Chapter 240: Alicia’s Sister
After the interrogation of the holy knight woman finally ended, the tense atmosphere seemed to relax a bit. The group left the cold, damp stone basement behind, leaving the chained enemy prisoner under constant watch.
Ryan and his group climbed the stairs with slow steps and gathered inside the villa’s spacious main house.
They walked down the hallways until settling into their usual first-floor lounge, seeking a warmer and more comfortable place to rest after obtaining such valuable information.
But Irina did not stay with them for long to enjoy the calm and left the place almost immediately.
The elven princess excused herself with a slight, polite bow to Ryan, stating that she had urgent matters to attend to.
Irina mentioned that she needed the direct help of Kenia, the wise elder of the villa, to handle some pending affairs of which she gave no details.
Alicia also left the room right behind Irina, bidding her king farewell with a respectful gesture.
The loyal wolf assistant had many administrative responsibilities, though she stated that she would return very quickly after attending to her own duties.
That way, only Helen, Ivis, and Mirian remained in the spacious lounge with him.
The three women took seats in different parts of the room, enjoying the light streaming in through the large windows.
They began chatting amongst themselves about trivial, unimportant things to clear their minds. Meanwhile, Ryan simply watched them in complete silence from his large, cushioned seat in the center of the room.
He remained comfortably reclined in his spot, letting the sound of their voices fill the peaceful afternoon atmosphere.
For a long moment, Ryan thought deeply about his group’s current situation and the enormous challenges they faced. The revelation about the church’s control over weapons was a massive obstacle, but they now had a way to deal with it.
And suddenly, seeing his warriors resting, he smiled very subtly in the shadows of the room. In a way, Ryan quite liked seeing the peaceful scene unfolding right in front of him.
It wasn’t that all the girls in that strange and ever-noisy group got along particularly well. They were women with very strong personalities, infamous pasts, and constant territorial clashes to grab Ryan’s attention.
However, they managed to live under the same roof with surprising normalcy in moments like this. At least, in Ryan’s eyes, they didn’t seem to hate each other enough to kill one another over the slightest disagreement.
So, after a few minutes of a well-deserved and necessary rest, the sound of the main door interrupted the peace.
Alicia reentered the lounge where Ryan was gathered with the women and his new ally, the water dragon.
The wolf assistant walked in with her usual firm and confident posture, but on this occasion, she had not arrived in the room alone.
Alicia brought someone else with her, walking much more slowly and lazily right behind her.
It was a beautiful demi-human girl with completely white hair that cascaded messily over her slender shoulders.
The girl had large wolf ears on top of her head that twitched with evident nervousness, and beautiful blue eyes that looked at everything with curiosity.
Because the newly arrived wolf girl was standing right next to Alicia, the physical similarities were undeniable.
Ryan couldn’t help but fix his eyes on them and immediately compare the two from his comfortable seat. They had a quite striking physical resemblance at first glance. The length of Alicia’s white hair was at least twice as long as the messy hair of the young wolf in front of them.
The newly arrived girl was also about five centimeters shorter than the efficient and always-serious Alicia.
Aside from those minor differences in height and hair, both were very similar in their fine features.
They were almost identical, except for one very striking detail: the brilliant blue color of the young girl’s eyes, in contrast to Alicia’s, who possessed silver eyes.
"Your Majesty." Alicia pronounced with a firm, clear voice, breaking the silence of the lounge and drawing the attention of everyone present.
Mirian, Helen, and Ivis immediately stopped their trivial chat and turned their heads to look at the newcomer with some intrigue.
"I told you a while ago that I would introduce you to someone very talented at creating new armor for the party." Alicia reminded him, maintaining her formal posture.
The young wolf girl shrugged slightly upon hearing her elegant introduction in front of the villa’s feared leader.
"Sister..." the young girl murmured in a tone of evident complaint, showing a very relaxed attitude full of pure laziness.
"I clearly told you on the way here that I didn’t want to do something so tedious right now..."
Smack.
The sound of a loud, sharp smack was heard with great force and clarity throughout the silent lounge.
"But sister!" the girl grumbled immediately, squeezing one eye shut and quickly bringing both hands up.
She began rubbing her head in genuine pain after receiving the swift and unexpected physical punishment from her older relative.
"Keep quiet once and for all, Alisa." Alicia demanded with a frown and a very severe look.
The wolf assistant maintained her strict, commanding posture after mercilessly hitting her on the head in front of everyone.
"You are in the presence of your king, show some respect."
"But you didn’t have to hit me so hard on the head..." the girl named Alisa murmured, forming a cute and obvious pout of pain.
She slowly lowered her hands, rubbing the struck area, and turned to look toward where Ryan was seated. After finishing her complaining and head-rubbing, she finally leaned forward in a formal and highly respectful bow.
"Greetings, Your Majesty." Alisa said, trying to sound much more polite this time.
Ryan looked at her with great curiosity from his seat, evaluating the girl’s unusually relaxed attitude toward him. Seeing that comical family scene of scolding and hitting in the middle of his serious lounge provoked an unexpected, immense amusement in him.
It was almost impossible for him to hold back the loud laugh threatening to escape his throat upon seeing Alicia acting like a strict sister. In order to maintain his usual posture of superiority and coldness before his group, he had to react very quickly.
He raised his right arm and placed his gloved hand over his lips and chin in a casual manner. With that simple gesture, he managed to completely hide his pronounced, amused smile from the girls.
’So those two are true sisters,’ Ryan thought to himself, observing the family dynamics of the demi-humans in his villa.
’They bear a great physical resemblance, but what completely different personalities they have.’
After that amusing exchange between the wolves, Alicia regained her perfect composure and cleared her throat. The assistant formally introduced her sister to everyone in the room, detailing her actual useful capabilities for the villa.
Alicia explained with great pride that Alisa was highly talented and vastly experienced in her own field of work. Her main specialty was working directly with diverse and complex magical materials.
She possessed the rare manual and magical skill to mold them in order to create light armor or heavily reinforced clothing. Those garments were vital for protecting their wearers from lethal attacks without sacrificing their mobility in battle.
At least according to the confident and firm words of the strict Alicia, her younger sister was a very capable and highly talented artisan in the villa. It did not seem to Ryan that this description was an exaggeration or a simple white lie born from family affection.
He knew very well how efficient, honest, and responsible Alicia always was with all serious villa matters. If his personal assistant was recommending someone for matters as important and critical as the group’s combat gear.
She definitely wouldn’t do it just out of simple consideration, favoritism, or the fact that they were from the same family. Alicia would only bring before him someone who could truly meet her king’s incredibly high expectations and needs.
And with the problem of the weapons sealed by the church, having someone capable of forging new defenses was paramount. Then, after the long explanation of her talents, the girl named Alisa brought her fingers together in front of Ryan.
She managed to draw the boy’s attention again with that small, hesitant movement of her hands.
"Your Majesty, I can do an excellent job for you on this new assignment, but..."
The white-haired girl said, while holding her slender fingers together in front of her chest in a fragile posture. Alisa was feigning a clear and obvious shyness with her hesitant words and her shrunken, defenseless-girl body language.
Upon looking up to meet his gaze, a different character showed in the wolf girl’s features and expressions.
What came to light was a beautiful face that did not show a single drop of fear, blind respect, or genuine shyness toward her ruler. Instead, she expressed an extremely sharp, calculating, and highly cheeky look.