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Ruler Vol 6 Chapter 11

Author: Anit666

Editor: Weasalopes

【3rd person’s POV】

While Sam was facing one trouble after another and making interesting discoveries in the Imperial Capital, Sia, Sherry was currently facing her own predicament. She racked her brains, praying to get some of Sam’s smooth-talking skills, but as is the case with Gods, she was left to her own devices.

In the end, she had only herself to rely on.

“Now, I need you to give me all the details.”

“Y-yes…” Sherry stiffly nodded.

Satisfied, the woman in front of her pushed her quill against the paper of the notebook and posed her first question.

“So, give me a detailed description of your relationship with Sam.”

“We started off as friends with benefits, then turned into friends, and then best friends.”

“And? For how long were you friends with benefits?”

“For about a month.”

“How many times did you utilise those benefits?”

“A-around 2 or 3 times a week.”

“I see. Looks like I’m still ahead.” The self-proclaimed investigator heaved a sigh of relief as she jotted the details down. “When and why did you turn into normal friends? Did you still go at it after that?”

“……” She paused for some moments, going through her memories once again. “It was when I realised the futility of my actions, and when Sam showed me that he could be much more than just a partner in bed. When we became friends, we swore that we would never do that again.” Sherry smiled to herself, drowning in nostalgia.

“I see. Then when did you turn into best friends?”

“Hmm…” Sherry hesitated a bit, but decided to tell her the truth. “A time came when someone used violence to threaten my feelings, my freedom, and in a way, even my existence. It was when Sam saved me in a totally ridiculous way that I understood how precious he had become to me.”

To think he’d bring hitmen… Sherry giggled. That moment was so shocking that she had forgotten all her troubles just to sigh.

Seeing her like this, the investigator frowned.

“So… do you love Sam?”

This was the moment of truth; this was the one question she truly needed the answer for. Everything till now was just warm-up. It would be all right if Sherry denied being in love, but if she didn’t, then Phiria would have to think about what to do with her.

She had two options; either eliminate all rivals, or form a harem. The first one was really tempting as she could have Sam all to herself, but it was also that much riskier. She couldn’t bear the thought of earning Sam’s hatred. In that sense, the second option was better, but she didn’t like the idea of sharing Sam.

“I think… I do…” Sherry finally muttered.

It was here- the answer Phiria had been fearing yet had expected had left Sherry’s mouth. For a moment her vision turned red as she imagined killing Sherry in the worst way possible, but it subsided as soon as she thought about Sam.

Ah, to think he’d leave me here… She lamented.

“However, it is not romantic love.” Sherry continued.

“Oh?” Phiria grunted.

“I don’t know how to explain this, but while Sam is really precious to me, and while I do wish for him to always remain by my side, I have never thought about being in a relationship with him, or going on a date with him, or kissing him, or anything of that sort. I think I love him, but just as a friend.” She finally concluded.

Had Sam been here to hear this, he would have grimaced and used Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle to calculate his position in that relationship. After failing, he would have tried to use all his intellect to understand what exactly it meant to love someone as a friend. It was such a foreign, yet so familiar, concept to him after all.

But the one here was Phiria, and she was visibly happy to hear this answer, not that she knew what it meant to love someone as a friend.

“So, in a way it’s similar to parental love, or the love one gives to their pets?”

“Exactly.” Sherry nodded. “You can just think of me loving him like a brother.”

“I see, I see. That’s good.” She closed her notebook with a snap and threw it into her inventory along with the quill.

She wasn’t going to need them anytime soon, probably.

“What about you? What is Sam to you?” It was Sherry’s turn to ask some questions.

“Hmm…” Phiria paused for some moments. “Have you ever felt your entire world change?” She finally replied with another question.

“I… don’t think I have.”

“That is what Sam did to me.” Phiria’s lips curved into a beautiful smile. “He took all my expectations and threw them out of the window, and then showed me just how flawed they actually were. He ravaged my beliefs and turned them around, he acquired my knowledge and proved to me that it was incomplete, he manipulated my feelings and displayed to me how fickle I was. He showed me that it was I who had shackled myself as the ‘Goddess of Life’ and ‘Princess of God’s Realm’, and manipulated me into freeing myself, without my knowledge.”

Yeah, she really does love him. Sherry smiled while her heart grew warm as she saw the beaming grin and blazing eyes of Phiria.

“That does sound like something Sam could do.” She giggled.

“And he did. It was when he opened up a new world for me that I fell for him, and I haven’t stopped loving him ever since. He took the empty husk that was the former me, and filled it with ‘Phiria’.”

“No.” Sherry smirked. “He took that husk and made you fill it by yourself.”

“Ah. Hahahahahahahahaha!” Phiria burst out laughing and exclaimed. “Yes! You are absolutely correct! And the reason he did it that way was because he thought it’d be more interesting!”

“Haha, same! He said, and I quote, ‘I have neither the right nor do I want the responsibility of directing your life. Do it yourself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to play some Counter Strike.’” She articulated his speech perfectly, and both of them started laughing again.

“Haaa… I just wish I could do the same for him.” Phiria said after she stopped laughing.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Hmm… You know how Sam has the tendency to fake his emotions and expressions?”

“Ah, yes, I totally do.” Sherry replied after remembering her questioning night with Sam.

“What do you think is the reason for that?”

“I don’t know, maybe because he finds it fun?” She shrugged.

Why else would a person fake his emotions when they don’t benefit from it?

“Wrong.” Phiria sternly denied. “It is because he has no other option.”

“Huh?” Sherry frowned.

“Sam fakes his emotions because he has trouble feeling genuine ones.”

“What… is that supposed to mean?” Sherry inadvertently shuddered.

She wasn’t sure what Phiria was talking about, but she also felt she knew what Phiria was trying to say. It did make sense. If Sam wasn’t faking it because he wanted to fool others for a convoluted reason, and neither was he pretending to hide his true self nor did he have fun doing it, then it could only mean that he had some difficulties with the real thing.

This just only reaffirmed her idea that something truly terrible had happened to Sam for him to turn out like this.

“Is… is it related to why he was away for so long?” Sherry posed her question carefully, half-expecting to not get an answer.

“No.” Phiria shook her head. “He was like that since the moment of his birth.”

“Huh?”

Moment of birth? What? How is that even possible? Sherry thought.

“Sam had learned to simulate his emotions and expressions from very early on. The complex process he created to pull it off made him unable to truly feel something. Of course, it’s not like he cannot feel anything. He can be happy, sad, angry, but he cannot feel them intensely. No matter what happens to him, there is always a cold apathetic side that observes everything calmly.” Phiria sighed and averted her gaze to the window, looking at the scenery outside.

“What… but, how, no, wait, just how?” Sherry sputtered.

However, instead of replying, Phiria moved her mana. Immediately, a portal to her inventory formed above her head and from it came out a spear. Its black bade shone ominously as it floated in the air.

Sherry was unable to make any sense of the situation, so she reflexively arranged a magical formation to use a defensive spell. However, to her shock that formation was dispersed effortlessly. Phiria turned her eyes to Sherry, and the spear moved. Sherry closed her eyes to prepare for the inevitable.

With blinding speed, the black spear left the room from the window. Sherry opened her eyes when she didn’t feel herself getting impaled, only to see Phiria quietly looking at her.

Within some moments the spear returned, its blade stained crimson with blood. A few drops dripped onto the floor. The portal formed again and the spear disappeared into it, and everything returned to how it was before, save for the blood drops and Sherry’s laboured breathing.

“What were you saying again?” Phiria smiled.