Chapter 131
A New Resolve
By the time Erin finally got back to their hotel room, it was already midnight. Knowing just how tough of a day was behind all of them, she was expecting everyone to be already asleep.
However, she was surprised to find light coming from underneath the door, meaning that at least someone was still up. Sure enough, as soon as she opened the door, all eyes fell upon her from her awaiting friends.
“Erin, you’re back!” Arkay said with a smile as he ran up to her while holding a plate with a sandwich on it. “We were all worried over what might have happened, so we couldn’t sleep. I decided to use the time to make some dinner. I know it isn’t much, but it should give you at least something.”
“Thanks, Arnie. You guys didn’t need to worry about me, though, as I doubt Rayleen would have put us through all of this just to end it all of a sudden,” Erin said with a smile, happy over how thoughtful the others were of her. “And I do appreciate the sandwich as well. I didn’t even realize just how hungry I was. I really needed this.”
“So how did the meeting go?” Lexton asked. “Did Rayleen have anything special to tell you?”
“Quite… a bit, actually,” the redhead said, thinking back on her meeting with the warlord. “Do you guys want to talk about it now, though? I’m sure we’re all very tired and could use some rest.”
“Are you still worried about me and some of the others? No need for that!” Ryle said enthusiastically with a big grin on her face. “As you can see, I’m as good as new!”
The blonde tried to demonstrate her healthy status by walking, which didn’t end well for her. All she managed to do was crash into the wall right next to her.
“...Okay, maybe I’m not in perfect state, but doing better than just a moment ago!” Ryle said, trying to play off her accident.
“So how is everybody else that was injured doing?” Erin asked, looking around the room. “I hope you’ve at least somewhat recovered.”
“Ah hhinkh ahm hhhing ahkhey flr mahsllf,” Durge tried to speak up, but the hints of venom still in his body were making it very hard. While he could somewhat walk by himself, talking and almost every other activity was beyond his capabilities at the moment. “...Nhhrmahnd.”
“Alright, I see that Durge is still far from his best as well,” the redhead said with a sigh. “Wasn’t he cured of the neurotoxin that he was infected with?”
“He was, but no cure works instantly,” Lexton replied. “It’s going to take him some time until he can speak without spitting buckets of drool on you.”
“Well, as long as he’s alive, I guess it’s not too bad,” Erin said.
“You should have seen him when Arnie was helping him eat!” Zeldana said with a snicker. “I’m pretty sure most of the sandwich ended up on the poor boy’s face, instead of Durge’s mouth!”
“Zel, that’s not funny! Arnie was just trying to help Durge, who is currently struggling due to a poisoning!” the redhead scolded the elf like she was a naughty child. “I’m certain you wouldn’t have liked to be in either one’s shoes!”
“Sure wouldn’t. One has slobber and half-chewed food all over his, while the other one is going to get his wet from piss as he can’t use the toilet properly!” Zeldana said. “Now that I think about, how is Durge going to go about doing that?”
“Doing what exactly?” Erin asked.
“Going to the bathroom! I mean, the guy can’t even use a glass properly to have a drink, so how the hell is he supposed to take a piss or take a number two?” the elf explained. “I think he might need help with that.”
“Well, since YOU found his situation so hilarious, I think you’ll enjoy that activity the most!” the redhead stated sternly. “Pretty fitting, considering you’re our medical expert as well!”
“...Okay, fair enough. I guess I had that coming to me,” Zeldana said with a shrug, before looking at Durge. “Not like this is the nastiest work I’ve had to do anyways. So give me a… wave or a… signal of some kind. Just something to give me a hint that you need to go to the toilet. Okay, big guy?”
“Thohh hhink ahh nnhhhd hrrrlp ihh thehh hoihhllt… Thehh hhmilhhahhon…” the orc gurgled in response while looking down at the floor, saddened by his current state.
With her check up on Durge done, Erin turned her attention towards the last injured person on their team, Lexton. The kobold was currently laying on the floor while drawing up schematics for something.
“How are you doing, Lex?” the redhead asked. “I see that you’ve already started your work on your tail’s replacement.”
