15 Days till Odysseus, Dhijan Hero Nation, Royal Castle
Standing in front of the door leading to the castle’s medic ward were three groups of people. A group of three adventurers, two members of the Kazoku and the paladins Seiko Sotomura and Jasmine. Everyone had tense expressions on their faces as they waited for someone to walk out of the door.
There was an obvious animosity radiating from the party of adventurers towards the other groups, but they were more focused on the door. They had been waiting in front of it for 3 days straight with an anxiety that could kill an elephant.
The door leading to the room opened up and from it emerged two women. One with black and white hair, the other with blonde hair. The paladins Charlotte and Jeanne D’Arc respectively.
Everyone looked at their faces for any sign of hope, but Jeanne looked down whereas Charlotte retained her usual bored, expressionless face.
“How bad is it?”
They were all too shocked by the women’s reactions that they were unable to muster a single word. The one to speak was the cold Seiko. The Kazoku and adventurers’ looks at him with a mix of surprise, anger and disbelief.
“From the looks of things, the boy will never be able to use his arm in the same way ever again.”
Jeanne spoke. The adventurers’ eyes widened in shock. There was no way their Marcus would never be able to use his arm again. Without it, he couldn’t accomplish his dream. All their adventures and journeys together would have been for naught. This was the worst possible situation ever!
“And the girl? My sister, Mika! How is she?”
The usually calm twin, aggressively asked.
“The girl… sh-she’ll never…”
Jeanne paused, unable to finish the sentence. Nika grabbed her by the collar and raged.
“She’ll never what? She’s fine, right?”
The blonde couldn’t produce an answer. No matter how she put it, Mika was going to be very upset. Beast men or demi-humans as they were generally termed were easily angered people. News like that could easily set this one off, so Jeanne found herself unable to speak.
Charlotte noticed this and as someone who didn’t like her time being wasted, she spoke up.
“She’ll never walk again. Her spine was completely shuttered by the magic bullet. Go make your pea-”
While speaking, Nika growled and swiped at the paladin. The first people to react were the Kazoku, Akari of the Saito Clan and Daisuke of the Minamoto Clan. Akari’s blade was against Charlotte’s neck as Daisuke had completely restrained Nika.
Charlotte dropped her finger that was pointed at Nika then looked at the adventurers.
“You couldn’t even recognise that I was going to kill your friend, let alone save her. Yet you went out to travel the world? You thought you would just go out and have a blast, no worries in the world because you are the world’s chosen heroes?”
“Charlotte!”
Jeanne tried to make her pause, but Charlotte’s wrath knew no bounds.
“Did you think adventuring was as easy as simply going out and having fun with your friends? Kill a few normal and advanced beasts and you’re suddenly on top of the world? Did you not once consider the number of people who risk their lives every single day doing what you assumed was casual fun? Weak people should stick to their farms and kitchens rather than being burdens to the truly strong.”
The adventurers were completely silent. Nika was still rampaging about in Daisuke’s arms, but even she heard what Charlotte said. None could refute the cold woman’s words that cut through them like a hot knife through butter.
She walked past them and looked at Seiko from the corner of her eye. The sound of her tongue clicking could be heard by everyone as she stopped in front of him.
“And you. We’re supposed to be saving idiots like them, yet you go out of your way to paralyse not one, but two of them for life. You’ve failed Veronica’s teachings. What a waste of time and resources you are.”
“Hey! That’s too mean!”
The one to shout out was Jasmine who wasn’t too pleased with how Charlotte was talking. Both their eyes met. Cold against fiery.
“New blood. Always excited for no effing reason. Just cause you’re strong and you’ve been lucky so far, don’t think you’re invincible. You’re lucky Seiko is immortal or your eyes wouldn’t be nearly as bright as they are now.”
“Charlotte. I order you to be silent!”
Jeanne yelled at the top of her voice, a very pissed off frown present on her face. Charlotte shrugged and walked away, leaving everyone silent.
“Let’s go.”
Seiko spoke to Jasmine and walked in the same direction as Charlotte.
“Eh? But I thought y-”
“Nothing. I just came to confirm if he was alive, which he is. That’s as good as it gets for him.”
“Y-You bastard! Wait right there!”
Daryl yelled and stomped towards Seiko. The young paladin stopped himself and turned around to face the angry man. Daryl himself was an overbearing figure, but in comparison to Seiko, he was tiny. Both stared into each other, Seiko waiting for Daryl to speak up.
