Inverse System

"Sorry… I don\'t know what the hell I was saying… Elaine would\'ve already killed me if she heard me say that."

"Trust me, if I didn\'t know you weren\'t thinking straight, your dead corpse would\'ve been across the floor. Don\'t say things you know jack shit about," Rein warned as he set the apologetic Lance down, the look of sincere remorse wrinkled on his face as he turned to Sho and bowed.

"You said you followed me out of concern. Thank you. And I\'m sorry for what I said about Econica," Lance repented.

"It\'s fine. I hear it all the time, so I\'ve grown thick skin to it. It doesn\'t affect me anymore," Sho replied coolly.

"And to you too Chloe, I mentioned something about an assassin on the queen… I know she was your mother, so I apologize for that as well," Lance once again bowed to the royals in the room, this time to the Orthlys princess.

Chloe simply looked at him with a blank expression, then turned around and went back up the stairs, ignoring his apology as a look of unease began creeping onto her face, which only Rein noticed.

"I\'ll be waiting at Sho\'s house. Don\'t be too long," Chloe coldly remarked as Xenia ran after her frantically.

"Let me come with you," she joined her as they both went up the stairs, leaving only the male Rangers in the basement of the dorm.

"Phew, that should finish her treatment. She should be up in about an hour, fit as a fiddle. She\'s free to rest here if you want," Raxo emerged from the back, wiping her face with a cloth, Emria standing behind her.

"Thank you for everything Miss Tincer and Emria. It\'s alright though, I\'ll take her up to my room. She can rest comfortably there," Lance suggested.

"Hmmm… Since you\'re her boyfriend, I\'ll allow it, but you\'d better not do anything to an unconscious girl! Seriously, don\'t," Raxo exclaimed.

"Of course. I wouldn\'t dream of it," Lance bowed as he walked over to the girl resting on the couch and picked her up, walking back past Rein and the others.

"Bowman, once she awakes, you\'re free to join us in celebration at my house. The chef may have made a little too much food anyways," Sho invited him as he stepped up the stairs.

"Thanks for the offer prince. I\'ll ask her if she\'s in the mood when she wakes up," Lance replied, still feeling apologetic for what he said to Sho, bowing down one last time before heading up the stairs.

"For goody-two-shoes turned asshole, he can still be polite when he wants, huh?" Quint said in a low voice, so Lance wouldn\'t hear him.

"Oh, hello there Lance. What happened to Miss Elaine?" A blue-haired elf girl asked Lance as he reached the top of the stairs from the basement to the top floor.

"Saphrilla? Oh, she was just injured. Your brother patched her up for me though, so she\'s fine now. That guy is something else, you know that?"

"Oh, I am fully aware. Give Miss Elaine my best regards when she awakes," Saphrilla waved as she headed down to the basement, Rein and the others having heard their conversation.

"Hello everyone. I saw Chloe and Xenia heading to the party from the window and I got worried you might have forgotten about me, so I descended," Saphrilla greeted as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You were just talking to Lance, right? How do you know him? And come to think of it, he called you Emria earlier didn\'t he? Did you two have a run-in with him or something?" Rein inquired.

"Yep, when we put in a request at the guild for material gathering, they helped us with it. Raxo wasn\'t there though, she\'s a real slave driver!" Emria exclaimed as Raxo her hand on Emria\'s head and scruffed it.

"Ratting me out to your big brother, huh? Well, you 2 are my assistants after all. And you never told me you put a request into the guild! Where the hell did you get the funds from?" Raxo asked as worry grew in her heart.

"From the club\'s budget, naturally. Where else?" Saphrilla responded as Raxo slouched her head down in disappointment.

"I knew we were a bit too low on funds last month…" She grunted, Rein laughing innocently at her misery.

"I think we should make haste and catch up with those 2 girls. The food might be getting cold by now," Clyde advised, the rest of the group complying as they all went up the stairs, marching their way to Sho\'s home as the glow stones along the cavern began to dim slightly, the sun beginning to set on the surface.

They all entered Sho\'s home, and they, more specifically Clyde, was met with a jumping tackle from Lillia, who was sitting in front of the door waiting to pounce.

