“50, 50 years? How is this possible? You look exactly the same as before.”

“There are two reasons. Lord explained to me why I didn’t change physically. When a being is born in a world, its entity is linked to this world. Normally, nothing cross dimensions, so they are no repercussion. The thing is, when someone goes to another world, their ‘time’ is halted. Of course, they still need to eat and so on, but they will not age. It’s for this reason that I didn’t change so much. Of course, now that I came back I will start to age once again.”

“I feel like I understand...So why only 10 days passed in this world?”

“Because of an artifact that Lord developed. He named it the Time Cradle. With it, he can envelop worlds’ flow of time and slow down it. Of course, he can’t stop it as this is impossible. On my first day, he enveloped earth’s dimension. It’s for this reason that only 10 days passed for you.”

“Is that so...Protector of World. You must have done awesome things, right?” Sanya accepted Talia’s explications, even if it was quite extraordinary. She smiled at Talia. Now that she was back, she had the time to listen to her adventures. However, Talia’s expression darkened.

“It’s true that as a Protector I did a lot of things. I saved a kingdom from the hand of demons, I saved an entire planet from being destroyed and I even prevented an evil being from becoming a transcendent, which surely protected countless worlds.” Talia’s face was still dark, while Sanya started to have a strange feeling. Why is she talking about it like she did something bad?

“W-What is the problem? You did a lot of amazing things.” Talia smiled weakly in response. She fixed Sanya in the eyes.

“The problem is the process to accomplish it. When I saved this kingdom, I basically killed all those demons and the aftermath of the battle impacted the citizen in a harmful way.” Sanya started to get what she meant.

“We protected the planet from an alien’s attack. The enemy was in spaceships, so when we destroyed the ships we killed millions of lives that had families on their respective planet. Even if they were considered as the enemy, it will not change the fact that I killed people.” At this point, Sanya mostly understood what she wanted to say. Talia’s eyes started to become unfocused like she remembered everything.

“And finally, when I fought against the evil being, the two of us destroyed an entire continent. Hundreds of millions of innocent lives were lost. “ At this point, Talia was looking downward. Sanya’s body was shaking a bit and her heart beat faster and faster.

Murder. This was a crime that every country punished. Talia just said that she was a murderer and even one on a large scale.

“By earth’s standards, I’m a mass murder criminal. I killed as much as I have saved. So, I not really did amazing things. My hands are red with the blood of those people.” Sanya suddenly bit her lips in anger.

‘What the hell I am doing?!’

She grabbed Talia and hugged her tightly. Talia wore a confused face as her head was in Sanya’s bosom.

“Don’t move. It’s ok.” She started to caress the back of her head as her voice lowered.

“Even if nobody accepts you, I will always be here for you. Even if you a saint, a devil or a normal human. Don’t worry.” Sanya’s eye shone with determination. She decided to always be there for her, to always accept her, no matter what.

Talia’s eyes shot open, but they slowly closed. She whispered. “Thank you...Thank you, Sanya.”

The truth was that Talia didn’t regret what she did, but she was scared of not being accepted by one person. If Sanya was scared after knowing what she did she didn’t know what she would have done. But now, all her worries disappeared.

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She could soon do the thing that she dreamed since ages.

After a few minutes of a tight hug, Talia moved, so Sanya released her. Their faces were a bit red with a slight smile. This type of silence was quite nice. Unfortunately, Sanya still needed to ask questions. She then thought of something.

“You said you fought, but did you get injured? You seem unharmed.”

“I did get injured, but the Stellar Temple has excellent ways to heal someone.”

“That’s a relief. So, you don’t have any scars and such, right?”

“uh-huh...N-No…” Sensing her hesitation, Sanya’s eyes narrowed.

“...Talia, you better tell the truth. Do you have any scar?” Sanya was not disgusted by scars, but she still wanted to know what went through Talia. So if she did have scars, she wanted to know.

“I-I might have one somewhere…”

“Show me, please.”

“Eh?! Are you sure?” Sanya nodded with a serious face

“...Fine” Talia started to unbutton her shirt with a red face. Seeing the scene, Sanya could only have a shocked face. Talia kept removing her shirt and she rapidly was only in her bra. One of her hand was holding her opposite arm as to hide her body. Her head was also turned away. Sanya was agape, not knowing what to do. So, she decided to take a look!

Of course, Sanya was not a pervert, so what she wanted to look at was not her chest. Even more, Sanya already saw Talia in her underwears before in a changing room and such. Looking at her belly, Sanya noticed something. ‘It looks firmer than before…’

Talia’s overall appearance was the same as before, but there were still some differences. First of all, she looked a lot more energetic and fit. When they had been holding hands, Sanya felt Talia’s hand. On the surface, it was still soft, but she had the impression that nothing could be free in her grip. As she looked at her belly, She noticed something on her left side, more than ten centimeters under her chest. It was a four-pointed star-shaped scar. The bed cracked a bit as Sanya leaned forward.

“Is it this?” Talia nodded in response. Sanya took a close look and saw that the shape was a bit deformed.

“What happened?” Honestly, Sanya was quite surprised that Talia had a scar. The Protectors of Worlds was a group capable of crossing worlds, fighting spaceships and so on. From what she heard, they should be able to heal all kinds of wounds.

“At the end of my fight against the evil being that I told you, he tried to finish me. But, I managed to take the blow and kill him instead. The problem was that his weapon was cursed. The curse was so powerful that no machine, elixirs or magic could heal me. So, my body was healing by itself, without external support. In the end, I healed and the curse disappeared, but a scar remained. As the scar was not very big, I decided to let it.”

“Is that so…” Sanya didn’t know what to think about it. It was Talia’s decision to keep the scar, so she would not go against it.

“I hope you don’t dislike it…” This was Talia’s primary fear. She didn’t want to show it because she was anxious. However, Sanya shook her head.

“Don’t worry, I don’t.” She smiled gently. As Talia was redressing, Sanya still asked. “Does it hurt?”

“Mmmh. Not anymore. I was also afraid of ulterior problems, but it seems my body healed perfectly.” Sanya closed her eyes in relief. Then, She opened them once again. Her face was tense.

“You said you nearly committed suicide...Why did you not come to me?” Sanya felt guilty about it. She considered herself as Talia’s closest person. She was already blaming herself for not acting in the past against Sarah, but now she could not help feeling anxious knowing that she nearly lost her.

In response, Talia crossed her arms with a pondering expression. “The thing is that I have vague memories of the reason itself. One thing that I recall is that I was very depressed to the point of wanting to die and wandered around. I was not wearing my school uniform, so it should have happened after I went home. The rest is really vague. Well, I was too much absorbed in my training and it was 50 years ago for me, so it kind of natural that I would forget something so minor.”

“Anyway, It was stupid of me to not go see you. I’m sorry.” Talia bowed her head toward Sanya. She really could not remember the cause, but she knew she made Sanya anxious. Sanya heaved a sigh of relief and released her clenched hands. She looked at Talia sternly.

“As long as you are safe. However, if you have something on your mind, you have to tell me right away. I don’t want to once again come to your house to be told that you disappeared.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I am serious here…”

“I know, don’t worry. I promise on my life that I will never go away.” Talia’s face was solemn as she made her oath. Hearing this, Sanya finally calmed down as she closed her eyes. Her reply was somewhat exaggerated, but it was what she wanted to hear. After a moment of silence where Sanya erased her worries and bad emotions, she opened her eyes