“Yeah, seeing as how I’m not only unable to walk properly, but I also fear showing my face out in public, I figured I might as well get to work as soon as possible,” Lexton replied. “Now I’m going to need YOU specifically to get me some of the materials I’m going to need for this, as I have doubts that some of the others would be able to get exactly what I need.”
“Sure, but aren’t you taking this a bit too seriously?” Erin asked. “I mean, I get that losing a part of your body sucks. After all, I went through it myself. But since you’ll be able to replace it with a cybernetic that is most likely going to have a bunch of neat mechanisms in it, isn’t the loss not that big of a deal in the end?”
“While I admire my own designs as they rightfully deserve, let me ask you something else in return to your question,” the kobold said. “Even after experiencing all the positives your new hand provides for you, would you really say that you don’t want your actual hand back?”
“….”
“That’s what I thought,” Lexton said in response to the redhead’s silence. “Anyways, let’s get back to the topic that I actually wanted to talk to you about. What did Rayleen talk to you about? Last time you had a meeting with her, I believe she told you that she wanted us to go after Golorath himself, right? Did she have some sort of a plan or other information that would help us in this regard?”
“While it is true that she wanted us to go after Golorath, she hasn’t yet figured out the details of her plan yet,” Erin replied. “You see, not only was she unsure whether we would survive our encounter with the Reaper Maggot, but she was also preoccupied with other things that kind of made it hard for her to come up with a proper plan.”
“And those other things would be what exactly?” the kobold asked.
“...She was drinking and partying in the most expensive hotel in the city,” the redhead replied in a deadpan tone, causing her companions to stare at her with wide eyes of disbelief. “I know. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise for me either. She and her people were going at it like a group of wild teenagers.”
“How freaking rude! Not only does she have the guts to actually doubt our skills, but she goes on a crazed booze part and forgets about us!?” Ryle shouted angrily. “If I had been there, I would have kicked her sorry forgetful ass myself!”
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“That wouldn’t be a good idea, as not only would you be inviting the wrath of her and her followers on all of us, but we would also lose the chance of obtaining whatever information she has on Golorath. Information that might be our only chance in actually beating him,” Zeldana said. “The way I see it, we might as well treat her as our ally, even if it’s only temporary. There’s no use in us getting on her bad side, if she is planning to go after the big boss himself.”
“So you mean to tell me that you’re actually cool with this!? Her treating us like disposable pawns and disrespecting us!?” the blonde asked angrily. “Weren’t you part of the rebels that fought against her and the other servants of the Five Overlrds!?”
“Hey, all I’m saying is that we are better off playing this smart than just rushing at every person we want to beat up. There’s a reason why everybody who resisted the Five Overlords got pretty much crushed, okay?” the elf said with a shrug. “As for the partying, I get why you’re upset, but I can see her side of it as well. This city is honestly a very boring place and I would need something to pass the time. Crazy parties with booze flowing freely sounds about the best way to accomplish that in my mind.”
“Very informative and insightful as always,” Erin said with a sigh as she shook her head. “However, outside of the fact that she is going to contact us about the details on how we are going to beat Golorath later, she did talk to me about something else as well. It’s something that… I really think we should talk about.”
“What is that?” Arkay asked.
“...She brought up something that happened while we were hunting the Reaper Maggot,” the redhead began, finding it hard to talk about the topic despite knowing it was necessary. “She was referring to what happened to those hunters that were attacked by the Reaper Maggot, while we were simply hiding.”
This immediately got the attention of the others. They looked at each other with wide eyes, having not expected this to be brought up all of a sudden.
“What the-!? She brought that up!?” Ryle asked. “How the hell did she even know about it!?”
“One of her agents was following us, as we went on with our hunt,” Erin replied. “Although, does that even matter?”
“Of course it matters! You mean to tell me that she sent someone to watch over us and not even offer a bit of help!?” the blonde ranted angrily. “Were they too busy sitting on their ass while we were fighting for our lives!?”
“She had been given orders not to interfere, as it was our job to take the beast down,” the redhead said. “However, that doesn’t matter right now! What matters is the fact that we let innocent people die without even trying to do something to help them!”