"Welcome home darling!" She yelled as she flew through the air, Sho suddenly catching her by the collar mid-flight, before impacting with the unsuspecting Clyde.

"I told you not to tackle him when he comes you fucking moron," Sho lost his temper instantly, Lillia also forming an irritated expression as he stopped her from hugging Clyde.

"Leave me alone you smokey pothead! It\'s not like I\'m hurting anyone!" She angrily exclaimed.

"You were about to tackle a man by jumping into him headfirst! For fuck sake, do you not have a brain in there?" Sho exploded, Lillia\'s eyes beginning to water up as Sho set her down, this time pouncing at someone who was already in the room.

"Xenia!!! Sho yelled at me! Beat him up!" She cried as she buried her face into Xenia\'s chest.

"Maybe you went a little too far Sho," Xenia said while winking, putting a thumbs up to him.

"Nice save!" She telepathically thanked him, Sho somehow receiving her message.

"I was only doing what was right," he telepathically replied as he crossed his arms and smiled.

Once the scene was done with, the group took off their shoes and looked into the large, still empty room, which only had one large kitchen in a corner and a futon in another. This was where Sho lived, the floor above that being where Lillia moved into.

However, residing in the center of the room was a sparkling table set with exquisite foods, catching the eyes of the entire group as they looked around the room, Chloe and Xenia already sitting on floor pillows around it.

The table had all kinds of foods, ranging from gigantic mountains of rice, to humongous Pathuless Turkeys that were baked whole. Others included a roasted boar, slime pudding of every element, rows and rows of vintage steaks, and veggie dishes along the edges of the long, oval-shaped table.

"Don\'t worry Clyde, I\'ve reserved a seat at the top of the table for you here! You even get the special king-sized pillow!" Lillia presented as she sat on top of it to save the seat, Sho kicking her off in annoyance.

"That\'s my seat and my pillow… Don\'t go offering other people\'s property," he scolded as he dropped down to the pillow and sat cross-legged.

"Huh?! But my pillow is right here and Xenia is on the other side! If you\'re sitting here, how will I sit beside Clyde?!" Lillia cried out.

"Not my problem," Sho retorted as Clyde sat down one seat over from her, right beside Xenia, who was also beside Lillia.

"Fine then, I\'ll just sit beside him from the other side. Xenia\'ll be close enough to feed me anyways," Lillia regrettingly stood up with the intention of moving beside Clyde, then Quint suddenly swooping in to occupy the seat.

"Wha! Grrr…" She angrily whacked Quint with her pillow for having stolen the only seat beside Clyde.

"Ow! What the hell was that!" Quint shrieked as he turned around, seeing Lillia storming off back to her original seat.

"I\'m not gonna feed you by the way," Xenia sighed as Lilli took back her seat next to her, which made her start complaining solemnly.

The rest of the seats quickly filled up around the dinner table, none of them beginning to eat before Sho gave an opening speech.

"I welcome you all to our first practical exam after party! It is with great pride that I invite you all here today to celebrate this. All of us were able to either win their advancement battles or defend their spots! Well done to all, and here\'s to more future parties!" Sho lifted his glass, which was full of a non-alcoholic drink, and toasted it to the sky, everyone else following in his example.

"Cheers!"

Meanwhile, in Lance\'s room…

"..." Lance stared at the sleeping Elaine with a saddened expression, reliving the memories he had with her since childhood, and how the 2 used to be before that fateful day where everything changed.

The day his entire outlook on life shifted, from rainbows and sunshine to rainstorms and darkness. The day he swore to save the suffering boy and the day he killed the bastard who made him suffer and exploited his son\'s demise.

From then, he began to focus himself on getting stronger so he could protect the most important person in his life, with no more sympathy for any other living beings, as for the first time in his life, he had seen the dark underbelly of the collective unconscious.

But he now realized that this approach was wrong. Instead of cutting himself off to become stronger, he should have cherished the moments he spent with her. There was no changing the emotions he felt that day, but he had now learned to grow from them and to not take the life of a loved one for granted.

"Elaine… Please wake up…" He uttered, suddenly hearing a shuffle in his bedsheets, a soft cough as Elaine wearily opened her eyes.

"Lance…?"