81 Chapter 81 - We Won’t Judge
Ken’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)
I look back at the group as we continue walking back to where the nature deers live, and assess their faces, and look for anything out of the ordinary, so far there seems to be none, but why won’t they look me in the eye.
Even uncle and auntie are avoiding eye contact with me, hmmm, there must be something that happened to them earlier when I was sleeping, but to what it is… meh, I guess I’ll find out later.
My fight earlier must have thinned out the forces of the monsters that came out of the gate, for we haven’t encountered masses of them, only a few, which we dispatched off quickly.
‘Arcane and Wind Magic: Surgical Sweep.’ A soft breeze flew past me towards a radius of… one mile… Oh it has upgraded, but isn’t this still level one when I checked it?
‘There must be some improvement to your power or cultivation when you were asleep.’ said White floating in front of me, I casually took a glance at him.
‘It seems so… I can check my Skills/Spells window right?’ I ask.
‘Yes you can.’ Okay, I’ll open it, ‘Status Window’, my stats displayed itself on the a transparent panel, and invisible to others, thought I might add that there.
[ Status window.
Name: Ken Rogers
Race: Human
Job: Apprentice/Disciple
Level: 30
Strength: 85
Agility: 85
Intelligence: 185
Defense: 8.5
Luck: 50
Mana Points: 8,000
Health Points: 6,880
AP (attack/magic power): 12,897
Primary Points: 0 ]
Wait what?! What happened? I stare at White accusingly, meanwhile taking a calm walk with the group, unsuspectingly. Wow kind of feels like I have a dark secret, then again it is a secret.
‘Don’t look at me like that, I may be of transcendent being but with my connection to you restricts some of my capabilities, like when you’re in a special kind of sleep, I’m thrusted into your subconscious, and when it’s not like so, I’m free to do anything.’ He said.
‘Oh, you did mention this one in the past too, but after so many of those kinds of sleep, I didn’t get any stats boost, why now?’ I thought to myself, mentally holding my chin.
‘Beats me, how about we check the spells or skills that you have.’ He said.
‘Okay, Open Skills/ Spells Window’
{Sorry, updating server}
Okay- What? Huh????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? What is happening?! I held out my hand above my head.
“Fire Magic: Firestorm.” I expect the magic circle to be of average one meter in radius, but oh boy was I shocked when it showed triple the size and summoned triple the amount of fire glaves, about 60 of them.
I stared wide eyed above my head, just as the group did as I had took a quick glance at them, not only were the glaves large in quantity, they’re also doubled the size with more menacing edges to them. I didn’t design this.
I dispersed my magic, making every glave disappear but this time, all of the weapons dispersed in a crystal fashion. Okay, now that’s cool but at the same time suspicious, I know that I have loved pretty spells of characters I know of and played in the past but, this is just so different from the ones I remember.
I wonder why, I shook my head and proceeded to continue walking- Uh, why aren’t they walking? I look at Syla as she noticed it too, she shrugged at me, or at least that’s what it showed, I look back at my friends again.
I recognize something.
“Are you guys okay?” I ask, as I notice them breaking a sweat, it’s not that furiously flowing but I see it even this far, and, is this fear I feel?
I know that sounds ridiculous but being together with them made me all the more familiar to their expressions, but this one is new on them, and one I am extremely familiar with. I feel my expression harden at the thought of my friends fearing anything, or anyone at that matter.
There is nothing more that I treasure than my friends and family in life and in this life,
I swear if I’d know who did this to them, I’ll return the favor a hundred fold. I calm myself by taking a deep breath to slow down my chaotic thoughts, for their sake as well as mine.
I don’t want them to be more agitated as it is. No, they’re trembling, but more so to our new companions, I know that I’ve constantly given advices and support to my friends in terms of personal problems, but seeing them tremble this much, aches my heart.
I approach Celine as I notice her eyes turning saggy through the tears she’s fighting to suppress, in fact, I feel that all of them are trying, hard, to suppress their emotion, this breaks my heart even more, I held Celine in my arms and she let me as she also wrapped her arms behind my back.
I rested my chin on top of her head.
I could hear her soft sniffles, I look back at my friends and see that Lila and Saber are furiously holding each other’s hands, Glen’s face scrunched up in anguish, Wilbert’s back was facing me, I could not see his expression, but I notice the slight tremble of his body.
