I decided not to tell Catherine the truth.

It was too risky with Shizu right next to my side. Chances are that if I tell Catherine the truth, Shizu would just kill her and the rest of the knights. There had only been a dozen knights or so around us. Then there would be no telling what she would do with me afterwards.

First thing I needed to understand was the power scale in this world. I needed to understand just exactly how strong Shizu was. Then I would know how I can defeat her.

From what Catherine had told me about the clerk, she was capable of casting B class spells and that was already considered fairly strong. That must meant that Shizu was an extremely strong foe. At my current state, fighting her on a 1-vs-1 battle would simply be suicide. I needed to train more first.

A sneak attack probably wouldn't be feasible either. She would most likely see it coming since she's always watching me. Also if I failed, I doubt there would be any second chances. The last thing I wanted was to doom myself to a life trapped inside a basement and being force-fed by Shizu.

The images of how Shizu brutally massacred the goblins and then tortured the clerk to her gruesome death kept flashing into my mind like a ghost haunting my subconscious.

"Ryuji... are you alright?"

I glanced up at Shizu, seeing her sitting with me at the table inside my house. We had gone home after giving the details of what happened to Catherine and her knights.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I said, then hesitated. "Shizu... about what happened back at the cave..."

I didn't want to stir up her inner crazy but I needed to try to find out as much as I can about Shizu if I wanted to survive. Perhaps I would learn about some hidden weakness she had.

"Yes...?" Shizu said, looking at me confusedly. She was acting normal now. Her violet eyes had colour to them, completely different to the hollow void that were in her eyes when she was torturing the clerk to death.

Shizu moved closer to me and I almost jumped out of my chair but stopped myself just in time. She looked into my face with a worried look, "Are you feeling okay, Ryuji? Your face looks kind of pale..."

"Yeah, I'm fine..." I said, shifting back a little. She was way too close for comfort. I could almost count her eyelashes from this distance. Normally I would be pretty happy if a girl was this close, but I was more worried about her suddenly taking out a knife and stabbing me in the gut. "Shizu, do you remember what happened? Inside the cave?"

"Yes." Shizu nodded. "I do."

"Uh... about what you did...?"

"Yes."

I waited for her to elaborate further.

She didn't.

"So... don't you think we should talk about it...?" I asked cautiously.

"Hm, what's there to talk about?" Shizu gave me a puzzled look.

"I mean... you kind of massacred everyone inside that cave..."

"Isn't that's what we were planning to do for the adventurer quest we were doing?"

"Y-yeah, but what about that clerk? That clerk was human, Shizu, like us. She wasn't a goblin."

"Ryuji..."

Shizu's voice was quiet and she was staring down at my lap, her eyes hidden behind her purple fringe.

Shit, did I go too far? I was carefully prodding at her bit by bit to see the extent of her madness. I needed to know how far the line was to make sure that I didn't ever accidentally cross it.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Ahaha, you know what, Shizu, let's just forget it...!" I quickly said, trying to retract my words. "I don't even remember much about what had happened! Anyways, what do you want for dinner tonight, Shizu? Maybe I should cook something for you instead since you're always cooking for me...!"

Quiet. The silence was deafening. I could hear my own accelerating heartbeat inside my chest. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Oh god, was this where I was going to die?

Just when I was about to fly out of my chair and make a last-ditch attempt to run for my life, Shizu's shoulders suddenly shook and I paused. Then it started shaking more and more until I heard her breaking down into sobs.

"I... I-I was j-just trying to p-p-protect you, Ryuji..." Shizu stammered, tears falling down to her lap. "T-that woman said such horrible things to you...! And she was planning to v-violate you...!"

"H-hey, it's alright...!" I babbled, hovering my hands in the air above her shoulders looking like some sort of picasso painting. "S-Shizu, please...! Come on, don't cry...!"

Crying people were my kryptonite. I had absolutely no clue what to do with them. How the hell are you supposed to talk to someone that has given up on all logical rationalisation? It was like trying to talk sense to a stone wall.

