"Oh my, is this some sort of traditional greeting from her country?"
Jason could only nod along while trying not to laugh. In truth, what Riyala had just done was a tradition on Radagan that all women did to show respect to their mothers-in-law. It was meant to show that they were grateful for joining the family and they were asking the mothers to please take care of them, but Jason couldn’t really say that to his mother. She would have a freaking heart attack if he mentioned what sort of relationship he was in with Riyala and Gina now, so the best thing he could do was to try and ease her into it later. Mira reached down and helped Riyala up while speaking kindly.
"Come now, no need for all that. Have you eaten? You’ve been gone for so long, so you must be starving."
Riyala couldn’t understand a word Mira was saying, but thankfully, Jason had brought a whisperstone with him, and once he activated it, Riyala could understand what Mira was saying! Mira repeated herself to Riyala when Jason told her to, and Riyala smiled before telling her that she would be happy to stay for a meal. Mira was surprised when the whisperstone translated the Radagan tongue to English, but she also knew that magic was something no one could ever predict, so she didn’t bother to try to understand how the stone worked.
"Hey, Jason. Welcome back. Yawn~ you guys are so loud."
A voice came from inside the house, and Jason looked up to see Janet walking out of the bedroom. She was wearing a pair of short shorts and a tank top that exposed her stomach and a lot of cleavage, but her hair was a complete mess, so it was obvious that she had just woken up. Once Maya saw Janet, she ran over and hugged her waist with a smile on her face!
"Janet!! Look, Jason’s back too! He came back with that wench, but that’s not important! We’re all together again!"
Maya’s excitement was so contagious that it forced Janet to smile, but there was a deep pain behind that smile. Maya was treating Janet just like any other sister would, and for some reason, this hurt Janet far more than if Maya hated her! Janet would have been hurt if Maya hated her and refused to talk to her, but the fact that Maya was so excited just to be around her was far worse! Janet felt like a fraud, and she had to look away from Maya’s smiling face when the pain in her heart got too much! But when Janet looked up, she felt her breath catch in her throat when she saw Jason staring right at her with a hard expression on his face. Mira had a slightly conflicted expression, but she was still trying to smile at her children, while Jason didn’t even look slightly amused. He was giving Janet a direct stare, and Janet felt like he was seeing right through her and into her soul at that moment! It was very unsettling!
"Y-Yeah, it’s great that we’re all together again. Give me a sec, I need to go grab some water."
Janet quickly moved away to try and get away from the awkward tension, and Jason turned and told his mother that he was hungry. Mira clapped with a smile and quickly ushered everyone to the table for them to get something to eat! Mira didn’t want to dwell on such an uncomfortable atmosphere for long, so she tried her best to make things calm again as she joked about how she had been cooking nonstop out of nervousness.
The truth was that out of all the members of the family, Maya had always been the most protected. Just like Maya loved Jason, Jason also loved his little sister to hell and back, and he was willing to do anything for her. That was why, when Janet ran away eight years ago and vanished, Jason made sure that no one ever mentioned it to Maya. Jason took full responsibility for how they handled things, and he told Maya that Janet had gone off to study in another city and that she would be back in a few years. Jason still remembered how much their father’s disappearance had hurt him, and the only reason Maya didn’t feel that pain was because she had been too young to even remember him back then! But Jason swore that he was not going to allow Maya to feel that way about Janet. If Janet wanted to run away, then Jason had no issues with that, but Janet wouldn’t use her own selfishness to hurt their little sister! Maya had only been five years old at this time, so it wasn’t hard to make her believe the lie! Maya had been a little hurt that Janet didn’t say goodbye to her before leaving, but Jason knew that the pain Maya felt at that moment was far less than what she would have felt if Jason told her that Janet had run away, and Jason was more than happy with the tradeoff!
So when Maya saw Janet again after getting back from boarding school, she immediately thought that Janet had come back from studying in another city, and she welcomed her like any little sister would welcome their older sibling! She hugged her and told her she missed her, and Janet could only thank Maya awkwardly while trying her best not to say anything about what really happened. Janet might be the oldest sibling in the family, but she knew that it was Jason’s word that was law in their home. And since Jason already said that no one would tell Maya the truth, Janet had to listen and follow his orders.
But the way Jason looked at her earlier was still bothering Janet, and there was something pricking her at the back of her head like a warning from her instincts. Janet didn’t know how, but she was certain that Jason had found out her secret. Jason knew that Janet was planning to leave again.
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Due to repeated action, the user has unlocked a new Legion Skill [Independent Action]
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[Independent Action: This skill is present within the stat window of every subordinate, and it grants the user’s subordinates the freedom to carry out an action that they believe will be beneficial to the user without the need for input or instructions from the user. This skill is graded from D to S Rank. A D Rank subordinate, like the Pawn Rank Spidermonkeys, will not be capable of carrying out any action without the input of the user or another high-ranking subordinate; meanwhile, an S Rank subordinate, like the Rook Rank Phantom Assassins, can carry out complex missions without any input from the user. The skill can be evolved by putting the subordinates through constant training, and all subordinates with high intelligence naturally possess a high [Independent Action] ranking.]
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Jason saw this window pop up in front of him as he was taking a seat at the dinner table, and he raised a brow at the description of the new skill. Jason already knew that there were some subordinates that could carry out missions better than others without him telling them what to do. A perfect example of this was when Jason had been in the Adamantine Ant Hill Gate a long time ago. When Jason split up from the Moonlight Wolves to carry out a pincer attack on the Ant Nest, he had to keep an eye on the Wolves and instruct them regularly whenever there were any issues. But things were different whenever Jason gave a mission to the Phantoms.