Ryu felt a headache coming on, but at the same time, he tried his best to stop himself from laughing.

In truth, if he had to assign probabilities to whether this was Nuri's reincarnation or if Yaana was her daughter, he'd say it was about 80% likely to be the former and only about 20% to be the latter. In all likelihood, the reason Yaana's mother shared the name Nuri with Yaana's former life was just a misalignment of karma, something that was bound to happen when you were working with such enormous spans of time and relying so much on luck.

Of course, this was just a gut feeling and he couldn't be sure. But, he would most definitely prefer to be certain before he acted on something so sensitive The awkward part of it all, though, was that Yaana didn't seem to want to allow him that time, and he couldn't find it in himself to blame her.

Whatever barriers Ryu had up for Sarriel seemed to collapse one after another for Yaana. Plus, it had to be remembered that Ryu's intuition was especially sensitive right now, so he felt like he was most likely correct. And, even if he wasn't correct, Yaana seemed to want him to ignore that fact entirely.

Still, he felt a warmth in his heart at this moment that transcended just the feeling of Yaana's naughty actions.

When Ryu was growing up with Nuri, he had always been her little brother. After he failed to Awaken, this feeling had only intensified and he never got the chance to protect her. As a result, the version of Nuri that he knew would always be far more reserved and 'well put together' than the version he might have otherwise come to know had she taken him to be a serious candidate for her husband.

To that Nuri, maybe he had always been a little brother regardless of what antics Elena tried to pull and regardless of whatever feelings he might have had.

To make matters worse, Nuri probably always felt the weight of wanting to repay his parents for the kindness they had extended her.

It had to be known that Himari and Titus hadn't originally known that Nuri was so talented. It was just that they had tried for millions of years to have a child to no avail and happened to take pity on the young Nuri who had been thrown away as a waste who was unable to cultivate.

These two matters come together made it so that Ryu might have only ever known a small portion of the person Nuri had been. He had a feeling that she had always been so mischievous, but it wasn't until this life where she could finally release some of that.

For as long as he could remember, Ryu wanted to be the one to protect Nuri. And even though that she was now Yaana, he finally got the chance to.

Ryu's smile brightened. "How do you want me to take responsibility?"

Yaana froze, her hand still clamped onto Ryu's wrist. Honestly, the novel feeling was leaving her in a bit of a weird state. She couldn't decide if she felt odd, if she felt good, or if she really felt nothing at all. She had a feeling that a part of the reason she was acting like this was because she anticipated that she should feel something, but that the result was far more muted than she thought it would be.

Either way, it was clear that she hadn't thought nearly so far as to have an answer for Ryu's question and she only felt more flustered when she felt Ryu's fingers lightly squeeze.

"Ah!" Yaana squealed.

Ryu burst into a fit of laughter.

He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so freely and heartily. Maybe he would have to go all the way back to the days before his Awakening Ceremony, it might really be so far back.

"You! You're bullying me!"

This only made Ryu laugh harder.

He couldn't help but find it amusing that Yaana had tried to act like Elena, but they were clearly two different people. Had Ryu asked that question of Elena, she might have already directly pounced on him and tried to get him to put a baby in her. But, Yaana only became flustered. He found it all to be adorable to an extreme.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. I won't treat you like a sister, okay?"

Yaana pouted before her face suddenly flushed red. She realized that Ryu's hand was actually still on her chest, but now that her rush of adrenaline was gone, she didn't know what to do. If she tried to push his hand away, he would realize she was being a poser. But, if she left it there, he might call her bluff.

Ryu smiled knowingly and decided to stop teasing Yaana, taking his hand back from her chest and pretending not to notice her sigh of relief.

Maybe Yaana wouldn't care very much about Ryu taking advantage of her. After all, she was no longer a little girl and she had experienced a lot of life. She had even helped many mothers give birth and had had her fair share of 'lady talks' with friends, more than enough to be well learned on the subject.

But, after abstaining for so long, she no longer even knew how to cross that line. She unironically felt it would have been easier to do those things back when she was in her 20s, rather than now that she was hundreds of years old.

Ryu obviously had no intention of pressing her to do such things. At the moment, he just felt at peace. His mind was free and unfettered.

Yaana, though, grabbed his retracting hand, insisting on holding onto it. So, he obliged and allowed her to have her moment. After all, he couldn't imagine what she had gone through in this life, let alone what she had experienced at the end of her firstassuming that that had been her, of course.

Just as the two were about to continue toward the mountain, Ryu raised an eyebrow.

'Hm? It's actually still intact? Oh!'