"Hello there, Reika〜"
As the feminine figure before me had pulled her cloak off, what was revealed was silky smooth red hair, and pristine yellow eyes staring at me with ulterior intentions...
"H-hello... M-Myria..."
I said nervously as I realized in just how bad of a situation I currently found myself in...
'I made her mad back in the castle, treated Haruto wrongly for no apparent reason, ran away from the castle in such a crucial moment and was about to fight with 'Boukyaku' without anyone supervising me...'
...
'Yep... I'm dead!'
I could quite literally feel the killing intent that began oozing from behind her caring and devious smile...
"Reika〜 Why did you run away〜?"
Those words left her mouth with a sweet and caring voice, one would take it as actual, genuine concern but the sheer amount of hate and frustration behind them told a completely different story...
"Eheheh〜 Myria, why are you here?"
I'm trying to avoid the blame ok? I know it isn't smart to play the 'innocence' card in these situations but I was going to try it anyways!
...
...
...
But of course, that failed...
Myria without even answering me properly turned around and in a swift movement killed the nearest petrified demon...
*Thud*
As the body of their deceased comrade dropped dead, the other demons began trembling far more than before...
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they died from shock at this point....
But of course, I was in a similar boat...
As Myria turned around once more to face me, she took a deep breath and calmed down before continuing...
"Ok, Reika〜... Why did you leave the castle without telling anyone〜?"
"Ummm... Myria, why do you want to know?"
...
...
...
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
After hearing my response, a vein had quite clearly popped in Myria's forehead... And before I knew it 3 demons had dropped like corpses as Myria inhaled and exhaled again and again...
"Hah〜 Ok... Reika... Why did you leave the castle without ANYONE ELSE?!"
"Ehhh, Myria why are yo-"
"Reika... Tell me... WHY. YOU. LEFT. THE. CASTLE."
"..."
I would not cooperate with any of my old classmates...
They tortured, bullied and neglected me far enough... I won't go back to that...
...
...
...
But up to now, I had noticed something...
'Wait... only Myria is here?'
As my mood lightened and my feelings became expectant... I asked what I had been hoping for:
"Myria, did you come alone?!"
"Yeah, the heroes from Everidian couldn't move as fast so I left them under Haruto, they're quite loud... and annoy... WOAH REIKA?!"
Without even allowing her to finish... I had run up to Myria and embraced her tightly as I repeatedly muttered
"Thank you..."
Myria was taken aback quite a bit from my sudden embrace yet, she quickly became comfortable too and managed to calm down as she patted down my hair...
"Hah〜 Alright... Reika. Can you please tell me why you left the castle now?"
I just lowered my eyes as I finally gave in to her questioning...
'I have nothing to lose if I just told her...'
"I... The heroes from... You... hah〜"
'Ok Reika... Calm down...' I felt unfathomably insecure about telling, literally anything, about my past Myria...
And of course, I felt the most nervous, anxious and stressed about telling her that I used to be male...
...
...
...
I'M NOT A PERVERT, OK?!?!?!
...
'Hah〜 But thinking about it consciously, the moment I begin telling her my past... I bet she won't remain my friend... Kira was just luck... I bet... WOAH- WHAT?!'
I had been stuck within my thoughts until something, I hadn't expected, had finally occurred...
I guess the demons wouldn't simply remain petrified in fear forever waiting to be slaughtered like their comrades...
But I didn't think they'd be as dumb as to actually attack us, rather than running away.
Right now the 26-or-so demons left were charging at us with fear struck into their expressions, but were charging fiercely towards us anyways.
Without much choice left, Myria immediately began retaliating the demons mercilessly, killing them with her bare hands... It was both, quite astonishing and weird seeing such a beauty turn muscular demons into shreds in a single poke...
But I while I had been itching for a fight... I'd rather run away from Myria if I have the chance...
'Ok... If I manage to lose her, I may still be able to find... Scarlet... Alone... ...'
But before my thoughts were fully expressed in my mind... silence had fallen on the area again...
