CHAPTER 156(Sleepless Nights)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

---Freya's Penthouse...

"I need you to keep this to yourself Allen," Freya's calm voice commands her vice-captain.

"Of course goddess," the man says. Getting up from the chair in front of her and putting his shirt back on. Those weren't the words he wanted to hear from her... it seems he hadn't done enough.

As he was putting his shirt back on Freya couldn't help but look at his back and frown slightly, seeing the desire and ambition in his soul. A desire for her, in intimate ways she'd never allow, in the way only a very select few have ever experienced, the kind of intimacy she only desired to share with one man.

"Allen," the man stops buttoning his top and looks at her. She gives him a gentle, almost motherly smile while speaking, "I'm proud of you, I want to make sure you know that. Even before this, you've never disappointed me, and I doubt you ever could," she says.

"U-uh. Of course Lady Freya," he quickly says as a powerful blush spreads across his face.

"Allen, strength isn't everything, please try to understand that," she places a gentle hand on his arm. "Some people are more than just swords," she says.

"I understand that my lady, but people like me," he looks down at his hands. The same hands that were weak and helpless in the face of his most despised enemy, "all we can be are swords, so I need to be the best sword possible, the only one worth choosing..."

With a tired sigh, she steps away from him, "oh my foolish child, then it's a good thing you don't have much competition remaining if that's the route you wish to take, but the competition you do have... I can't say I understand how far behind you are," she admits sadly.

"That doesn't mean I can't keep running, we're on the same level now," Allen turns to look away from Freya, "but it doesn't feel any different," he quietly admits.

"Hmm," Freya chuckles lightly as she sees Allen's ambition shining through, this earns a confused look from the man. "You two could have been great friends if not for my involvement in all this. Ambition that burns so bright, but it's a flame that can consume you. His is consuming his life, he can't tell but it's tearing him apart, slowly but surely unless someone stops it, don't let yourself share that fate. You first-class adventurers are hard to kill, but ambition always does it...just ask Zeus and Hera where it got them...thinking they could go after those monsters..." this earns a surprised look from Allen.

"Thank you?" Allen wasn't sure if he should take her warning as a compliment or not. "But I can't stop, even if that's what you want, I understand what you mean but...to get better I need stronger foes," he says.

With a defeated sight Freya can only shake her head at this predictable response, "why are all the men around me like this. You idiots would have made great friends in another life, but seriously," she snaps her fingers. This immediately has his head turning to look at her, seeing her no-nonsense expression. "Don't give him a real reason to attack you. He went easy on all of you but if you threaten his little adventure I doubt he'd let you crawl back to me," she says.

"Understood lady Freya, I'd like to go test out my new strength in the dungeon," Allen humbly asks.

"Be back here before the meeting in two days, and take Hedin with you," Freya says.

"Of course."

"Goodnight Allen," Freya says as she begins walking out of her living room and down the hallway to the bedrooms, leaving Allen to make his way out of the penthouse.

Walking down the hallway Freya finds herself in front of the only bedroom on this floor aside from hers.

Rolling her eyes at the growling she faintly hears through the door, she pushes open the door and casually steps inside.

She's greeted with the sight of Ottar in his standard attire, feet bare and toes curling so hard they dug into the smooth tile floor. Gritting his teeth with all the veins on his body raised, his brown skin becoming a dark maroon as he stares down at the longsword in his grasp.

The blade was between his hands, not even bending under the absurd force he was placing on it.

"You look constipated," Freya says as she leans against the door frame.

Stopping and releasing the blade, blood drips from his hands onto the floor. No cuts, he wasn't foolish enough to exert that much force onto the edges. His hands were bruised so badly that the skin tore.

With a deep breath he walks over to his towel and begins cleaning his hands up, "it feels impossible," he says in a disappointed voice.

"Is that the conclusion you came to after being locked in here all day with that thing?" she gestures to the nameless blade he pulled off the shelf of Hephaestus's main store this morning.

"How did he do it?" he asks Freya, a certain awe and desperation in his voice that had been missing for almost 15 years, this put a small smile on her face.

"With his hands according to the rumors."

"We're both level seven... maybe he has some kind of special skill to increase strength," Ottar theorizes.

"So do you, three of those actually," she reminds him.

"Hmm," he cleans his blood off the blade with the towel before placing it back in the sheath. "What makes him so...different," he wonders aloud.

"Well, maybe you should just ask him. Everyone is curious about him but not many would be willing to approach him, assuming they even noticed him. He's really easy to talk to, so just ask. I don't think I've ever bothered asking honestly."

"When he returns maybe I will," Ottar says.

Freya fails to suppress her laughter at the absurdity of this.

