#vien you can't just steal people and make them guild members

[no-white-knights-blog]

Halo - An Etrian Odyssey Novel (Chapter 8/50)

“Hn, where’s Sage?” Emery asked when he saw Dyria stepping through the hallway alone, two bags in his arms and a heavy frown on his lips. Emery would go as far as to call it an indignant pout.

“With Vien,” Dyria answered, pushing Emery’s bedroom door open with his foot, “He met up with us outside Sitoth Trading and dragged Sage to the bar to grab a request and see if anyone would recognize him.”

“Oh, I see,” Emery hummed with a teasing smile as he leaned against the door frame, folding his arms, “So Vien stole your date.”

Dyria tensed up in a highly amusing way before spinning around to argue with Emery, “Don’t be ridiculous, we were just taking a walk to Sitoth Tradin. Sage needed supplies, we were heading home, and Vien just showed up. It’s good for Sage to get out and walk around like he’s doing, and spend time with everyone else, he needs to bond with Halo so he can trust us.”

“See, that’s all great,” Emery said, lifting his hand to push his glasses higher onto his face, “Besides the fact you didn’t exactly deny the fact you were on a date.”

Red suddenly darkened Dyria’s cheeks, his shoulders squaring defensively but not bothering to really argue. He just turned with an irritated mumble and set the bags on Sage’s bed as Emery shook his head with a sigh and rolled his eyes.

“Well, I can’t blame you, Sage has that kind of rare, unexpected, ethereal beauty to him. I’m sure everyone he encounters will develop somewhat of a crush,” he smirked a little at the way Dyria bristled, but wiped the expression away when the protector turned to face him, instead frowning a little and tapping his chin, “Then again, you’ve always been so stifled and kind of uninterested in things like romance or relationships. You’re always so focused on raising Iliad and looking after Vien and myself. Don’t tell me the only thing you’re interested is how cute he is.”

“I’m not,” Dyria defended, shoulders tense, “It’s not like that.”

“Okay, sure,” Emery pushed off the door frame and leaned forward, hands folded behind his back as he winked, “Love at first sight then.”

“You’re not making this easier on yourself,” Dyria growled, and Emery snorted.

“What are you gonna to do, sulk?” he waved his hands in front of him, “Come on, Dyria, I’ve seen how you look at him; and by look, I mean you literally just stare at him for minutes on end. And somehow, he never realizes or catches you! It must be a side effect of the head injury,” he tapped his forehead, “Or he’s just too embarrassed to call you out on it.”

“Why is this even a conversation?” Dyria asked, striding forward, and slipping past Emery into the hallway, “You’re being ridiculous and immature.”

“I’m calling it like I see it,” Emery explained simply, following Dyria as he stormed down the hall, “You’re my friend, so it’s my duty to tell you when you’re avoiding some very obviously strong feelings.”

“No, I’m not,” Dyria stiffly denied, and Emery stopped walking, staring at Dyria with narrow eyes before sighing heavily and loudly in exaggeration, lifting a hand and raking his fingers back through his hair.

“Yea, I guess you’re right!” he said, his words echoing rather abruptly due to the fact they were in the entry, “I mean, you’re so blah, and Sage is so wow. You don’t fit together at all. He’s so adorable, though, he probably won’t be alone for too long,” he shrugged, smiling brightly, “Who knows, maybe he found someone better at the bar. Someone who thinks he’s just precious and adorable and beautiful. Someone who wants to do dirty, indecent things to him,” he dropped his hand from his head to cup his cheek, eyes wide, “Dear me, but I’m sure we can allow that, yes? After all, it’s not like you care.”

Dyria had essentially frozen to the spot in mid stride when Emery started to speak, and slowly turned to glare at him with an almost menacing expression. If Emery didn’t know Dyria personally, he would probably be terrified. He still kind of was. Dyria had done awful things after all, dropping to the lowest of lows just to defend the people he cared about. He would likely do it again if the need arose.

“There’s no way,” Dyria said, and a moment later the doors were thrown open.

“Great leader, we’ve brought a friend!”

Dyria and Emery both turned to look at the now open door, where Vien was standing in the threshold, Sage lingering behind looking embarrassed and uncomfortable, and a tall, unfamiliar man standing beside him, sporting thick dark purple hair tied into a ponytail and piercing red eyes. The shirt he was wearing was thin and strained against what muscle he had, and he was intimidating… and not awful looking…

“Huh,” Emery was holding his chin, appearing mildly surprised, “Well I didn’t think that would actually happen, to be honest.”

Dyria’s left eye gave a tic as Vien grabbed the ronin by the arm and dragged him through the door, silver eyes bright, “Ah, Dyria! Good! Look, I found a new member for Halo! His name’s Nirim, he’s a ronin!”

“A new member?” Emery questioned, and Vien nodded.

“Yup! Sage and I found the perfect request at the bar, but it required we have a ronin in our guild, and this guy was all alone, so we grabbed him!”

“Vien, you can’t just do that,” Emery sighed out, rubbing his temple, and Vien pouted, wrapping both of his arms around one of Nirim’s and leaning forward.

