Jun opened his eyes to a dim ceiling and calmly breathed out through his nose. Lying still for a while, he thought on his recent experiences with a pensive expression.

Upon returning from the mission with Sela, he consistently found himself in a daze; a state of being that didn’t go unnoticed. Sela gave him a concerned look before speaking up.

“Little Xin, go take a rest. Now that you’re E rank, you’ll can join Lulu and her friends on D rank missions. Although they have classes in the Ancestral plane during daytime, they’ll be here every night until their tutorial ends. So we have plenty of time to get you to C rank at the minimum!”

Jun gave the ascendant a distracted farewell before signing off, resulting in his current position.

It was just one arrow.

He envisioned the earth sundering, the winds snapping, and the trees collapsing. From Sela’s devious smile to the untold carnage that was left in the arrow’s wake; everything echoed in his mind with vivid detail.

“Just how much of a gap is there? Must I surpass that level to save a world? How long would it take me to reach that point? More importantly, how long do I even have left to live?”

He murmured under his breath before letting out an exasperated sigh, and then sat up from his bed with a stretch.

Well, let’s see Myra’s progress.

Despite his own issues, it was time to check up on his new charge. He stealthily opened the door to his room and stepped out, only to be met with the sound of distant yelling.

“You can’t keep pushing me and pushing me! I am a princess! I’m tired! I’m sore! And I don’t want to do this anymore!”

Jun let out another sigh. He had a hunch things would reach this point eventually. After all, since when had Myra needed to work a day in her life?

She simply had no concept of what true effort was.

Meanwhile, Bennon could be seen standing tall with his hands folded behind his back. His face maintained an impassive expression. It was as if he weren’t the target of the heated attitude being directed towards him.

“Are you just going to stand there? I want to speak to Jun! I know he’s here somewhere! If you’re not going to take me to see him, then I’ll go myself.”

She whipped around in a huff just in time to see Jun stepping onto the center stage. At the same time, Bennon’s eyes lit up with amusement.

“J-Jun…”

Her brain momentarily shut down now that she was suddenly confronted with the person she was seeking. In a matter of seconds, her appearance transformed from a distressed princess to a demure maiden.

Did he see me? Did he hear me just now? What if he thinks I’ve given up entirely? But it’s not true! How do I explain this…

While Myra’s thoughts were going haywire, Jun was going through a perplexing situation himself.

Why can I hear her thoughts? They’re not necessarily negative, if anything they’re neutral. Could this be the difference between D and C rank Soul Sensing? Do soul skills work the same outside of PSI World?

He shook his head and stood in front of the quiet girl. Without saying a word, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Myra’s heart momentarily skipped a beat when she looked into his clear blue eyes. She never noticed before, but every detail of his face seemed to be sculpted by angels.

Was he always this… handsome? What is wrong with me?

Myra stared at Jun with a stupefied expression, while Jun simply raised an eyebrow at the confused princess.

“So what seems to be the problem?”

Jun glanced at Bennon as he spoke up, who was positioned a little ways behind Myra.

“A pleasure to see you again, Boss. Currently we are experiencing some growing pains while working through certain sets of exercises with our young… princess.”

Myra winced and nervously looked away from Jun when she heard Bennon call her a princess.

“Oh?”

Jun responded with intrigue and cast his gaze back towards Myra. His eyes darted back in forth as he inspected her face and body.

She certainly seems exhausted. It’s only been a day or so, but I can tell that she’s physically adapting well to the situation. Perhaps she can’t see her own progress, something quite common.

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Without explaining, he moved both his hands towards her lower neck and shoulders.

“Excuse me a moment.”

“W-What?”

Myra sucked in a quick breath of air as she felt the young boy’s hands gently massage and prod her aching muscles.

It hurt, but at the same time there was a subtle sense of release to compensate for his actions.

Shoulders, biceps, triceps. If I can feel the improvement, then there’s no way she can’t. Abdominal muscles, quads, glutes. Bennon has definitely worked her to the bone. And one more thing… just how many nutrient tonics did she consume?? Did she just water with them??

While Jun was busy giving her a physical examination, Myra’s thoughts were once again tossed into chaos.

Ouch! Aahh.. Why are his hands- Oww! Aaahh…. If he could keep massaging that spot. Wait, that’s my booty-!

Myra experienced chills every time Jun moved to a new area but would then melt into putty immediately afterwards. By the time he was done with his examination, Myra was staring off into the distance with a mushy expression on her face.

“Hmm.”

Jun took a step back and placed his hand under his chin in thought.

There’s no way she can’t see this kind of improvement. She herself knows just how much effort she put in. However, it also looks like this isn’t the first time she’s had an outburst with Bennon.

“Myra.”

“…”

“Hey, Myra.”

He snapped his fingers in front of her face to get her attention.

“Huh? What?”

“Are the exercises too difficult?”

It was difficult to glean any emotion from Jun’s blank stare.

“They’re hard… but I can manage.”

