Leading Chelsea to the room that they had kept Balire in, Shiro undid the ropes and stepped to one side. Naturally, she removed the bullet once more so that she could actually regain consciousness.
Looking at Balire that was sitting on the chair, Chelsea looked at her with shock and relief.
Biting her lip, she hugged Balire, causing her to wake up.
“Mn…” Groaning softly, she looked down and saw Chelsea hugging her.
Widening her eyes, she gritted her teeth and kicked her away.
“Don’t touch me.” She spat out while forcing Chelsea back a few steps.
“Do you want me to stay or should I leave so that you two can have some privacy?” Shiro asked but it seems like Chelsea didn’t pay her any attention.
Shrugging her shoulders, she kept silent and made herself comfortable in the corner.
“A few years ago, I swear I had seen you, mum, dad and everyone else getting killed in front of my eyes. How are you alive?” Chelsea asked as her voice quivered.
“We never got killed, what do you mean how are we alive? You’re the one who ran away when things got tough!” Balire shouted back as Shiro figured it’s probably rude to stay.
Leaving quietly, she allowed the two to talk things out without any interruption.
“What’s happening inside?” Madison asked since she could hear some shouting when Shiro opened the door.
“Probably a misunderstanding between the two of them. From what I know, Chelsea had seen her family die whereas Balrie believes that Chelsea had abandoned them.” Shiro shrugged.
“Hopefully they can sort it out. Teacher’s methods are rather… heavy handed but she’s a good person. I don’t believe she would abandon her family like what Balire had said.” Madison furrowed her brows.
She could still remember the fear she had when Chelsea had asked them to wrestle a young dragon but whenever they were in danger, she could rescue them when things got rough. In the end, her training helped them improve in terms of how they utilise their strengths.
“Mn, I know. It’s just a matter of waiting for the outc-”
*BANG!!!
Before Shiro could finish her sentence, the door of the room slammed open as Chelsea’s body was sent crashing against the wall.
Looking back in surprise, Shiro could see that Chelsea had a sad expression on her face while wiping away the blood.
“Don’t give me that crap! All of the family saw you running away! We’re alive and well so what the hell do you mean you saw someone kill us!? And even if you did see them kill us, you should’ve at least ‘avenged’ us or something, why the hell did you run away like a coward!?” Balire glared at Chelsea while her guardian flared behind her with rage.
“You’re right, I shouldn’t have run away. Even if I saw you get killed, I should have stayed and gotten revenge for you.” Chelsea smiled sadly before standing up.
Walking up to Shiro, she patted her shoulder.
“Look after her for me please. She’s a bit hot headed but she’s not a bad girl.” Chelsea whispered over as her wounds slowly healed.
“Mn, sure.” Shiro nodded her head.
Looking at Chelsea who was walking away, Balire only gritted her teeth and went back into the room without saying anything.
“I should have a talk with her if we’re going to be getting her ‘help’ I suppose. Isilia has a copy of all the scouting I did yesterday so you can go over the data with her.” Shiro said as the party nodded their heads.
Watching the party leave, Shiro pushed open the door before closing it.
“Seems like your relationship with your sister is on the rough side.” Shiro chuckled while sitting next to her.
“Juice?” She asked while holding out a cut of juice that she had retrieved from her inventory.
“What kind of offer is that? Are you going to persuade me to forgive my sister?” Balire asked with a frown but didn’t reject the juice.
“Half and half I guess. Your sister did ask us to look after you.” Shiro chuckled.
“Che, if she was really concerned she would be looking for mum and dad first.” Balire drank all the juice in one go out of frustration.
“Perhaps she has her own matters to think about. I have an older sis and a younger sis. My older sis would go out of her way to do things for me while I slept. As for my younger sis, I haven’t been able to do much for her but I do regret not spending as much time together since I was with my older sis.” Shiro smiled and refilled Balire’s juice.
“So what’s your goal, telling me all of this and giving me juice.” Balire asked. Once again, she didn’t refuse the juice.
“Since your older sis wanted me or rather, us to look after you, we’re going to be on friendly terms. I suppose we also want to know about the situation between you and rank 49 so that we can deal with her and take her out before she can harm you.” Shiro explained since that was indeed their goal.
She was thinking of letting Balire protect their land since she wasn’t exactly the most powerful one and letting her on the front lines was dangerous. Plus, since Chelsea wanted them to look after her, the front lines was not the best place to do so.
“So what do you even want me to do. If you basically want me to become your slave then I won’t agree.” Balire glared at her.
“Nothing serious like that. I just want you to protect the land like you have been and I’ll give you some weapons to help you achieve this. You can be the protector while we go secure more land.” Shiro chuckled.
“Mn sure. You’re not asking me to be a slave so that’s better than being under that b*tch. Also, will you lot even be able to beat her? She is strong, you know.” Balire asked.
“Pft, getting worried already.” Shiro laughed and patted her head.
Blushing from embarrassment, Balrie moved her head away.
“Well if you die I’m basically dead anyway.” She quickly made an excuse as Shiro shrugged her shoulder.
“Whatever you say. But don’t worry, we’re strong. For example, I have this.” Shiro grinned and created a tier 6 magic circle.
Seeing this, Balire widened her eyes in shock.
“You’re tier 6???” She asked.
“Nope. But one of my attunements is tier 6.” Shiro chuckled since she was only in the 300’s in terms of level. She was almost level 400 but she would still need to kill quite a lot of things before she can reach that.
Seeing that Shiro had access to tier 6 magic, Balire sighed in relief since it means that if she was a queen candidate, she would probably be in the top 5. Hell, she might even be rank 1 for all she knows since the other’s haven’t attained tier 6 yet to her knowledge.
“You just sighed in relief, didn’t you?” Shiro laughed as she patted her head again.
“Don’t worry, this party is strong. I’ll keep in contact with you using this. If you need our help or want to talk, you can always use this.” Shiro smiled and handed her an earpiece.
“When you’re ready, come to the office room. Since this is your fortress, you should be familiar no?” Shiro asked.
“Mn I know.” Balire nodded her head.
“Good.” Nodding her head, Shiro was about to leave when she felt a tug behind her.
“Erm… can I have another juice please. It’s tasty.” Balire asked with a blush.
“Of course. Have three.” Shiro chuckled and retrieved three juices from her inventory. She still had quite a few left but she figured that she’ll need to replenish her stock soon. After all, she’s been drinking it whenever she had some downtime.
“Thank you.”
Leaving the room, Shiro walked towards the office room.
From her scouting last night, she had already planned out an ‘attack route’ of sorts where they would start moving towards the north east so that they can start conquering the eastern borders that were next to the sea.
If they attack the centre directly, it’ll be hard to keep the land since they could be attacked by the north, east and west. But if they go east first, all they had to worry about was the centre.
Entering the room, she could see that they were already discussing the attack plans.
