Return of the Mythic Bloodline

After crying for a few minutes, I finally calmed down and wiped the tears off my face.

"That was a lot you were suppressing there," she said, looking at me.

"I'm sorry. I must be looking pathetic right now," I replied as I sat down beside her.

"No, you're looking adorable," she whispered, smiling softly.

"Pfft, are you taking revenge for calling you adorable back then?" I chuckled, looking away.

"Which one would you prefer? Being taken revenge on by a pretty lady or being called adorable by one?" she asked, her voice carrying a seductive tone.

"Please stop teasing me, pretty lady," I replied, letting out a sigh.

"Are you flust—Achoo... Achoo..." She sneezed continuously, barely able to speak.

"You alright?" I asked, looking at her.

"I'm fine—cough... It must be... achoo... the after-effects of... cough... using my attribute forcefully," she replied between sneezes and coughs.

I moved closer and placed my hand on her forehead, then on her cheeks, and spoke in a serious tone,

"You are anything but fine. Your body is freezing cold, and your clothes are completely wet."

After a brief pause, I spoke with a straight face,

"Take your clothes off."

.

.

.

"When I told you to take off your clothes, I didn't mean for you to do it in front of me," I muttered, rubbing my red cheeks, imprinted by her fingers.

"And how am I—cough—supposed to know—achoo—that?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

I was sitting beside the rock, facing the pond, while she was taking her clothes off behind me on the bedsheet beside the bonfire.

This was a very dangerous situation for me.

I could clearly hear the sound of her belt untying and her robe falling from her lean body.

And my dirty mind wasn't helping at all. It was filled with thoughts like,

"Should I take a little glance? I'm not peeking. I'm just making sure that she's alright. A little glimpse, and I'll turn away."

I sighed and hit my head on the ground. "Control yourself, bastard," I muttered, shaking my head.

"Umm... you know, if you want, you can take a peek. I don't mind... if it's you," she murmured, her voice laced with a shy boldness that was both nervous and seductive.

Huh! Wasn't this the kind of opportunity my brother used to say that God offers to every person once—to change their life for the better? If you don't seize it immediately, you'll never get a chance again. My brother told me that most people didn't even realize they were given this chance, but I wasn't an idiot.

I immediately identified this moment of fate and thanked God before turning towards Nymeria.

As my gaze was about to fall on her, I had already thought about all the possibilities.

Is she just standing there completely naked?

Is she sitting, covering her breasts with one hand and her flower with the other, looking downward embarrassed?

Or is she...

Is she sitting with her naked back facing me, as her bare ass presses on the bedsheet?"

But there was one more scenario that I didn't think about.

The moment my eyes landed on her, the disappointment I felt was utterly insurmountable.

She was lying in the bedsheet, entirely covered in a blanket.

"Kyahahaha! Look at your face. Why do you look so disappointed? I told you-cough... to take a peek, but I never mentioned-achoo... I would be standing bare here," she burst into laughter, poking fun at me.

"Pretty lady, you shouldn't tease a man when you're so vulnerable like this," I spoke in a low, cold voice, taking slow steps toward her.

"Hey-cough... cough... You are too close" she said nervously.

I bent down, reached closer to her face, and spoke while holding her chin between my thumb and index finger: "The only thing between you and me is this miserable blanket, and I can easily take care of this, cutie."

She stared into my eyes, her eyebrows twitching with nervousness, as she replied, "Pl-please do it gently."

"Huh," I muttered, my face instantly turning red.

"Kyahahaha, you're blushing. You're the real cutie here, Raj-cough... cough..." She laughed again, continuously muttering,

"Cutie-cutie-cutie."

"Sigh," I replied, "You're too much, pretty lady," I said, lying beside her on the ground.

She didn't reply. When I turned to take a look, her heart-shaped lips were trembling, and her nose had turned red.

I took off my jacket and threw it towards her.

"Wear it. It will warm you up," I said, turning my face to the other side.

"I won't deny the generosity," she whispered in a soft voice, taking the jacket into the blanket.

"By the way, there was something I wanted to ask you," I spoke, my voice carrying a hint of hesitance.

"Ask away then," she replied.

"Previously, when I showed you my attribute, you said something about being the survivor of the Thunderbane family.

Can you tell me more about that?" I asked, turning my face towards her.

"Huh! You literally don't know anything that happened to your family?" she asked, her eyes peeking from the blanket.

"I don't have any memory of this world before arriving in the Forest of Gumiho," I said, scratching my head.

Well, it wasn't a lie because I actually wasn't from this world, so it didn't make any sense to have memories of here, but she didn't need to know that.

"And I thought that you avoided the topic because you didn't want to remember the past." She let out a long sigh and spoke further,

"Since you don't know anything about your past, I will brief you on the important things so that you won't look like an idiot when meeting other people.

There are a total of seven Bane families:

Snowbane,

Flamebane,

Windbane,

Thunderbane,

Rockbane,

Flowerbane and

Waterbane.

Unlike other people who awaken their attribute according to their nature and get different kinds of powers, we of the Bane families have fixed attributes from birth, and we can only access elemental powers. We also carry a unique mark on our forehead where our Soulforce is stored.

For the past five hundred years, all the Bane families have prospered under the leadership of the Thunderbane family.

It was the strongest family out of the seven, and under its leadership, the Bane families' power even rivaled the Emperor.

But the Thunderbanes never offended the Emperor. Instead, the leader of Thunderbane fifty years ago was the best friend of the Emperor.

The family leader even settled the Thunderbane family at the border of Good and Evil to protect the empire.

But everything changed during the Ultimate War fifteen years ago.

In order to protect the empire, the fifty members of the Thunderbane family fought against an army of ten million," Nymeria's voice began to crack as she continued,

"After killing more than ninety percent of the enemies, the entire Thunderbane family got... martyred."