“This sure got quiet rather quickly…”

  What a damn brilliant remark from yours truly! I mean, what was I expecting to happen? Especially after what I did to my enemy? Did I get used to the sounds of battle and now this silence is “bothering” me? The shouts and cries from Cerberus somehow gave me comfort as I fought him? My own “aahh!” that I definitely did not need to do as I didn’t use that much strength relative to what I have but somehow, by doing so it makes me feel that I was doing something cool? Actually, why do we scream and shout when we are battling strong foes? Am I trying to turn my hair yellow while gaining 50 times my strength because of it? Where the hell have I heard this now?

  “Uhm, Hero?”

  Ups ?>w
  “Cough! So, this is it! I won!”

  Nice one you idiot! Thank god I can’t see her face as otherwise I would be currently trying to find a corner to hide. Shame they all seem to have either blown to pieces or just destroyed by a stray projectile… I don’t think I can find a corner thanks to that simple but extremely inconvenient fact. Well, maybe next time either don’t be this much of an embarrassment or don’t destroy the corners of the room you are in. Anyway, calm down and do this properly. While she didn’t directly participate in the battle, she still was near us, feeling the shockwaves and of course, being consumed by the sheer high amount of magic energy that I and Cerberus both used. Maybe I’m overthinking it since she’s an orb and probably didn’t feel a single thing but, I still have to make sure she’s ok.

  “Are you alright? This got a little too intense, I hope you’re feeling fine.”

  “Yes, I’m fine… but, what about you? You’ve used so much magic and-and!

  …

  You got hit by a magic spell because of me.”

  My eyes are wide open, forced at such should be the better term as I legit never expected for her to say something like this, to reach that type of conclusion. Her voice was fine at first and I even seemed to feel a little shyness coming from her as she was asking about my well-being however, the moment she said that later part… Well, I feel like I was hit directly by a massive boulder as my heart is smashed by the realization of what I might have done to her. Is she really blaming herself for my own incompetence? Somehow, she thinks it’s her fault because I made a mistake? What happened to me is exactly why you always keep your guard up until you make sure your enemy is dead. I got way to confidence when I used Phoenix Rebirth and that over confidence made me make a mistake, putting myself in front of her without either thinking about the possibilities that could occur as I indirectly put her in line of sight nor did I make sure that he was actually dead after getting hit by one hell of an attack and of course, allowing that set of events to happen. If I hadn't gotten near her I would’ve been able to dodge the surprise attack without thinking too much about it. Not only that, if I was paying proper attention, I would’ve noticed his magic usage, making that surprise attack not so surprising. Since I was in front of her and I didn’t expect said attack, I had to take the hit however… I never actually got hit.

  “Look, it’s not your fault and don’t think like that.”

  Wait a second, why do I sound mad?

  “I’m the one that should be feeling bad, not you.”

  Why is my voice getting harsher by the second?

  “Bu-But! If I was paying attention, I would’ve at least gained some distance from you… And then you wouldn’t have-”

  “Enough!”

  Why is my voice so loud? So aggressive? Why do I look so disappointed? Why are my blue eyes this serious looking? Yet, why do I feel like my heart is being crushed and shattered into millions of pieces each time that I hear her blaming herself? Why do I feel so frustrated from hearing this fairy blaming herself for my own mistakes?

  “I’m the one that is supposed to protect you and thanks to my overconfidence and lack of judgement of my surroundings, I was this close to putting you in danger. How can you blame yourself for my own incompetence?”

  “I-You-But…”

  Step! Pat!

  Once again, I’ve moved unconsciously, not aware of my actions and the consequences of them. I slowly got closer to her as she struggles to convert her thoughts into a coherent sentence, as she struggles to form said sentences and as the words seem to not want to come out of her mouth. She was trying her best to transform her feelings into a coherent sentence but only the vowel “I” and the word “You” followed by another word “But” were the only ones that were able to leave her mouth as everything else got scattered right at the beginning. However, just as she was doing so, even though I cannot see her face, for some inexplicable reason I was able to notice that her gaze switched to her own feet, or maybe I’m imagining it, a mere desire from I? Am I projecting the image that I have of her into reality? I don’t know why I’m doing this but thanks to it, I was able to gently put my hand on top of the orb, mistaking it by her own head. Ah, it wasn’t a mistake but of course my Hero instincts were telling me to do so. This caught her off guard as I was able to hear a soft and quiet “eh?” coming from her the moment that I touched the orb. I really can’t have her blame herself for what I did, it’s not fair for her and I don’t want it either. I said that it was my Hero instincts that made me act in this way but I think it was the sheer need to calm her down that made me do this. If I’m able to calm her down then, she will be able to listen to me but she will also see that I’m fine.

