Salana's Past

Blake looks at Salana who was biting her lip tensely and averting her gaze away.

It was not obvious, but he has his own suspicion from the start.

Salana usually takes account of her 'world' if Blake asked anything about the Lunaris game, comparing it to the Lunaris game itself. But this is obviously odd. If she's a Persona, a guiding spirit made by the Lunaris game, then her world should be the game itself.

Finding that she refers to another world, Blake becomes skeptical of her origin.

Now that she's being worked up due to the Inevitable Apocalypse, almost as if she has experienced it first-hand, Blake realizes that it seems that his guess is correct. Salana is not only a Persona created by the game.

In some way or another, she was a living person once, living in her own world.

"Answer me, are you actually a living person...?"

"I don't know"

Hugging her own body tightly, the question that he asked clearly troubled her right now.

Back then Salana said that she would tell her story when she was ready, and now that it's almost exposed, the pressure that she's experiencing troubles her greatly. And Blake could see that, her body is visibly shaking.

Feeling painful throbs in her head, Salana could only take a seat on the sofa.

Seeing her like this makes Blake feel guilty for arguing with her earlier, then again, it's his own personal view that he needs time to get to know about these Ghouls and Vampires before he could kill them nonchalantly.

Maybe it's weird for Salana, but killing is a taboo, an act of the devil in this world.

'I don't think she remembered everything, her past at least. But it must be traumatizing for her to actually be like this when she's usually the one calming me in the recent hard times' Blake thought, shaking his head with a sigh.

Due to the heated argument, the two of them ended up like this.

Just as he was about to apologize for making her reminisce about the past, he stopped.

"Everything is a blur... I don't remember exactly what happened to my world. But one day, I woke up in an empty space, and I was told that I'm chosen to be a Persona that would help the Privileged Player I'm bonded with to get stronger before the Inevitable Apocalypse came..." Salana suddenly opens her mouth, saying what's inside her mind.

Following that, she grasped her chest, seemingly in pain, "I also remember the pain"

"When I heard the voice says the Inevitable Apocalypse, I feel an excruciating pain in my heart. Almost as if I had lost something so dear to me, yet I don't remember. No matter how much I try to remember, the pain only grew and grew to the point that it cripples me"

Upon saying this, the tears in her eyes started to overflow and drizzle down her cheeks.

Salana was crying, the thought of it was painful for her.

"Even though it's painful, when I woke up and find you, I have this desire inside of me to make you as strong as possible before the Inevitable Apocalypse came. It didn't come from the voice, it was a desire that came from the deepest part of me. Maybe something happened to my world during the Inevitable Apocalypse, I don't know. But..."

Pausing for a second, Salana raised her teary eyes to look at Blake intently.

"I know for certain that I don't want you to feel the pain I'm feeling right now" She added.

Listening to her explanation, pouring what was held inside her heart, Blake could only grab his head that is overwhelmed with information before he went and sat beside Salana. "Can I touch you now?"

"Hmmm...? What for?" Salana asked back, but she materializes her body anyway.

Realizing that her body has become slightly denser instead of being only an astral form, Blake pulls her into his embrace. It caught Salana off guard, and her teary eyes widened for a second.

Despite feeling confused, Blake feels like this is the right thing to do, "Listen to me"

"I don't know what happened to your world, and I couldn't possibly fix the pain it causes you. But if me getting stronger to prepare for the Inevitable Apocalypse eases your pain, then I'll do it, I'll listen to you" He continues softly.

But this made Salana's eyes even more teary and she started sobbing in his embrace.

While calming Salana down, Blake couldn't help but click his tongue in displeasure. It became a habit of his, 'Sigh... I'm really weak to a woman's tears. But then again, I always feel bad when my sister cries'

A moment later, Blake went out for a bit suddenly.

Not long after, he came back from somewhere bringing something in his hand.

Salana has already calmed down a bit despite her eyes still puffy from the crying. However, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw what Blake brought back, "I still owe you ice cream, didn't I? Here, eat it before Maura woke up"

"Hahh... really now? I'm starting to really suspect you now, Blake" Salana replied with a laugh.

Upon hearing this, Blake raised an eyebrow, "Suspect what?"

"Not only are you a hidden genius in fighting but there's also a hidden playboy somewhere inside you. Or should I say, you've become bolder now that you got experienced with that Julia woman?" Salana said teasingly, winking her eyes playfully.

