"So, you are the type to not pursue fame and prefer staying in the shadows then..."
"Staying hidden in shadows is nice too... hehe... you can plan out things and do many things without anyone ever noticing... it’s nice... hehe..."
Raika stroked his hair, played with it, and spoke with a smile.
"Talking about Shadow dragons... I do know where they are, but there are so many of them... how are you going to find the one you are looking for?"
Rio narrowed his eyes as he replied with his usual emotionless tone.
"Tell me the location and I will deal with the rest myself... I can find the one I am looking for myself..."
Rio has enough means to extract information as long as he gets his hands on just one shadow dragon.
He can either read their memory or manipulate their soul to get all the information he needs; there’s no need to depend on anyone else for that.
Rio wasn’t going to reveal Ellie and Liam to this unknown person, as he didn’t want to expose their terrible situation.
"Well, I can tell you about it, as it’s not really that big of a deal... but I have one condition."
Raika’s words made Rio frown, but he did not interrupt and allowed Raika to continue speaking.
"My condition is that you must bring me along with you on your quest to find that ’particular dragon’ you are looking for..."
Hearing that condition, Rio immediately shook his head.
"Impossible, I reject your condition; I will not bring you with me, as I don’t trust you..."
Rio wanted to save Liam and Ellie, not increase their troubles and bring disasters to them.
Their situation was already very bad, and he didn’t want to worsen it any further.
"As for something else..."
Raika smirked at Rio’s words and spoke in his usual gentle tone.
"Then how about giving me the most important thing of your life, the thing that you like the most and care about the most..."
Rio shook his head and denied the request once again.
"No, I reject that condition too; I will not agree to this either..."
Raika was straight up asking Rio to hand over his love for Lia to him!
For Rio, this was the final straw that kept him clinging to his humanity; Lia was the most important person to him right now, and he liked her a lot.
He will not give it to anyone and can’t give it up in any condition.
"Then how about telling me your greatest and deepest secret? don’t try to lie, as I am quite good at noticing that..."
Once again, Rio shook his head and denied Raika’s condition.
"No, I reject this condition too; I will never reveal my deepest secrets to anyone... not even to the one I care about the most..."
The deepest secret that Rio held in his heart was that he didn’t belong to this world, he wasn’t supposed to exist in this reality, and he wasn’t supposed to be a part of this colorful and amazing world.
If he spoke this truth out loud, it’s possible for many things to go wrong.
The ’heavenly luck’ governs the entire universe; shouting out loud that he’s a ’flaw’ in this world’s existence would just be inviting calamity upon himself.
This is one of the main reasons why Rio has never revealed this secret to anyone up until this day, not even Lia.
At most, he can only say that he has ’transmigrated’ out loud; if he says that he’s transmigrated from another world, he will be in trouble.
And certainly, he won’t reveal it now either.
Yes, Liam is Rio’s friend, but Rio is also a very selfish person; he’s not a ’hero.’ He will not put his own precious things on the line for others, except for Lia, that is.
"Sigh, I reject this, I reject that... your excellency, you are tough nut to crack you know..."
Raika was still smiling, and his tone was still gentle, but he definitely seemed quite a bit irritated at Rio’s unyielding attitude.
Rio would rather accept sacrificing Liam’s life than choose to sacrifice something precious of his own; it was not because he didn’t care about Liam, he just cherished his own things more.
"You don’t even want to hide your selfishness and still want to complete your mission without giving up anything... you are quite greedy, you know..."
Rio nodded his head at those words.
"Indeed, and I don’t care about what other’s think of me either... I would prefer being selfish and greedy instead of losing something that is crucial for my life..."
The awkward silence between the two of them returned as Rio kept denying Raika’s conditions.
Raika sighed deeply and looked at the ruined temple before speaking.
"You know... greed and selfishness were the reason why this temple and the people living were destroyed too..."
"Instead of giving up their precious things, helping each other and working as a group, they chose to fight among each other and ended up weak and fragile against the forces of miasma..."
"Their end was so horrific that it could make the toughest men feel uncomfortable..."
Raika looked at the statue of the sword of promised destiny and spoke in a mocking voice,
"They waited and waited and prayed for a ’Hero’ to come save them, but never tried to unite and become a society worthy of being saved..."
"You are following exactly that ’path’ of ’selfishness and greed,’ you know... it’s stupid and idiotic in my opinion..."
Hearing those words, the frown on Rio’s face relaxed, and he put his flute around his waist as he walked over in front of the giant statue.
"I see... so that’s what happened here. I was quite confused how come there was a temple inside the spirit realm... so it was made by some extinct race of the past..."
"They followed their own ideals until the very end; they were quite an inspiring bunch of people..."
"They must have believed that they were ’unique’ till the very end... that’s an admirable way of living..."
The moment Raika started talking about ’paths’ and ’ideologies,’ Rio didn’t need to keep his guard up too much anymore.
Now their battle was not physical; it was a battle of ’ideologies’ and ’beliefs.’
"Considering your ’unique’ working for a better future only for yourself while trying to escape the mundane thinking of others..."
"That’s one of the most famous ’paths’ that many choose to walk on... many SS-rankers have risen after following that path..."
Raika smiled at Rio’s words as he replied with his usual gentle tone.
"Hoh, I thought you would be the type to follow the ’path’ of ’protection’ and ’care,’ as you seem like you have human origins..."
"I remember that the ideology of being the ’hero’ and ’protector’ of the world flourishes in that race..."
"You really aren’t human, are you, Rio?"
Rio narrowed his eyes as he questions back,
"And why do you care so much about it? What will you get out of it if I acknowledge that I am not human?"
"Too bad for you, I am a human, a humble travelling bard from the human empire..."