Ezra leaned against the cavern wall, a torch by the side illuminating the area. Opposite to him, Sen was tied up against a cavern wall, unconscious. Ezra had been waiting for what felt like hours, but Sen still hadn’t woken up.
Finally, Sen let out a grunt. “What…? Where am I?”
“Evening.”
Sen’s eyes shot toward Ezra. He paled and tried to stand up, only to fall due to the ropes around his legs.
“W-what the hell is this?” Sen said.
Ezra stuffed his hands into his pockets.
“I think you know exactly what this is,” he said. “I’ll dump you out into the cold and leave you there if you don’t do what I say.”
Sen breathed in quickly. “Why are you doing this!?”
“Why aren’t you manning up and doing your job?” he said. “The Kingdom of Cortia is in danger, and you’re doing jack-shit. What’s up with that?”
“Are you kidding me!?” Sen flopped around on the ground. “I don’t owe this kingdom anything! What kind of sadistic psychopath are you?”
“The kind who doesn’t get hurt when you call me bad names.”
“I’ll report you to the guild!” he said. “I’ll make sure that you’re banned from our services, kicked out of the guild, and arrested by the kingdom!”
“Uh-huh. Because they’ll believe the guild manager of some backwater town over a B-rank adventurer.”
Panic flew into Sen’s eyes. “I…”
Ezra grabbed Sen’s collar. “We’re doing this one of two ways. Either you cooperate and agree to use [Dispel] against the third boss monster, or I leave you here.”
Sen swallowed. “You wouldn’t.”
“I would. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
Sen looked at the ground.
“Damn you,” he said.
“Is that a yes?”
The tension drained out of Sen.
“Fine, you sick bastard. I’ll help you. But after that, I want nothing to do with you.”
“Works for me.”
Ezra unwrapped the ropes. Sen stood to his feet and shot a glare at Ezra.
“If you’re thinking of running away during the battle,” Ezra said. “You should know that I’ll come to hunt you down afterward if I survive.”
Sen’s fingers twitched. He ground his teeth together.
“Damn it man, I get it! I’ll help you with your stupid mission!” Sen said.
Ezra nodded. “Good.”
He walked off. Sen followed at a distance, which was just fine with Ezra. They soon arrived back at the outskirts of town.
“Oh, One-Eye!” Charles said. “We were looking for you.”
Sen shifted his feet. Charles glanced over at him.
“What were you guys up to?” Charles said.
“I was getting Sen to join us for the next boss monster encounter,” Ezra said.
Charles tilted his head. “Really? No offense, but I doubt he’ll be able to contribute much.”
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“You’d be surprised. He has level 100 [Dispel].”
Charles glanced back and forth between the two of them.
“Is that true?” Charles said.
Sen nodded stiffly.
“Yeah, it’s true.” A gleam flashed across his expression. “But One-Eye—“
Ezra turned his head and stared at Sen.
Sen paused and looked at the ground. “…we were just talking.”
Charles nodded. “Well, that’s good. Nice thinking, One-Eye. It’s good that you’re here, too, because I wanted to review the schedule before we depart.”
Ezra shrugged. “Sure.”
Sen stepped to the side.
Ezra and Charles walked off toward the center of town.
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Charles went over his plans. He explained that he’d wanted to be on the move by now, but that plan kind of went out the window due to the demon attack. The compromise he came to was to leave behind anyone who couldn’t keep up with training and then move toward the third boss. Charles felt that their odds were good, especially with Sen on their side. Ezra shrugged and agreed.
The whole time, Charles’s eyes kept glancing at Ezra’s hands, as if he half-expected something to be there. Of course, Ezra kept his cool and tried to avoid revealing anything. Charles didn’t ask any direct questions, so there weren’t any major issues.
With that, they agreed to set out at first light tomorrow. Ezra was relieved to finally be back on the road. He wanted this whole mess over with. He wanted Filamenta back to normal, and he wanted to be out of this damn forest.
Old Joe’s had been destroyed, but Charles had arranged a room at someone else’s place—a relative of Old Joe’s… who was also hosting Old Joe’s. Go figure. On his way in, he’d said hi to the man and his daughter before heading into his room.
He spent the evening doing his personal training. He felt that he was almost back up to full strength, which was exciting.
[Titan’s Fists] - Lv. 10 > 13
[Cortian Ironflow] - Lv. 13 > 15
[Basic Grappling] - Lv. 27 > 33
[Basic Striking] - Lv. 16 > 20
He was about to move to work on his magic skills when he heard something outside his window. A blast of energy, followed by a vacuum of sound.
Ezra opened up the window and peeked outside. A figure was darkness, illuminating the air with purple blasts of magic. Ezra jumped out of the window and wandered over to see what was happening.
When he saw who it was, he stopped and turned around.
“Hey,” a voice said.
Ezra stopped in place.
“I think it’s about time we have a conversation, Ezra.”
----------------------------------------
Ezra stared at Yuki. In the background, the noise of the surrounding world faded away.
“What gave me away?” he said.
“You gave yourself away. You didn’t bother to act any differently than you did in the past, you idiot.”
Her eyes were weary as she stared at him. He turned his head away.
“Well, guess I should be more careful,” he said.
Ezra’s heart slammed in his chest. Was she going to go to Charles with this information?
“What are we going to do now?” he said.
“I was hoping we could chat or something, but I’d guess that you’re not interested in doing anything like that, are you?” she said.
Ezra sighed. “I think I should go.”
“Why? Busy? Maybe you need to go meet up with that guildmaster. Prise, was it?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? It’s none of my business? And I guess that’s why you didn’t even bother to say hi? You couldn’t have even come around and tell me that you were alive?”
Ezra waved her off. “So what if I’m alive? Why would you care?”
She scoffed.
“I honestly can’t believe you. You know, I was looking forward to finding you. I hoped that you were okay.”
Ezra shut his eyes. “I never asked for your care or concern.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t ask for it either. I just do. The least you could do is fake it in return.”
“Pass.”
“God, I don’t know why I ever liked you.”
Why would she say that? “Liked me?”
She stopped. Her expression twisted into shock, and then she laughed. She held her chest and doubled over.
“You seriously didn’t figure it out?” she said. “You’ve saved an entire city, arguably a whole country, and it never clicked?”
Ezra took a step back. “You aren’t saying that you…”
“That I loved you?” she said. “I wouldn’t go that far. But I had a crush on you. Why do you think I was always checking in on you, making sure that you were okay?”
“…honestly, I thought it was pity,” he said.
“Wow.”
The two stood there in silence for several seconds.
“Why?” he said.
Yuki shrugged. “I don’t know. You just seemed so odd compared to everyone else. I found myself watching you—“
“Stalking.”
“No. Watching. And I guess I just…”
Ezra looked away and rubbed the back of his head.
“What now?” Ezra said. “I doubt you still have those feelings for me.”
Yuki rolled her eyes.
“What sensitivity.” She shook her head. “Obviously not. I’ll keep your little secret, I guess. No one would believe me anyway. Whatever disguise you’ve got going on is so good that no one can tell that it’s you.”
“At least one thing’s working out for me.” Ezra glanced back. “Well, if that’s all…”
“I just poured out my heart to you and you just want to turn around and walk away,” she said. “Don’t talk to me again, please. Don’t even look in my direction. I want nothing to do with you.”
“You seem mad.”
“Of course I am!” her fists folded up by her side. “Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is!? I’m completely humiliated, and you’re not doing anything. You don’t care about me one bit, do you!?”
For a moment, he paused and considered his actions. Then he remembered Filamenta’s current state.
He didn’t have time for this.
“I don’t,” he said.
He walked away.