  “You had no fault on what happened but, look at me, do you see anything? Any injuries? Even a small scratch on my face?”

  “Wh-What do you mean by that?”

  Her voice is for the weak side, trembling a little bit but I can hear her genuine confusion to what I mean. I will be explaining shortly but the short version is that, I surrounded myself with a barrier moments before getting “hit”. The moment that I understood the consequences to what I have done I quickly created a barrier, one that has the same properties as the one that was protecting her. I’m unscaled, no damage at all was done to me even though that magic ray was powerful. But Cerberus simply did not have enough strength to break through it actually, it didn’t even scratch it. Since the explosion was so violent and the black smoke that arose from it easily covered me and even my immediate surroundings, I can understand why she would feel desperate after seeing such a horrifying episode, allowing the panic and fear to cloud her judgement because of it. Though I doubt that was the only thing that happened to her, I can only imagine what her mind thought when this happened, the horrifying thoughts that crossed her mind, she maybe even vividly imagined them. All of this made it worse as I believe she lost any ability to think rationally but with a simple usage of magic sense, she would quickly sense what I did. Not only that, she would reach the conclusion that I was perfectly fine since I was preparing quite the spell. If she used Magical Eyes then, she would literally see everything that I was doing. Though, I sure was a little annoyed at that time as I was about to end his miserable life but decided to use that spell instead, all in hopes that I could make him suffer for what he tried to do, a slow death was my goal. I might have or not been projecting my own mistake onto him, making him seem that he was at fault for what happened and not me, but! That’s not here or there, enough of my rumbling! I need to calm her rapid heart, to calm her racing mind and of course, to stop her negative thoughts from consuming her soul with guilt.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “What I’m trying to say is that I protected myself. Remember the barrier that was surrounding you? I did the same thing to myself. Seriously, I’m fine, just… try to not blame yourself for my mistakes, ok?”

  “…”

  And she went quiet… Now what? Should I keep patting the orb? Maybe I’m too aggressive with it? Should I be gentler? But, how do I do that!? What am I supposed to do!? It has been 10 whole seconds and not a single word has come out from her mouth! Please say something! Argh! I’m about to lose it-

  “Hmm, Hmm…”

  And she has said something! Shame it wasn’t a single word! God dammit! What am I supposed to do with this? I think she agreed with me but, did she? Saying “hmm, hmm” on this occasion does not inspire me with much confidence that she’s in agreement to what I said after all, I have no clue if she even nods her head as well, you know, I can’t see her! And to make it worse is the damn silence that follows this scene because as anyone could expect, what are we supposed to follow this with? Argh, why am I this awkward?

  “Uhm, now what?”

  “I-Huh-I mean, yes?”

  What!? What am I even trying to say?

  “Ahem! There is something that I want to check out, to explore. You see that coffin over there?”

  I should just become the whole circus as I’m currently more than a clown! Anyway, from this “changing subjects because I’m an idiot” type of scenario, I was able to draw her attention to what I was pointing at. I think… While I might be an idiot, there is a reason for why I want to explore that coffin that I conveniently only remembered now. I never mentioned it before, all because we were attacked the moment we stepped inside this room but Cerberus was resting near that coffin, one that is at the furthest wall from the entrance. One that seems to be quite different from the rest of the walls, the architecture and design of it is what I mean. The other walls all have a simple design to it, nothing else that I can add to it however, the wall where the coffin is next to the same cannot be said about it. There seems to be a rather large statue of man right in the wall. I would say that he seems to be close to my age but that’s only a guess as part of his face is destroyed for some reason. I doubt that it was us who did that when we were fighting to the death as Cerberus was actually avoiding this area, giving me another reason to explore it. Next to the statue there are a few pillars, all stuck to the wall itself but they seem to be symmetrically constructed, having the statue as the middle point. In between the pillars the wall seems to have a few drawings on them but I’m too far to make out what they look like, let alone what they might represent.

  “I didn’t know that it was a coffin, but yes, I can see it.”

  “Let’s get moving then, Cerberus seemed to have been avoiding that area so I think there might be something useful there.”

  Another thing that I should add is that defeating Cerberus has not rewarded us with anything at all, unless… Whatever he might have dropped when defeated, I might have burnt into nothing. I really hope that was not the case as otherwise I have goofed up, and hard at that. Welp, time to pray to the goddess of luck, maybe she will feel pity on me and we will find whatever we are looking for in that area. I can only hope though… Moving on. The walk there takes a little longer than what I was expecting, this place really is that big and while the majority has been destroyed, I cannot say that the size has been reduced at all because of it. Though I did notice something that is worrying me rather quickly, something that has nothing to do with the room being destroyed, whatever if we might find what we are looking for in that area or anything of that sort. No, it’s something much simpler but with severe consequences if I decide to ignore it.

