Arc 3: Choosing Reality by Embracing Life
Road to a Hero:
Three chances in another world
Chapter 8: End of the Road
Gray: “What do we need to talk about?”
Rosemary: “What…are we?”
This statement causes Rosemary to blush, but Gray stares off into space, thinking of something else entirely.
Gray: “What do you want to be?”
Rosemary: “We’ve lived together…We’ve slept in the same bed together for a while now…”
Gray, still not caring, seems to conclude his inner thoughts,
Gray: “Before you say anything else…I’ve gotta say something important.”
Rosemary: “Yeah…what is it?”
Gray: “I’m leaving. Once I see everyone I’m going.”
Rosemary: “What…WHAT?”
Rosemary's face is frozen, no tears, no sweat, just confusion and disbelief.
Gray: “Arthur…he’s right…all I’ve done is hurt, you guys.”
Rosemary: “What…what are you talking about?”
Gray: “The attacks by the cultist, then me losing my temper in the castle and embarrassing you… making you look worse by being affiliated with me.”
Rosemary: “Why… WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS? you …you got my life moving again…I WAS WONDERING FOR SO LONG UNTIL YOU SHOWED UP KICKING MY LIFE INTO MOTION AGAIN!”
Rosemary tries her hardest to try and tell Gray why he shouldn't leave, what he means to her, from the bottom of her heart, even if he hasn't been in her life for that long, his being there has had a great effect.
Gray: “I’m happy to hear that….”
Rosemary: “Then..then WHY?”
Gray gets up. Already dressed, he leaves the room, with Rosemary following him, franticly pulling on his shirt, trying to get a satisfying answer out of him.
Gray: “Look…I know this is sudden… sudden, but if I can make sure you guys are safe, then I'll do what sucks to keep it that way.”
Rosemary: “I...WE DON’T CARE IF THEY’RE AFTER YOU…the Sect…they took my family…my people, now they’re going to drive you away…”
Gray: “It’s not just that…but I don’t want…I don’t want to talk about it.”
Rosemary: “Why not? Why, why, why WHAT HAPPENED?”
Rosemary screams her heart out, but Gray acts as if he doesn't care. Gray walks downstairs, about to exit the inn when the rest of the group sees him leaving.
Ophelia: “Where are you going?”
Gray: “I…found a way home…”
Rosemary: “WHAT?”
Edward: “Really? That’s awesome!”
Ophelia: “Aw, you’re leaving?”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Soku: “Mph…”
Gray: “So…see you guys I guess.”
Gray leaves the inn, walking down the road and going to leave the castle grounds. Rosemary walks outside, watching him leave. She stands frozen, with tears streaming down her face, trying her best to force her feelings away. Soku tugs at her arm, trying to take her attention away.
Rosemary: “Uh…?”
Soku, with a whispery voice, tried to bottle her emotions up as well.
Soku: “He’s lying.”
Rosemary: “WHAT?”
Soku: “Wait-”
Soku gets cut off by Rosemary running down the road to Gray. She then wraps her arms around him, hugging him from behind.
Rosemary: “Gray…?”
Gray stands still, with tears streaming down his face, he stands silently.
Gray: “I…gotta go..home…”
Rosemary: “Why…why now..why do you have to leave now?”
Gray: “I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about…this. We’ve only known each other for a month, yet you care this much about me leaving.”
Rosemary: “I DON’T BELIEVE YOU!”
Gray: “What...WHAT’S NOT TO BELIEVE!”
Rosemary: “This isn’t like you at all…you’ve never acted like this…never looked sad about being away from home…never talked about it…I've never even seen or heard you cry!”
Gray: “You…know nothing about me…”
Rosemary: “What?”
Gray: “YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME! WHO I AM, WHERE I’M FROM, MY HOBBIES, MY FAVORITE FOOD, NOTHING!”
Rosemary: “I do know you…You like to make others happy…your favorite food is pancakes…I know you’re a good person…and I want to know more about you…I want you to know more about me, and all of us…so why? WHY LEAVE!”
Gray shoves Rosemary away from himself. Wiping the tears off his face, he continues to drive the point home, trying to get her to just walk away.
Gray: “Yeah like I said. You Know nothing about me. And I do miss my home, my family. There hasn’t been a day I’ve been here where I haven’t thought about them. I’m haunted by them every night. Every single day I have nightmares, them screaming at me, calling me useless, and worthless. A bad son. So I just wanna leave…leave it all behind…this life and the last one.”
Rosemary: “Why…?”
Gray: “BECAUSE I’M TIRED!”
Rosemary: “OF WHAT?”
Gray: “Of…OF… OF MYSELF DAMMIT!”
Rosemary: “Huh?”
Gray: “DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM? WHY I’M EVEN HERE? BECAUSE IF YOU DO I'LL SAY IT...I'LL SAY ALL OF IT!"