As if to prove my point, me telling her not to cry had the ironic effect of making her cry even louder, causing me to panic even more.

"A-all I wanted to do was to go on a date with Ryuji in the cave!" Shizu bawled, rubbing at her eyes with the sides of her fists, "T-then that woman came and ruined everything! I-I got so angry when she said those terrible things to Ryuji! I-I didn't know what to do!"

"Shizu, it's okay... seriously...!"

"A-are you angry with me...?" Shizu sniffed, "You're angry with me, aren't you? That's why you're asking me about what happened at the cave?"

"No, I'm not, just please stop crying...!"

"Promise me that you're not angry with me...?"

"Yes, I promise..."

Her crying had quietened down at my words. But now I was beginning to catch onto a vague suspicion that I was being played. It seemed a little too convenient.

"Shizu..." I said, trying to choose my next words carefully, "Do you... understand that you shouldn't kill people...?"

"I-I understand..."

She averted her eyes and I had to take another moment to think about how to proceed.

"Really?" I said, "Then why did you kill that clerk...?"

"I-I..."

At that moment, the door to the house swung opened and my dad walked in, shouting as he did so.

"Kid! Is it true?!" My dad looked at us from the doorway, his voice as gruff as usual, "You signed up to become an adventurer?!"

"Huh, dad!" I said, my eyes turning to him. I was still a little dazed from him just suddenly waltzing in like that. "Yeah, I guess, why?"

"You little rascal!" A smirk spread across dad's face, then he strolled over to us at the table, grabbed a hold of me, and ruffled my hair like a rag doll. "Since when has my boy already become a grown man?"

"Hey, let go of me!"

Shit, thank god it didn't seem like dad heard what Shizu and I was talking about before he walked in.

"I guess helping you find a cute bride-to-be did finally cause you to grow some hair on your balls!" He cackled heartily, releasing his hold of me after almost lighting a fire on my hair, then he turned to Shizu, "Thanks for all your help, Shizu. This kid would be utterly hopeless without you being here for him."

"That's not true at all," Shizu laughed lightly back in a polite manner, "Ryuji is the one always helping me out."

"Sheesh," Dad shook his head, then looked down at me with a frown, "She really is too good for you, you know that, kid?"

Yeah, gee, thanks pop. Thanks for arranging this psychopathic sadistic severely mentally and emotionally unstable bipolar yandere to be my fiance.

"Thanks dad." I said, forcing a smile.

"No problem." Dad replied. "You better be treating Shizu right, you hear me? She's the beloved daughter of a good long-time friend of mine so I will be knee deep in shit creek too if you treat her wrong."

"Ryuji treats me very well!" Shizu leaned next to me and grabbed my arm, her face full of smiles, "We're a really happy couple together!"

"Is that right?" Dad asked, looking at me sternly.

"O-of course...!" I forced another smile. Not like I could say no.

"That's good." Dad nodded at me. "Cause for a second there when I walked in, it almost looked like you had made Shizu cry."

"N-no way..."

"Anyways," Dad said, placing his hands on his hips and looking around the living room, "Back to what we were saying. Now that you're a full grown man with a job as an adventurer, I think it's time you move out with Shizu."

"H-huh?" I blinked at him. "Come again?"

"Yeah. You got a job now, Ryuji." Dad said, staring at me. "And you've got your cute wife here to take care of. What? Did you expect me to let you freeload here off me for the rest of your life? Get real. You're an adult now. It's time to go out and face the world."

"Yay!!" Shizu clasped her arms around my neck, hugging me ecstatically, "We can look for our own place together, Ryuji! Isn't that great!"

I stared at my dad, looking for any sign on his face that he was making a joke. There was none.

"Are you seriously kicking me out?" I asked.

"Yeah" He replied. "Pack up your things and go."

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AI generated image : Ryuji

[https://i.imgur.com/OiiednA.png]