  “Huff... Huff...”

  She’s starting to breathe heavily and thanks to the Spirit Magic Stone, I can also feel her magic energy on the low side. For some reason I have the feeling that she will just keep on going forward, either until she collapses or just straight out dies from having completely exhausted her magic energy. Tsk, we have to be quicky or otherwise I will blame myself for the entirety of my life for neglecting the well-being of this kind soul. Although I did offer her my help as I can give her a little bit of magic energy by using the stone as a means of transmission however, as anyone at this moment can guess, she rejected. Telling me that I shouldn’t waste my magic energy on her. Enough of this, time is still going by as I yap.

  “Now this is rather interesting...”

  Quick description of what I’m seeing. Massive wall, divided in four equal parts, having the statue right in the middle, one that seems to be made of copper of all things. They are divided by pillars with the exception of the middle of course however, as I said before, on each division quite the grand drawings are well drawn on them. Then we have the coffin, slightly raised by a set of stairs, nothing drastic but the coffin is higher than my height, easily at 2 meters. Though, after walking up the set of stairs, we quickly notice that the coffin it’s open, the lid is nowhere to be seen but the inside of it is rather... royal like. It’s lined with a type of high-end fabric, one that is coloured with a strong red colour, smooth to the touch but also extremely sturdy somehow. Maybe since it has been left out to the elements, the fabric got hard because of them? Either way, right in the middle of it there is what we were looking for, a small stone filled with magic, quite similar to the one at the device. And yes, I’m beyond happy right now as with this, I haven’t screwed up massively.

  “These drawings… What do they mean?”

  “To be honest, I have no clue. There is a child being born, then a slightly older child is alone with a dog… The following one has a person in a hoodie with a normal sized dog by its side and is that a woman in front of him? The last one is just death it seems, with the dog standing next to a dead man.”

  Now that I’ve spoken out loud, these drawings somehow feel familiar even though this is the first time I have seen them. Maybe rather than seeing them, I’ve heard about them? The colours on the drawings are quite vivid, for example the last drawing there are few patches of blood drawn on them and they have a strong shade of red to them. They are not blurry at all, whoever did this used precise and clean pencils? Whatever they used to draw this, I legit can see the details on the face of the child for example, even from this distance, it might not be much but easily close to 4 or so meters. I mean, yeah, the wall is massive but the drawings are roughly half the size of the statue, one that does not even reach the middle of the height of the wall for example.

  Though just as I was wasting my time trying to figure out why these drawings feel familiar, what she says next leaves me with my mouth wide open.

  “The story… They are all connected, aren’t they?”

  I’m unable to answer her for a few moments because my mind went berserk with all of the possibilities, the probable answers to this and of course, what have we done. More so I rather than us however, what she says makes sense and it really might be the truth. The first book was The Forbidden Birth, looking at the first drawing you can easily make the connection as it’s representing the supposed forbidden birth of that child. You see a woman gently caressing her child but, in the background, you can just about see the pitchforks, burning with rage and fire as they come closer to the house they are in. The second book was The Hatted Child, while on the second drawing there is nothing saying that he is hatted as the only subjects in there are him and the dog but, if you think for a few moments maybe that is the very reason as who wants to be near someone that is hated by everyone and most probably by yourself too? The child is close to starvation as you can literally see the bones underneath the skin, wearing torn clothes, walking barefoot towards what seems to be a piece of meat. Next to the child there is a small dog, one with black fur but also in the same state as the child, famine and close to starvation. Moving on to the third one, The Forgotten Boy, this one at first, I didn’t see any connection as there is a woman interacting with a boy? He’s covering himself with a hoodie and wearing oversized clothes but once again by thinking for a few moments you can make out the connection to the story. He might be the hated child but if he was forgotten by the world then, anyone could expect that someone would eventually interact with him as they would have no clue who he was or is supposed to be. Lastly, we have the disaster, the massacre and the one that will haunt me in my dreams. As I doubt, I will forget the vivid images of the story any time soon or in other words, The Consequences. For what I remember the story ended in a rather gruesome but tragic way as the “boy” lost someone dear to him, more so forced to “lose” someone dear to him while at the same time being remembered as to why he’s the hated child. A massacre happened afterwards as he released the Shadows to bring justice but also a bloodbath to those that took away the person dear to however, at the end of the atrocity he died, leaving his long-life companion all alone...

  “The dog in the drawings and the Cerberus you just fought… They are the same, right?”