“Finally…inner peace.”


    Putting the headband into his personal space, took in the fresh air filled with silence. With the blonde gone, he could finally rest like he always wanted. Igor was a training freak and would pester the old sage with questions. So with Igor gone, Sun Wukong could finally breathe easily.


    .


    |DxD|


    .


    Vatican Estate, Italy


    .


    It was nighttime in Italy. After a long day of healing people with her sacred gear, Asia was shepherded away by a nun back to Vasco’s house. Ever since she had been introduced as the saintess of the church two years ago, she had begun using [Twilight Healing] to heal hundreds of people. While tiring, she still enjoyed it, even to this day.


    She could still remember how Igor reacted when he first found out about her healing dozens of people in a day. It brings a giggle to her everytime she remembers how he nearly blew up the chapel where people lined up for her to heal them. It was only when she told him that she was willing that he finally let the matter go. Still, it warmed her little heart that there was someone else other than Vasco who showed extreme care for her. Unlike the rest of the others, they were either envious, neutral, or only saw her as the saintess.


    Just like the nun next to her, Asia could feel the hidden maliciousness. She was no stranger to it, but it did unnerve her everytime someone was hostile towards her. She still couldn’t fully understand why since her gift was being used to heal people. Many people with debilitating injuries had been saved by her gift, so it made no sense to her that someone would hate her. But she soon learned to cope with it over the course of the past two years.


    The only bright lights in her life were her grandfather and her elder brother. Yet both of them were always busy with different matters. Vasco would routinely leave for missions or train an elite class of exorcists in various branches all over the world. The last time she heard, he was currently in America. As for Igor, he was training in the Himalayas. She didn’t understand why he still wanted to get stronger, especially when he was already stronger than her grandfather who was said to be the strongest human. She had heard from Vasco that Igor was most likely within the top one hundred of the strongest supernatural entities in the supernatural world. That was already plenty strong in her opinion.


    But whenever she questioned the blonde, he always rubbed her head and told her there were two reasons.


    ‘Why I want to get strong? Well for one, I just want to. Just like how the rich want to get richer, I want to get stronger while I still can. The second reason is…you. I can’t protect my cute little sister if I’m weak, right?’


    Stretching her hands towards the top of her head, she could still feel the spot where he rubbed when he said the last part of that sentence. It spread a warm feeling throughout her body when she pictured every interaction with her big brother. She truly cherished the little things he did for her whenever he came. From bringing her different foods whenever he visited, to stroking her hair until she fell asleep at night. All those little things warmed her heart and made her truly recognise and respect Igor as her elder brother.


    It was also because of these memories that she could still maintain her pure heart. No matter how sad she was, she knew that her big brother would come back as he always promised. If it is not her big brother, it will be her grandfather that she also loved. Although it had been half a year since she had last seen him, she never made a fuss because he also promised to come back.


    So she would hold on. Even if she no longer liked it here, she would hold on…because this was her only home, the place where they would come back to. It had hurt her terribly to learn that her parents had abandoned her. When she had brought up the question, she could vividly see how tense both the most important people in her life had gotten. Upon learning the truth from Igor, she was saddened.


    To this day, a part of her still regrets asking where her parents were. But she was no longer sad. Compared to her parents who threw her away, she got a strong grandfather and a super strong big brother in return. And she wouldn’t trade them for anything.


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    Now if only one of them could take her along their trips.


    “I should ask big brother...”


    Although she spoke in a low voice, the nun leading the way picked up her mutter.


    “Pardon, ‘saintess’?”


    Asia could practically hear how she hissed the last two syllables. But she didn’t dwell on that. She was already used to this way of treatment.


    So shaking her head, she walked on forward.


    “Nothing, Sister Miriam.”


    The nun scoffed.


    “And here I thought Miss saintess had some words of revelation to share with us. Don’t sputter nonsense next time.”


    Asia lowered her head, not saying anything in retaliation. Even though she was used to it, her eyes couldn’t help but water, her fists clenching in the process. She had been enduring silent abuse the whole day but this final moment was the last straw.