"I'm always trying to get you to talk more and you stay stoic. But now that you're chasing someone's back once more you suddenly become so chatty," she shakes her head at the thought.

"I... It's easier to focus with a clear goal," Ottar says.

"Mhm, agreed, just try to remember for most of the world you're the end goal, and I just updated Allen, we'll be keeping it to ourselves but he's level seven now. So don't think people aren't catching up to you," she says before turning on her heel and walking away.

'What...but Allen hadn't won any major fights lately. The only way to level up from a defeat is if you survive something horrendously out of your league,' Ottar's eyes roam over to the Durandal sword he couldn't even bend.

Reminded that the man Allen fought was able to snap one of these swords with seemingly no issue.

"How vast is your true strength...?" he asks aloud as he decides to continue his attempts to break this Durandal blade.

As Ottar was busy grunting and failing to break the blade, Freya saunters into her library, slinking down into her comfy chair with a bottle of wine to watch the stars. Ready to brave another sleepless night.

Taking a mouthful of wine from the bottle, the sweet flavors flood her senses and helps to relax her nerves.

"Mmm, maybe I should check on him..." she raises her left hand to look at the Message Ring on her ring finger, hesitant to call she passes her thumb over it to feel the metal as she looks out at the stars, wondering if her Odr was sharing the same thoughts as her.

---Elsewhere...

"Where'd you get that?" Thalie asks.

Stepping out of the tent, she looks to her left to see Yang laying against a boulder in the grassy plain they were in, staring out at the stars. Right hand across his chest as he plays with a new ring on his finger.

"Oh, just something I picked up," he says as she approaches.

Giving him a small head shake she drops down to sit beside him. They were both wearing their casual clothes, with Yang keeping his new coat out, even with the cold midnight winds on these plains her thinner clothes posed no issue as sitting next to him gave her a warm spot with no wind.

"I'll pretend I believed that, so what's keeping you up?" She asks.

"I-I haven't been sleeping much since Freya," Yang shamelessly says, not afraid to speak his mind.

"Seems like an easy problem to fix, right?"

"No...yes...maybe, it's complicated," he says in a huff of frustration.

"Because you're leaving?"

"Obviously."

"Mhm, but if she's ok with it then why not?" Thalie asks.

"Expectations, she think's I'll give up on going home, although she doesn't know it's a different world. I really don't feel I can stop so it's just gonna end in heartbreak," he says.

"Maybe you should explain that your mind won't change. If she knows what she's getting into and still goes along with it. Then you can't really blame yourself right?"

"That doesn't change the fact I leave a heartbroken woman in my wake," he points out.

"Well she's probably wishing she was here with you looking up at the stars instead of me, and you clearly want the same thing, so maybe stop being such a wuss and just commit for a while. How often do you get to basically marry a goddess anyway," Thalie points out.

"That...wait, since when do you care about this kind of stuff?" Yang finally realizes who he's talking to.

"Since you've been moping around for a few weeks," she retorts. She couldn't tell him this was mainly because she owed it to Freya after all.

"Yeah," Welf says as he walks out of the tent, "and I rather have you sleeping with Freya than trying to drink your problems away again," he says while walking over to them.

"You couldn't sleep either?" Yang asks.

"Nah, you idiots just don't know how to be quiet," he says while sitting beside them.

"Oh, figured the idea of Hephaestus hating you would be keeping you up at night," Yang points out.

"Fuck...well thanks for that, now I really can't sleep," Welf groans as he leans back against the boulder.

"Misery loves company," Thalie says.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence looking at the stars, a thought crosses Welf's mind.

"Why didn't you take Liberty?" he asks.

"Hmm, what?" Thalie asks.

"Why didn't you take your spear, or whatever was left of your armor, or the shuriken sets?" he asks.

"Oh yeah, you left everything in your apartment, what's up with that?" Yang asks.

"Well... you said that stuff wasn't meant for, you know. Just killing people," she says.

"I also said our equipment was made to see our goals to reality, and yours is killing a lot of people and wiping out her familia," Welf reminds her.

"That was before I had to go behind Hephaestus's back," she says.

"She'll understand...right?" Yang asks.

"Depends how harsh the guild is," Welf says.

"The world only has three-level sevens," Yang says, "unless that guy from the Empire sets up camp in Orario they've only got Ottar. We've got a pretty good bargaining chip," he concludes.

"True, but I've still got one question for you," Welf tells Thalie. "What did Adrestria do to piss you off so much exactly?"

A tense moment of since forms between the trio before Thalie eventually speaks up.

"She made me who I am, I'm her monster..."

END CHAPTER---

Thalie backstory coming up, make predictions here...it's already written but I'm sure one of you will guess right :)