16 Splitting up.

"What are you cracking your knuckles for?!" I stepped back as Vivi approached me, the hunter's leg still in my arm. Weird how I didn't find it all that grotesque anymore.

"Don't worry about it, my fingers have just been a little cranky lately. And sometimes a little itchy too." Really? She should get it checked or something. "Well, when someone keeps on calling you an idiot and an old lady, you do tend to lose it a little."

She looked as if she had completely forgotten about why we were in a hurry. She looked like she gained a new motive of her own.

What a terrifying smile!

"Wait!"

Vivi grabbed the elastic in my trousers and swung me around for a bit. As if she was getting a feel for it and then put me back on the ground.

"Clench your teeth, but don't close your eyes."

"Wait wait wait wait wait you're gonna carry me up there right? RIGHT- !!!!!"

Suddenly, there was immense pressure on my waist as my legs got lifted off the ground. And then my body did.

Vivi momentarily gyrated me around and then flung me into the sky. My cheeks got pulled apart from the wind as it rushed by every little inch of my body.

THAT LITTLE- URRGHHH!

It was almost impossible to keep my eyes open. But I had to!

I wouldn't be able to control my trajectory if I didn't.

The journey up top felt short. It might have even been shorter than the time I fell off the cliff. This kind of gravity obliterating speed meant that I overshot the cliff. By at least ten metres in the sky.

But with my agility and skills, the fall was definitely survivable. Surely.

There came a momentum up top in the air when everything was almost still. I could see the birds fly by. I could see the accursed church. Hell, even my own body felt frozen in place.

I used this opportunity to balance myself midair; my legs found their way facing the ground.

"Hardening." Before turning my entire torso hard, I got into a foetal position.

And then gravity started working again. It felt as if I was diving into a pond from a ledge. But there was no ledge to speak off. I rapidly catapulted onto the ground and rolled across it with the adventurer's leg clutched to my chest. I bounced like a ball that got kicked a little too hard.

To my rapture, the unpleasant tumble was stopped by a tree and luckily it wasn't my unhardened legs or my unhardened face that hit the tree- it was my back.

"Tch." I fell over and undid my hardening while immediately pushing the leg aside.

'Well, that went a lot smoother than I expected.'

Sure, Vivi probably didn't expect me to go that highhh. Sure she probably did have a little malice too. But it was probably just her losing control of that monstrous strength of her's.

I got up and walked over to the cliff. The large lady was carrying the adventurer like a bride. He was holding onto her shoulder for dear life after he saw what just happened to me.

"YOU ALRIGHT UP THERE?!" Vivi shouted.

"Yeah! There are plenty of places to land up here. You'll be fine!"

"Okay, then. Here I come!"

Vivi got into a rather grounded stance before she jumped like 7 metres into the air. I half expected her to cover the whole height in one jump, but that might have been a little difficult carrying a whole injured man.

She used the stones sticking out as a foothold to jump even higher. And higher and higher. Until she reached right underneath the ledge. The ledge extended outwards so there was only so much she could climb with that method. After all, you can't hang on to something if there's nothing to hang onto.

I rushed over to the other side to check up on them. And all I saw was Vivi hanging off a rock right under the ledge.

"Do you need any help?" I waved at her.

"Nah! I can still manage." She pushed her fingers in and jumped straight backwards. Until she was past the ledge. But she was mid-air now. With nothing she could grab on to or manoeuvre with.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!'

Suddenly, while she was mid-air, small balls of flame formed behind her back and exploded launching her up and over the ledge.

"Hup!" Vivi drifted along the floor before coming to a halt in a couple of meters. "Mission successful."

The man was gripping onto her for dear life. Well, at least he was alive.

"You're insane for doing that." I ran up to her and monitored the amount of blood draining off the man.

There was a decent amount.

"No, I'm not. I totally knew I could pull it off so I did." She bragged. While changing her princess carry over to a rucksack carry, she picked up his leg.

The adventurer was gripping her shirt tightly to alleviate the pain. But it was fine. The church was nearby and he would definitely survive the trip.

"Whatever." I sighed.

With that, I fulfilled all my side responsibilities as a human being- namely helping a helpless man and getting that lost hag out of the practice zone. I could start to undertake my own objective now-returning home.

A strong sense of nostalgia fueled by my recent trauma filled my mind. I knew that the only way to address that would be to go back to the only people capable of providing me with the healing and affection I needed.

"Anyways... Drop the guy off at the church and follow the road from there it'll lead you to the town. I'll meet you there." I threw Vivi off my track. I had a feeling that if I told her that I was leaving, she would either get clingy or just get in my way.

My duty towards her helping me was fulfilled the moment I pointed her in the right direction on our way out. We were strangers now... And quite frankly, I didn't need her anymore.

The sense of safety was a hoax. I couldn't get myself to trust her. Or anyone for that matter.

'If I counted correctly today should be the day Gern returned.' It still wasn't that late in the morning.

I was sure that I could make it in time.

"Aren't you coming with me to the church?" Vivi checked if the adventurer was still awake.

"I-I can't." I hesitated. That accursed place was worse than hell to me. "Plus you'd have to slow down to match my pace, just go." Well, that was the other reason I didn't want to stick around with her.

The church was a menace to me. All I wanted to do was go home and let this nightmare come to an end.

My family was waiting for me.

"Okay then. I'll drop him off and meet you." She checked the nestled man hazardously like she was lugging a sack of grains and darted off.

Using my increased agility to its fullest, I ran towards the Rottheim's gate. It would be a lie if I said that the joy and excitement I had while walking through these streets a week ago had left my memories. I still remembered every bit of it vividly. And I hated myself for feeling what I felt.

All that happiness to just get betrayed in the end.

'But it was fine!' I lied to myself. It wasn't. But it wasn't also long before this cursed journey ended. I only had to wait for so long.

There were eyes on me as I sped through the city half-naked. There were eyes on me that noticed my blood-covered figure. But it didn't matter. This was my last encounter with these people.

"Natural Predator." My senses increased to their maximum to see if Gern was even here, or if I missed him. As soon as I got close enough, I tracked the entire trade area… Flower sellers, barbers, alcohol vendors... and- "AH!"

I found the man with his sticky grey beard and his bald head and started running in his direction.

"It was a pleasure dealing with you." I could hear him say from this far away. The other party replied with a 'likewise'. The two of them were in sight I was only a couple hundred metres away. And I could hear them clear as day. My senses were getting sharper and sharper. The parties started exchanging goods and then Gern initiated some small talk.

"Y'know... Things were looking really good for the last couple of weeks, but then they broke the news to me."

"Oh about that? You knew the kid, right? It really was a tragedy." The other man replied.

"Hnn. It really was a shame that kid, Elyan died like that." I stopped in my tracks. "Many times throughout the week I wished that I hadn't brought him here with me. It feels like it was my mistake."

Eh? What was he on abo-

'I was dead?'

Heh?

"You can't be saying that in public, Mister Gern. What he did was a crime." The other party clicked his tongue.

"Come on, jumping on the hero can't be considered a crime. The boy was weak! If anything it's the hero's fault for letting himself be such an easy target."

"Shhh… Gern-san. This is a town run by the church. You need to be careful." He scoffed.

"What's wrong is wrong. His father was a nice man and my good friend so I knew him since his childhood. He was a wonderful kid.

And just because of some accident, that nice little boy is dead."