    She stopped in her tracks, unable to move due to her body trembling. She was so focused on holding in her tears that she didn’t even notice the sound of footsteps moving towards her. She certainly didn’t feel the sudden pressure in the air that caused Miriam to fall to the ground, though that was due to the causer.


    But she did feel a pair of arms suddenly envelop her, her fear instantly skyrocketing at the possibility of punishment. But that fear lasted for only a short moment before she suddenly recognised how these arms were bigger.


    “?!”


    She recognised that familiar scent. She recognised the hardness of that stomach. This was a feeling she was extremely familiar with. But she was too scared to look up, too afraid that this was all a dream.


    Yet…


    “Sia.”


    Hearing that familiar voice and feeling those rough hands gently scratch her hair, Asia shivered again. But this time, it was not out of fear, but out of complete relief. Vasco had left six months ago, leaving her in complete loneliness. All the nuns who were supposed to serve her food and clean the house treated her as an object of respect. They never dared to get too close to her. Rumours of what was done to the kidnapper who tried to harm Asia all those years ago had scared them into never getting close to her. The fear of being left as a rotting corpse and serving as flower manure terrified them greatly to the point that they never dared to try and harm her.


    Although Asia never knew this, the reason why they treated her with so much respect was because Vasco had pulled all of them to the side and showed them the remains of the last person who harmed her. His headless corpse was enough to shatter even the tiniest bit of malice in their hearts, leaving only fear. It was only Miriam, the elderly nun that recently begun to escort her that dared to openly show her hostility. But because of her kind nature, Asia did not report her which led to the nun getting braver.


    But she forgot all those thoughts when she felt her head pressed into that hard, yet comfortable abdomen. Unknowingly, she started crying silently, her tears staining Igor’s bare stomach. But Igor did not care about all of this. He simply held his precious little sister, the fondness, sadness, and anger in his gaze unable to be hidden.


    The blonde had completely forwent the idea of wearing a shirt, only leaving himself with blue pants, shinobi sandals, and his haori. Yet his casual look did very little to offset the dangerous killing intent bubbling beneath his skin.


    Turning his head, Igor glared at the nun out of the corner of his eye, his killing intent spilling onto her. The blonde felt so much hatred for the nun. He heard her words, felt her hostility, smelled her viciousness and now, he sensed the rapid beating of her heart that he so dearly wished to silence.


    Glaring at her, he only mouthed one word.


    [Stay.]


    His word was sharp and concise, his intentions clear. She was not to leave her spot until he said otherwise. And knowing she would not dare to leave, Igor turned to face Asia, his snarl replaced by a kind smile.


    He continued to rub Asia’s head, his urge to murder being suppressed by the love he felt for his precious little sister and the desire to shield her from such dark matters. It was unreasonable that with his meagre understanding of the context, he was willing to end an entire life on the spot.


    But his love for Asia was so overwhelming, his adoration so humungous that any notion of morality scattered. The fact that the elderly nun made her cry was more than enough reason to kill her on the spot, even if the rest of humanity would state otherwise. But that could wait for a while.


    Igor plucked up Asia’s chin with his finger, her teary gaze almost resulting in his barely restrained killing intent threatening to spiral out of control.


    Yet he surprisingly endured. The desire to shield his sister from witnessing the death of someone suppressed his urge to kill the nun. At the very least, Igor would make sure Asia would not bear witness. But right now, he had to comfort and reassure her.


    So giving her a brotherly smile, he pressed her head into his abdomen.


    “Sia. Big brother is here, and he will get rid of whoever made you cry.”


    .


    AN


    .


    And that’s that. Now, we have an issue. Well, I have an issue. Even with the use of Grammarly, I do tend to miss mistakes. For example, a word may be missing or the tense may be incorrect. I even spotted an error where I used “hear” and instead of “here”. I will do my best to proofread twice instead of once like before.


    However, I do hope you may understand that any mistakes aren’t due to my incompetence in English, but because I am too competent. When I read, my mind automatically corrects any errors.


    Moving on, if you’re interested in reading ahead, here’s the link:  <u>[email protected]/HolyGambler</u></a>


    Replace the ‘@’ and ‘0’ with ‘a’ and ‘o’ respectively. Or just search for ‘HolyGambler’.