Chapter 45 - Come on, repeat with me! (1/2)

Krunes face was hurting, when he came back he found Yusa consoling Shinja, he couldn't understand, he was sure that he was right this time, he went beside Ao to ask.

”I was sure I wasn't wrong this time, I even researched about that, why did I get beat again?”

Ao could only sigh

”Brother, you must understand that when it is related to women, knowledge is far from enough.”

Krune wasn't satisfied this time, he waited until Yusa was back and asked her directly.

”What's wrong with you, I was doing my best there to show that I understand her feelings and you kick me out of nowhere, are we really friends?”

Yusa was even colder.

”Understand your head! You can't even see what you did wrong.”

Krune didn't fall back.

”Then tell me! If no one talks, how do you expect me to understand anything?”

”This is not something that women talk about with men, you can forget about it!”

”What? First you say I did wrong, then you say you can't say what's wrong, it doesn't make sense!”

”You are the only thing here that doesn't have sense, shoo, shoo, get away from us.”

”What does shoo even mean?”

Ao just pretended that he didn't know those idiots, he had long understood that he shouldn't intervene in the siblings bickering.

On the other hand, Shinja, the ice block, was doing her best to hold back her laugh, but when Krune asked what shoo even means, she lost it, she laughed so hard the she was holding her stomach, she couldn't even remember last time she laughed so much.

Krune looked at that gloomily, in the end, Shinja was even laughing at him and he didn't know why.

'The world is against the wisps, that must be it.'

Yusa`s face got warmer after seeing that though, she thought that she might had had the wrong idea about Shinja.

”Forget about it, just don't talk about a woman's period anymore, look, your barbecue is about to burn.”

Krune's attention immediately shifted away, in his eyes, his barbecue is much more important than women issues.

Yusa grabbed Shinja's hand and brought her over to eat some too, she also sent her a Divine Sense message.

”Remember, Krune's EQ is as good as a mule's, if you don't give him a beating, he won't learn. Look, I just said that his barbecue was going to burn and he completely forgot about everything that just happened.”

Shinja smiled bitterly, since when did she care about someone's EQ? First of all, what did even happen to her?

Ao also sat back down and started eating again, Krune's EQ might be inexistent, but his culinary skills are the real deal!

Krune is really different, by the time they finished eating, he had already stopped caring anymore about who was right or who was wrong, he was happy as long as his friends were happy, they started to move back into the city to resume their own activities, Ao was going back to the mercenary guild to use their training room, Yusa was going to check the market to buy a few things she needed and Krune had his pills to be concocted at the Alchemist Guild, on their way back they talked about trivial things as they always did after lunch.

Shinja, on the other hand, was feeling a bit out of place, Yusa wasn't letting go of her hand so she was more or less forced to stay with them, sometimes the conversation was directed at her but she couldn't say more than a few simple words, but Krune's group didn't seem to care though, Krune's weirdness had already started to affect Yusa and Ao.

Yusa was the first to part ways with them.

”Shinja, remember, if Krune says something idiot again, just give him a beating, it's that simple.”

Krune was taken aback, why give him a beating? He tried to look in Ao's direction looking for a friend's hand, but by the time he turned his head, Ao was nowhere to be seen.

”Traitor!”

---

After that he went back to the Alchemist Guild, he had to make money after all, Shinja stayed quiet all the time, she just looked absent minded while he worked, in fact, her mind was in Chaos, there was shame, sadness, joy, denial, etc.

'What was wrong with me? How could I fall crying just like that? It's all Krune, Yusa and Ao's fault, if not for them, I would not have reached that state, yes, that must be it!'

She then remembered the little time after that.

'But…'

She didn't want it to be over, the feeling of being part of the group without anyone expecting anything from her, the fact that if she said something, the other part would simply answer whatever way they liked, not caring for her status or talents, how long had she dreamed with for such day to come?

In the end it became a battle between her desires and her pride once more, while her internal struggle kept going, Krune had just finished another batch of pills.

”Great! I was able to concoct three healing pills of three stars quality at once, the order only asked for two to be done and any extra would be part of the alchemist's payment.”

Krune had been gathering some pills like healing pills, cultivation stabilizing pills or anti poison pills, he wanted to be prepared in case there was a need for them, so he always gave his best during the concoction to create more than the amount ordered by the customers, that way he could take the extra pills for himself without paying a single spirit stone, not to mention that his proficiency in pill concoction got much higher, he is already able to sync more than 30% of the medicinal liquid elements inside the pills.

Because of his high rate of success, he started to receive even more orders, of course, he only accepted the ones that were worth in his opinion, and it was then that he saw an order for a pill that shouldn't be there.

”Appearance changing pill? Isn't this thing a Four Stars Pill? Why would someone send me a Four Stars pill order?”

In fact, as a specially accepted Four Stars Alchemist, Krune could accept Four Stars pill orders too, but he didn't want to catch much attention, so he had never took an order of Four Stars, he thought it wouldn't be too late if he started concocting Four Stars Pills when he got to the late stages of the Foundation Establishment, but since this order appeared in between the Three Stars Orders that usually came for him, his hand got itchy, in the end he decided to try this one, he then received the recipe and the materials.

But when he looked at the recipe, he got alarmed.