Like a tomato, Blake's face instantly turns red from the sheer mention of Julia.

Averting his gaze, he tries to deny her suspicion, "What are you saying? That's nonsense"

"But don't be mistaken, I'm not going to be swayed easily by this ice cream gesture" Grabbing the vanilla-flavored ice cream from Blake's hand, Salana then started eating it while facing the other way. She turns out to be hiding her rosy face, "Though I said that, I hate that it's actually working on me..." She whispered.

Since the matter has been resolved, he decided to log back into the game again.

Of course, he didn't forget to leave a note to Maura to stay alert.

In addition to that, Blake also told Salana to stay in the real world to keep an eye on the area alongside Maura. If there's any threat appeared, he wouldn't hesitate to log out of the game knowing that the Ghouls and Vampires are a big threat for him.

Upon opening his eyes in the game world, Blake was confronted with a surprising scene.

Tara is right beside the bed, staring at him intently.

"W- What are you looking at me for? Did I sleep for too long?" Blake asked with a wry smile.

Due to the situation in the real world, he must've slept for too long inside the game world. But when he asked that, Tara ignored his questions and strikes him with a question of her own.

"I'm wondering, can you explain what a Player is?"

"Eh...?"

Blake needs a moment to properly understand Tara's question right now.

It was then, his eyes widened as he now realized that Tara actually asked him about a Player. 'Hmmm... I think this is for the best. I should come clean now, it's going to be hard to find an excuse if I sleep for too long in the game world'

Just like that, Blake decided to tell the truth to Tara.

Since there's no other way around it, he told her about the fact that he came from another world. And the Lunaris world is the second world for him and is also a world that he use to get stronger.

Tara is an NPC, so he didn't say anything about her being not real or that this world is a game.

For an NPC, that would be insulting to say.

'But then again, if Salana's world is real, there's no guarantee that this world is not a real world too. The one that made this game must be a God or something, to be able to connect worlds is quite an ability' Blake thought, doubting his entire worldview.

Listening to Blake's explanation, as expected, Tara was surprised.

"So you're saying that you lived in another world, and you came here to train because your world is going to be hit with an approaching inexplicable doom? Am I summing it up correctly?" Tara recap the story and came to her conclusion.

Upon hearing this, Blake nodded his head. It's more or less like that.

Rubbing her chin for a moment in thought, she then asked again, "If that's the case, then there are more players coming here, right? Do the people from your world coming here have something to do with the additional moons appearing in the sky?"

"P- Probably, I don't really know about that' Blake replied with a dry laugh.

Surely, the appearance of the additional moons was the cause of the Lunaris Game. If he admitted that, then he was afraid that Tara would point her fingers at him for bringing a catastrophic event to her world.

Blake couldn't admit that, it was not his or his world's choice after all.

Now that he already comes clear with his situation, a question popped into his head.

"Where did you know about players? Did you encounter players in the city?"

"Yes, there are a couple of the city folks that talked about players. As for meeting a player, I don't think I know because you don't look different from us. Also, the woman that you were with said that she's a player"

"Ah... Angel said that, huh"

Although it has come to this, it's not a bad development. Players would become common.

Other parts of this Lunaris world probably are already aware of Players, there's no saying or rules that the Players couldn't admit that they are Players in this world, so there must be people out there advocating that they are Players.

In a moment, the two left the inn and heads out.

Since he already promised Salana that he would be stronger, then he couldn't stay still for too long, 'I still have the quest I take from the Arcane Knight Guilds, maybe I'll finish that now. Then, I'll get my class promotion quest. But that is if this place has it considering that this is a Novice City'

Blake and Tara walk through the paved road in search of Linthia.

Realizing that Tara left Linthia alone with Angel earlier, Blake was surprised but she said that she had just gotten back to check on him. In addition, she also feels sick when too far away from him so she needs to occasionally come back.

In the last couple of days, they got close to Angel, so Tara thought that it was okay.

On the contrary, Blake thought that it was not okay.

Knowing full well that Angel is still rather weak in combat prowess despite her high level. If the assassins attacked, then she wouldn't be able to protect Linthia, and that's going to be a problem.

Just as the two were walking through the paved road, a shout came from the side.

"Raise the banners! We are under attack!!"