The moment Darian entered the house again, he found only Liro and Lily. "Both Bianca and Vane went downstairs to sleep," said Liro. He was currently sitting on the bed with Snowy on his lap, and Lily was on a chair near the table.
"What do you think will happen now?" asked Lily. Darian had reached for his backpack so he could grab the pictures he had taken from the rocket.
"What do you mean? We're going to help her, that's out of the question," answered Darian without hesitation. It wasn't their first time helping someone like that, and especially after what he had read, he knew that he couldn't go back.
"I'm sure that Vane will accept this immediately…" joked Liro as he laughed softly. With Snowy in his hands, he began to think if he wanted to come too. "But will it be more dangerous this time? You get it, Darian?" asked Liro, looking at his friend with fear in his eyes. While Liro was feeling more scared, Darian had his usual expression.
"Things are becoming more and more dangerous as we keep going, we can't hope for everything to still be as easy as it was when I returned to earth," answered Darian.
"Well, I'm sure the same happened when you came to Yalemba too?" asked Lily, a bit scared of the idea of going to this city. Both Darian and Liro nodded their heads. "Because of this, I feel like I'm sort of obliged to accept," said Lily as she smiled warmly, her fear had gone away.
"I'm sure that Catripple will be able to guide us, she will explain something more to us." Darian grabbed the picture he had of his family from his backpack. Liro and Lily watched him carefully as Darian positioned the picture over the desk in a prominent position that could be seen from everywhere in the house.
"The truth needs to come out…" said Darian while looking directly at the picture, then turning around again towards his friends. "We're the researchers of this new world, right? It doesn't matter how difficult things become, we will keep studying everything, right?" Darian asked Lily and Liro, knowing that it was a sort of rhetorical question. The others answered almost immediately.
"Obviously!" said Lily, almost shouting, with the same smile as before over her face. Liro, on the other hand, seemed more scared. "Yeah… I think we can be defined as that," whispered Liro while looking down, his eyes meeting Snowy's.
"I'm sure that Rusty will have some old nails…" murmured Darian as he took the big picture with his other relatives, thinking about where he should put it. There wasn't much space on the wall, so Darian had to pay attention to where he would place it.
Liro started to drift away in his mind, and his lips curved into a sad expression. "I'll go to sleep, guys…" he said while slowly leaving Snowy on the bed and going to the floor below, not even waiting for the others to answer him.
"Hey Darian… didn't you find him more scared than usual?" pointed out Lily.
"I know, he's scared of going there. I understood it immediately," answered Darian while still searching for a space in which to put the picture. Lily, noticing that he didn't seem to care at all, felt a bit confused.
"But shouldn't we have said something to help him, at least?" said Lily, becoming sad as she looked over the stairs. Darian left the picture on the bed and positioned his hand over her shoulder. "He will be alright; that guy seeks knowledge more than anything." Darian, speaking with this reassuring tone, was able to calm Lily down a bit.
"He likes to discover so many things; he will surely come with us tomorrow," said Darian, looking proud of Liro. Lily, next to him, nodded her head, realizing that Darian was definitely right. "I'm sure you're right, Darian."
Liro had just entered the other room, in which Bianca, Vane, and Catripple were already sleeping. He took one of the free beds and lay down there.
While he began to look at the ceiling above him, his mind began to drift back to when he was still a child.
Liro was born into one of the wealthiest families in all of Therya, in fact, since he was born, he never needed to work, especially because, as one of the richest families, they had access to almost everything without any problems.
His house was extremely big and had a huge library inside. The fact that Liro was born as an Altered made the family happier. Currently alive, only Liro was an Altered; before he was born, there was his grandfather too, but right after Liro was born, his grandfather died.
The family was so mentally destroyed that such an important person had died that they decided to call the small child they just had Liro, after the old leader of the family. Since the start, Liro had felt the pressure of the whole family. Liro's family is called "The Thinkers" for one reason: they were all smart.
In fact, in all of Therya, there wasn't a family as smart as the Thinkers, and while having this much pressure would have damaged other children, Liro didn't have any problem.
The family had always made Liro study hard; he learned how to read when he was three years old and could already speak fluently without any problem. The family didn't even feel proud of him; in fact, they always said this single sentence: "Good job, you've done your duty." Liro had never grown up with someone proud of him. Because of that, he imagined his grandfather, the one he had never met, as a kind person, as someone who would praise him the more he learned.
Because of this, Liro was able to keep up with the constant work, he imagined someone he had never met, but someone he had heard stories about, praising him and telling him to keep going with his work.
Liro started to read all the old books and became more and more interested in the old world. Everything related to it started to fascinate him in a way that is almost impossible to describe, the more he kept reading about the old world, the more his wish to explore the world grew.
