Tears and Appreciation

"The... gods?" I asked him, with confusion lingering in my question.

The man nodded. "Yes, the gods."

"What do they want with me?" I asked him while looking at Gabriel's body in the box.

"The gods want you to kill Yithrus again, so we can win against the Spectrals and regain the lost land. That's rightfully ours," he answered without pause.

I nodded my head until what he had just said processed through my head. I spat out, "What, what do you mean, kill Yithrus again!?"

"It's just as I said. The gods want you to kill Yithrus again. You wanted to know who was brought into this world with you, right? Well, it was him. You have to defeat him again. The only difference is that Yithrus knows of your existence as well and is preparing." He told me with a smile as if his explanation was supposed to calm me down.

I wanted to scream at the man, "After sacrificing everything to kill Yithrus, why must I do it again? Who are the Spectrals and why does it matter if Yithrus dies to them?"

Yet, I didn't. I didn't know what it was, but I felt tired and out of energy. Almost as if it had been drained out of me within a matter of minutes. It seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed the change because the man pointed to the wooden box and warned, "You should probably put that box down before it drains you of all your blood."

Blood? I thought to myself. I looked down to see the veins in my hands outlined in a dark red. The blood in my veins was black and was moving in real time. Their destination was a hole in the box of the bottom wooden piece.

I put the box on my dresser and looked back at my hands. The blood was no longer moving, but the outline of my veins was still visible.

After a few seconds, the veins followed, and my hands returned to normal. Fatigue was no longer affecting me and I felt my energy replenished as if I had just woken up.

"You must be careful. If you wish to bring your friend back, you must be able to offer enough blood without dying in the process to bring him back. If you manage to kill yourself during the process, I can guarantee you that the gods will make you suffer in the afterlife." the man warned me with a solemn tone in his voice.

I asked him in an irritated tone, "Can't the gods just get rid of him? Why do they want me to do it again?" putting emphasis on "again,"

The man rolled his eyes at me and said, "Because they cannot interfere. Regardless, what matters is that you need to kill Yithrus again and, in exchange, the gods will grant you a wish."

The word 𝘞𝘪𝘴𝘩 played in my head over and over. I get a wish if I do what the gods want. For what, though? If me and Yithrus intrusion into this world were because of the gods, why do they want me to kill him?

I wanted to ask him this, but he disappeared at the sound of a knock on the door. I quickly put the box away in my drawer and said, "Come in."

My door opened and along with it came a teary-eyed Alice. I was confused until the thought hit me that Alice might have heard everything the man had said in this room.

"Alice, it's not what it seems. The tru-" my words were cut short as Alice charged on to my bed and hit my shoulder with her fist.

"How could you just be quiet about it!" she yelled as she continued to hit me. I grabbed her fist and stopped her. While she struggled to free her fist, I asked her, "What are you talking about?"

Tears dripped down her face as she said, "That you can't use essence."

I let out a breath of relief, which caused Alice to be annoyed.

"Oh, so you're hiding more stuff? Is that why you feel relieved?"

"Stop." I looked her in the eyes and said, "The reason I didn't tell you guys is because you shouldn't have to worry about me."

She stopped struggling and continued to cry as she fell on top of me with her head landing on my chest. I hugged her and let her get her tears out before asking, "You're worried about the upcoming duel between me and Eren right?"

She didn't answer me but nodded while her face was still planted in my chest. I let out a small chuckle, which caused her to look up at me with a pout.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked me with a sniffle.

I patted her head and told her, "You're fragile. I'll keep note of it."

She hit my arm again before turning her head, so she didn't face me.

Throughout the time I've spent as Grim, I've never seen this side of Alice. Who knew that blank expression that met my eyes back then would be this.

I wanted to stop and just enjoy the moment, knowing I wouldn't have to worry about anything. Soon, something caught my interest, something that felt cold.

I looked around to see where it was coming from and was met with the source outside of the door. When Alice had come in, she closed the door leaving just a bit open.

Through that open gap of the door, I saw Fay looking into the room. Looking at me with eyes that showed a hint of madness in them.

I grabbed Alice by the shoulders and pushed her off me a bit, so I could face her. She looked confused until I told her, "I'm a bit tired and need to sleep now. However, thank you for worrying about me."

I gave her a smile while she wiped off the tears that had begun to dry on her face. She hopped off my bed and proceeded to open the door to leave.

Fay was no longer there, making me infer that he had left as soon as he saw Alice hop off the bed. As Alice made it into the doorway, she looked back to tell me, "Please, don't carry your burdens by yourself. We are family here, don't forget that."

I wanted to let them know, I really did. I didn't want to do this alone. Yet, I know, once they find out the truth, they'll leave me in solitude if they don't kill me first. Not until I have departed from this orphanage can they know. Yet, a part of me inside is scared that they won't see me as a person but a monster.

I shut out these thoughts and reorganized them to focus on where to go from here. The first thing off my list was to check out the box the man gave to me again.

The man!

I remembered that he had disappeared the moment Alice had knocked on the door. I looked where he was standing before he departed believing he would appear again. After looking for a few seconds, I realized he wasn't coming back and opened my drawer.

I took out the box and immediately put it onto the bed before quickly taking my hands off it. The first time I held it, it drained my blood to the point where I could feel a decrease in my energy. It must have drained my blood down to dangerous levels.

"If that's the case, how am I supposed to bring back Gabriel?" I asked myself.

I'll die from blood loss before I manage to even open an eye. I don't see how I could possibly do it unless it can be any blood.

Wait...wait...wait, he didn't say it had to be my blood. If that's the case...

An idea came to me on how to get the amount of blood I needed. Ms. Shiva goes hunting every week for meat in the forest that is behind the orphanage. In this world, they don't have appliances to keep stuff like meat fresh from what I've seen. So she goes hunting for meat the day before she plans to cook something that calls for meat in the recipe.

She does go to a town not far from the orphanage to buy some ingredients but the meat she hunts for instead. I'll go on one of the days she decides to go hunt and use the blood of the animal she kills to bring back Gabriel.

It feels like a solid plan, but something feels wrong. It shouldn't be that easy, nothing in this new life has been easy. I looked at the small box and asked, "You were called a gift by the old man, if that's true, will you be able to provide me with strength in this life?"

I looked at the box admiring its craftsmanship that I hadn't noticed before. It was purely black with white and gray carvings of figures all around it. I took a closer look without touching the box and saw that the white carvings represented people of some sort. On the front side, a white carving of a figure wearing a crown sat on a throne while other figures with wings worshiped the figure. On the sides of the box, it showed the same figures fighting gray figures with wings.

On the back side, a gray figure sat on a throne wearing a crown similar to the white, while gray figures with wings worshiped. The difference between the front side and back side was that the gray side seemed empty.

On the gray side, the wings of the gray figures looked torn and old, almost as if they were decaying. The crown on the gray figure looked cracked and withered.

I couldn't help but touch the crown of the gray figure that seemed alive. I continued to look at it until my eyes grew tired. Everything soon became black.