Walking, No it's more like dragging. Dragging her body along the path Lena sees a village in the distance. The last time she had to worry about people finding her out was quite a while ago. People stopped recognizing her ever since she had lost her build. She holds no weapon, and looks weak enough to be mistaken for a corpse. Only thing left on her with worth is the massive armor piece protecting her from the pain of her right arm, hell now it takes almost twice as much bands around her chest as before with how weak she had grown.
"I'm hungry..." All she had been eating ever since leaving medlucia 8 months ago was bread. She would get the chance to have a proper meal here and there thanks to the kindness of others, but still that wasn't enough. Her body couldn't maintain it's form and to top it all of she was missing out on a lot of training.
While in the back of her head finding Octan was still her main goal, she would forget all about it most of the time while searching for food.
"Octan... Would I even recognize him." Lena mumbles.
her lips feel like dry concrete so talking annoys her. While having a water container with her, it's quite small and only gets to refresh it once she gets access to a village's well.
Dragging her right arm behind her she reaches the village. She asks around for a place to get food and they all point her towards the local tavern, A kind old man had even handed her a bit of money for a drink.
'He must've thought I was begging.' Lena thought to herself as she entered the tavern.
Inside it was packed.
From adventurers passing by, to Locals enjoying a drink. The place was definitely not anywhere near shutting down.
Lena finds an empty seat in between a crowd of people and sits. There is nowhere else so even though strangers are there on the table Lena decides to ignore them and sit down, for all she cares about at the moment is getting something in her stomach.
"E-excuse me..." Lena says weakly as she raises her left arm signaling a close waitress.
"A piece of bread... and a drink..." Lena says.
"Right ahead." the waitresses says as she heads inside.
'thank you, old man'.
The people who were enjoying a drink before Lena's arrival all were staring at the weak woman staring at the table in front of her.
"Hey. We were here first, would be pretty nice of you if you just leave." the man sitting next to Lena says.
Lena who had been thinking of nothing but the piece of bread can hear sounds coming from right next to her.
she turns her head towards the man sitting next to her.
Slightly shorter than her the man is raising his head to meet her eye level.
'Oh right, Kinolera. I have to ask about it now that I have nothing else to worry about.' Lena thinks as focus shifts.
"Excuse me... Would you know anything about Kinolera...? and if so... would you know anything about a woman called trestina? or a child named toto?" Lena asked looked down at the man.
The man and his fellow friends hold confused expressions as the dead looking woman barely asks.
"What?" The man asks confused.
"K-I-N--" Lena is interrupted.
"Look miss, I don't really care. Just get out of here, go bother some other bunch." the man says with an annoyed expression.
"... But, my food." Lena thinks of her order.
"As I said, I don't care. Me and the boys here are enjoying our day out so go to some other table, I would rather not get violent so leave us alone." the man said standing up.
Lena turns her head back down towards the table. She knows she can't stand up for herself, nor does she care enough to, but at the moment she's too scared her order might not arrive if she gets up.
"Right now." The man says trying to pick her up only to get caught off guard and fail because of the massive armor piece.
Lena says nothing, if she were to fight back it would only get worse.
"Heh. you know how to make one feel bad." The man says preparing himself this time around and lifting her only to throw her to the side.
"Get away from here." the man says sitting back down.
Lena stares at the ceiling of the establishment as she sighs.
surely after a person closes in to where she is laying down and squats down.
Lena gets a look at the person, her worries disappear.
"Get up, kid." says the young looking gentleman.
"I'm not a kid anymore, you know." Lena says lifting her upper body.
"Well no matter how much you age our age difference will stay the same, kid." Says the Octan who looks as if he hasn't aged a single day.
"If anyone would look at this scene, they would definitely think I'm the older one here." Lena says
"Well, sadly life isn't always what it looks like." Octan says with a chuckle.
The waitress slowly approaches them holding a cup of beer and a piece of bread.
"H-here miss." The waitress says with a worried look as she hands them to Lena.
"Hey get us 2 steaks, and another drink." Octan says to the woman as she is about to leave.
"Uhm... sure..." The woman says as she rushes back inside.
"*munch* *munch* You didn't have to *munch* *munch* do that." Lena says as she take's a bite off of the piece of bread.