But he knew that because of his power, he could not go alone, so he needed someone to help him. That is why he wanted to join the Veilguards.
The family wasn't opposed to it at all; they simply told him that as long as he took up the duties of the house whenever his father died, he could do what he preferred, especially because he was becoming older.
Currently, he was eighteen, and he had just joined the Veilguard, it was exactly a year before Darian's arrival into the squad.
Liro had only been able to go on one expedition, and it didn't even go very well; as the years went by, he was feeling tired. The days were fun, yeah, but he didn't have anyone to talk with about the old world. Alerya and Kael were always too busy, whenever he tried to talk about the old world with Lara or Vane, they both couldn't follow him.
After Allocen joined the team, Liro tried to speak with him about the old world too, but it was impossible to hold a conversation with him, as Allocen always remained silent.
But since the moment he encountered Darian, everything started to change in his life. He finally had someone to talk with about the old world, but not simply because he was interested like him, but because Darian actually came from there.
It was also thanks to Liro's pressure that Darian wasn't killed the moment he landed in Therya and was only imprisoned. After he became more familiar with him, Liro realized that he had finally found someone he could speak with all day long without ever getting bored.
In all the travels they've done together, Liro couldn't stop thinking about all the questions he had asked him, and now, rolling over in the bed, he began to think about whether he actually had to keep following him or not.
'It might really be dangerous this time…' thought Liro, realizing how dangerous it was in Yalemba, or when they reached the rocket; his body was trembling in fear, as he didn't know what to do.
'I still want to discover new stuff…' Liro started to think about Darian's words, as he had called them the researchers of this world. Thinking about this name, Liro started to smile warmly. 'But is it right for a researcher to feel this much fear?'
Liro had always felt a lot of fear because he had seen a lot of strong powers in the Veilguard, and his was definitely weaker; in fact, he couldn't even fight by himself. He needed someone, his power was only good as a bait and to escape, not to fight at all.
'Darian must have felt scared too, no?' Liro started to think about when Darian told him about when he went to XERBAB-7, about his travel there, and how scared he was starting to feel exploring something new. Liro remembered all of his words, he would never be able to forget one of Darian's stories.
And in his mind, he remembered that Darian was scared too, probably one hundred times more than he must have felt. "I'm such a crybaby…" whispered Liro as some tears started to flow down his cheeks. He buried his face in the pillow so as not to make any sound, so that the others in the room would not wake up.
'I know… I'm a crybaby who doesn't know how to fight properly…' Liro slowly dried his tears and began looking at the wall in front of him with serious eyes. '…and this crybaby wants to discover what happened to the world too.'
'It doesn't matter how many difficult challenges I must face, I need to overcome all of them. I will never stop feeling scared, as it is something directly in my nature… then I just need to live with it.' Liro smashed his fist against the pillow with a lot of power.
"Mmm, no, Darian… let me sleep on your shoulder… move Snowy…" Liro heard a voice, it was Vane, who was talking in his sleep and had moved his hands towards the ceiling, trying to grab something.
"Mmph," laughed Liro softly at the sight of that.
'As a researcher who does something step by step… I must do the same,' thought Liro while looking at the ceiling. He stretched his arm out with his hand open.
'And the researcher will never be able to finish studying if he never starts…' Telling himself these words gave Liro enough courage to close his hand and gave him a more decisive look.
'…I'll keep studying, until I am able to overcome this fear of mine through my studies.' With this thought in mind, he slowly fell asleep.
Rusty was just called by Darian. "Do you need a nail, Master?" said Rusty as he looked over at Darian, who was still wondering where he had to place the picture. Lily, still sitting on a chair, was half-asleep.
Rusty, seeing that Darian didn't answer him, sighed and reached him. "I'll help you…" Thanks to the help of Rusty, Darian was able to attach the picture exactly above his bed.
Now the house had a totally different look, there were two of Darian's pictures with his family that were making Darian happier.
The following day, Darian, Lily, and Vane were the first ones to wake up. They were already outside waiting for the others to wake up. "So if she is alright, we will go help her immediately in her city?" asked Vane, wondering where Liro was; even for him, it felt strange that Liro hadn't woken up yet.
"This is what we chose…" whispered Lily as she looked at the house, wondering when the others would arrive. She then looked at Darian with a worried expression. "Are we sure he will arrive?" she said into Darian's ear. Darian nodded his head and patiently looked at the door. "He will."
The moment he finished saying the sentence, the door opened, and Catripple, Bianca, and Liro came out of the house. All of them had ready faces. "Now I can finally greet you properly… hello everyone, I'm Catripple!" said the woman with a big smile to the others who were waiting for her.