Chapter 120: Task: Smile.
Ayra hesitated, meticulously seeking ways to coin the words before she said, "Back then, Rai cried in my hands while he told his past..."
Commander Lynn paused, staring up at her. And Ayra briefly summarized all that had happened and all that was said.
There was a brief silence after she was done. And then Ayra said, "It must have really been bad back then for the two of you..." She stared at him with empathy.
"I guess that’s why you became like that... Dealing with all that while also raising your little brother alone must’ve been hard," she expressed with a gentle smile. "You did a good job.. you handled it well and you raised such a wonderful brother... I want you to at least know that," she acknowledged him.
Ayra smiled, cleaning up the cub while sharing heartfelt words with Commander Lynn. She had sympathized with him considering that given that Rai’s backstory was that bad and sad, his own would also be heavy.
She considered the people of this tribe sharing similar backstories. So Lynn’s story must have been sad enough for him to end up this closed up and cold.
"Don’t worry at all, I’m at your side," she smiled at him. "I support you against whatever they did to you and your brother, okay? They were jerks. Dumb beastmen who abandoned you.. complete jerks. They don’t know the amazing beastmen like you they’ve lost because of their stupidity."
She smiled at him. "They didn’t know you all are gems. So don’t mind them, okay?" She comforted him.
"Jerks! Dumb! Jerk!" Ally happily repeated while staring at Lynn.
"...!" Ayra panicked, blinking. "Oh dear... I shouldn’t say such words with her around."
"They, dumb, beastmen! You are gem!" Ally repeated with a smile. The baby was comforting him too.
Ayra smiled as she soothed her hair. "Don’t learn such words, okay? Mama was wrong for saying them here."
But the cub didn’t care anymore. She continued playing with the water before Ayra.
Commander Lynn said nothing. He sat there staring at them while feeling comforted by the female’s words even though he didn’t show it.
[Ding!]
[Commander Lynn’s affection level increased by 2%!]
[Wolf: 67%]
Ayra smiled as she stared up at Lynn. She was glad she could be of help as she added, "Don’t worry, I’m going to make sure that you smile again. And I’m going to see that pretty smile of yours for sure," she insisted.
But Commander Lynn sat there and stared without saying much.
[Ding]
[New Sub-task is here]
[Host, Increase Wolf Beastman’s affection level to 90%]
[Increasing affection level to 90% will be faster by making him smile!]
[Hitting 90% will automatically unlock his backstory!]
[This will solidify gaining the wolf Beastman’s affection and trust]
[Great Rewards await Host after unlocked]
[Current Wolf Affection Level: 67%]
[Duration: No deadlines available yet...]
[Good luck Host!]
"..."
Ayra paused, blinking and staring at the system as if it was a ghost. She couldn’t believe her ears.
Was the system eavesdropping on her or what? She couldn’t believe the system had given her a task based on what she had just said!
She looked around and then stared at Commander Lynn who sat there staring at them.
Ayra scoffed as she stared at little Ally who was playing with the water. She guessed she couldn’t escape this nevertheless.
She was already bent on seeing him smile again fully and restoring him back from his trauma. And she was curious to learn more about him.
So Ayra guessed she was going to do the task nevertheless. It probably won’t take just a day or two. It would take some time and some development between them to get closer and for her to break through his wall.
She was ready for that challenge.
---
The three tribe lords had set off to the wild woods to hunt.
It was a fairly contaminated zone, but it had the greatest and biggest meat to catch. And so they had gone there on their own to get some meat.
With the female’s celebration of their cubs coming, they knew they had to get the best meat to celebrate.
And it wasn’t only about the meat. They were also in a competition on who would get the biggest meat for the female.
After another bickering session, they had decided to go and compete to get the biggest catch amongst the three of them.
"The winner gets to spend time with the female for a whole day," Lord Ash had proudly said, arms folded.
"Okay. Sure," Lord Vale agreed.
And so they set off into the woods to hunt with their weapons and equipment.
While in the woods, the three cautiously strolled through the area, their weapons out and ready to strike whatever would be coming their way.
And while they moved through the woods in search of what to hunt, Lord Ash had also brought up the conversation.
"So when are we holding the mating ceremony?" He stared at the other two. "Since the female will be bearing your cubs too, she’s officially ours and we should seal our bond with a ceremony."
They had discussed this casually a night before. And Lord Ash had brought it up again to finalize it.
"We certainly should make her our official mates through another grand ceremony. Bearing our cubs isn’t enough, we should celebrate her as one," Lord Vale said. "That will probably be after this celebration. We will host another, grand and bigger ceremony to celebrate her as mate."
They nodded as Lord Zark scratched his hair in thought while he said, "Hmmm, we haven’t had any mates too so we don’t really know what’s done.. maybe we should ask around to know how a mating ceremony is done and how we should do so. We don’t want to get it wrong with the female..."
They nodded in agreement. "Yes, we’ll meet the elders for that. They should know better."
Lord Vale also said, "We should also tell the female about it so she gets ready. She should at least know about it."
They nodded again in agreement and proceeded with their hunting competition.