Level Up Legacy

Chapter 1335  Sharing A Meal

Yuran could only look at the ground, realizing the dire situation they found themselves in. In their worst battles, they had one man they could count on: their guild master. "Is Arthur going to participate in this war?"

"I still have no idea," answered Julia, pressing her lips together. "I don't want to disturb him at the moment. Just a few more days and he should return. We have to survive until then."

"Give us some more credit," said Oriole with a grin, his hands behind his back. "We can do a lot more than just survive. Have the two of you forgotten that we have literal demons in our guild?"

Julia and Yuran blinked, then smiled. Seraphine was indeed their strongest member as the Blood Queen, but she was currently helping Rae in her fight against vampires in the Empire of Common Blood, Shon. There were also Sarohan and Whiskers, who were far from being human as well. The two of them were working with Mistletoe to fight the demi-humans invading their kingdom. If called back, they would have a considerable force.

"You also forgot one more army," said Oriole with a grin. "I worked hard to create it. We are not just one hundred thousand strong, because we have fifty thousand more from Alka!"

"This reminds me about the kingdom in Sourna," muttered Julia. "We sent reinforcements there and even created protection arrays. Mr. Tate is with them, too."

"There you have it," said Oriole with a grin. "The guild is just a fraction of our power. We can even ask Lucian to help us."

Julia seemed to be feeling better about their odds. Although Dragonir had hidden trump cards, so did they. A person rushed from the other end of the hallway—it was Maryam, the runemaster from Runera. Oriole had interacted with her inside the ruins before they parted, and they had become best friends ever since his return.

"Li has awakened!" she exclaimed, gathering her breath. Julia was the first to rush forward, leaving the rest in the dust. As Yuran and Maryam were about to follow, Oriole raised his hand to stop them.

Julia went alone toward the Healing Chambers. They were mainly a hospital lined with healing runes, and every single one of them was working at full capacity at the moment. As she stormed in, she found a man lying in his bed, his back to the wall.

Li turned toward her; his mask was half-cracked. He attempted to rise, pulling the sheets with his bandaged arms. Julia rushed forward before he could respond, throwing herself into his embrace. The masked man froze, unable to understand what was happening.

"Never act the hero again, you moron," demanded Julia as she buried herself in his chest, her shoulders shaking. Li stared down at the petite woman in his embrace and placed a hand on her back, calming her down.

"As you command," he answered, and Julia calmed down. However, she did not let go of him until a minute or so later, her eyes red but her lips smiling at him.

"Someone told me a hug can cure wounds," she repeated his own words to him, and Li was silent. Julia was about to pull back when he held her hand tight. She looked at him with confusion.

"Oriole told me that… the best way to get to know someone is to chat with them over food," said Li while his pale hands held on to hers. "Can you share a meal with me, Miss Julia?"

"Are you asking me on… a date?" muttered Julia, blushing. Li lowered his head before nodding, seemingly embarrassed. "Did Oriole also explain what a date is to you?"

"He said that dates are delicious fruits, and they could mean a special time spent with the right person," said Li while his fingers caressed her hands. "I believe you are that special someone, Miss Julia."

Julia snorted when the foreign man accidentally cracked a joke, but her expression froze when she heard the rest of his sentence. He was direct and honest, something that Julia had rarely encountered in their world.

Although she was almost twenty-eight, Julia had never had a relationship or anything resembling one. Her entire focus was on studying runes until she met Arthur, the embodiment of runes themselves. However, she still had countless suitors as the youngest runemaster.

None of them fancied her or pulled on her heartstrings the way this mysterious man before her did. The reason was that most of them desired her fame, beauty, or knowledge. But the man before her did not seem to care about any of those. He just cared… about her.

"I would—" she had to take a gulp. "I would be honored to share a meal with you, Li."

"That's not my birth name, Miss Julia," he began, shocking her further. "I've never shared my real name with anyone in this world, not even Arthur… but I would like to tell you."

"Tell me," Julia said, with a slight thump in her chest. "What's your name?"

"Liros."

Julia thought it was a fitting, beautiful name. But at the same time, it had a certain strength behind it. Then, she thought about something else.

"Would I also get to see your face?" Julia asked him with a slight cough, feeling a little embarrassed. "I don't want to… share a meal with a mask."

"You're right," said Liros, but he paused. "Just for you, Miss Julia."

And then Liros reached out toward his mask, taking it off. It used to seal the spiritual power of his weapon, but because the worlds merged, he could take it off for just a short while without losing control of his weapon. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Moments later, Julia left the Healing Chambers and closed the doors behind her. She stood outside with an absent-minded expression as Oriole strolled from the end of the hallway.

"I can see your blush even in these dim lights," said Oriole as he curled his hair with a smirk. "Did something good happen?"

"Oh," exclaimed Julia as she turned toward him. "Oriole… no, nothing…" she muttered with a frown. "It's just that… I think I just saw God."

***

Sweetbriar Town still had newspapers that explained the general affairs of the world. It was a way to allow the visiting nobles to learn about different events and reach peaceful decisions together.

Inside the Blossom Trail, Arthur and Diana heard the commotion of everyone discussing something about a war. They were having a picnic underneath the pink blossom trees, with Arthur sleeping on Diana's thighs as he enjoyed the sweets they picked up from Bakery Lane.

"I'm feeling a little anxious about what we heard," said Diana as her fingers slid through his hair. "How about we purchase a newspaper?"

"If something happened to someone we cared about, Julia would have contacted me," muttered Arthur as he enjoyed being pampered. "And we took this vacation to escape those events, right?"

"I know, but I feel like Julia wouldn't disturb you if you said you wanted a vacation," said Diana with a sigh. Arthur was silent before he sighed as well and rose from her lap, knowing that Julia was that kind of person.

"There's a newspaper stand in front of the trail. Let me buy one and come back," said Arthur as he rose. "Don't finish the sweets without me like before."

"It was just one time!" protested Diana, blushing. Arthur snickered as he made his way through the falling petals to reach the stone path.

This vacation turned out to be exactly what he needed to control his wrath. Although his creation still needed time to stabilize, it allowed Arthur to enjoy the scenery before he lost his sight again.

Arthur was surprised when he saw the stand swarming with people. It took him some effort just to get the seller to notice him and hand him a newspaper. Then, Arthur walked out of the crowd and adjusted his clothes.

As he wondered what made the people so agitated, his eyes fell on the headline of the Truth Newspaper. His expression quickly crumbled as he read the title.

"Guild War: Ascent Vs. Dragonir"

Arthur stared at the title and the picture below it. It was a clash between a dragon and a leviathan, demolishing everything around them. Atop the two monsters were small figures that he quickly recognized.

Kaius and Lian.

The tamer had already told Arthur about his feud with Kaius, but he never thought their clash would happen this soon. It had been only a few days since his vacation began, and his guild was already going to war against a Titan Guild.

In order not to worry Diana, Arthur returned to their picnic and told her the news. She didn't understand the scale of the battle, so he read the article to her. The two of them were silent as they heard about the number of casualties, and they decided to call Julia. It might be wise to end their vacation earlier than they had wished.