Allen looked neutral, but I know that’s his way of putting up a façade to protect himself from the plethora of emotions swarming in his eyes, the other four fared no better, Flin was trying hard to suppress his tears, fear evident in his eyes.
Riyah and Icarus are in a tight hug burying their heads between their necks, Princess Lang is hugging herself, and I hear audible words of comfort coming from her mouth. Tension clearly in the air.
I look at the adults, but they’re deep in thought.
“Tell me, are you okay? What happened?” I ask Celine, ‘Concept: Concept of adaptation’ I released my power slightly, coaxing them to stable themselves and not get carried away by their emotions.
Celine shook her head, I know this reaction.
“You don’t want to tell me, in case what you will say will insult me or anyone here?” this time, Celine paused for a moment before slowly nodding. I smiled warmly at her, even if she can’t see it.
“That’s okay, I can always ask someone else.” She looked up at me, her face betraying her as her horrified expression says it all that she doesn’t want to tell me.
“Allen.” I called out snapping Allen out from his trance, he was the one I felt that had adjusted quickly to the mood. “Can you please explain the situation to me?”
“NO!” I look at Celine, shocked.
“Why not?” I ask softly.
“Because… it’s just… no.” she looked lost in thought.
“Celine, I’ve already swore to you and to each of our friend that I won’t hold any judgement in my heart towards your actions against, anyone in particular, don’t be afraid to confront things when you have the chance, and in this case, I have a feeling that it has something to do with me.” She reluctantly nodded.
“Don’t go acting all shy on me now, maybe this has something to do with Wilbert?” I ask teasingly, and I could see her cheeks show a tint of red. Hahaha, she’s so cute to tease.
I chuckled momentarily breaking the tension in the air.
“We almost died.” and it returned… What?
What?
WHAT?!
“Who did this to you.” I stare furiously at Allen. I look at everyone. “To all of you? Where it those twisted creatures that came out of the demon gate?! Did you guys have to finish them and made you fear them while I was asleep?! I swear that if I encounter on-“
“No Ken, it wasn’t them.” He said.
“Then who?!” I asked albeit a little loud.
“You.” said Allen, unhesitatingly. I stare at him in shock, not believing what he said, but when I looked back into his eyes, I knew he wasn’t lying, I nod slowly, and held my head down.
“I… have nothing to say.”
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! WHY WOULD I HARM ANY OF THEM, THEY ARE MY FRIENDS, WHY WOULD-
“KEN! Snap out of it!” I feel myself pop out of my degrading thoughts as Allen shook me. I stare at him dumbfounded, he was looking at me, desperately, as if searching for me, yet I don’t know how to respond.
“I-I, I’m sorry.” I say, my voice faint. Celine, right beside him.
“You don’t have to be sorry. Hear me out.” I look at him, directly into his eyes. “I know that you don’t mean what happened earlier, and I know that we’ve talked about this one in the past too, but don’t start blaming yourself for our near-death experience.”
“Don’t you guys… resent me?” I ask.
“Why would we resent you, when you’ve done so many things for us in the past, and don’t make me go through all of them for they were a lot.” He said, reminding me.
“Other than that, you’ve paid our mistakes in blood, remember that?” he added. I nod.
I feel my heart ache even more, unpleasant memories resurfaced to my head, but I quickly shook them away.
“You may think that this is your mistake and that you should bear it, that’s fine but let me remind you, just like you’ve said, don’t regret any action you’ve taken and go blaming it on others, or yourself for that matter,
Instead, take responsibility for the people affected by your decision, and this is me taking responsibility for my action.” He said. You don’t have to act that strong Allen, but I could not say those words.
“I should’ve told everyone to vacate the area once we’ve noticed the signs, but in the end, I had almost doomed the rest of the group because of my indecision.” I could feel his eyes turning sad, and angry for himself
“You’re not to blame on this, you were asleep, we already know what would happen if we stayed and that we could have just waited it out until your sleep ended, but we stayed anyway.” He added.
“Allen.” I voice out softly.
“I, We, know it’s much more your fault for your magic almost killed us, but it was my indecision that led us to the situation in the first place.” He said. “You’ve taught us to be understanding of any situation in any given time, and it was this moment that I realized what you meant.”
-------