“Really?”

Myra nodded in response.

Her unruly display from before was nowhere to be seen now that she was face to face with Jun. This caused Bennon to scrunch up his face in bewilderment considering that he was the one who had to deal with her lack of cooperation the entire time.

“I see…”

Jun gave a slight pause as he noticed Bennon’s expression change in the background. His eyes briefly flickered back and forth between the two.

“Then why do you want to quit?”

“I don’t really…”

“But you do.”

Jun calmly insisted.

“…-cause it…-ing….”

She mumbled out incoherently, her voice as quiet as a mosquito.

“I can’t hear you. If you truly don’t want to contin-“

Myra stomped her foot on the ground, cutting Jun off.

“I said it’s boring!”

She looked at him with traces of fury and worry etched across her face.

She wanted to improve herself, and this was the best way to do it. At the same time, she was frustrated that the road she walked was incredibly dull.

“I don’t have any friends here! It’s just. Lift this. Move that. Jump over there. Jump over here. Run this way. Run that way. I have no one to talk to, and this man is just a dumb brick! He won’t talk about anything else other than the next exercise!”

Bennon’s eyebrow twitched imperceptibly while Jun mentally facepalmed after listening to her rant. How could he have forgotten something so crucial?

This was a girl who grew up with a circle of confidants. One could call her a socialite if they were being modest.

I forgot that most people need some sort of human interaction to function properly. I wonder what’s wrong with me then.

The thought completely escaped Jun because he never experienced an urge to be social. Then again, he always had his dreams with Ana to keep him company.

“Fine! Fine. I get it.”

Jun waved his hand in front to calm her down.

“Y-You do? You’re not angry?”

Myra glanced at him with a hint of worry.

“Angry? You don’t have the ability to anger me.”

Myra’s expression darkened as if it were a challenge of some kind. However, Jun continued on as if he hadn’t noticed.

“As it happens, I’ll be free during the day. So from this point forward, I’ll be joining you.”

Bennon’s eyes lit up while Myra simply stood there shocked.

“Every day?”

Her voice almost sounded hopeful as if she were an abandoned child being taken in.

“Every day that I can, but not today. Today we rest. You’ve worked hard, Myra. So take a break and enjoy yourself or sleep. This is Heldov after all, the city never sleeps. Our training from hell can begin tomorrow!

“Mm!”

Myra nodded her head as a small smile crept onto her face.

Now that the princess had settled down, Jun then mentioned to Bennon about increasing his tonic supply to accommodate the two.

“I didn’t expect her to be able to consume so many. Those tonics are expensive! Also, if she chooses to go out, can you please shadow her? I have no idea if her bodyguard is secretly trailing her or not.”

After giving out his instructions, Jun decided to take his own advice and rest in his room, eventually finding himself in a familiar encirclement of trees.

----

“You’re here.”

A soothing voice called out to Jun while he remained on his back. Twinkling stars decorated the night sky above him, while the soft aroma of nature filtered through his nose.

“Mm.”

He acknowledged Ana’s presence with a simple grunt. Seeing his lack of response, Ana made her way towards his side.

Jun hid a small smile as he felt Ana thump to the floor beside him.

It was quiet moments like these that made him feel most connected to the Ana. Without a single word, they continued to share each other’s company underneath the dazzling night sky.

After a long while, Jun eventually broke the silence while maintaining his gaze towards the bejeweled abyss.

“I met someone special.”

Seeing that Ana was remaining quiet, he decided to continue on.

“Her hand had this intimidating energy around it…”

He paused and thought for a moment before continuing.

“Well, I don’t know if it can be considered a her. It was a world spirit, but you already knew that.”

Of course, Ana knows everything that I know and then some.

Jun waited for a response, but only received silence.

“I was hoping you’d have more insight on why her hand was so terrifying, yet familiar to me.”

He sat up as he said this, finally tearing his eyes away from the sea of stars overhead. He turned toward the picturesque beauty beside him, who wore an expressionless face.

“I think you already know why.”

She finally spoke as she propped herself up.

“Corrupted world spirit energy, right?”

Jun narrowed his brow in thought as he asked his presumed inner conscience. Ana merely shrugged her shoulders and gave him a blank stare.

“It must be. Does that mean her world is corrupted? How does this work? Also, it appeared that her level of corruption wasn’t simple… Ana, do you think her world is doomed?”

Jun let out a sigh and picked himself up off the ground.

“If her world is to be doomed then that would make Acaria a good candidate for me to target. After all, my life is still in jeopardy, and it’ll stay like that until I can convince a world spirit to cure me.”

Jun sensed Ana’s sleek form standing next to him. He turned to her and was once again reminded of her fundamentally inhuman appearance. Every flawless detail that no mortal sculptor could even dream to replicate was on full display.

“Ana.”

Her eyes lit up and her lips formed a small smile as she eagerly awaited his next words.

“I have a lot of catching up to do. Let’s get to training.”