"Oh, so Blake is in charge of taking care of you, I thought you said you were old enough to take care of yourself, Ragna. Hehe" Evelyn said those words obviously to upset Ragna a bit, and she seemed like she had succeeded.
"You only say that because you don't know how strong I am now, sister Evelyn. I'm not the boy you used to know anymore." Ragna beat his chest trying to give a strong image of himself, but he didn't achieve any of it and only caused Evelyn to have even more fun.
"Just avoid getting yourself or Blake in trouble and I'll believe you, plus your sister isn't here to fix things if something gets out of hand." Ragna was still listening to Evelyn attentively, and by the time he heard her talking about his sister, he couldn't help but shudder a bit since some unpleasant memories had come to his mind.
Ragna had been frozen for a few moments, so both Sherman and Evelyn said goodbye to Blake reminding him to take good care of Ragna. Sofia was the only one who hadn't said goodbye, but it wasn't long before she approached the duo of boys getting their attention.
"I was disgusted to have seen you again, Ragna. Please, don't come to visit us tomorrow, I don't feel like listening to all the nonsense you have to tell, hehe." Sofia said those simple words… Although to anyone else it would seem that Sofia was insulting Ragna, both he and Blake had already interacted enough with her to know what she really meant.
Sofia also said goodbye to Blake with more opposites in her words so that later her figure also disappeared through the same place that her family left, which caused Blake and Ragna to be left alone again.
A sigh of relief came from Ragna after that, it seemed like he could finally relax again, but the way he was acting caught Blake's attention.
"Um… Is something wrong, Ragna?" Ragna chose to remain silent for a few seconds before starting to speak.
"I don't think it's strange that you ask, but don't worry, brother Blake. I'm fine, it's just…" Ragna didn't say anything else, so Blake could only guess.
"Maybe I'm intruding, but it seems that you act a little tense when you have to interact with Sofia." Blake had already seen enough to be able to say those words, it seemed that Ragna was trying to talk as little as possible with Sofia, in addition to his body unconsciously showing his nervousness when he had to talk to her or listen to her.
A little more silence fell after Blake gave her opinion, but Ragna quickly answered her.
"Yes… You are correct, brother Blake. Actually, it's kind of hard for me to talk to sister Sofia... You see, she and I met when we were kids, she's a little older than me, but that didn't stop us from getting along, it's just... At that time I wasn't aware of their way of speaking and the first meeting between us wasn't too pleasant…" Blake didn't ask anymore because, if Evelyn hadn't explained her family's peculiar way of speaking, he too would have had trouble understanding them, plus some of their comments can also be misinterpreted too much.
Blake was searching for something to say after that, but Ragna's voice kept entering his ears.
"But don't worry, that situation was fixed without much trouble, I and sister Sofia are good friends, it's just that I always know that I'm going to hear that kind of comment from her and I subconsciously remember the first time I heard something similar from her. …"
Blake made sure not to ask anymore since Ragna didn't want to talk about it anymore, if he was just a little boy back then, maybe there was some trauma left that still haunts him, so Blake instead abruptly changed the subject.
"So… how about we go to my house? From what you said, it seems like you don't have a place to sleep." Ragna nodded at what Blake said, although she also thought a little about the situation.
"But you don't have to force yourself, brother Blake. I can perfectly rent a room at the inn if I'm a nuisance or something…" Blake quickly stopped him since he wasn't thinking anything of the sort.
"Don't get me wrong, I really don't mind having you as a guest, let's go to the Sharance tree, it's already quite late." And accepting his proposal, Ragna followed Blake along the path he had taken that morning towards the huge tree in the distance.
Although Ragna was following Blake without thinking too much, he was somewhat confused as to why they were approaching the Sharance tree. He was aware that Blake had his crops under it, so Ragna thought that he used it as a special place just like he did with some caves near his town.
But when they arrived, Ragna could see the stairs made of the same wood as the tree that went to a place unknown to him, but when he saw Blake go up them, he continued with his fast pace until he realized where he was now.
"Unbelievable, it's the first time I've seen a house inside a tree!" Ragna's excited voice was not long in coming once he stepped through the door leading into the Sharance tree as his eyes gleamed as he took in the surroundings.
"Yes, I also said something similar the first time I saw it." Blake laughed a little at Ragna's expression, but he had to explain a little the reason for his doubts. "There was something I wanted to tell you, Ragna, and I was referring to that."
Blake pointed his finger at the place where his bed was, Ragna turned his gaze in that same direction causing the same scene to appear in front of him, and ended up completely understanding what Blake meant.
"I see... That means we'll sleep together, brother Blake. Please take care of me." And just hearing that, Blake didn't know what to say...