"Have you seen the state you are in? you will probably die shortly if you don't eat anything." Octan says standing up.
"If you say so." Lena says trying to stand up only to fall back down failing to lift the armor piece.
"Why are you using such a cumbersome thing? It barely even fits you." Octan says staring at the armor piece.
"It helps stop the pain in my right arm." Lena says finishing up her piece of bread.
"Oh, does any armor piece work? Or is this special?" Octan asks intrigued.
"Well... I did ask about it, but not a single craftsmen or magician which I had asked could see anything special about this armor piece, other than the fact of how sturdy it was." Lena says after running her left arm through her face after jugging down the drink.
"Huh, then do you mind if I tone it down a bit, enough to fit your arm at least." Octan asks lena as he squats back down.
"Sure, go ahead." Lena agreed instantly.
Octan places his right arm on the armor piece and using Iron control he had fixed the armor piece's shape and removed all excess material turning them into a nice and smooth orb.
"There how's that on for size." Octan asks as he removes his hand.
"Ooo!" Lena says as she moves her right arm freely for the first time in a while.
"It doesn't hurt at all!" Lena says as she stands up.
"Hmph!" Lena tries to throw a punch with it, but then instantly regrets it.
"*sigh* I guess I can do nothing about my body." Lena says looking down.
"Here follow me, I got us two a table." Octan says as he goes deeper into the tavern.
He stops at a packed table and places his hand over the shoulder of one of the people sitting down.
"Didn't we agree for another 5minutes only..." Octan says to the man he had places his hand on.
"O-oh right! of course sorry! How careless of me hahaha..." The man said as he and his friends quickly got up and left.
"There sit down." Octan said signaling Lena to sit on the opposite side of a 4 person regular dinner table.
"What did you do to them?" Lena asked Octan as she sat down.
"Nothing really. We had an arm wrestling match over the table, and let's just say I got a bit too into it... Anyway, after almost breaking his arm in half He agreed on letting me take the table for myself if I left him alone. I would've felt bad if I had just took it, Sooo I gave him another 5 minutes. To show him I'm not all bad you know?" Octan says putting down his sheathed sword next to him.
Lena judgingly looks at him and says nothing.
"2 steaks right up!" A new waitress brings in Octan's order.
"I had order a drink with them too, so please!" Octan said to the woman.
"Of course! sorry for any inconvenience!" The waitress says as she turns around to hopefully get Octan his drink.
"Ahaha, don't worry about it!" Octan says with a fake smile on his face.
"Anyway what should I do with orb of metal? Do you want it?" Octan asks Lena sitting on the opposite side now with an armor piece that fits her arm.
"No, not really. You can have it I guess." Lena says waving it off.
"Sure, it would make for good backup for my sword." Octan says placing it in his bag.
A moment of silence passes.
Both say nothing.
"Why, why didn't you search for us. I know you would've been easily able to find us if you tried, so why? Why did you just let her escape successfully?" Lena asked Octan.
"Hm? Oh, that? Lena, do you know what I was left when you two had disappeared?" Octan asked Lena.
"No...?" Lena said.
"It was a simple and straight to the point letter. She didn't even try to sugar coat anything. I Trusted her Lena, even worse, I loved her. I thought we would spend the rest of our life in that small village, yet would you look at that. I had lost my faith in the human race, Lena, but for whatever reason... Just like a fool, I was played. I wanted nothing more to do with this life, but she made me believe." Octan said staring at Lena.
"Everyday From the moment we lived together. She would poison my drinks, each time trying an even more lethal one. Everyday when I would sleep early, she would try to stab me to death. The worst part was that I had never noticed, I had trusted her so much I would have never even guessed." Octan said getting emotional
Lena thought back to Kouko had told her back in nikolovia.
'Lena, That man... allow me to say one thing. He is not normal.' Lena had met Octan after she had spent a year locked up in that room, but even then she had brushed it off. taking into consideration what Kouko had seen he definitely isn't normal.