“Erin, I get what you’re saying. I might not look like it, but even I regret the fact that we couldn’t help those people out,” Lexton said. “But what could we have done? We were dealing with one of the apex predators of the entire world that had slain countless people who had tried to kill it way before us! The only reason we managed to defeat it in the end was due to careful planning and honestly a lot of luck! Had we tried to help those hunters, I can guarantee that we would have ended up on that monster’s belly instead of them.”
“Can you say that for certain?” Erin asked. “Can you look me in the eye and say that there was absolutely nothing we could have done in that situation?”
“W-Well, maybe there might have been something, I guess… But the ideas that come to my mind would have probably just ended up drawing the Reaper Maggot towards us!” the kobold replied. “The best we could have done would have been to buy the hunters time to escape, but I fear we would have both just ended up-”
“HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT FOR CERTAIN!? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT THE WORST OUTCOME WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!?” the redhead suddenly yelled, as a couple of tears fell from her eye. “I can understand being careful, but there are times you have to take risks, no matter how big they are! And you don’t always take those for your own sake either!”
“Woah! Erin, calm down!” Ryle said, taken aback by her friend’s sudden outburst. “I get that you’re upset over what happened, but aren’t you taking this a bit too far!? While helping others is a good thing and all, there’s no way we could just take full responsibility for what happened to them!”
“Ryle is absolutely correct,” Lexton said, somewhat shaken up by Erin’s outburst as well. “They were professional hunters, after all. Do you think that job doesn’t come with any danger? Not only that, but they were hunting in an extremely dangerous area. They should have been more than prepared for the risks they were taking.”
“And despite those same risks, THEY were willing to help us,” Erin said. “Remember why they came over to where we were? They had heard the sounds of the Reaper Maggot attacking us and they still felt like they should at least try to help us. How can we just ignore that and say that it doesn’t concern us? Seems very hypocritical to me.”
Ryle and Lexton both wanted to argue back, but couldn’t. They knew that their redheaded friend was right about them. They had left people, who had actually come over to help them, to die. No matter how much they tried to deny it, use logic to argue for the sake of their decision or even outright ignore it, it was the undeniable truth.
The two of them looked over to Arkay and Durge, and saw that they had reached the same conclusion. In the end, while what they had done was to save their own lives, they had to admit that it had come with the sacrifice of others.
However, there was still someone who was not willing to admit that what they had done had been the wrong choice.
“So what are you trying to say? That we should try to be some sort of heroes out of children’s stories or something?” Zeldana asked bluntly, as she walked up to Erin. “Do you really think that is going to work out? Especially when we are trying to fight the Overlords? Like it or not, people are going to die directly or indirectly through our actions! No matter how much you try, you cannot save everyone! That’s why stories like that are called fantasy. Not reality.”
“...Even if it’s a fantasy or unrealistic or impossible or whatever else you want to call it, I don’t care! We can debate about those things for an eternity!” the redhead said as tears fell from her eye, yet there was nothing but determination in her gaze. “What I do know is that I don’t want to live with even more regrets! I refuse to let innocent people suffer because of my actions from now on! I hope that you all feel the same way as I do or are at least willing to cooperate! If not, then this group might not be for you!”
“It’s going to be tough, you know?” the elf asked. “It’s one thing trying to be an assassin that goes after some of the most powerful figures out there, but to play savior in the side will make it extra harder. You do get what I’m saying, right?”
“I do. And I don’t care how hard it will be,” Erin said, her resolve unbreakable. “Those hunters had lives, too. They had friends and families waiting for them, and our lack of action destroyed it all. I refuse to let something like that to happen again, before at least trying to prevent it.”
For a moment, Zeldana simply stared at the redhead, trying to see some form of hesitation or a crack in her resolve. Despite looking, she found nothing of the sort. She was not going to budge.
Seeing that Erin was ready and willing to back up her words, the elf smiled and walked away.
“About time you started to grow a spine. You’ve been such a mess ever since I joined that I was starting to doubt you’d have even the slightest chance to pull any of this off,” Zeldana said with a chuckle. “Don’t get me wrong, though. This is going to be very hard. Probably much harder than you could ever imagine. Still, one of the worst things you can be is a hypocrite, so if you’re willing to die by your words, I’m more than willing to follow them.”
