Way of the Knights

Chapter 22 - Dumb Dumb

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"Hi!"

There was a cheeky grin on his face as he greeted. Anne and Ellen looked a bit perplexed when they saw this.

Just a moment ago, this person was basically dancing with death, and now he was here in front of them acting like nothing happened and could even smile. Just who the hell was this monster.

"Hello, I apologize for disturbing you once more. It's just that I wish to discuss something and I think you are the only person who could answer it." Luna lied graciously. "These are my best friends by the way, Anne and Ellen. We are classmates so I assume that you should know about them."

In truth, if it weren't for Ellen literally dragging her out of her house, she won't even dare to come here and disturb him. The favor that she received from his was already immense, anymore and it won't sit well in her conscience. The two girls behind her bowed, surprisingly Ellen's fiery temper didn't explode. Anne and Luna started wonder if there's something wrong with her.

"No need to be so formal…" Raven waved his hand and continued: "We're classmates so helping each other is normal. Come, let's move locations."

Before he walked, Raven crouched and picked up some pebbles. He then turned around threw them onto the platform where the automated crossbows were. Magically, the crossbows stopped shooting when they were hit by those pebbles. The girls could only watch his back with amazement. Was he a freaking sorcerer? How the hell did he do that?

The girls followed him as they went inside their home. At first they were expecting the interior to be extremely messy. But it seems that they were wrong. The interior of the house was sparkling clean, not even a speck of dust could be seen. There are some decorative paintings and memoirs on the wall, shelves that had old books and a long table where the boys usually gather.

"Paul, Mark, help me serve some snacks." The two nodded and went to the kitchen. Raven beckoned the girls to sit then he said: "It's been a while Lele, how's Aunt Sabrina?"

"She's doing okay! And please don't call me Lele!" Ellen replied with a bit of annoyance. Anne and Luna was a bit shocked, they weren't expecting these two to know each other.

"Then I'll call you Ele-"

"Stop!" Ellen slammed the table in annoyance and glared at him. "Don't you dare!"

"Hahaha…chill."

"You guys knew each other?" Anne said curiously.

"Hmph!" Ellen let out a cold snort while Raven laughed.

"She's my cousin. She just grew up in the Vermillion Sky Clan." He explained with a trace of melancholy in his eyes.

"Oh so that's how it was…" Anne replied enlightened. It was then that Paul and Mark emerged from the kitchen bringing some food and drinks. They too sat on the table next to Raven, the boys were sneakily smelling themselves thinking if they should clean themselves first, but knowing that their training isn't over yet, they decided not to.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" Raven then glanced at Luna who had been lowering her head for a while now. He knows her character too well, the way she fidgets whenever she's uncomfortable and act meekly if she's ashamed, all of this are familiar to him.

"I-It's not really a…big deal…I-It's just." Luna's voice was faint and stuttering, the rest weren't even able to hear the words she says aside from Raven.

"Ah god I can't bear this!" Ellen suddenly blurted. "What's she trying to say is that ever since you 'cured' her! Her cultivation speed has dropped in an alarming rate! She even thought that if this continued then she won't even be able to progress an inch! That's why were here!"

Anne sighed and thought: 'Sometimes, her attitude really does help a lot.' While Luna sank even further to her seat. Paul and Mark looked at each other, confused about this whole situation.

'Cured? Who, what, when, where and how?' These are their thoughts when they heard Ellen's outburst. It seems that their brother had some dealings with the ladies without them knowing.

"Oh…" Raven nodded. "That certainly is a concern." But his face still have that friendly expression.

"Is it possible for you to help her once more? There should be a way right?" Anne asked on behalf of her friend as well.

"Well, allow me to check first. Let me take a look at the hairpin." Raven faced Luna to tell her this. She nodded and took the hairpin out, Raven held it and roused his spirit. The hairpin brightened and a bright yellow light emerged from it. The light converged and condensed into an image of a 8-winged angel that had her faced blurred, even so one could see a faint smile on her lips. After a few seconds, the image of the angel transformed into a constellation.

