Chapter 308: Confidence Boost
Riyala had never even been to the Ashenvalley Forest after she went to bond with her wyvern! Would the dragons really listen to someone like her?
A hand landed on Riyala’s shoulder, and Riyala looked up to see Jason giving her a confident look. Jason was wearing a simple black outfit with a new defensive long coat that covered his whole body like a cape. Jason had gotten the artefact from the BloodRaven guild, and even though it was only S Rank, it was the strongest defensive artefact that Jason could find, so Jason decided that it would have to do. Jason made sure he held Riyala’s gaze as he spoke seriously.
"I know you don’t believe in yourself right now. You’ve been through a lot, and you’re scared. But you have to do this. The dragons and wyverns have been turning away everyone from Radagan because they aren’t happy about the fights happening between the dragonborn. That means they are against the Sovereign’s coup. If there’s anyone they’ll listen to, then it’s someone from the Ryal family. You’re the only person in the world that can convince them."
Riyala felt the full weight of Jason’s belief pressing down on her at that moment. For a second, another wave of doubt passed through Riyala’s body as she wondered if she was really good enough for this. But once she saw the complete belief on Jason’s face, Riyala knew that she didn’t have a choice. Jason was already doing so much for her, so did she really have any right to refuse him when he was asking her to do her part? Riyala’s resolve started to strengthen as she realized that this was the least she could do to avenge her family! The Sovereign had already taken everything from her, so she had nothing to lose anyway! She would either get help from the dragons and wyverns or she would die trying!
Riyala nodded seriously to Jason as she gained her confidence, and Jason calmly ruffled her hair with a grin. Jason debated on whether or not he should tell Riyala about her father being alive, but he decided not to do it. Riyala needed to be focused on her own missions for now, so Jason would make sure he rescued her father and kept him safe until the battle was over. Jason nodded at his own decision before he turned to talk to Gina, and Riyala put her hands over her head with a soft blush spreading on her cheeks, and she turned away so that Jason wouldn’t see the stupid smile that was spreading on her face!
Gina smiled at Jason, and she leaned up to kiss him softly once he was close enough. Jason grinned before he looked over at where Griselda and Juliet were talking. Jason had a complicated look on his face as he asked.
"Do you think she’ll be alright? She doesn’t look so good."
Jason could see how Griselda was practically shaking from nervousness, and Jason knew that she was not yet ready for the amount of responsibilities that she was about to take up, but Gina shook her head at Jason and spoke up.
"She was the one who wanted to do this, so it’s only right that she handles the politics. If she wasn’t ready for it, then she shouldn’t have made the guild."
Jason hummed calmly since he knew that Gina was right and he put his hands in his coat pocket as he began walking over to Griselda and Juliet. Gina put her hand into the crook of Jason’s elbow as she followed after him. Griselda noticed Jason immediately, and she gained a small blush in embarrassment as she tried to hide how nervous she was! But Jason just raised a brow at her and asked.
"You okay?"
"Y-Yeah! Of course, I’m fine!"
Griselda spoke in a loud voice, and Jason chuckled as he looked over at Juliet! Juliet just shook her head and let out a distressed breath! It was obvious that Juliet didn’t think Griselda was ready either, and Jason laughed even harder when Griselda gasped at the betrayal! Jason decided that he should at least try to boost Griselda’s confidence.
"Hey, you shouldn’t be so tense. I know it’s nerve-wracking to talk in front of so many people, but it’s no different from talking to anyone else. You just have to say what you’ve written down in the file and answer one or two questions. That shouldn’t be so hard, right?"
Griselda rolled her eyes and rubbed her forehead while saying.
"It’s not just people! This is the entire world that’ll be watching. I don’t think you understand how bad it’ll be if I mess up on that stage. That could be social suicide! Imagine if I fall down and someone takes a picture up my skirt! Or if I stammer and bite my tongue!"
Jason shrugged.
"Hey, if you want, I don’t mind switching places with you. I’ll go talk to the press, and you can handle the raid."
That finally made Griselda burst out in laughter, and Jason grinned when she seemed to finally lose some of her tension! Jason looked at her hands and saw that she was no longer shaking, and he nodded before saying.
"I know you’ll do a great job, Griselda. You managed to convince me to join your damn guild, so these people should be nothing."
Griselda’s cheeks reddened from embarrassment as she remembered how much she pestered Jason about joining her guild! Jason was right! If she managed to get through his thick hide, then there was nothing those bastards in the press could throw at her that would shake her! Griselda looked into Jason’s confident gaze for a while, and she felt herself getting lost in there as she just stared at him.
"Babe, we should get going."
Griselda suddenly jolted back to reality as Gina spoke up from the side and Griselda turned to see Gina giving her a suspicious look. Griselda turned away quickly and stared down at the paper in her hand like it was the most important thing in the world, and Jason nodded at Gina’s words before turning to speak to Juliet.
"Some people are going to come fix up the house later, and a friend of mine should be coming in the afternoon for an inspection, so you can just ignore anyone coming and going. And take this, there are a few hundred crystals in there. Process it and send my cut to my account. We shouldn’t be gone for more than a day, unless things don’t go to plan, so when I get back, we can talk about the crystal distribution for the guild."
Juliet’s face lit up in excitement when she heard Jason say he had more crystals, and she collected the small bag containing multiple mid and high-level crystals from Jason with a wide smile on her face! Juliet already knew that there would be a lot more crystals from Jason once he was done with this Gate Raid, and she could feel her mind racing through the numbers as she tried to predict just how much Jason would be making from this new haul!
Jason actually had more than three thousand crystals in his alternate dimension after all the crystals that he had gotten from the Lich as well as the ones he took from the phantoms, but Jason wasn’t in a hurry to sell all the crystals since he knew that he would be eating a lot of it in the coming fights. Jason would hold onto the crystals until he got a time when he needed extra funds and then he would sell them to Juliet.
’Touch the young one’s chest. I want to see them bounce.’
Jason’s eye twitched once he heard a voice echo through his mind!