On the board of requests is an easy
one with decent pay. My Sparrows and I receive these job requests since I’m the
new hero and the Sparrows have proven to be effective in keeping the peace. Sometimes,
I take these requests myself with some help. This time I ask Stella to come with me.
“What’s this request want us to do?”
“Just ordinary pests in the deep
wilderness have popped up again. It shouldn’t be much trouble.”
“Is it just going to be the two of
us?”
“Yeah. Donna is passed out drunk
because she out drank several people back at home with some of my Sparrows and
Corso.”
“Corso joined her stupid game? I’m
not sure if I should feel bad for him or not.”
“I don’t think either of them with wake
up until later today. The request shouldn’t be too hard for us to fulfill
anyway.”
“Alright. I’ll go out with you.”
“Thank you.”
Stella and I ride out to the deep
wilderness on my personal horse.
On the way to our destination, Stella
asks me, “How are things going?”
“Boring. I’ve been doing nothing
besides keeping up my public image with meetings. What about you?”
“The same except I just train my
skills to avoid getting rusty.”
“I keep forgetting to do that.”
“I can help you train after this if
you’d like. It’ll probably be our only opportunity since Donna likes keeping
you to herself.”
“That’s true. We’ll train after
this.”
“So you do admit that Donna is controlling
of you.”
I stop the horse in a clearing
where the forest isn’t too thick.
“Yeah. What about it?”
“Well, she separates you from people
who you know and only trusts you to be with the Sparrows and your family. I’m
willing to be that she’s always nice around your family is because she’s trying
to impress them and solidify her place in your family.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, but she keeps separating
you from me.”
“And fangirls too. I wouldn’t
think that fangirls would be more aggressive than your average bandit.”
“Benedetto!”
“What? Do you really have to bring
this up now?”
“Yes! If I said this when Donna was
around, then she’d probably beat me up.”
“Good point, but I’m sure if enough
time passes, she’ll like you.”
“How can you be sure? You’ve only
known her for a month.”
“Can we talk about this later? I
see the monster’s lair up ahead.”
“Fine.”
The monsters we are facing are just
simple four-legged man-beetles or at least, that’s what I call them. Experiments
from the Cuchillos can get out of hand and escape their clutches and end up in
different places to cause trouble. In some cases, other cultures cause these
mutated creatures to spawn through demonic rituals or by playing with magic
they don’t have permission to use. We find some of these man-beetles come out
to ambush us from the trees, but we’re able to shrug it off and kill the
incoming assault.
We then make our way to their nest
and cut our way through their numbers. In their sticky nest, we find the bodies
and bones of wildlife and some people. It appears that this nest is made from their
bodies. Some of the bodies that aren’t completely ripped apart appear to be
somewhat alive. They’re breathing though they don’t seem conscious. On closer
inspection, their bodies have weird egg-like things in them. The bodies are being
used as nests for their eggs in more than one way. Despite this disturbing
revelation, we press on and destroy the nest. I’ll have to get a clean-up crew
here so that this place doesn’t infect the forest.
Stella and I leave the nest once it’s
taken down.
“Now where was I.”
Here we go again.
“How can you stand the fact that
Donna is separating you from your friends? Don’t you care about us?”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked
you to be part of my Sparrows. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t try to be with you without
her knowing. I know that ever since I became a hero I’ve changed, but I still
care for my friends.”
“Then show me. Spar with me. Right
here.”
“What? Having your back in that
disgusting bug hive wasn’t enough-hey!”
She’s already slashing her knives
at me.
“You weren’t the best fighter back
in the day. Let’s see if you’ve improved.”
“Alright then.”
I block her attacks and evade them
then counter one of her attacks by pulling her to me with her momentum then
tripping her.
“I’ve learned a couple of tricks
from my Sparrows.”
“I don’t doubt it coming from those
ex-bandits.”
Stella continues to attack me, and I
go with the same strategy except I find different ways to trip her so she
falls.
“Are you done yet, Stella? I’m sure
you’ve lost several times because of how many times you’ve fallen on your face.
Woah!”
She almost hits my face with a
throwing knife, but I manage to deflect it in time.
“What’s your problem?!”
Stella looks like she’s about to
cry.
“Is something the matter?”
“Just…I’m just checking your reflexes.
You’re a better fighter now than you were before. You’ve definitely changed.”
“If you think that being with Donna
has made me stop caring for you, then you’re wrong. I-”
“Then why haven’t you reset time so
you can make it so we can be married instead?”
“Because it’s better this way. If I
had chosen differently, then we wouldn’t have achieved peace so quickly. I mean
can you imagine a way of taking down the Socia Agmina without Donna’s help?”
“No. God did bring you two together,
so I shouldn’t be holding onto the past. I’m sorry for thinking of myself.”
Dang it. I didn’t want to bring her
down like this. Me choosing Donna is still affecting her and it’s going to take
her a while to get over it. I’m still trying to get used to it as well.
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