“But now we can take that request! It’s the perfect thing for Sage’s reintroduction of the Labyrinth! I’m not super sure why we specifically needed a ronin, but we’ll figure it out. Besides, they’re like hella strong, right? Look at this guy!” he patted Nirim’s broad chest, “Fuckin rock hard! So? What do you say? Dyria?”

Emery looked over at Dyria, who appeared a bit pale and sickly as he stared numbly at Nirim. The medic almost felt sorry for him and stepped awkwardly in front of him, holding a hand up, “Sorry, Dyria is currently unresponsive due to shock, but I’m sure we can discuss initiating Nirim into Halo,” he smiled at the ronin, “Where have you been staying?”

“Here,” Nirim answered, finally snapping out of whatever stunned trance he’d been in before, “I have a room on the top floor.”

“That’s perfect!” Vien decided, still clinging to Nirim’s arm in complete excitement, “One of us can move into your room!”

“Vien, you can’t just decide that,” Emery tried to scold, but the troubadour was far too excited to have heard.

“And we can leave tomorrow for the request! What do you think, Dyria?”

Dyria just pressed his lips into a thin line, and Emery laughed as he held an arm out, “How about we talk in the tea room? I think Dyria needs some fresh air.”

“Sure,” Vien yanked on Nirim’s arm and started to pull him towards the room off to the side, and Emery held his head, humming as he watched them go.

“I really was not expecting that,” he shrugged and turned, patting Dyria’s shoulder, “Oh well, shock treatment works best sometimes.”

With that said he followed Vien and Nirim, and Dyria watched after him with a grim expression. Sage stepped carefully towards him before reaching out to touch his arm, making him jump and whip around to face the survivalist, cheeks turning a dark red color.

“Are you okay?” Sage asked, “You look a bit… sick. Did something happen?”

Dyria’s eye twitched a little and he glared over at the tea room, “Emery can be a punk sometimes,” he said, and Sage smiled a little.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it, whatever it was.”

“Oh, he did,” Dyria mumbled, shoulders slumping and a sigh heaving from his lungs as he dropped his head, “Honestly he should just leave me be.”

“Well, he is a medic,” Sage noted, “It’s not in his nature to just leave someone alone.”

“But I’m not sick!”

“Yea you are!” Emery called, and Dyria tensed up.

“I am physically healthy!”

“I didn’t say you were physically sick!”

Dyria just growled in irritation, and Sage bit his lip as his fingers curled into the protector’s sleeve, “You’re not… actually sick, right? Maybe you should lie down.”

“What?” Dyria turned to gape at him, “No, I’m not sick, I don’t have a cold or a fever or anything like that, really, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Sage looked quite honestly worried, “I-I don’t want anything happening to you when we’re in the Labyrinth because you’re lightheaded or nauseous.”

Dyria seemed to struggle internally for a moment before shaking his head, his hand lifting to push Sage’s hair from his face, tucking it behind his ear so his eyes were in full view, “I promise you I’m not sick. Not… not in a conventional way at least, and not in a way that would ever put me in danger or in a vulnerable position.”

“Not exactly true!” Emery called, and Sage gaped over at the open tea room as Dyria turned and stormed over to slam the door shut before walking back over to Sage and taking his hand, leading him away from the entry of the inn.

“A-are you sure?” Sage asked, reaching out with his free hand to grasp at Dyria’s sleeve again, “You should lie down anyway, Emery said-.”

“Emery is just giving me a hard time,” Dyria mumbled, looking over his shoulder to glance back at Sage before turning back to the front and pushing the door to the bedroom Sage shared with Emery and Vien open, “Come on, I left all of your new supplies on your bed.”

Sage cringed, “Ah, I forgot about that,” he admitted, his hand lifting to mess with the fur lining the collar of his vest, “I still think it wasn’t necessary…”

“Well, how about this,” Dyria turned to Sage and squeezed his hand, “If I promise to lie down for your peace of mind, will you stop feeling so bad about me buying you supplies?”

Sage considered it before his lips twisted into an adorable pout, trying to glare at Dyria, though it wasn’t working, and pointed over at the bed, “There,” he said, “I want to see you resting myself, so lie down here.”

Dyria was mildly stunned, lifting his hand and attempting to hide the blush against the back of it before he easily gave in, “Fine…”

Sage seemed pleased as he pulled Dyria over to the bed and set the bags of supplies on the ground before pushing the protector onto the mattress, then sat down and reached out to brush Dyria’s black hair away from his eyes, setting his hand against his forehead to test his temperature. Dyria just frowned heavily and tried to sink into the bed entirely as his face heated up a little more and Sage hummed.

“Are you certain you’re not sick? Your head is hot.”

“Not from fever,” Dyria mumbled, eyes shifting to the side so he wasn’t meeting Sage’s intense gaze, “I’m resting now, see? I’ll try to sleep if you really want me to, so you should go through your things and prepare for tomorrow.”

“Mhm, I can agree to that,” Sage decided, turning away, but Dyria suddenly sat up and grabbed him by his shoulders, staring intently into his eyes.

“I need you to promise me something,” he said, and Sage tensed up, his eyes growing wide as he nodded.

“O-okay.”

“Don’t ever bring strange men home with you.”

“Eh?”