79. Return (1)
I wonder since when I started to hate coming to school, I wanted to stay in my room without closing to school even a meter, but I couldn't do that, or Mom and Dad would get worried.
I always thought school was fun before, at least till elementary school. Once the two of them are gone, school is still fun, but not as fun as before. When I got into middle school, it happened. the ugliness of humanity. Their jealousy burns my very being. There's one person in the school who can be called perfect in everything, whether it's beauty, knowledge, sports, everything. She can be called the embodiment of perfect. That girl sees everything the same, a mere background except her family and a few people.
I was among those people she didn't see as mere background, and I'm sure their jealousy was because of that. I can befriend her because we came from the same school and that person was among us.
Did I hate her? Do I regret becoming friends with her? No, I'm not. That one thing that I can definitely say is I still like her.
And this problem can't be solved with her involvement. It started with mild jealousy, like missing pens, books, or similar things. Still, two years have passed since then.
It became more outrageous. Now I need to bring two sets of uniforms when I go to school, or Mom and Dad might find out what happened.
Did I not retaliate? Of course, I did. I'm quite a delinquent in elementary school. Still, those guys' parents were superior to my parent's. I can't do anything about that. I can only remain passive threatened by them.
Aahh~ it's finally come to an end. They wanted to take a picture of me in a pose, without clothes.
My life finally came to an end….
***
More than two years have passed since Max's death…
"Oi Oi Oi!! No one told me about this!!?" a black-haired young man spoke with a rough breath.
"you're the one who picked this OutMission!!" another brown-haired young man replied angrily.
"both of you shut up! And RUuuunn!!" another young girl screamed as she ran right behind the two teenagers. The three wore the official uniform for Crimson Eagle's member, but it's pretty ragged now. It's like they have experienced a hard battle before, just about a few meters behind those teenagers.
A huge humanoid creature, at least three times bigger than an adult man chasing after the Party, with its appearance and each step
*Bam *bam *bam
a huge body over tens meter height. The strong and hard-looking arm and legs, made of earth and stone. The ground shook a little. It easily shows just how heavy that thing weighted. It's Stone Golem, a Rank B Monster chasing after the Party.
"Ah!!" The slowest one, the girl screamed as she fell because of the pieces of a broken stone thrown by the Stone Golem. When the two young men in front saw what happened, they stared at each other for a moment before they nodded simultaneously, and with their broken weapon, they stood in front of the girl.
The three took the OutMission to eliminate the Undead outside the ruins. The black-haired young man with a sword, the blonde-haired young man with a spear, and lastly, the only girl on their Party, with a shield, their Party can quickly finish their OutMission. This wasn't their first time taking an OutMission, and their Party can be called an Experienced rookie.
But lately, their Party didn't get satisfying OutMission, whether taken by another party or The OutMission wasn't suitable with their Party. It resulted in Lower Credit for each member of the Party than usual.
That's why, with their frustration, curiosity, and greediness. When The three had just finished OutMission effortlessly, they made the worst decision.
They entered the ruins for their treasure, which had already been prohibited, and warned by their party receptionist. Precisely what they called 'Curiosity killed the cat.' A few minutes after they started to explore, they only found a bit Undead here and there, which even boosted their confidence. But it was only until they encountered Stone Golem, the Party's attack didn't even scratch the Golem. In contrast, the Golem attack instantly wasted the party equipment.
They immediately decided to escape after that, which is wise. However, those three didn't expect the Golem would chase after them outside the ruins too.
Stone Golem is known for its strong body, which means they are specialized in defense, but that does not mean they are weak in the offense. It's just The Stone Golem defense was more outstanding than that. So you need an attack that can bypass its protection, or it would be impossible to subjugate. Also, their weakness is that they can't use Magic, unlike other Monsters, except for a few special ones. Still, it doesn't mean they don't have any ranged attack at all. But, hey, they had a body like a human. They had limbs, picking and throwing something so simple there's no way they can't do that.
The three of them braced themselves for the last struggle against the Golem. And when the Golem attacked, it swung its heavy and massive fist toward the Party.
"Glacies, Defense
*boom
The three, bewildered by the sudden turn of event, still the three sighed in relief, knowing the Golem's Fist didn't fall into them, their lives were saved. When they looked back toward the owner of that voice
*step *step *step
They saw a beautiful silver-haired girl slowly walking toward them, "I leave the rest to you, Lex," the Beautiful Silver haired girl, Aria, said
"Okay," Lex replied. From the three's point of view, Lex came out of nowhere surprised them a bit. Still, at the same time, those two Lex and Aria appearances made the three sigh in relief. Their tension eased a lot, that's because the two of them were popular among the Crimson Eagle, the fastest rookie's Party to reach Tier B.
"Tick Tock
"""….""" The three watched that despaired again because nothing happened with The Golem even after receiving an attack with that amount of Mana.
They immediately called Aria, who was beside them. "we're okay here! Please help your Party! We didn't need to be protected" they thought Aria waited beside them were to protect them, but that wasn't the case at all.
Aria replied only with a single word, "Watch."
The Golem swung its fist again toward Lex. Lex avoided that. With a small step back, he dodged the attack with hairbreadth distance, "ahh!!" the three yelled out. They can't see Lex avoided the attack. They thought Lex was hammered into a fish cake. yet
Lex appeared after the dust receded "Layla Style's Fist, Second Resonance" he touched the Golem and slowly walked back toward the Aria and others.
