Now that we were all able to calm down and drop the hostilities, we moved the discussion to a bar in town.
I'd already gotten their names now, before now I could identify them by appearance but not name. Berla on the other hand looked like a new addition to their party, she wasn't with them previously.
It was a bit uncomfortable, mostly because of the way people there looked at me. Like they'd seen a ghost or something. It was a bar for adventurers, so it made sense that Lync and his party would come here to wind down. The other individuals here were also adventurers, it paid a great deal of money if you picked the ideal job.
The silence was deafening, I could no longer take it, so I decided to break the silence first, "So, how have you been..?" it was a strange question to ask someone considered to be an enemy. But his appearance forced me ask such a question, so why not?
"Fine, I'm just amazed that you're here.. and alive.." he didn't look at me with any form of enmity. Even then, when we first engaged in fisticuffs he declared his disinterest in wanting to fight a child, in other words me. Not totally a bad guy, but he walked down the wrong path.
I didn't know what next to say, "Oh, I see... but what're you doing all the way out here?" I asked him, honestly I wanted to ask him what he meant by "alive" but with the way he looked, I wasn't sure he could clearly even see me with those dull eyes of his.
"Huh?! What kind of question is that?!" for some reason the question seemed to get him worked up. Because of this I looked at his party members, they were all equally sad. This included Beltin. He was not in the scuffle we previously had. I'd expected him to be the first to even attack, he was so much of sadist it surprised me that he didn't.
In situations like these, when a person is slowly entering a state of anger, silence was the best answer.
"Didn't you see my messages?!"
"No I didn't.." I've been in Zestria for about a week now, and I haven't even settled in because some days were chipped off as a result of the grueling travels. There was no way I'd receive any letters here and during my time at the academy no mail was ever sent to me. At least none that I know of.
He placed his forearms upon the wooden table in between us, "Then what have you been doing all this while?"
"It's been two months or so since we had our first encounter, so just studying for the most part.."
If I had to break this down, I might as well start with how I passed out after using [Apocalyptic Flame Control] due to loss of magicubes. I basically gave him a rough detail of all that'd happened so far, my story wasn't interesting actually but it was a bit fun. I don't even know why I talked to them about this. Even telling them about the Gelin forest exercises and slipping in some details about the interest I took in learning this continent's magic.
I threw in a little exaggeration for flavor but Lync didn't have to know that. In retrospect, it was a bit fun.
"That's enough.." Lync uttered with a clam yet slightly provoked voice. I was about informing him on my search for Frankenstein and if he could help, honestly, that was the main reason I even agreed to come here with them. As adventurers they'd have a lot of valuable information. "So basically, you've been having fun all this time... when lives are in danger? How selfish can you be...? So much power and yet you choose to goof off." he grits his teeth.
I'd never been so lost in a discourse before. "I don't understand what you mean... I live my life normally and all of a sudden I'm selfish? Lives are at stake? Says the guy from a dark guild.." I wasn't going to let this man come and verbally assault me for no valid reason.
"That's the point! You're living your life normally, like it's one big walk in the park!" he was trying his very best to contain his anger, that much was obvious.
What more did he want from me, it's not like we're even friends. The only reason I even came here was so I could get some information but now I wasn't even keen on staying any more than a minute. "All your talks of lives being in danger, I don't even get you... if anything you should be the ones sparing lives." it was a blunt remark, but still.
"If we're so evil, why didn't you bother keeping tabs on us or making any inquiries, you certainly knew our appearances and our guild name.." Lync insisting that I should've done something. I should've gone the extra mile.
Why didn't I? There's really no appropriate answer. If I had this much power shouldn't I have tried to pursue them by investigations and even try and find out what they were after that day they came. The only explanation I can give is "The thought... never crossed my mind." I was so focused on leveling up, I forgot this wasn't a game.
"So you had no problems traveling to another continent to learn magic, but you didn't care to investigate a guild that inflicted pain on your friends?" when he put it that way, it made me look extremely foolish. I'd never felt so much like a child before now, it was truly disheartening.
Maybe I got my priorities wrong, fine. But no point in raking me over the coals about it now. The thought genuinely never occurred to me what else did he want me to say?
"You didn't investigate, you didn't consider who else would've suffered from their wrath... but what did you do? You went adventuring to another continent like you were on some kind of vacation." I noticed he didn't generalize himself with Black Pendant anymore, did they leave? It'd make a lot of sense. The others wanted to calm him down but felt it was between me and him, "When you arrive here the first thing you do is put on a harlot's mask and pretend you're a hero.."
Enough was enough, I slammed my fist on the table "Look! I understand I should've done more, but I'm still a kid alright?! I have my studies to focus on and there are other Mages, Knights and Hunters out there that can do the job a whole lot better than I ever could.." why did he specifically choose me to point fingers at.
Almost like he discarded my entire statement, he asked, "You have to focus on your studies? Others will handle it? It's a disgrace that someone this talented and with so much power would say such a thing.." some people may mistake this, but for Nyx to have been able to easily defeat five people equal in strength to gold ranked mages was not a small feat.
"Shut your mouth!" I wasn't angry with anything in his sentence excluding the part about me being talented. Did he know how I suffered having to carry the burden of being a Cross? Being ostracized by society simply because I had small mana reserves? I'd never felt angrier in my life.
He made it sound like I didn't suffer to get where I was.
Dvena had to intervene, it was getting heated, "Hey captain, shouldn't we just drop it and tell him our main reason fo-"
But Lync didn't let her finish, "This is between me and Nyx, stay out of this." he didn't look at her when uttering these jaded words.
"And you know what... you should be the last person lecturing me about how to use power and protect people.." my anger had turned to a conceited smile designed to mock Lync.
He understood what I meant by that, but chose to misunderstand "What?" he asked with a stern voice.
"Oh come on, you're talking about the Black Pendant guild like you weren't part of them, can you refresh my mind... who attacked the Excelsior academy and roped me into all this?" I decided I'd tackle him too if he'd been doing it to me all this while.
He clenched his teeth together tightly due to frustration and anger, but nonetheless showed maturity to own up to his faults, "We did.." simple and to the point.
"Oh now I remember, you guys aren't even complete you forgot to add the crazy old man that almost decapitated me! I bet he's out there now committing some crime or the oth-" a resounding strike to my cheek using his tightly formed fist. Blood escaped my mouth just before I fell flat on the ground.
Everyone at the bar gasped. The drama was so unexpected.
What was the reason for Nyx's violent encounter? Was there perhaps some information that eluded him? It appeared that he had inadvertently remained within the confines of his comfort zone, thus avoiding any potential danger. However, it seemed that a grand scheme was slowly emerging from the shadows, unbeknownst to him.
Lync and his party had exited the dark guild, as a way for them to turn a new leaf. But their guild was tied to a more sinister plan than he'd imagined but what exactly was it? We find out next time...