“What is it?”
Daryl’s clenched fists shook mightily as tears gathered up in his eyes.
“You are going to apologise to Marcus and Mika! Now!”
“I will do no such thing. I strictly told them not t-”
Before Seiko could finish, Daryl’s fist connected with his mouth. The power behind it was nothing to Seiko as he did not even budge an inch.
“What th-”
“I’d advice you don’t do that again. A normal human could break some bones from punching me.”
With that being said, Seiko turned around to leave. Jasmine looked between Seiko and the others before rushing after her partner. Daryl could only look at their backs as they left with little to no care for the sort of damage they’d just done.
He couldn’t help but feel an insatiable rage. Daryl, who was raised amongst a certain group of dwarves had always been told to let out his feelings through rage, but he never did. He was always the calm and thoughtful now. Mature to the very end. But, when he thought back on the past two years and all the journeys he’s had with the party, the idea of it all being brought to an end just like this felt very wrong to him. It made him feel an emotion he thought he’d never feel.
Marcus was immature, rash and sometimes annoying, but he was still Daryl’s dear friend. His dear friend whom he’d slept under the stars with. His dear friend whom he’d plunged into a dangerous dungeon with. His dear friend he had pledged his future to. And so, when that future was unrightfully stolen from him, all Daryl could do was get angry, because Charlotte’s words were right on the money.
They were weak. It was an issue that even their benefactor had brought up several times. And it was even worse knowing that they’d never reach the heights of paladins in their life time. Daryl was starting to feel hopeless.
While he stood there, Celica grabbed his arm. She started to observe his knuckle.
“You’re bleeding.”
She tried to wipe off the blood gently.
That punch he threw was too mighty.
“I apologise on the behalf of the Sotomura clan. One of their members has done something unforgivable to you people.”
Akari stepped forward and bowed. Daisuke followed behind with a now unconscious Nika in his arms.
“I will drop miss Nika in her room.”
With that, both of them left off.
Jeanne came towards Daryl and forcefully took his fist. She examined it, said a chant to heal the wound and heaved a heavy sigh.
“I know this sort of thing really hurts, but please do have faith in the Gods. They will provide a miracle for you.”
She bowed to them before walking off briskly.
Celica grabbed Daryl’s face in her arms and brought it closer to hers.
“Stop making such a face. Has Marcus ever lost hope?”
“No…”
“Why should we? Let’s go in there. I bet he’ll be grinning stupidly like he always does.”
Her voice shook, evidence that she didn’t believe in what she herself said. Daryl, noticing how hard she was trying to get him to stop being so down grabbed her hands from his face and smiled.
“Yeah. Our reckless hero leader wouldn’t be knocked down by such a thing.”
Once they calmed down somewhat, they looked at the door leading to the room.
“Shall we?”
Both walked into the room and there were two beds, side by side. In one of the beds, Mika slept peacefully, which put their hearts at ease.
On the other bed, Marcus was already awake and sitting up.
The young blonde looked dashingly out the window. When he noticed both of them were in the room, he looked at them with his usual bright, childish smile.
“Yo, guys!”
He shouted. Seeing his expression only hurt Daryl and Celica as they assumed it was Marcus’ way of coping with the news.
“Come over. I need to talk to you about something.”
His expression suddenly changed and there was a sad smile on his face. Both Daryl and Celica could guess what he was about to talk to them about. They looked at each other in the eye then took the necessary steps forward.
Daryl immediately knelt down next to Marcus’ bed and tears started streaming down his face.
“Marcus.”
His voice cracked.
“I’m sorry, Marcus. You usually look up to me for advice, yet I failed you.”
“Huh? The hell are you talking about?”
Marcus’ voice sounded annoyed and genuinely confused. A tone he was incapable of faking. Daryl looked up at the young man, snot running down his face.
“Your arm. It’s broken. And Mika’s legs… she’ll never be able to walk again.”
“Oh that? Not important. I have something else to tell you.”
“Eh?”
“Let’s go to the West.”
“Sundane?”
Celica asked.
“No, who the hell cares about Sundane. I’m talking about the West of Larm.”
<A/N: Uhh, now I wish I spent more time on these guys at the earlier stages of the story so you could actually care about this scene. Please give me your power stones, golden tickets, comments and reviews! Thank you and have a nice day!>
