Solum (23.11.9978 AS)

It was late in the afternoon as Tristan and Laura finally reached their base, the sun had already taken its leave behind the Sol-Mountains surrounding the City, only a few rays of red light could be seen from behind the mountains.

At home, they were greeted by Erika, who was eagerly expecting them having prepared traditional human dishes for them to try. She signaled them to enter the house “Before you tell me how your day was, we will have some good food!” She said with a caring smile on her face.

She led them to the table full of dishes, both of them had never seen before. “I don’t want to be rude, but what is this?” Tristan asked with a disgusted face as he poked at one of the green, slimy tentacles on his plate.

“That’s Landoctopus in Rooshslime.” Erika answered while chewing on her tentacle.

“Oh,… thanks for clarifying that, somehow I don’t even want to ask what Landoctupus nor Roosh are…” ‘It can’t be worse than the dragon innards I had during my training with Schattenklinge.’ Tristan thought as he finally persuaded himself to take a bite of the slimy tentacles.

“Surprisingly, it’s eatable.” That was Tristan’s verdict as he finally swallowed the tentacle as he went for the second piece.

“You’re quite a picky eater!” said Laura as she was happily digging in, the food in front of her. “This food is way better than Sandeel and Blackslimesnails! I can hardly believe the Roosh belong in the same family as them, they taste at least ten times better!”

After a short pause, she added. “Maybe, because they are cooked and seasoned properly and not raw, like I’m used to eat them.”

Tristan turned white as she realized that he was eating vermin, fighting the urge to vomit, he swallowed the rest of the food on his plate without even chewing it, so that he couldn’t feel the taste. “This food is so good, but unfortunately I’m too full to eat another bite, maybe next time.” He brought out with a fake smile on his face as he finished his plate.

Erika and Laura didn’t pay Tristan any heed as they happily finished off their servings.

Humans on Terra suffered of overpopulation so they didn’t have the luxury of being picky eaters. So most of the most traditional dishes were made out of vermin like creatures, most Demons or Seraphs couldn’t even think of eating.

“I’m looking forward to your reports after you helped me out with the dishes.” She smiled and whispered “Remember, we still have to stay in our roles, even if we are at home, so even if you don’t want to we have to act like a family.”

Tristan and Laura nodded in unison and helped Erika with the dishes.

After a while they were finally able to report what they had learned about their target: Ai.

It was Laura’s turn to retell what had happened during their first day of school.

She took her time to emphasize her efforts of making a friend out of Ai, but in the end she had to admit, that her efforts were wasted.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

‘I’m sorry Trist, but you should have helped me and I can not fail this mission! This mission was a second chance sent by Fors himself to me and it’s up to me to make the best out of this situation! Even if it means that I have to rat you out. I’m so sorry I hope one day you can find the way to forgive me.’ Laura sent Tristan a sad glance and swallowed loudly.

“I wouldn’t have failed so hard if a certain someone would have actually tried to fulfill the mission instead of antagonizing the subject…” Laura said as she told Erika about Tristan’s behavior towards Ai and how he had even threatened her. She did her best trying to put Tristan on the worst light as she could.

Erika’s small green eyes stared Tristan with disbelief. She understood Laura’s words, but still couldn’t believe them. From the information she had gotten on both of the children she knew she could trust them with her life, not only were they extremely talented and had immense amounts of mana in them, for their age of course, but they were also really loyal to their friends and missions.

She knew of their misbehavior during a mission, where they had abandoned everything to save their family and comrades, but the circumstances back then were completely different and one could even say their actions back then were noble.

So now Erika was standing in front of the question: Do I have to give up on my assessment of those two, especially him? Or do I continue trusting in both of them?

After a few seconds of thinking she came to the conclusion of having Tristan defend himself against the accusation Laura had made.

“So, what do you have to say about it? Your actions do sound really contra productive.” She tried to sound as cold as possible as the words left her full lips.

‘What was that? Did Laura really do what I think she did?’

‘Mauahahah, looks like your friend snitched you out! Maybe a few stiches here and there and she will remember who the boss here is.’ Schattenklinge said with a taunting voice.

‘By Bella, can you shut up for a moment? I need to concentrate on the best course of action to get out of this situation.’

To his discontent, he had to once again completely rely on his passive ability to show him the correct answer.

‘Why do I always feel so dirty when I use my passive? And why do its answers always feel so wrong? Well, never mind that, it’s an useful ability I just don’t have to rely too much on it, so that I can get out of sticky situations when I need to by myself, but right now I can’t lose too much time.’

Laura’s eyes filled with guild and Erika’s eyes filled with tension were glued on him as Tristan finally slowly swallowed his saliva to give an answer.

“I can’t deny Laura’s words, everything she said is true, I know I can’t take back my actions nor can I excuse them, but still, I ask the two of you to trust me. I will bring Ai to our side in no time; you only have to give me permission to continue with my approach.” He said as he bowed towards Erika.

“Please allow me to go to school tomorrow by bike and also don’t expect me tomorrow for dinner, I have some preparations that need to be done so that my plans come to fruition.”

Erika looked at Tristan in disbelief. ‘Did he really just say what I heard he did? How does he expect this work out? Does he think he can go continue to do whatever he wants?

Well, does he know I don’t have the authority to punish him, without Melodias’ knowledge? It will be a pain having to go through all that paper work to get him removed from this mission! Gosh, this is giving me headaches!’

Erika started massaging her temples.

“Good one month! You have one month until I start the preparations to get you removed from this mission.”

***

After the meeting was over Laura walked into Tristan’s room. “I’m sorry for ratting you out, it’s just that I really want to succeed this mission and I can’t do it alone…” She said with an earnest voice.

“Never mind that, I’m used to come out on the short end” Tristan said as he searched his backpack for one of the many books he had lent out from the library.

“But I won’t be helping you out with your approach, don’t get me wrong, I won’t be getting in your way, but I won’t help out either. As long as you don’t get in my way I won’t get in yours. So make sure go give your best I know you can do it. As for me, I have my own schedule here in Terra and playing false friends with that poor girl isn’t on it.”

Tristan smiled at Laura and signaled her to leave the room.

“…”

“You heard me, now if you could excuse me, there are plans to make” He said as he showed her the way out of his room.