Eris waited for me inside my hotel room. I found it strange since she had the penthouse suite. I stopped Alexa from assigning the room to me and passed it over to Eris to use. I didn’t feel comfortable in such a large room and would rather have Eris take it instead.

“Something wrong?” I stopped the moment I saw her around the corner entrance.

She didn’t give a response and remained sitting on the edge of the bed. Usually, this meant she had something on her mind. Something that she debated on whether or not to let me know.

I found myself seated next to her on the bed, unable to pry for answers. Part of me wanted to be able to comfort her and the other had a hard time imagining all the memories rattling around in her mind. Ever since figuring out rebirthers existed, I questioned the age of said individuals. Eris may be stuck in the body of a twelve-year-old, but with the mind and memories of over a millennium.

What if this wasn’t her first time living in slavery? It scared me to imagine the horrors that I’d start to remember when my past memories returned.

“What I said from before will never change. I’ll always be here for you.” I wanted to know what was troubling her however, I felt it more important to let her be the one to open up willingly.

“You deserve to know the real reason I joined you.” Eris’s voice started out quiet. “This is the longest I’ve ever managed to survive since the nobles came into power.”

Eris exhaled a deep breath, struggling to continue with a shaky voice. “I’ve never been able to rejoin my loved one and slowly lost hope. I don’t know how, but the reforcers always find me, no matter what I do differently.” I instinctually hugged Eris when tears streamed down her face.

A jumble of broken speech continued to escape her mouth as I patted her back in comfort. From what I could make out, she mentioned suicide and how she killed herself many different ways in hopes that she would permanently die somehow.

“It’s okay now. I’ll protect you…” The difficulty to kill herself was a feat in and of itself. I found it hard to visualize a way to kill her through the near invincibility of her super regeneration.

Eris did her best to collect herself, enough to continue. “You told me Balthazar said your power has control over life and death… I want you to…-” I tightened my hug and stopped her. “I won’t let you. We’ll find the one you love.” Her emotional state rubbed off as I stated the future.

“Reforcers? Who gives a damn! I’ve killed them before and I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way!” I had unconsciously raised my voice and loosened the hug on Eris, wiping away her tears with my fingers. Eris remained quiet while doing her best to process every emotion. Eventually standing up to wash her face in the bathroom sink.

I stayed seated analyzing all that she said until I could go wash up too. The nobles must have her on a permanent kill list since they can’t erase her memories. Judging from Eris’s actions, it can be deduced that she offered to erase them most likely willingly, but failed due to her magic. I could make sense of all that, then got stuck on her mention of a previous lover.

Understanding that she lived multiple lifetimes reduced the initial shock and when thinking about it I was surprised, she found and loved a single person over multiple reincarnations. I tried imagining the qualities of this individual then shook my head as if to rid needless thoughts.

I stood up as soon as Eris exited from the bathroom. “Thank you, Volatis. Sorry about forcing that on you.” Eris recovered aside from her red eyes.

“I don't want to lose you, ...You’re the closest I have to family besides my uncle.” Eris returned my smile with her own that caused a mixture of emotions to form. I’ve never seen genuine happiness on the usual sarcastic and sassy Eris. It far surpassed the two times I bought her gifts.

“Need the bathroom?” Her question prompted me out of a daze as I responded with a nod.

Eris decided to stick around as I thought of something interesting for her to try. She sat back down on the bed as I told her to wait while retrieving my training manual. How would it react to someone else with magic and specifically Eris?

Thinking back on the gear sets in my ring she also managed to wear all of them with no issues. Just so I didn’t forget about the outfits I set aside each unique grade, one for her to choose from on the side of the bed. There totaled seven unique sets after I claimed one.

“First thing’s first, choose an outfit you would like to wear from now on.” The good thing about the unique grade sets, unlike the lower-tiered ones they didn't stand out with any gaudy shine or bulkiness. They looked fashionable to my senses and were fine to wear as everyday clothing.

Eris slid her fingers against each outfit as she walked along the edge of the bedside. “I like this outfit most. The one you gave me the other day.” Eris pointed at her current attire.

“Yeah, but-”

“No, for now, this is all I need.” Eris grew very attached to the sentimental value of gifts and there was nothing I could do to change her mind.

Each outfit disappeared back into my ring as I got onto the next topic for Eris and held out the training manual. “Take this, I want to see what happens and if it places you within a Ki ranking.” Her hand brushed against mine during the exchange.

She flipped it open and asked what to do next. I forced myself to stop acting silly and moved beside her to see the book. “Here, it should have listed your level…, Ki absorption level ten… Ten!” The word ten repeated in my head as I succumbed to a sense of defeat. Five whole levels ahead of me!

“What, ...is that bad? What’s your level?” Eris looked confused and asked in earnest.

“Uh, it’s not bad. Means you have potential!” I lied through my teeth as I wanted to keep my level a secret. Luckily, she seemed to take the bait and her entire face lit up with excitement.