Jareth's eyes twitched as he planned to distance himself from the approaching girls, but paused when he felt nothing.
Liana ran up to him, with Nadia walking behind her. They were dressed in new form-fitting armor—Liana in fiery-red armor that matched her hair, while Nadia was in a navy blue armor with knives inserted in her boots.
Liana rambled on the moment she met him. "Cool gauntlet! Geez! This is cheating! You can make these with fire while I only get spears?! What are these blue things in the fire? Is it another spell? You have…"
Jareth dispelled his spells, feeling his remaining tiny quantity of mana.
"Why did you dispel the spell? I was trying to observe something," Liana questioned him with a frown.
"Ugh… Liana, you're focusing on the wrong thing. You should be asking where he has been," Nadia interrupted.
"Right." Liana's frown vanished, and her brows arched. "Where have you been? My sister told us you went to hunt and you might have been eaten by a beast. It made regret not dragging you to hunt with us."
Folding her arms around her chest, she cocked her head high. "You shouldn't get cocky just because you have high control over your spells; pride will end you in the stomach of a beast. Following your seniors as a newbie to the dreadwood forest should be the way."
"You are deviating again," Nadia cut her with a chuckle. "Instead of letting him talk, you are doing the talking. Why are you coming from deep inside the ruin estate?"
"Yeah, right! I was coming to that." Liana nodded.
Nadia eyes her with disdain.
"Hey! I'm not lying!"
Jareth sighed weakly and sat down, resting against a tree, letting his taut nerves finally relax. "Girls, if you're the religious type, you will have to thank your gods for letting me return alive and not dead. You see that tower…"
He pointed at the tall tower standing in the center of the estate.
"The magus tower?" Liana replied.
"Yeah. I was stuck there, with no help, signal, or savior, but I luckily made it out."
"You're lying. You, with your Awakened Rank strength, made it out?" Liana questioned in a disbelieving tone.
"Of course. Or else, why do you think I look like…" Jareth looked down and was speechless at the filth of blood, dust, and more, covering his bare body and pants.
"Shit," Nadia completed. "Congratulations on making it out, even though I don't believe you."
"You are not believing my epic adventure?" Jareth's face darkened.
Nadia ignored his expression. "The real question is—how did you get there? Did you get kidnapped?"
"How did you know? Are you a prophet? I killed a rabbit on the outskirts but got caught by a tree octopus. Come to think of it, I thought beasts don't leave the ruin estate?"
"Is the rabbit cute?" Liana interrupted him with a glare.
'You only thought of that?' Jareth's lips twitched.
"What's with the glare? It was big and eating some bloody stuff, like a menacing evil devil, so… no! Not cute!"
Jareth retrieved the burnt corpse and showed it to her.
Liana snatched it and stared at it, intently studying it, even poking it at different places. Then she glared at him more intensely. "You are painting the rabbit as not cute after what you did to it, not even leaving a single fur on its body, and it's all dried up."
But she suddenly smiled. "Let's roast it when we get home. I always wanted to eat a rabbit, and this one, despite being burnt, should do. It feels tender. Is it from your fire?"
Jareth's jaw dropped. "I thought you were the rabbit activist."
Liana explained seriously, "Yes, I am. And me eating it doesn't contradict my 'cute beasts activism'. I'm just doing the needful ritual and blessing it with a befitting crossover to the underworld, to have a blissful afterlife. Now, pass me your spices."
She stretched her hand. Jareth stared at her, speechless by her explanation.
"Let's not do that now," Nadia stopped her. "We'll do that later, or do you want that snake to come and interrupt your roasting?"
Liana nodded seriously.
Nadia focused on Jareth, narrowing her eyes. "I've thought about it, and I saw many holes in your explanation. One, beasts don't leave the border of the ruin estate. Not even one followed you when you came here."
"Maybe those are low-rank ones," Jareth defended.
"Exactly. So, if it's a high-rank one, how did you escape from its grasp? Why didn't it kill you? Why did it keep you, and not eat you? There are many humans in the ruin estate, so why go far to the outskirts to hunt?"
"Are you interrogating me?" Jareth narrowed his eyes at her. "Or worse, are you suspecting me of being shady?"
Nadia exhaled loudly. "I'm trying not to."
"I don't know what you went through in life but you don't have the right to suspect me now. Only Esta can do that. Also, I just want to relax now, not debate. And for your information, I was captured by a monster that can leave the estate, which made me stay there for many days, so listen and learn; stop arguing with only theoretical knowledge," Jareth replied and reclined.
Liana watched the two of them with a bizarre smile that Jareth couldn't understand.
"So, do you know what happened to that snake?" A voice called out.
Jareth turned and saw a long, purple-haired, lithe girl with the same build as Liana speaking, accompanied by a hefty-built boy with the same short purple hair. Nathan and Alven followed beside them.
"What are you doing here, loser?" Liana glowered at her with hands on her waist.
"I can go where I want. Who are you to tell me where to go?" She reciprocated with her glare.
Jareth looked between them, feeling the sparks in the air. "Another useless teenage conflict?" He mumbled under his breath.
"Shut up!" Both of them barked at him.
Jareth raised his hands in surrender. He spotted Alven winking at him, with a cut-throat sign while sneakily gesturing at the two girls.
"But what really happened? There was one loud explosion last time, and now this big snake from nowhere?" Liana asked with gleaming eyes.
Jareth looked around and saw the burning inquisitiveness in their eyes, and he thought for a moment.
"Well… it saw the head of its child and went berserk."
Nathan abruptly turned.
And the ground suddenly trembled.
BANG!
A few meters from them, dirt flung around as a huge blue-scaled body was seen rushing from the underground.
Jareth sprang to his feet with his heart chilled. 'It heard me?! I jinxed it. I jinxed myself! Why didn't I just go home? Why did I even talk?!'