She explained it thoroughly, how she felt like everyday we spent together. How she would rather spend the rest of her life in hell instead. She explained why she hated me, and I couldn't hold myself from laughing. Who would've thought! me! out of all people! Had his past come back to hunt him! A man with nothing to show for his past gets it. It was comedic, absolutely so! reading her very detailed letter as the sound of the rain outside was clearly heard, I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
The whole reason I liked her was because she was the one who thought me their might've been still a reason to fight for this god forsaken race, Yet the reason she couldn't stand to look at me was because I had given up on this race. But you. you came back, even though she had wrote that you had left with her to get away from me. A year later you had come back by yourself, and even now almost 5 years later, You still came back. why? why do you keep following me? well, I guess it doesn't matter anymore now that you're here." Octan says showing the most emotions Lena had ever seen him express.
"And would you look at the state you are in? I wouldn't have recognized you in a million years." Octan says pointing Lena out.
"You do know of her death, right?" Lena asked the emotional Octan.
"Of course! Who doesn't! It was all over the newspaper for a good week or so! Personally I would say it was a bit too much for a bitch like herself. She deserved what she had gotten." Octan said with a snicker.
"..." Lena said nothing, but did she wonder what her reaction would've been if this was someone other than octan.
"Yeah, an absolute bitch." He added.
"Anyway, let's talk you. You've made one hell of a name for yourself in those last 5 years that's for sure. 'Lena, The world's No.1 assassin.'. Who knew you had it in you kid! Good work!" Octan said as he started eating his steak.
"Should you really be congratulating me..." Lena said following his example.
"Hey, kid. In this world, if you don't make a name for yourself, have you actually lived? Doesn't matter how you did it, but you did make a name for yourself that's for sure." Octan said chewing on his food.
"Then why do you stay low?" Lena asks.
"Hmm... To feel superior? I don't know. Something about walking the streets knowing I'm leagues stronger than everyone else gives me an incomparable rush nowadays. Back then I hated this body, but now I enjoy it to it's maximum potential. Hey, hey. Wanna guess how many dragons I had taken down the last 5 years?" Octan asks Lena.
"3?" Lena asks randomly.
"27! At this point I might as well be called The Dragon slayer!" Octan says excited.
"Why don't you adventure then?" Lena asks him.
"As I said, Before I only thought of benefitting myself, and now I enjoy the rush I get silently looking down on everyone." Octan says.
"There was this one time where I tried to take down the 10th strongest adventurer. It was like 8months ago back in medlucia. I had decided to watch the match since I was close and bored, so I bought a last minute ticket off of the black market almost 20x the price. Anyway watching 2 other strong humans duke it out had made me jealous, so I wanted a piece of the winner. Once, the Rigid had one I instantly jumped forward as to attack him, but instead was stopped by the magic barrier protecting the spectators.
I was in a rush so I had forgotten all about it. I could've just destroyed it, but then I also thought of why it was there and realized one missed shot and a gaggle of people would end up 6 feet under, so instead I shouted demanding a fight with the Rigid, but I guess he got scared and ran away. I thought of climbing the ranks normally and fighting him, but immediately lost interest. After all, fighting mythical creatures was way more interesting than fighting any human." Octan says taking his meal slow.
Lena just listens in silence.
"I had defeated a phoenix, a goliath, multiple chimeras, and even a merman! The merman was quite a sight you should've seen it." Octan says as he points one of his utensils at Lena.
"Anyway, at some point I realized. If no one witnesses what I'm doing, had I really done it? and I kind of missed you as I thought that, A nice kid who was barely a bother. You would follow me around for no reason and just sit witness to everything I did. Kinda wished I had you there with me you know." Octan said turning his focus to his meal.
"That so..." Lena says.
"So yeah, If you want to join me again like before You're free to do so." Octan offers as he finishes his meal and looks towards the bar waiting for his forgotten drink.
"Sure. That was the plan anyway." Lena says finishing her meal.
"Nice, then I'm gonna turn all the luggage carrying back to you again." Octan says still looking at the bar.
"I will try... anyway do you have any kind of goal for what we will be doing?" Lena asks octan as she turns her attention from her empty plate to him.
"Well first, I would like to show you some stuff I had did and found while exploring the past 4 years," Octan says before smirking and turning his attention from the bar on the other side of the establishment onto Lena.
Smashing his right arm through the table he declares.
"and after that we will be taking down the demon lord!"