The Approaching Battle

Still lying on the bed, I thought about all the information that I remember from the novel and the things that have happened till this point.

Having to deal with stuff I don't know anything about is gonna be such a pain.

Thump!

A loud voice reached my ears. It was from above me.

Elina climbed up on the upper bunk.

"You could have climbed without that bang."

"..."

No response? Fine.

Well, for now, I guess I will just level myself up.

"System: Rank me up"

Ranking up means, I will go through a reconstruction of sorts inside my body which means I will go through a lot of pain but despite that, I decided not to use brain tempering to stop my pain receptors simply because it's a reconstruction of the whole body, I don't want to unintentionally interfere in it by trying to control my body or brain.

[Are you sure?]

"Just do it."

I don't want to think right now, so let's use pain as a distraction.

!

Sweat trailed down my back as I felt an intense nausea hitting me, my whole body felt like it was on fire, as a most twisting, wrenching, agonizing feeling embraced my whole body.

I gagged, but I didn't vomit, only managing to hack up a bit of bile in the back of my throat, my whole vision became blurry as the tears came out of my eyes.

I grabbed the bedsheets with both my hands, clutching them as tightly as possible, gritting my teeth.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For what felt like hours, was actually only 3 minutes.

The painful feeling went away, except my whole body was covered in sweat. Honestly, it felt sticky and disgusting.

I am gonna have to take a bath again.

"..Stop staring at me," I said as I huffed for air.

Elina, the dumb Elf is currently sitting beside me, watching over me.

"Here, drink some water"

I gratefully accepted it, I drank it down in one gulp lamenting the amount of water the cup of glass could hold.

"Just give me the bottle"

Who needs a damn glass?

"Take it slow"

Yeah, maybe I will say it to you when you will feel your throat parched.

Just as I tried to take the bottle from her hands by extending my hand I saw her face.

...

At that moment, in an instant, I calmed myself down.

"I am sorry," I said.

She has been worried about, taking care of me. My attitude towards her wasn't commendable, if anything I was just being a jerk.

Apologizing was the least I could do.

"Huh... Um, Okay" Elina replied in a disoriented voice, completely taken aback by my words. 

I am not really good with beating around the bush so, I will just ask directly.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

I asked in as gentle and calm voice as I could muster as I directly looked at Elina's light violet eyes.

Her eyes looking at me worried, her face seemed to be concerned.

Her face was one I was familiar with, far too familiar with, an expression that looked pained, one that was not physical but emotional

A twisted, ugly, suffocating emotion carried by a pure, innocent, and kind person.

An expression that I hated the most.

An expression that I couldn't bear to see.

An expression that I loved the most.

An expression that made me live.

"I am fine, worry about yourself. You just leveled up, right?"

I slowly extended my hand and touched her face, brushing her hair beside her long pointy ear.

"Um... Noah, what are you do-"

"If you want to say something I will listen, if you have something to ask I will answer."

At those words of mine, her eyes widened for a second.

I removed my hand from her face, as I waited for her.

"I am sorry" Her head was downcast, her voice a bit trembling, I had no idea what she was apologizing for but I was sure she knew that much, so I waited for her to continue.

"I talked with Edward before leaving the council room"

I remembered waiting for her outside the council room before coming here.

"Edward only attacked places ordered by... my brother"

Ah, so that's what it is.

The incident in Elina's and her brother's life happened 20 years ago before I was even born.

In other words, her brother became the slave of the demon and started working for him, technically managing the places to bring food and slaves.

What Elina is trying to say is, that if she wasn't there then her brother wouldn't have become a slave which resulted in 'my' village being destroyed by Edward.

...I really am an asshole.

I knew the story and its effect that would take place but I only and only cared about the effects that would be towards me.

I completely and utterly disregarded how it would make Elina feel, despite knowing her character. I have always been good at disregarding other people's feelings.

"You knew about it, right?" She slowly lifted her head, her eyes trembling.

In the council room, I had said about Edward working for the demon, the same demon her brother is the slave of.

And Elina had already told me about her past in the cave, add the fact that until now I have been pretty much rude to her, and how I have ignored her a lot of times, also, my rank is actually G+ (well, now it's not) she probably thinks it's D which means, I lied to her.

In other words, put 2 and 2 together and from her perspective, she thinks I blame her for my village's destruction and she blames herself too.

Taking a deep breath I opened my mouth.

"Actually, in the council room, it was all a lie. I just knew about Edward destroying the village, 'Kurosaki' village to be exact, it's a place where they were able to live in peace despite the chaos that was raging around the world because of the strong individuals that lived there. Edward used some of the prisoners to infiltrate the village and then with their help took the kids there as a hostage and managed to destroy the village. Do you understand? If I was part of that village I would been killed since kids were what he used to destroy it to begin with. I have no connections to the village."

I answered her, honestly.

It might seem stupid but I also needed a confirmation.

I looked at her, she seemed a bit shaken.

"Kurosaki village...Isn't that the-"

"Yeah, the village which mostly consisted of Elves, Beastfolk, and Dwarfs. That's why I attacked Edward in the meeting room and why I didn't mention the name of the village. Well, I actually thought I would have to give the name of the village so I decided to play the role of a 'human' who suffered through the hands of another 'human', which didn't happen in the end"

Kurosaki village comprised of other species more, it wasn't that they were hostile to humans, it's just how it was.

Regardless, the thing is, after a traitor would have been found as human, some sort of discord was bound to happen in the council room.