Everyone was shocked as they saw this, just as when they were about to ask questions, Raven gently pushed the lights back from the hairpin and handed it back to her.

"There's no problem with this. Give me your hand." Raven placed the hairpin on the table, Luna placed her hand on top of Raven's palm. A faint blush crept onto her face which didn't escaped Anne's sharp eyes. He gripped it a bit and pushed his thumb at the center of her palm.

Luna visibly shook, she felt shivers all over her body as she felt something ran through it abruptly. She was about to flinch when Raven's firm grip prevented her from doing so. She gazed at his serious face and became a little bit dazed.

Everyone heard Raven sighed as he released his grasp, he smiled wryly and said: "I think I know what's the problem now."

The girls focused at him and perked their ears, this goes specially well for Anne and Ellen who had been skeptical about his skill right from the very beginning. If it weren't for Luna's sake, they won't take the chance to believe him, but when he summoned the thing inside the hairpin, their skepticism disappeared.

"You…" Raven looked at Luna. "You don't have any cultivation techniques aren't you?"

Paul and Mark were confused. Meanwhile, Anne was shocked, Ellen was dumbfounded and Luna's eyes widened before her face reddened and her body sank even further down to her seat.

"Hold on…" Anne said while pinching the bridge of her nose. "Could you explain further?"

"Ever since she fused with the hairpin, it has always been providing her with the purest forms of energies that she uses for cultivation. What's more is that it automatically circulates within her and settles down on it's own. Since she didn't need to actively do it then why should she right?"

"But the hairpin was removed, and thus the energy supply stopped as well. She had been circulating her energies according to the path her body remembered, seemingly forgetting that it was the hairpin that did if for her AND also provided her the energies she needed to do so. And like I said since it's gone, then there's no energies for her to circulate."

"The one that she had been circulating before was the residual energies from the hairpin. And because he she didn't have any cultivation techniques, then it really is no wonder that her cultivation will slow down into a screeching halt."

As Raven stated his explanation, the atmosphere inside the room became extremely strange. On one side, the boys were trying their hardest not to laugh while the girls were glaring at the embarrassed Luna.

"You!" Ellen couldn't take it, she lept from her chair and pinched Luna's cheek, stretching it and forming different polygons from it. "YOU BIG CHESTED DUMB DUMB!"

"Owssshhhh…" Luna cried while holding Ellen's hands. "Hellen! Stahp phet! Ih hurrrsss…"

"Must be nice huh? Must be real nice huh!? You spoiled woman! Getting free stuff must be real nice huh!? So nice that it makes you a BIG DUMB DUMB!" Ellen absolutely can't hear her cries for mercy and just continued molesting her cheeks.

"Hahahaha…" Raven laughed while watching the scene, Paul and Mark joined in as well.

Luna's cries echoed inside the room, Anne could only shake her head and massage her temples from all the chaos while Ellen was still teaching Luna's cheek their lesson. When she's done, Luna's face was swelling, it looked like she was always pouting in displeasure. Tears were running down from her eyes and she glared hatefully at Ellen.

Raven unconsciously stared at her with a gentle gaze, it looked like he was memorizing each and every details of her adorable face right now. He only stopped he felt a nudge on his leg. He looked at Mark who was looking at him with a face that says: 'You're too obvious bro!'

"I'm sorry, we embarrassed ourselves in front of you…" Anne performed a slight bow while sitting down. Raven just waved his hand and said:

"No worries. In fact, I already knew that something like this would happen."

"You do?' Anne raised her brow and asked.

"Yes." Raven nodded, he then faced Luna and said: "Didn't I tell you that I will help you become stronger so that you can handle that power? I even told you to visit us during day time so that I could guide you. I thought you were already aware of this problem and solved it that's why you didn't come."

There was another bout of absolute silence inside the room. Luna blushed even more and warily took a glance at Ellen, who was now glaring at her even more so than before. She saw her stood up and said: "You! You stupid woman! You!!!"

"Waaaa~" - Luna.

"Haaaaah…" - Anne.