“Is that so?” Voiced Virus with a half-smile as he stared at her excited face which couldn’t take her eyes off of the golden ring.
“… Yes…” After a short hesitation, she responded.
“So it’s not that valuable? It’s just kinda valuable to you?” He inquired further while putting her under his watchful eyes.
“… Ye… Yeah…” Stuttering a little, she replied nervously.
‘I don’t buy it.’ Thought Virus, however, externally, he revealed a bright smile as he uttered, “Okay, no matter what it is… I won’t eye what interests my apprentice-sister… so relax… haha.”
“Junior brother…” Moved a little by his words, Astes could only call out to him.
“Okay, say no more… let’s go out if that’s truly your choice.” Uttering this, he turned around as he began walking toward the door of the treasury while looking at his injury, ‘Although it’s just a shallow cut and it would cause me no dangers… I still better dress it soon.’
Afterward, as the two walked to the entrance, the Sun elder uttered, “Show me the things you picked.”
And with that, Virus showed the rotten fruit while Astes displayed the golden ring to him.
Just as expected, seeing the things the two had picked, a very stunned expression appeared on the Sun elder’s face as he questioned, “Are you sure about your choices?”
Hearing this, nodding their heads, both of them replied at the same time, “Yes.”
“Umm, I wasn’t going to help you two at all… but seeing your choices… uh… I will make an exception once again… hm, so, let me be frank here… both of them are… trash. You better change it.” Looking awkwardly at the things the two had picked, the Sun elder stated.
“It’s okay, Sun elder… didn’t you say even you don’t really know if something is truly valuable or trash anymore? We will just try our luck so don’t worry about it.” With a grin displaying itself on his face, Virus proclaimed.
“Yes… we will try our luck.” Astes also agreed with a very serene face as she had long calmed herself by now.
“Sigh… Listen to me junior Vee, even though that golden ring of junior Astes is clearly useless… still, there is a very slight chance that it might be of some use with a great amount of luck, however, about this fruit of yours… it’s definitely a rotten fruit and to an extremely great extent at that… so it obviously totally worthless.” Shaking his head at this point, he continued, “It’s not about being lucky or not anymore, it’s most definitely trash… I don’t even know why it was still left in the treasury, I would’ve thrown it away if I had seen it, sigh… junior Vee, how about…” He was just about to insist on him changing his choice, when Virus interrupted, “Sun elder, this is my choice, whether it’s a treasure or trash, that’s for me and for my luck to decide, so I’ll stick to my decision, you need to respect that too.”
‘Tch, what a stubborn young man, I’m just trying to help… why are geniuses always this weird? Whatever, I tried anyways.’ With a slight frown, this notion passed through his head.
“Master… let’s go clean your wound now.” It was at this time when the golden beauty walked before Virus as she touched his chest around his wound as she uttered worriedly.
“Alright…” Reaching his hand and patting her head gently with a smile, Virus agreed while nodding as he then looked at the Sun elder before uttering, “We shall take our leave now, so please take us to the first floor…”
.
.
.
Afterward, the trio was led to the first floor by the Sun elder before they left toward the Alchemy pagoda together.
By now, Astes had long put the golden ring away as she was taking a glance at Virus from time to time in a weird way.
Finally, when they arrived in front of the entrance of the Alchemy pagoda, she could no longer stop herself from asking, “Junior brother… are you really going to leave soon?”
Surprised by her question, Virus stopped in his tracks as he looked at the golden beauty’s direction for a moment as he understood immediately, ‘Only Lil Bell could be able to guess the rough time of our leave… so she must’ve told her herself.’ Then turning around, he gazed into Astes’ eyes as he answered, “Yes… we’re going to leave tonight…”
For some reason, Astes’ expression became really downcasted hearing the confirmation, as she uttered after some hesitation, “Can… can I come too?”
This time, it was Virus’ turn to be astonished as this was the question he was expecting the least. Nevertheless, after a little while of silence, he opened his mouth and asked, “Why would you wanna do that?”
‘You idiot… of course, it’s because…’ This notion popped into her head as she replied after some complicated thinking processes, “Umm, because I’ve truly come to accept you as my junior apprentice-brother now… so I really care about you… and that’s why I want to follow you wherever you go… anyway, can I please?”
‘Hmm, junior brother, huh?’ Listening to her response though, some rather mixed and complex emotions and thoughts passed through his head for a very short period of time before he replied shaking his head, “I’m sorry apprentice-sister… but you can’t… at least not for now.”
Astes became a lot more dispirited hearing his response as she couldn’t stop herself from feeling extremely disappointed inside.
However, looking at his wound on his chest, she took out a small bottle from her pocket as she spoke, “Here… I concocted these two pills myself… take them, they’ll heal your wound.” Putting the bottle in his left hand, she turned around and began walking away, however, before she had even taken two steps, she stopped again as she mumbled, “Let me at least see you off tonight, okay?”
Gazing at her back, Virus smiled as he said, “Alright… thanks for the pills anyway, apprentice-sister.”
With that, once again, she began walking as she left the vicinity.
After she left, as Virus was looking at the bottle in his grasp, the golden beauty phrased with some worry, “Master, you better eat the pills since we don’t have anything better with us in our room.”
“Okay.” Complying, Virus opened the bottle as he took out one of the pills and put it inside his mouth before swallowing it, however, she left the other pill inside the bottle as he put it in his pocket.
“Master… she told you to eat both of them… why did you just…” Confused, the golden beauty was about to query, when Virus interrupted him, “For me… taking one would be like taking two… anyway, let’s go to our room and pick up our stuff…”
“Alright… ahh, it’s really hard to believe that we’re really leaving for our own Earth… hehe, I can’t wait for us to go back… I somehow miss our own technologically advanced earth with all those lights, cars, and other advanced stuff since this place is kinda boring and ancient.” Instantly forgetting the previous topic, a very excited expression showed itself on her face as she began talking with a very bright face.
