Nightmare Mythos

Chapter 162 A Moment Of Mistake

'Women with their unstable emotional state, damn it!'

Joshua gently pressed his lips onto Reyna, trying to calm her by kissing. He didn't know if it would work, and was merely using his experience and learnings that doing this action can help someone regain their calmness. Even if that kiss didn't mean anything, at the very least, it could help the person feel reassured.

Explore hidden tales at empire

"Mmph!"

And by the looks of it, doing the kiss helped Reyna regain a bit of her emotional state as her eyes turned wonky when her eyes regained focus and spotted that she was kissing Joshua.

She got flustered and mostly embarrassed but instead of escaping from his grasp, Reyna remained in that position and continued feeling the warmth Joshua was willingly giving.

'Uh, you can remove—'

Joshua wanted to leave as this wasn't part of his plan but Reyna didn't give in as she motioned a tighter hug, completely leaving the man embarrassed as well.

As their boats swayed through the currents of the water while the fins started to become stable after the noise coming from the wooden platform abruptly stopped, the two kissed each other gently and softly.

...

"..."

"..."

With their backs against each other, complete awkwardness surrounding them, the two were hugging their knees unsure what to reply. As of now, they would've already talked and bantered like they always did after passing through countless hurdles together but nothing like that happened.

'He was the first one to kiss me... My first kiss for goodness sake! Did that mean anything? Did it mean something? Why isn't he talking to me? He should first talk to me and tell me something! Gosh, this is awkward. Why is my face burning though? Even though he has a big body, he's really gentle— Ack, he kissed me! Why am I even thinking of some lewd things?!'

Tucking her head closer to her knees while glancing back, only to see the same huge back being motionless, Reyna wanted to say something but it seemed Joshua beat her to it.

With an apologetic tone, Joshua stated, "That didn't mean anything. I apologize if you got violated. I did what I can do to reduce your state of losing control,"

An old-looking door has never been this good in their eyes. It was standing motionless at the wall water wall between the Still Waters and the unknown terrain outside.

But being in an unknown terrain rather than the Still Water was better at this point. The moment they saw the wooden ancient door wasn't locked, they darted their way inside with triumphant expressions.

"Yes!"

Their joy of escaping the place could never be put into words. All their efforts on keeping their focus up momentarily diminished upon seeing that the wooden shelves didn't threaten them at all.

However, that was their mistake. Reyna might've made the same mistake again but Joshua wasn't that kind of person.

He had been mindful of their surroundings for most of the time they were in Still Waters, and he was so tired all around his body that the only time he hadn't put his guard up was when they entered.

Because of that one action which isn't even considered as a mistake at all, a huge shadow went behind Reyna's back.

Carrying a single long sword in its hand, the Nightmare had a book swerving in around its front. Its nose was deformed with a glass hanging at its bridge.

"!"

Feeling shivers down her spine, Reyna couldn't help but glance back before watching the same creature that Joshua's eyes had been stuck ever since this creature appeared swiftly.

Reyna's mind raised as she did everything she could by trying to use her Technique or Facet but all of it was futile as the great sword of the Nightmare was already between her face.

'Fuck—'

Slash—!

Reyna got herself violently thrown out as she saw Joshua stepping back as well by saving her life for the third time.

"Joshua..."

Suddenly, a low gasp escaped from Reyna's mouth upon diverting her gaze to Joshua's right arm. In there, she saw one of his arms were gone, cleanly cleaved by the Nightmare's sword.