Rivers of the Night

Chapter 822: Bamby

Theron really didn’t even know what to say, and the silence was starting to get quite loud.

Tears brimmed in Lyra’s eyes, and she threatened to burst into another fit of them, and Theron could only look on helplessly.

It wasn’t like he was opposed, but Lyra also seemed to be trying to make him pick her and her alone. Theron himself wasn’t even sure of what he wanted.

He teased Ayame a lot, but that was also because he knew quite well that they were a long way from anything serious. Not even remotely close.

He hadn’t even fully understood why he was drawn to Ayame in the first place. He had only known her for a short time, functionally speaking. He could probably recount all of their conversations word for word, that was how few of them there had been.

Comparatively, he had had many more conversations with Lyra and spent much more time with her, but he had never really felt drawn to her in the same way.

Maybe part of that was because Lyra was a bit helpless, or maybe it was just the fact that he hadn’t been thinking about anything like that while he was busy always being angry at the world. He had been more interested in using Lyra to get to her mother as opposed to anything else.

"How have you been?" Theron asked.

BANG.

The red-haired young man directly fell out of the tree he was standing in. He couldn’t fathom this level of shamelessness. There was no way this would work, right?

Lyra was practically sobbing her eyes out.

Wait. Why was Lyra crying in Theron’s arms if Theron was the one making her cry? Where was the justice?

Lyra sniffled. "Bad. You left me," she said.

"You’ve grown powerful."

"Really?" Lyra asked in a soft voice, looking up at him.

"Yes, really. I almost didn’t sense you at all."

Lyra panicked a bit. "I’m sorry, I’m sorry!"

She had attacked Theron all out because her image of him was practically godlike, especially after everything that happened in the Hall of Ice and Heart.

Theron had only just broken into Gold Mancy, yet he had killed a Dome of Heaven expert. Now that his cultivation was beyond hers, she didn’t think there was a chance at all of something like that happening.

Theron laughed. "What are you apologizing for? Like this, you’ll be able to protect yourself properly. This is good. Your mom will be proud."

Lyra sniffled again and then couldn’t help but smile.

The Theron she originally met was so gentle and kind, but then after they got to the Hall of Ice and Heart, he seemed to have changed into someone a lot colder. Part of her wondered if she had completely made up the person she thought she had fallen in love with.

But seeing him here like this filled her with so much warmth and joy she was practically bursting at the seams. It took everything in her not to do a cute little dance.

"Oh, I forgot. I was introducing you to Ayame, right?"

Theron hopped down from Alpha’s back and landed deftly on the ground before setting Lyra down. He led her over toward Ayame and introduced them again.

The red-haired youth had barely managed to pick himself off the floor. He was watching with his jaw hanging open. It might very well unhinge from the rest of his skull any moment now.

Snapping back to reality, he hurriedly pulled out a notepad and furiously started to take notes.

"Yes... yes... gassslliiighttting," he sounded out the word as he wrote it, as though he had never written it before. "And when that doesn’t work... iiigggnoooorreeee. Yes, yes, that’s right."

"You forgot the most important aspect."

The red-haired young man yelped and looked over his shoulder to find a mature beauty looking over his shoulder with a gorgeous smile on her face.

"You have to also be as handsome as he is. Otherwise, you’ll end up holding your balls in both hands."

The young man didn’t even know what to say. Such a beautiful woman shouldn’t be speaking such profanities, right?

He was immediately in love, but he couldn’t even find the words, let alone start with step one. Also, what was he supposed to gaslight about?

"You’re Bamby, right?" the woman asked.

"Ugh, I hate that name."

"Really? I think it’s cute," she said with a smile.

"What did I say again? I mean I love whatever you love—I mean I love my name."

The woman covered her mouth with a fair palm, her large, heavy sleeve slipping down with the action.

"And you are?" Bamby asked.

"Little ’ol me? You’ll know soon enough. What do you know about the little girl, though?"

"Oh, a mystery, I like that." Bamby tried to touch the woman, but he mysteriously missed, though he felt like she hadn’t moved at all. "The little girl? You mean Lyra? I don’t know much. All I know is that she’s a prodigy of the Umbra Clan. But the Umbra Clan fell out of favor with Gener—I mean the Chron Clan a while ago, so they lost easy rights to join the Chron Legion whenever they pleased. In fact, it’s kind of hard for them to even get invitations to participate too. So they have to start at the bottom rung just like most everybody else now."

"Oh, is that so? But who did she arrive with?"

"Him? Just some ugly-handsome bastard. He thinks he’s a woman or something. Imagine riding in on a snow fox and thinking you’re cool."

The woman giggled. "Are you sure that’s not just because your Clan doesn’t like his Clan?"

There was a flash of something dangerous that passed by Bamby’s eyes, but he suppressed it quite quickly. Even so, a leaf he had looked toward in the distance sparked into a flame that crumbled it to ash. But oddly enough, not a single other part of the tree caught fire along with it.

"I don’t know what you mean, pretty miss. But would you like to go on a date with me? I might not be as handsome as that guy, but I’m more manly, don’t you think?"

"Yes, yes. You’re very manly indeed."

By this point, the group walking toward the city had come to a stop. There was no obvious gate to the city, and even if there had been, there wasn’t even a spot for it to swing open in the first place.

They were packed to the brim with trees all around. The other side of the city probably wasn’t much different with buildings. Plus, gates that swung inwards weren’t exactly the best for defense, even if they did make space.

The question was, where now?

"Well, hello everyone."

A voice echoed over everyone and caught Bamby, who stood right next to it, completely off guard. He was looking for some powerhouse, only for his eyes to land on the mature beauty.

Bamby’s eyes opened wide. "Shit," he cursed beneath his breath.

General Ameridia wasn’t a one-woman party. She had four lieutenants, a quad of beauties they knew as the Timeless Fairies. The play on words existed for obvious reasons, but it was said that every one of them was no less powerful than General Ameridia herself.

Never in his life did Bamby expect that he would meet one of them like this.

Considering her disposition, her mannerisms, and the flowing, fleeting feeling she was giving off, this had to be Daisy.

It was said that the Timeless Fairies had one Fairy of each discipline, and Daisy was their Flux Mancer. She might very well be one of the strongest Flux Mancers in all of existence.

Every single one of the Timeless Fairies was a Transcendent of untold power. Some even speculated that each one could take on a Demon Prince all on their own.

And he had just tried to grab the waist of one.

Oh god, Bamby. You really need to find a wife so you’re not making all of these mistakes... maybe two. I deserve two, right?

He didn’t seem to have learned at all. But luckily for him, Daisy wasn’t interested in his existence at all.

"It’s great that you all have come, but we have a bit of a problem, you see? There are a very limited number of slots, and there are way too many of you. So, I’m going to need to find a way to file you all down a bit."

Theron looked over to Daisy, but the moment he had, she was already right in front of him.

Theron smiled. "Hello."

Daisy’s eyes narrowed, but she was back to her nonchalant smile.

"Theron Galethunder, right?"

The surprise Daisy wasn’t expecting wasn’t what she received. Even though Ayame immediately tensed, and Lyra was a bit slack in realizing what was wrong, Theron’s smile was still just the same gentle curve.

"That’s me. I’m surprised a woman as strong as you has heard of me. But I guess if you slay the family members of the great General Ameridia, this is inevitable, now isn’t it?"

The word slay seemed to fill the air with a dense scent of blood.