Chapter 102 Clara ????

Shaman and Elysia had packed their belongings and were now waiting for Clara to arrive.

They planned to clear the dungeon first before Shaman used [blessing of the fox] to clear Clara of Himeko's influence, since they had no idea what kind of trauma or damage Himeko had done which could possibly make Clara incapable of fighting.

While waiting, Elysia pulled out her bow as she had yet to try it out and was itching to put it to use.

The bow followed the same theme as the spear with golden wings at each end of the bow with the limbs of the bow being decorated with a bit of gold. The top wing also had the similar insignia underneath it representing the Ado family.

Although it was a little distasteful in how it would be a constant reminder of their troubles in Ebonscale, Elysia was able to look past it since it will also be a reminder of the time spent with their instructors.

The string also had a slight red glow to it, which contrasted well with the black bow and Elysia found it pleasing to look at.

Elysia played around with the bow pretending to shoot arrows and ran around the room like she was fighting a monster.

Shaman was sitting on the bed watching Elysia jump around the room with Wolfy resting his head on her lap.

However while Elysia was jumping around, Clara had abruptly opened the door making a grand entrance.

"HELLOO, I hope you are not doing anything spicy!!" Clara walked in with her usual black dress that was embroidered with purple gems.

But when Clara walked in she had closed her eyes just in case they were having some private time. Although she could have knocked, she wanted to surprise them and since she wasn't being yelled at, she opened her eyes, only to see Elysia flying in her direction.

Elysia had not realized Clara had entered the room and ended up crashing right into her.

Clara tried to dodge but was unable to react in time, causing both Elysia and her to fly out of the room crashing into the wall.

A crash could be heard just outside the room and a little bit of dust flew back inside. Shaman winced a little as she could imagine that would have had to hurt, especially for Clara.

Elysia came out fine as her fall was cushioned by Clara, so she got back up perfectly fine. However Clara on the other hand was in pain and felt dizzy from hitting her head relatively hard on the wall.

Elysia quickly headed over to check if Clara was okay and thankfully she had no injuries, but Elysia could clearly see she was in a daze.

Shaman had gotten up as well to check if Clara was okay and used inspect on Clara to see if there were any problems.

[Clara ????]

[Race: human/?????]

[HP: 3975/4000]

Shaman was shocked to see the question marks as it had raised so many questions about Clara's past but before she could say anything Rea interjected.

'Shaman, before you ask, I do not know why Clara is like this and my only guess is that she has yet to find out what she truly is. It would be best to not say anything yet.' Rea spoke in a serious tone which was rare as there was always this aloof nature to her.

Shaman was a little suspicious of Rea as she should technically know everything about the world but for her to suddenly say she does not know made Shaman a bit cautious of what Clara could be.

'You know I can tell what you are feeling and thinking, right? Trust me, I am telling the truth when I say I don't know and your assumption about me being all knowing is far from the truth, I was just trying to give you advice!' Rea sounded annoyed as she could clearly feel Shaman's doubts.

Shaman felt a little embarrassed as she kept forgetting it was almost impossible to hide things from Rea with the only exception being when Rea wasn't paying attention.

'Hmph' Rea pouted and went back to being silent.

Shaman sighed as she had no real concrete way to ascertain Rea's claims and gave up on thinking about it.

While Shaman was talking with Rea, Clara was beginning to recover from her dizziness. As if having a moment of clarity, she froze while staring straight ahead without moving a muscle.

Elysia started to panic a little as she was unsure what to do and wondered if it was her fault that Clara had become like this.

Clara continued to stare blankly till tears began slowly falling down her face. This confused Elysia even more and caused her to start freaking out.

"Clara? Are you okay? What's wrong?" Elysia tried to snap Clara out of it but she had no clue on what to do.

Shaman had finally stopped talking to Rea and was confused by the strange turn of events that was happening right in front of her.

"What did you do Elysia?" Shaman wanted to figure out what happened and even without asking she could see that Elysia had no idea what's going on.

"I don't know, she seemed to be coming back to her senses but then she suddenly became like this." Elysia turned to Shaman hoping she could do something, however it was then that Clara started to speak.

"Please, don't kill them." Clara had only whispered those words but Shaman and Elysia could clearly hear her.

Shaman had realized something and she quickly grabbed a hold of Clara, causing a system notification to pop up.

[Person is aware of influence. Do you wish to remove it]

[Yes/no]

Shaman's eyes widened and she motioned to Elysia to come look at what she was seeing. Elysia quickly came to Shaman's side and looked at the same message, sharing the same reaction.

The same thought went through both their heads and any good feelings they had towards Himeko had vanished.

"Don't tell me Himeko murdered Clara's family and manipulated her memories just like she did with Stein." Elysia had given voice to their thoughts as she shared a bit of her disbelief.

"We can't be sure it was Himeko but I'm betting that something more than just a fire happened and Himeko was not the hero of that story." Shaman recalled back to what Clara told them about her past and believed that Himeko may have manipulated her memories.

"Is it a good idea to get rid of the influence? I have a feeling it is not going to go down well." Elysia started to imagine what could happen if all of Clara's memories rushed back to her and it did not look pretty.

"I'm not sure if it is a good idea Elysia but the longer we leave it the worse it's going to get. We should 100% clear the dungeon first, then we let Clara free and continue from there." Shaman did not want to leave Clara alone and felt a sort of responsibility for her.

"Okay, I understand but we should keep quiet about it."

"Yes." Shaman agreed with what Elysia said as it would do them no good to bring it up before they help Clara.

Clara had suddenly woke up from her dazed state looking around confused and could see the stressed faces of the girls.

"Huh? What happened, are you two okay?" She scratched her head and got up from the floor.

"Fuck, why is my back so sore." Clara stretched out her back causing it to make cracking sounds.

"Aha, well that's because I was jumping around the room pretending to fight and as you entered the room I sort of accidentally crashed into you causing us to crash into the wall." Elysia let out an awkward laugh as she explained what happened to Clara.

"Oh, so that's what happened, anyway I should be fine and since it looks like you are ready why don't we get going." Clara brushed off what happened and instantly got back to what she originally came for.

Shaman was a little thrown off with the sudden change of mood, as they just learnt some possibly terrifying news.

'Honestly this may be the thing I need, so much has happened in such a short amount of time and Clara's spontaneous attitude can hopefully relieve that.' Shaman let out a sigh as it was odd to see Clara back to normal so quickly

"Yes, we should, we were thinking of actually going to the dungeon so if it is okay with you, do you want to come with us?" Elysia kept the conversation going as she could see Shaman still deep in thought.

Clara had pondered for a moment and after a short moment her eyes had lit up with excitement.

"YES!! Since I have pretty much the whole day off I don't need to worry about leaving early." Clara was excited as she wanted to show off to the girls since she had not been able to join them before.

"Great well let's start heading over, Wolfy we are going now!" Shaman wanted to leave as soon as possible so she quickly called Wolfy over.

"YAY!" Clara cheered and quickly wiped her face.

'That's odd, why was I crying?'