“You mean… You mean you approve of my decision!?” the redhead asked, shocked by what the elf had just said. “I thought you’d be the one who would disapprove the most!”
“Hey, how exactly do you view me? As some sort of a sociopath or something?” Zeldana asked, only to receive silent stares from everybody. “...Screw you guys. I’ll have you know that I joined the rebellion because I didn’t approve of the way the Five Overlords were doing things! I’m honestly quite the humanitarian in the end!”
“Sure. Go ahead and tell yourself that,” Ryle said as she rolled her eyes, before looking towards Erin with a small smile. “Regardless, I do agree with you in the end. We can’t simply let others die just because it will make things easier for us. From now on, I won’t be as pathetic as back then. I’ve got your back.”
“...I suppose I might have let my rough past get the better of me. When you go through enough crap in your life, you start to become very uncaring towards everything and everyone around you, saying that it’s not your problem when something bad happens to them,” Lexton said. “But that’s just you ignoring the fact that there are actual good people around you as well and they don’t deserve your scorn. I might have become a too much of an asshole like that. Long story short, I’ll help you out, Erin.”
The kobold looked up to see everyone stare at him with wide eyes. This began to greatly irritate him after being stared at in silence for a few seconds.
“WHAT?” Lexton asked sternly.
“You’re actually willing to admit you’ve been an asshole? That’s some progress right there, pal!” Ryle said with a big grin. “Are you perhaps next going to apologize to me?”
“Kiss my ass, you failed prototype barbarian!” the kobold shouted at the blonde.
“Well, I guess that was too much to ask,” Ryle said with a shrug.
Erin shook her head at the antics of her two friends, before looking at the last two members of the group, Arkay and Durge. Both were giving her encouraging smiles.
“I-I think that what you’re saying is great, Erin!” Arkay said with a smile. “I didn’t like how we handled what happened back at the pit either. I might have thought that there was nothing we could have done, but that never felt right. Let’s do our best so nothing similar happens again!”
Durge didn’t say anything due to still being affected by the venom in his body. Instead, he gave an approving thumbs up in response.
Erin smiled, happy that none of her friends had rejected what she had said. In truth, she had expected at least one or two of them to leave the group, upset over what she had said. Losing anyone from the group would have been a major loss, not just in terms of them operating in the future, but also for her own morale. She really needed each and every member they had more than any of them could ever imagine.
“By the way, why are you still carrying that claw with you?” Ryle suddenly asked, having taken note of the piece of the Reaper Maggot the redhead was still carrying around. “Didn’t Rayleen want it or something?”
“Not really. Since she already had an agent following us around, she was well aware of us killing it,” Erin explained. “She said that she wouldn’t really have any use for this, as she would at best either eat it or sell it for pocket change.”
“WHAT!?!” Lexton screamed in fury, shocking everybody else. “That mongoloid would actually eat a piece of one of the most fearsome creatures in the world!? Is she insane!? Not only that, she considers the money you could get from that just pocket change!? JUST WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A LIFE DOES SHE LIVE?!”
“...Well, I can’t really give you details, but I can only imagine it’s one of wealth. Didn’t I already tell you about the party she and her friends were having in the penthouse of the most expensive hotel?” the redhead said awkwardly, before composing herself. “Anyways, what you’re saying is that this thing can fetch us a good price on the market?”
“Of course!” the kobold said. “Do you have any idea how impressive of a creature the Reaper Maggot truly is? The only reason I didn’t scavenge every inch of its corpse after we killed it was due to the time limit we were on! Not to mention my issues in moving around because… You know…”
“I see… That’s certainly interesting,” Erin said thoughtfully as she looked at the massive claw she was holding. “Think you can help me sell it?”
“Huh? I mean, I can. That’s not an issue at all,” Lexton said. “But are you sure you want to sell it? I could make it into something we can use in the future.”
“I have no doubts that you can. However, I need the money more right now,” the redhead said. “There is something I need to pay for, after all.”