Regressor's Harem Of Vengeance-Chapter 67. Sister Clara [2].

"I am honored by the invitation, Sister Clara, but I have obligations here and I can’t abandon them."

Clara’s expression shifted instantly.

There was a brief look of disappointment but it recalibrated right after as she asked softly. "What obligations?"

"My village just survived a monster tide and right now my family needs me. Also, the rebuilding of my village....."

"Will continue whether you’re here or not." Clara interrupted gently. "The village has survived years of monster tides without you and though everyone will be grateful for what you’ve done, I see no reason why you need to stay here and rebuild with the rest of them."

Ray didn’t respond to that.

He knew she was right and he knew the village wasn’t the one holding him back from leaving.

However, Ray had no desire to leave anytime soon because the last thing he would want was to be near any of his previous party members right now.

His current level and overall strength was still D-rank, indicating how weak he was in comparison to all the other members in the elite warrior’s party.

Despite it being five years before the future, Ray was certain that the weakest member in the team right now was a B-rank awakened fighter, so one could imagine just how high his level would be.

Joining the elite warrior’s party now would definitely put him and Mira in a dangerous situation that he won’t be able to get out of.

So to avoid doing something he would regret for the rest of his life, Ray chose to avoid the warrior’s party altogether.

Clara remained silent as she studied him for a moment, then she looked at Mira. "What about you? Are you staying behind as well?" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Mira glanced at Ray briefly before looking back at Clara. "I go where Ray goes."

Mira’s response was enough for Clara to notice the spark these two young lovers had.

Her eyes moved between them and she sighed softly, knowing they were both intent on staying with their families for a while. "Very well." Clara muttered with a sigh.

"How long would you need to settle your obligations?" Clara asked, glancing over at Ray.

"Three months."

"Three what.....?" Clara’s eyebrows rose. "Three months is quite long."

"My village nearly got destroyed and my people nearly died. No one from the capital or neighboring villages came to help us at our time of need but we managed to survive on our own. So, three months to ensure my family is settled and the village is stable doesn’t sound unreasonable."

Clara remained silent as she looked at him.

Her gentle eyes turned thoughtful as she assessed Ray in a new way.

Despite being a commoner, Clara could see how noble and caring he was about the people of Thornsville.

This was precisely the kind of qualities one would expect in a future member of the elite warrior’s party. In other words, he and Mira would be perfect team members for Lord Aldric.

Of course, everything Clara thought about him was bullshit because Ray was anything but the image Clara had of him, but the beautiful priestess didn’t know this, and there was no way she could see the seething hatred Ray had for all the elite warrior party members.

To Clara, she truly believed that despite Ray and Mira having hundreds of other talented awakeners to compete with, there was no doubt the elite warrior party wouldn’t take note of how talented these two specifically were, based on how they had leveled up so much in such a short span of time.

And as for Clara, the priestess couldn’t help but feel ecstatic about the idea of being the one who introduced these two talented people to the elite party.

All other experienced and newbie priestesses, like her, had stepped away from coming to this village because everyone believed that the awakeners of a small village like Thornsville wouldn’t be anything worthy of their efforts.

But they were wrong and Clara was so happy about it, because right now, she had the chance to bring over two very extraordinary awakeners to the capital, meaning that she would have a really high bragging rights in comparison to the rest of the other priestesses, and that could easily raise her ranks if she continued to guide and support them during their stay in the capital.

It would be the perfect win-win situation.

In his first life, Ray didn’t have such luxury of being treated kindly and having a huge support of a priestess at his side because back then, Ray was still at the lowest possible level for an Awakener.

His stats were mediocre and it was expected of him to be mediocre since he was a commoner as well.

In the end, he joined in with the rest of the hundred Awakeners undergoing a trial for selection, but despite being the weakest out of the bunch, the elite warrior party saw something in him and chose him instead of his fellow contenders.

This caused jealousy and hatred to ooze out of the rest of the contenders who were all born from nobility.

They hated his guts and tried to force Ray to quit by doing many unspeakable things to him behind the elite party’s back, but Ray never gave up and neither did he wished to return back home because he knew his family believed in him and he wanted to believe in himself as well.

He also thought the elite warrior’s party saw the potential in him, so he didn’t want to let them down.

At the time, Ray thought they really believed in him and so, he vowed to work really hard to impress them because he didn’t want them to regret the decision they made.

However, what he didn’t know at the time was that, the elite party didn’t see anything significant in him.

All they saw was an errand boy they could use however they pleased but Ray would never allow himself to live that kind of life a second time.

Clara looked at Elaine, hoping the village elder would be kind enough to step in to convince Ray but Elaine simply shrugged and smiled back at the young priestess.

Seeing this, Clara sighed softly and nodded reluctantly. "Very well. I’ll let you stay here for three months but I’ll send word before I return and I hope you won’t be reluctant to join me when the time comes."