulled her son into her arms. Daniel said nothing and just let her stay there quietly.
"Mom, is it still hard for you?" he asked with a teasing tone.
"I’m just worried. I don’t want something to happen to you too," Liana said softly, her voice trembling. Even though she always tried to stay strong, she still feared that the same fate that took her husband might one day take her son too.
"Don’t worry, nothing’s going to happen to me," Daniel smiled, reassuring her. After a moment, Liana let go and went back to her work.
"I heard you’ve made a new friend," she said then, sounding a little curious.
"Well, when you guys aren’t around, I get pretty lonely. So, I figured I should find someone to talk to," Liana nodded and explained,
"I met her during my daily walks. We ran into each other a few times, started talking, and before I knew it, we became friends. Don’t worry, she’s a very kind and smart lady. I’m sure you’ll like her once you meet her."
"Do you think it’d be okay if you introduced me to her someday?" Daniel asked teasingly.
"Hey, stop thinking weird things! That woman’s just a little younger than me!" Liana immediately caught his tone and warned him seriously.
"Is that really how you see your son?" Daniel asked, sounding genuinely offended.
Liana said nothing and just stared at him, trying to figure out if he was lying. In truth, she had never seen her son being particularly close with any girl. For a while, she had even suspected there might be something wrong with his preferences.
That was until Alice found out what their mother was thinking and had to explain a few things about some incidents that happened during her brother’s middle school years.
Only then did Liana realize that her son probably just disliked romantic relationships altogether and had some emotional wall toward them.
She wanted to talk about it with him, but she felt too awkward. Besides, she knew he wasn’t the type to enjoy conversations like that anyway.
Sometimes, she wished her husband were still here to help her handle things like this.
"I’ll invite her for dinner tomorrow night," she finally said softly, looking away from her son.
If he wasn’t thinking anything weird about her friend, then there was only one reason left, he was worried.
Daniel said nothing, leaned in, and kissed her forehead. Liana just grumbled, but in the end, she smiled and didn’t say anything more.
They talked for a while longer about random things, mostly Daniel teasing her until she finally lost her patience and yelled at him to go back to his sisters.
He returned to the two girls with a grin. Seeing them comfortably sitting around, he decided to mess with them too. He told them to get up and follow him to the training room.
Inside, he grabbed a wooden sword and told both of them to attack him with full strength. Alice and Tiana didn’t understand why they suddenly had to do this, but they didn’t refuse either.
Both attacked with all they had. They also wanted to see how much stronger they’d gotten compared to before.
From their past sparring sessions with Daniel, they had learned a bit. So this time, instead of wasting time, they unleashed their full power right from the start.
They used a strategy they had practiced, attacking from both sides at once to make things difficult for him. From their point of view, this strategy should at least force him to step back a bit.
But the result was completely different from what they expected. Daniel easily deflected their strikes and began to beat them up, though not in a way that would actually injure or seriously hurt them.
He kept the blows light, just enough to make them feel a little pain, enough for it to be a lesson rather than punishment.
He spent about fifteen minutes teaching them, and after feeling satisfied, put the wooden sword back in place.
"Was it really necessary to be that brutal!?" Alice glared at her brother with anger and frustration.
Tiana didn’t say anything, but the look in her eyes showed she was upset too. It had been a very long time since they’d been beaten like that.
"It’s good for you," Daniel said calmly and gestured for them to look at the bruised spots on their bodies.
When they looked, they were shocked to see that the power of Law was spreading through those bruises, as if adjusting and strengthening their bodies.
"This way your bodies will be tempered a bit," he explained to them about what he thinks
They no longer had any major weaknesses, and their strength had also grown significantly. He told them not to underestimate themselves, they were just unlucky to have him as their brother.
And that they shouldn’t compare themselves to him.
"...You!."
Alice gritted her teeth and tried to bite him, but Daniel flicked her forehead instead. Then, after hearing their mother calling them for dinner, they went back to the living room.
After dinner, they stayed up until midnight, playing games and joking about random things.
Liana smiled quietly, watching her children laugh together again. She was just happy that, finally, they were all together once more.
She only wished her husband could’ve been there too.
After that, they all went back to their rooms. Daniel lay down on his bed and decided to check his phone before sleeping.
There weren’t many messages, except for one from his best friend, Joe. He said he missed him and asked when they could meet again, followed by a bunch of nonsense as usual.
But at the end, something caught Daniel’s attention.
"There’s going to be a high school reunion soon. What do you think? Should we go? Apparently, that girl’s going to be there too."