That was what I wanted to avoid, so I recklessly charged and tried to kill Edward or at least made it look like that, as a 'human' who suffered by a 'human', it wouldn't calm the ripples that would be caused but it's better than nothing at all.

"...That explains a lot of things, I never felt any anger or hatred in your voice. You also seemed okay with how things went there without being stubborn about trying to kill Edward, it was a bit baffling how you didn't pursue killing Edward afterward" Elina's soft voice reached my ears as she gave me a look of understanding.

I can understand that point of view, for someone supposed to have his everything stolen by Edward I took their explanation pretty calmly, must have been confusing for these guys.

Well, in the end, it was pointless, since the council members already knew about Edward.

This solo information changes a lot of things though.

"And I also didn't want to through the interrogation. I didn't want to tell them about my past or my life, so there's that"

I can't really say anything when I popped out of nowhere in this world. There's simply nothing I could say about it.

I had to be suspicious, too suspicious to be left to wander around.

Even Noah, who seems to have popped out of nowhere used a slave mark on his body and the good old excuse of memory loss to get away from unnecessary problems from the academy.

The slave mark Noah had wasn't the magical one though but a physical one made by simply burning a metal and well, touching it on your skin.

Painful, I know.

But this body no longer has that mark simply because my healing potions could even take care of scars.

"I see.." Elina said I expected more of a reaction.

What's with this understanding tone of hers?

It's as if she knows why I wanted to avoid the interrogation... what type of shit is she cooking in her head?

"...But why did you lie about your rank to me"

"I never did. I am G+ranked... I was moments ago. Now? I guess, I am F- ranked."

"No.. but you clearly had.. is it because of class? I have never heard of such a class though.." Elina said lost in her thoughts.

Remember what I said about classes? Yeah, they are something that gives you a bit of a boost.

For instance, normally the amount of mana a person contains depends on their body size but if you have magician class your mana will be more than what a person of your size could have.

Or a person with an assassin class having more better perception than you despite having the same perception rank.

So yeah, Elina is probably thinking what my class might be that would grant me the power of someone around a D rank despite being G+ ranked, during that time.

Again, I don't have a class, so her thoughts are useless.

With my finger, I flicked her forehead.

"Ow!"

"I don't think something like that would do any harm to an S-ranker like you, stop being dramatic, and don't bother thinking too much. I am just a F-ranker."

For now.

"I get it, I get it"

I looked at Elina's face once more.

Man, it's really weird.

Her actions towards me are weird, isn't she like, worried about anything I just told her? I am basically hiding my identity and lied my way through everything and she is okay with it.

Actually, it's not just being okay, Elina is favorable towards me.

Too favorable towards me, too understanding of me.

..It scares the shit outta me sometimes.

This reminds me of the Elf that was giving me stares in the council room, Ella.

"You told me you would answer one of my questions in the council room, right? So, why did you and that other elf in the roo-"

"Some of us in our kind have special eyes" Elina began to speak as if she knew what I wanted to know and I listened to her "With these eyes we can see the way one has lived their life, wait, that's not quite right. We can see how much struggle one had gone through their life, the blacker and darker the color surrounding the person the more they have lived a harsh life, the purer the white color the more peaceful and gentle life they have lived."

...

What the hell..?

This wasn't mentioned in the novel...

"..What color is mine?"

"It's pitch black, sticky miasma... I have never seen anyone with this much darker before."

...

"You said something about how the color determines how much one suffered, right?"

"That's right"

But, that's wrong. Suffering is subjective.

For instance, a person who has a good build and good stamina could easily run a lap compared to a person with bad stamina and a build, for such a person running a lap is way more cruel compared to the other guy.

A person with a strong mentality could easily take other people's criticism compared to someone with a weak mentality.

What I am trying to say is, I haven't suffered.

I have never suffered in my entire life.

It's a peaceful life for me.

It's always been peaceful and easygoing for me.

Hard life? I don't know what you are talking about. I seriously don't.

I looked directly into Elina's eyes, staring deep into them.

"You Elves or anyone else for that matter have no right to decide the suffering of others. It's something people decide for themselves, alone."

Who the hell do you think you guys are? Do they think they have some sort of higher ground to judge people's lives?

I remembered the gazes that Ella sent towards me, I now knew what gaze and look she was giving me.

..Ah, I feel like my stomach's churning.

Would it be too much to eradicate Elves?

!

"Stop it or I will kill you"

I tried to get away from Elina's grip but to no avail. No matter how much I struggled I couldn't get out of it, she didn't say anything the whole time.

As more time passed I simply stopped struggling.

Elina didn't let go of me, she didn't say anything.

Usually, people don't like hugging each other, more so when they are simply strangers.

But what if they are acquainted?

You will start feeling a warm, fuzzy feeling, it's a psychological reaction.

Just like I knew about Elina from the novel and by seeing her and talking with her I have ascertained her character, Elina too by looking at the color that surrounds me and my actions to this point now have somewhat ascertained my character.

We both understood each other to some extent.

That's why, I realized once again the type of person I am.

I lifted my head up to meet her eyes.

Her eyes didn't contain a look of pity or sympathy one would have for someone you think has lived a bad life instead it was a kind, tender, warm, motherly look.

It was similar, too 'similar' to when my mom had hugged me.

Giving up, I simply let myself be embraced.

Ah, I wanna go home.

I want to go back home. I wonder how the manga that I was reading will end, the episode that was supposed to be released.

I really need to know the answers to the cliffhangers that I have been left on.

..I slowly wrapped my hands around her, and Elina gently stroked my head.

"You need to leave this place, it's going to become a battlefield soon"