Rui stared at her. He knew that she was stubborn enough to refuse to simply let it be. In that case, he wished he had anticipated this and asked Senior Sarak to tell her that the Floating Sect had procured the treatment. That way, everything would be fine.
He enjoyed her company, but he didn't want her along. Although she was probably a bit stronger than him in a general sense due to her many years in the Senior Realm, she too did not have the drive to reach the Master Realm and had not made too much progress since hitting the Senior Realm.
It couldn't be helped, many things could be accomplished since hitting the Senior Realm, and the three Martial Seniors had largely found what they wanted with its power.
Unfortunately for Rui, that meant that she was going to become a liability in the long run. Not only was he not going to stagnate like she did, he was going to maintain his highest efforts to continue pursuing his Martial Path.
Project Water was waiting. Furthermore, even greater power than he already possessed was waiting as well.
She would be left in the dust rather quickly. He especially did not want to involve her in matters where she was likely to be hurt, like in his eventual operations against Chairman Deacon. Thus bringing her along with him was out of the question, he cared too much for her.
Unlike Kane, she did not have an affinity for these kinds of operations indicating that she would excel at them like Kane did with his Void Step.
However, he knew that she wouldn't listen and would follow him no matter what. The only way he could possibly avoid that is by leaving the Floating Sect like a thief when she was asleep without bidding her goodbye or knocking her out if she tried following him.
As painful as it was, he was tempted. The issue was that they led fundamentally different lives, and it made their relationship shaky. What they needed were partners who would not pull them out of their own lifestyles.
He did not want to settle down and live a peaceful monotonous life. She did not want to lead a chaotic and dangerous life like he did, traveling from place to place.
There had to be a way for him to satisfy her principled obligation to repay her debt without dragging her into a life she did not wish to be in, while also not running away from her feelings.
His mind quickly scoured through all the possibilities until it arrived upon one that was quite interesting.
"If... I asked you to protect my family, could do that for me?" Rui asked with a serious expression.
She opened her eyes staring at him. "...This is the first time you have opened up about your personal life."
"I normally can't afford to trust people enough to." Rui narrowed his eyes. "I told you. I have powerful enemies. It will be better for you if you just close your eyes and forget about me."
"I am not a child." She sternly retorted. "I understand and accept the tribulations that come with repaying my debt to someone who leads a life like yours. If it is your family, then I will protect them. I swear that I will do everything in my power to ensure that no harm will befall them."
Rui simply stared at her. "...You will have to leave behind the life that you have cultivated in the Floating Sect for quite some time. Years."
"Then so be it." She declared.
Rui smiled.
At that moment, he couldn't help but think about how exquisite her beauty was.
"I know this isn't any of my business, but why don't you protect your family yourself?" She asked earnestly.
He shook his head. "I only recently became a Martial Senior. And not even a Martial Senior is not enough, not a weak one anyway. I need more power. Furthermore, I need to eliminate the root cause of the threat rather than just protect my family from it. I have taken other strong measures to protect them, but an additional Martial Senior will not hurt."
"I see... Is that why you're traveling around?"
Rui nodded. "Among other reasons."
"In that case, I promise you can entrust your family to me until you return." She smiled. "How do you want me to protect them? You'll need to be more specific so that I don't mess this up."
Rui nodded as he began describing the situation of the orphanage and how she was to go about it.
Initially, he considered having her join the Martial Union as an external member and partake in the Senior-level security detail that the Martial Union had gathered for him. But that was not going to add much of a deterrence since it was too indistinguishable.
He wanted to make a visible change.
He wanted to remind Chairman Deacon that he was not going to let his family be hurt.
He also planned to have her inform his family that not only was he alive, but he was always thinking for them.
And most importantly, he was sorry.
Of course, there were many issues that needed to be cleanly handled. For example, if Chairman Deacon managed to track her background down, he might be able to figure out that Rui was part of the Floating Sect.
His mind coursed through many potential outcomes as he thought of a variety of solutions to avoid negative ones.
"Hey..." Her hand brushed across his cheek. "It will be fine. Your family is blessed to have someone like you to protect them."
He gazed into her eyes with a melancholic expression. "If it weren't for me, they wouldn't need protection in the first place. It would have been better for them if I was not born into their family."
Her expression fell. She leaned forward, bumping her head into his. "I don't think they would feel that way. So why should you? When I tell your family of the lengths that you have gone through to protect them, they will understand."