'There's no way, there were 26 demons right?!'
But as I turned around...
...
...
...
Yep...
'1, 2 ,3 ,5 , 10 ,30... yep, that's all the corpses...'
As I looked at who was looking at me...
Myria had pretty much obliterated all of the demons in mere instants...
Well, I knew that they were obviously quite weak, but I thought she would at least take a minute or two...
But nope... she had finished killing every single one of the demons that now decorated the ground of the forest as nothing more than minced meat...
And without a single word escaping her lips, Myria began walking very slowly towards me...
I could feel her frustration...
Immediately seeing her tired eyes, a single thought blazed through my mind:
'I'm in so much trouble...'
And with that a subsequent thought, I wish I wouldn't have had also crossed my mind...
'R-RUN!'
...
...
...
*Thud*
The second I even tried to run away, Myria grabbed my ankle without me having even the slightest instant to force my foot off the ground... Without any warning, Myria suddenly pulled my ankle with enough strength to throw me off balance as I fell face first into the ground...
As Myria remained to hold a tight grasp over my ankle she repeated herself in a far more menacing tone than before...
"Reika〜?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you leave the castle without telling anyone〜?"
"..."
I had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide or was even able to lie at my friend's face...
At this point, I was simply out of options... 'Hah... I've got nothing else in my hand...'
As my eyes began welling up, I spoke softly...
"Alright... I'll tell you..."
I felt Myria's expression soften along with her grip...
"Ok... Tell me... I'll listen..."
※
*Sobs* *Sobs*
"So... *Sniff* that's why you hated Haruto at first..."
Myria was currently crying something close to a river as her sheer amount of tears began turning her eyes red...
"Pretty much... *sniff* It isn't that big of a deal... *Sniff* I managed to deal with most of it already..."
Yeah, I wasn't much different either... I was also crying enough to fill a bucket or kill a normal person because of dehydration...
In the end, I had managed to open myself up to Myria quite a lot this time around...
Other than the fact that I used to be male at some point, I told her everything... How I was bullied, shunned, killed... all of it....
And in contrast to Kira, Myria had stayed quiet during the entire story as silent tears rolled down her cheeks...
It was a sad image to hold before you, and I don't know when, but at some point, I had started crying as well as I kept telling my story...
But I had finally opened myself up to another person in this world... I felt so relieved I could finally tell my story to my friend from this wicked and strange world...
We had been smiling and crying silently up to this point while I told my story, but as I finished, Myria hugged me caringly while we both kept crying away...
"So what now Myria...?"
I asked innocently, thinking about it straight... even if Myria now knew of my circumstances, we would still have to cooperate with the Everidian heroes. At most, she could possibly protect me from interactions with my classmates yet not much more...
"We will have to go back and join up with Haruto right?"
But as I looked up to Myria... she simply shook her head as she spoke to me softly....
"No... let's go save Scarlet... together..."
"..."
I was taken aback... I didn't expect Myria to be so comprehensive... yet for some reason, I wanted this...
"But... won't Haruto and my classmates arrive in to interrupt us?"
Myria then released me from her embrace as she stood up and shook off the dust from her clothes after sitting down on dirt for over an hour or two...
"Nah, their troop was far too slow and easy-going. If we hurry up a bit, we should make it well before your classmates come through here..."
And as she finished that sentence Myria reached out to me with an extended hand...
"We can save Scarlet... but we need to do it together..."
...
Without any more hesitation, I immediately took Myria's hand as my mood began improving...
As we now both stood to face each other wearing honest smiles I enthusiastically asked:
"So, how do we find the demon king?"
And with a small grin, Myria immediately answered deviously:
"Well, I took the liberty to ask Haruto right before leaving him behind, so I know where he's keeping Scarlet locked up."
I was left to smile a bit wryly at her response: 'Only Myria can truly plan for everything huh?'
And without much more time to waste, We both began walking further into this gloomy forest...
"Don't worry Scarlet... Hang in there..."