"""wow!!!""" the three squealed at the same time, they were astonished when Lex came out unscathed, and the next thing left them in a daze as they admired Lex, The second time Lex touched the Golem crumbled into dust.
***
"so, that's what happened…." Lex replied, the five of them on board Crimson Eagle's Ship, already on their way toward Crimson Eagle's Moving Island, which is also Crimson Eagle's headquarters.
Aria and Lex have become a party since last year. It's because Mio, Cleos, Arthur are back to their hometown once the three years have finished. At the same time, Aria officially joined the Crimson Eagle, and Lex asked to extend his time for a bit more. That's how and the reason Lex and Aria become a party. Other than they are familiar with each other, the other members can't catch up with their Party.
It's just a coincidence Lex and Aria passed that ruins and found those three wearing Crimson Eagle uniforms chased by a stone golem.
"if you weren't lucky, you three already lose your life by now," Lex said once he heard what happened to their Party. Aria was like usual she won't talk about anything unnecessary, so it's Lex's job to communicate trivia things like this.
"what's your name?" Lex asked, from the three appearances, they were only about two or three years younger than Lex and Aria
"Matt Fortalia," The black-haired young man replied
"Roy Fortalia" Next, the brown-haired young man and lastly
"Sonia Fortalia, we're Numbers. We came from the same orphanage," the only girl replied and explained
"I see," Lex said "you three understand your situation at that time, no? I knew you three frustrated by your condition, but you shouldn't do something stupid like this"
The three reluctantly nodded their head
"I'm sure you three close enough as a friend to become party like this"
"me and Roy? Nah, never," Matt chided in.
"that's my line!" Roy retorted while Sonia looked toward at them, exasperated
"well~, well~ hear me out first" Lex broke them up, Matt and Roy still glared toward each other even after that. And the three shuddered when they felt something changes with Lex. It's not the outside experience. It's unseeable pressure. Like when facing your superior or angry father who is rarely angry.
"you see," Lex solemnly said, "it's too late to fix after they have gone" Lex gripped the pendant on his neck.
"it's after you lose something that you will regret deciding something so stupid like that. So carefully think what would happen if we weren't there at that time."
And after a few seconds
*pap
Lex clapped his hands "well, enough serious talk. Make sure to check your body when you go back, take care," he said, and he tried to leave the three of them and go on his way with Aria… but.
"Um," Lex's uniform was pulled, "??" Lex turned his head and saw it was Sonia who drew it. This year Lex's height almost reached 165 cm. At this age, two and three years have a considerable size difference. He saw a short girl pulling his uniform from behind like this.
(cute~) (ahem! I shouldn't show a sloppy face like! Held yourself me!!) Lex then patted Sonia's head.
"what's wrong?" Lex smiled and replied, "You have to remember Lex was handsome in childhood. Now he became more handsome as manliness started to show up. Sonia immediately blushed by Lex's action.
(easy~~) "are you alright?" Lex asked again
"ah!" Sonia snapped out, "I'm okay! It's okay, no problem with me, eh? What I'm trying to say just now um… er…."
"haha. Calm down. It's okay. Take your time," Lex said
""Sonia?"" both Matt and Roy stared at their childhood friend strange antics
(so young~~ and naïve~~) Lex thought
"right!" Sonia exclaimed as she finally remembered, "Mr.Lex, can you show me how you shorten your chanting? I'm a bit troubled with that part."
"ah," Matt shouted, "I want to see it too! Mr.Lex, you shorten your chant so short before!", "me three!" Roy too joined the talk
(hmm… not bad~ being admired like this~ it's totally different from when I started when I criticized because I can't use Magic) "well, why not? I can't show you too many, but I can show you a few simple ones" (caused there's not many I can use!)
"""yeah!!""" the three shouted at the same time.
"well, let's start with the most basic Mana Skin. The real and official chant is: 'Harden and become my skin
"Whoa!!" Matt exclaimed, "did you see that Mana Control! That's sick!!" while the other two nodded their head aggressively
(haha. It's too early to be surprised!)
"Next, My Original Magic," Lex said
"!!" the three gasped and unconsciously gulped their saliva
"Tick Tock
"""W, whoa!!""" they were surprised like before. Still, there's something stuck in their mind that they didn't know how to explain.
(hmm? Strange, why do they look like they saw something weird? Ah! It must be my Original Magic is too plain. I shouldn't choose that. Damn!)
"anyway, Lastly, an Ancient Magic," Lex said, and the three became so excited once again.
"the original chant is: 'Neutrum, flow within me, circulate the flow reach all of its ends, be my blood, be my flesh, be my bone, replaces and duplicates
(How's that!! Hmm…?)
(Aree? What happened? Why do they look so confused? It's like they just saw some strange creature!) Lex didn't know what to do with this awkward situation. The three kept staring at Lex strangely.
(at least gave me some reaction!! I didn't know what to do like this!) unexpectedly the help came from the person Lex expected the least
"Lex," Aria suddenly called, "I've been thinking since we partied together, but you do have a strange and unnatural way to shorten the chant."
"eh?" Lex was astonished "strange? How? To shorten a chant, you need to calm your head for better imagination, which made it easier to imagine your Magic, and a few words left was for that,"
he had no idea what Aria was talking about.
(isn't this how they do it? Did I make a mistake?)
"yes, that's how you do it, like Mine, 'Glacies. Offense
"eh? Seriously?" Lex turned his head toward the three, and the three nodded their head at once
(what!?)
(Livia!! You tricked me!?!?)
When they reached Crimson Eagle's headquarter, Lex instantly ran toward the Tenth Area.