Rosemary: "THEN DO IT! SPIT IT OUT, AT LEAST GIVE ME AN ANSWER!"
Gray: "It's because... because...Because I gave up, that's why. I wake up every day with this weak, pitiful body, with annoying hair and a bad personality, with nothing to show for my existence. I wasted my first chance at life, sitting in my room doing nothing of importance. Not studying for school, barely talking to friends, and thinking of anything else but my future."
Gray's tone immediately drops, he just rambles on while staring at his feet.
Gray: "I did this all my life and now I’m here, with no goals, no dreams or ambitions, just a lonely meaningless existence with no drive to do anything. All I did was hide behind a mask, a person who wasn’t me so I could fit in. It’s all I ever wanted to truly do and I didn’t do it. I was a loud, goofy, and annoying ass to everyone in my life. I didn’t even have a bad life dammit, I had great parents who made good money, and nice grandparents, nice friends, a good school. I had no illness or disability, just bad social anxiety making me seem like a loser, or made people see the loser I was."
Rosemary is left in a position where she can't do anything other than listen, leaving her just standing silent while Gray's words hit her like a truck.
Gray: “Gray Kyojin” what a joke. So I ended that life, that pitiful existence. Or at least I tried to, heh you wouldn’t understand the happiness and joy I had in my heart when I saw what had happened to me, thrust into a storybook. With abilities to help me get that fantasy life that any person who has ever been alive has dreamed of once in their life... And what’s the first thing I do? I see a girl fighting for her life. And not to save her or be the good person I’ve been trying to force myself to be my entire life. I help her with the intent of getting something out of her."
Every emotion Gray has been feeling, every thought he's been thinking, forms into these words. His character, Gray Kyojin, is incarnate.
Gray: "Gray Kyojin is supposed to be A good person, a hero even, A nickname I gave myself, a name that grew bigger than myself. The funny, energetic, loud, happy man with so much drive he would never be able to stay down, always work on himself. And nothing, that’s what I’ve been trying to be this WHOLE DAMN TIME! That entire time at the mansion I was that person, forcing my body to its limits every day, being as loud and as goofy as possible. Being the person anyone would like to see. No matter what happens in your life, may it be something small like hurting yourself, or something big like dying a hundred times, nobody likes a crybaby."
Gray bites his lip, so hard he causes it to bleed, tightens his fist, and lets everything out.
Gray: "All I’ve done is use people. Your guy’s nice hospitality at Sokus house, and what do I do? I blew it up trying to “save” people from a bad guy I brought to the house. Then in the mansion, I get the best piece of luck I’ve ever gotten in my life. The greatest swordsman, and the strongest person in the world, took me to their home. And I get it burnt to the ground, and get A nice old man killed! And then still walk around thinking so highly of myself. Because I won a couple of fights. I would have died if I didn’t get helped the whole time and I still think I’m the shit. What a joke, a hopeless lie. Then I think I’m so cool, that I scream at the new leader of the country, acting like I’m better than him. I blew up a poor girl's home, got one of a man's only remaining family members murdered right in front of him, and got his house brunt down on top of that, and I think I’m the good guy. HAHAHAHA! LOOK AT ME!, standing here ranting about my life as it sucks, like all the people I’ve met haven't had the worst lives imaginable, getting your parents killed right in front of you, being born a child soldier, living on the streets your whole life never knowing your family. I stand here complaining about my life. I am Conner Kyojin. A useless, weak, worthless, piece of trash, lying to himself about everything, trying to make it seem like I’m less of a loser than I already am. That is who I am, a crybaby, a man child…I'm so… worthless…so now I’ll leave. Now you guys won’t have the target of an evil cult sleeping in the same house as you, So you can finally sleep soundly. I threw my second chance away the second I called myself Gray Kyojin, with no intent to be Gray Kyojin. Strangely enough through that entire conversation, Gray was smiling from start to finish, as if he let an unliftable weight off his shoulders. Gray leaves Rosemary standing in the road, with Soku and the others watching from the window of the inn. Ophelia runs back upstairs crying with Soku running after her. Edward just stares, not knowing how to react.
Gray walks to the end of the road, exiting through the gate, allowing him onto the path leading back to the capital city. Since he’s a while away he walks into the forest, following a stream, leaving the empty main road, to nothing but trees and sitting down on the ground staring at his reflection in the water.
Gray: “So much for my second chance in another world.”
Before Gray can continue, somebody walks up behind him.
Gray: “Oh…it’s…you.. what…WHAT! There’s no way…no way in hell…”
Gray looks at the man, dressed in a dirty, stitched-up black and red tracksuit. He smiles at Gray before the man hits him on the head. Gray collapses to the ground, with the man staring at him.
Arthur: “Oh I’m not done with you yet.”
END OF CHAPTER
8