{Astoria}

Astoria woke up a little bit later than usual when she was at home, this was mostly because she had a personal maid who woke her up and she was tired after what happened the day before.

She looked around and noticed the sun shining brightly through the tress, this was the one of the few parts of the forest where the sky is visible. Bell had already woken up and was having breakfast with Ryu, which was just the berries he had plucked before.

"Good morning, seems like you slept well" Bell said casually as soon as he saw her.

"Huh!?" Astoria jumped up, her eyes widening. "It’s morning already, why didn’t you wake me!?"

"I wanted to but I saw how tired you were so I thought it would better if I didn’t"

"Really?" Astoria asked as she stood up and did a few stretches before picking up her bag and staff. "That means, you stayed up all night?"

"It’s nothing" Bell stood up and helped Ryu stand up. "Let’s get moving"

"Good morning" Ryu spoke in a somewhat strange manner, she wasn’t looking at Astoria but she didn’t seem to be talking to Bell either.

"Good morning, Ryu" Astoria replied with an awkward smile.

Bell had already started walking hand in hand with Ryu so Astoria had to jog a little to meet their pace.

Astoria yawned as she opened her bag, picked her water bottle and drank from it. She increased her pace just enough to get close to Ryu and offered it to her.

Ryu on the other hand didn’t even look at Astoria direction, her skin was pale and her white hair was slightly covering her expressionless face made it impossible for Astoria to guess what was on her mind, her gaze remained on the ground as she walks silently.

It made Astoria slightly disturbed, even though Bell seemed mostly normal, his sister was quite the opposite.

_But, how do normal people even act?_ Astoria thought to herself. She grew up in an isolated part of town and didn’t get to play with kids of her age and even after her parents death, her brother wasn’t there for her. She had stayed in the royal capital and only known a few adult and her maid, but that was until Lugan came.

"R-Ryu?, Why do you want to become an adventurer?" Astoria forced herself to speak, trying to start a conversation. This might be an opportunity to make a friend.

"Because big brother wants to" Ryu reply without any emotion.

"Just that?! There should be more, right?" Astoria asked, not sure about what Ryu meant. Bell looked at them but quickly decided not to listen in. "I mean don’t you anywhere you want to go or places you want to see?"

"But you said you want to be an adventurer so you can be with your brother" Ryu response made Astoria surprised.

_How did she know that?_ Astoria had only said it to Bell so did Ryu overheard their conversation. "That’s not what I meant" Astoria said with an awkward smile while waving her hands. "I want to see my brother but I also want to leave this country. In one of my brother letters, he told me about a country far in the east with floating islands and a machine that can carry you to there and something called a mana train that can go really fast and take you anywhere in a short amount of time. I just wanted to see them for myself"

"..." Ryu remained silent, her increased her pace and tighten her grip on Bell, leaving Astoria behind. It was clear that their conversation was over.

Astoria decided to bother Bell next, as quickly increased her pace and made her way to Bell’s left side. Bell was busy swiping his finger as if he was interacting with something in front of him even though Astoria couldn’t see it.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she got closer to Bell.

"Just doing a bit of calculations" Bell replied as he waved his hand.

"If you say so" Astoria quickly dismissed it and asked. "We should go to the stream for a bath before we go"

"We don’t have time for a detour, let’s keep going straight"

"I don’t have enough water left and you don’t have any, don’t you think it will be better if we refill before going?" Astoria said. "It’s going to be hot this afternoon so it’ll be better we cool our heads before we reach the open field. Beside, we are already close to the river. It just through those bushes"

Astoria said pointing towards northeast of their direction.

Bell sighed before he spoke. "I guess it will do us some good to take a break, but we should make it quick" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"You don’t have to worry" Astoria said with a smile. "And Ryu and I can bath together, right?"

"..." Ryu didn’t answer and just kept walking.

.

.

.

As they made it to the river, Astoria filled the water bottle while Bell went to pick some fruits for the road, leaving Astoria alone with Ryu.

Astoria begins the take of her armour then her gown and was about to take off her underwear then paused as she noticed Ryu hadn’t moved an inch.

_Maybe she can’t take off her gown on her own, it does have a lace tied at the back_ She approached Ryu. "Do you want me to help you take it off?"

Ryu shook her head from side to side signifying"No" but Astoria didn’t that as an answer.

"We can’t stay here for long so please let me take it off before Bell gets back"

"No" Ryu replied coldly.

"Then I guess I have no other choice" Astoria launched at Ryu, pushing her to the ground as she tries to loosen the lace.

Even though Ryu stayed silent, she was stronger than she looks but not stronger than Astoria. Astoria successfully loose the lace and pulled the gown down to Ryu’s waist.

Ryu fought back, trying to push Astoria off but mistakenly grabbed Astoria bra and pulled it off. Bell walked into them at that moment.

"What’s going on here?" Bell asked. "You know what?, don’t tell me" he said as turned back and walked into the bushes.

"Wait!" Astoria yelled after him. "I can explain, it’s not what it’s looks like!!"