But he cared for his life so...
''How majestic, how imposing, and at the same time delicate in the details!
The artist who created this was surely highly gifted. ''
At that moment, he wasn't completely lying. After all, the main problem was the clear and exaggerated intent to impress the visitor, but the quality, in itself, of the manual ability of the artist, who created the artificial lake, the crystal stones elevator, and the phoenix door were definitely very high.
Then Rubra raised her nose even higher while boasting about the abilities of her artistic father.
Giving it a thought for long enough, seeing how much she cared about her parents, it was strange that the two of them exposed Rubra to the danger of meeting a stranger instead of taking that burden themselves.
Not wanting to cross the limit of personal privacy during his first night hosted in this apparently luxurious Phoenix nest, he decided not to ask.
After her words finished, she went in front of Eric so that he couldn't see her face.
On it, he would have seen grief, sadness, and loneliness and a pair of eyes unfocused, as if watching something which didn't belong to the present moment.
Shortly after, silence won over their thoughts, and they continued their tour of the cave, entering through the 'beak' of the statue.
The only sounds were their relaxed feet hitting the ground at a regular frequency and the crackling flames of the lanterns fixed on both sides of the walls.
As a cherry on top, the flame didn't surround a cloth covered in some kind of oil.
At the center of each flame was a crystal stone, red in color.
It was cut into the shape of a phoenix.
Even though he found all of this quite excessive, he could feel a deep passion and love the creator of this house put into every detail.
Then he decides to make an honest compliment to them for the first time.
Rubra moved her hands towards her face before turning around for whatever reason.
Seeing her reddened eyes, Eric couldn't understand why that happened but decided not to nag her about it.
He was tired from what happened today, both mentally and physically. For this reason, he asked to go sleeping before dinner tonight.
The guest room was relatively unoriginal compared to the rest of the house. Even though, wherever possible, fire-bird decorations were present.
Strangely enough, he was slowly getting used to it. Most probably, he was too out of it to care about it.
That night he got asleep the fastest it ever happened to him.
''Aaaaaah! ''
A shout was his own usual good morning to the world.
*Again that dream, uh?! *
When he was on the point of starting to analyze his dream as if he could learn something from it, that happened.
Suddenly, the door of his room opened, and what entered inside was a figure he couldn't identify for a bit.
Her dark red hairs weren't parted into pigtails anymore.
They were organized into one single ponytail that reached her lower back.
She didn't wear any more the stylish but impractical dress of yesterday.
A white apron decorated with a pink heart covered her front, but it didn't manage to hide her perfect proportions.
He felt like forgetting about his nightmare for a moment, his mouth agape.
Casually, Rubra was making a similar expression.
''What happ... ''
The words stopped as she gasped, and her mind started resetting to factory settings.
Maybe it was because they were underground or because it was the nest of a mythological fire creature.
Be it as it may, tonight Eric woke up sweating.
A part of that was the usual nightmare.
Another was his surrounding environment.
So he decided to take his shirt off, before appreciating Nemesis to gift him such an athletic and proportionate body.
In a way, Rubra was doing the same as he did the previous night. Yes, she was just appreciating the proportions of the specimen in front of her.
The only strange thing was that when counting the packs showing in his abdominal area, she lost the count a couple of times, so she couldn't compile that piece of data in her scientific paper until she was interrupted by an ever so unpleasant voice.
''Good morning. Are you alright, Rubra? ''
She wanted to rebut him, stopping her scientific research, but her embarrassment stopped her from actually saying the words.
Then she started elaborating on the message she just heard and said:'' That's what I should say!
I heard a scream from your room tonight and now happened the same.
I worried a lot but couldn't perceive any enemy. ''
For a moment, he felt good hearing the genuine worry present in her words, but at the same time, he felt bad for being happy because of the emotions which procured pain to another person.
*Somehow, everything is always so complex. *
Shooing away his negative thoughts, he answered in the most relaxed way possible.
''Don't worry about it. It's just a nightmare about my past.
Anyway, I didn't know you could cook! ''
Somehow, he managed to change their conversation topic.
He watched her again in her present attire and mentally thanked Rubra for the morning eye candy.
She felt a bit embarrassed because of the implicit praise and explained it to him.
''This is my mom's apron. Usually, I eat raw meat as it is more convenient, but I remembered humans shouldn't do that, so I decided to try something new today. ''
*Raw, convenient, and new, uh. *
It wasn't just his brain now. His intestine too, was urging him to run away from this place at the fastest speed possible to him.
The fact that he was an Lv. 5 surrounded by hundreds of monsters tens of times stronger than him?
Not relevant at this moment!
Trying to calm down at the same time both the decision centers of his body decided.
''At least make me do something to repay your kindness.
I'll cook you something worlds apart from raw meat.
I promise you! ''
A couple hours passed, and the two had just finished their breakfast.
Rubra was smiling using teeth she didn't know she even had, and Eric managed to calm down the two tyrannical organs of his body.
His thoughts, though, didn't stop.
*I have to overcome that nightmare now. *