"How did he replicate the flavor?"
"I-I told you. You tell that guy to make anything he can make it."
"There's gotta be some sort of magic at play."
"Apparently the chef was taught by someone it's scary." Dillion replied while shivering.
Right now the two were in a restaurant and were sitting facing each. A bowl sat in front of Aldrich. It was his mothers meat and potato stew, only his mother didn't make it. The restaurant advertised that its chef could cook anything.
So Aldrich, wanting to hear "we can't make that '' ordered his mothers meat and potato stew only to be greeted by an "ok" and 10 minutes later the food came out. Not only that but the beef and potato stew required time to make, the chef somehow made the beef tender and potatoes fully soft.
Aldrich himself was a great cook but he was certain he could never outclass the chef of this restaurant. Funnily enough the restaurant was simply called "we can make anything" so the name was rather apt.
Dillion had understood Aldrich's surprise as he had done the same thing when he visited this place. Dillion had a kind of awkward tone right now as he was unsure of how to talk to Aldrich due to the event that happened a while ago. Aldrich after he helped Dillion had gotten out of the dress and bought the clothes he originally picked out and then continued walking through the mall.
The entire time Dillion could only reply to whatever Aldrich said, never initiating a conversation. So it was mainly Aldrich just starting topics while Dillion answered awkwardly. Aldrich himself was completely oblivious to Dillion's awkwardness and they continued on their exploration.
Dillon had many questions on why Aldrich had done what he had done but Dillion couldn't manage to squeak them out. He knew Aldrich was an adventurer but he thought Aldrich was gray rank or green rank not blue rank.
On a side note, nobles had different rankings for adventurers. Nobles followed a system of F through SS. While commoners followed colors. The ranks went as follows: gray rank, green rank, pink rank, blue rank, red rank, silver rank, gold rank, Platinum rank.
For some reason it was only the nobles of Schweinheim that followed the letters rather than colors. Other nobles of other kingdoms did not follow the same rules. So to Dillion Aldrich had to be at least blue rank due to him not being intimidated by Asmodeus.
Furthermore Aldrich was emitting his own pressure but unlike Asmodeus who let it target everyone Aldrich specifically targeted Asmodeus. Dillion could easily tell that Aldrich was at least a c rank adventurer thanks to his father's friends.
As Dillion said his father was a blacksmith so he met many adventurers and wanting to fulfill his promise with Hecate he asked them many questions and learned many things. Unfortunately he had no aptitude with magic and couldn't use a bow or sword.
As Aldrich was eating Dillion finally asked his question.
"Why?"
"Hmm?" Aldrich, who was eating the stew tilted his head questioning what Dillion said. Dillion, seeing Aldrich's confusion, reiterated his question?
"Why did you help me?" Dillion said.
"Why did I help you?" Aldrich replied. Aldrich couldn't give a clear answer. Perhaps it was out of guilt or a sense of responsibility? Aldrich knew Dillion wouldn't be helped. It was thanks to Alice that Dillion was able to move on from his childhood friend and become an adventurer.
That would never come for this Dillion. Dillion wasn't a capture target in this world. This world specifically followed the 5 main boys. Therefore the world wouldn't make Alice go to Dillion and other capture targets featured in the dlc.
Though if Aldrich were honest he really just wanted Dillion to become his ally. Dillion even though he was weaker than Alice in the story clearly had a lot of potential. After 2 weeks of training with Alice he was able to easily beat Asmodeus. Without a doubt Dillion was a overpowered character.
Dillion didn't specialize in any magic so he relied on body enhancement. His body was naturally more attuned to body enhancement so much so that whenever Asmodeus beat him, he unconsciously used it to survive his injuries.
He would be a nice ally to Aldrich. So while his motives were purely selfish he also felt some pity for Dillion. He was treated in such a way no one would like to be treated and he could do nothing. As a fellow man he felt sad for him and part of that is why he let out more pressure on Asmodeus then he intended.
He was completely heartless to Dillion. Aldrich wouldn't care if Hecate had fallen in love with Asmodeus, you can't control who you fall in love with. But to antagonize Dillion for no reason at all was just distasteful. Aldrich knew he shouldn't be caring too much about Dillion, they just met.
Aldrich couldn't help himself though and helped the boy. Plus he did feel a little guilty he had been treating Dillion as another capture target like the other 5 boys when in reality he wasn't a capture target. Dillion was almost the same as Aldrich, a victim to the world. He felt some comradery but as said before he didn't feel like they were identical.
Aldrich knew of the world he was in and could plan ways to escape its grasp while Dillion wasn't able to escape.
"Look Dillion, what do you think of your life right now?"
"My life?"
"Yes. Are you angry? Are you sad?"
"Am I angry, sad? No I don't think I am why?"
"What makes you say that?"
"What do you mean? I have a nice household, nice parents. I have no reason to be angry or sad. I live a nice life." Dillion said. Aldrich looked at him with a stoic gaze inspecting him. It was clear Dillion thought that was the truth.
'How annoying. How do you comfort someone who doesn't even know they're in pain?' Aldrich replied to himself. Dillion only felt humiliation whenever he encountered Asmodeus. At least humiliation is what his mind convinced himself he felt. To him He never felt betrayed by Hecate, he never felt angry at Asmodeus.
Whenever he felt angry, sad, disappointed, it was always humiliation. The urge to attack Asmodeus he thought it was to end his humiliation.
The only times when he fought with Asmodeus is whenever he messed with his father's blacksmith shop. Other than that whenever Asmodeus encountered Dillion, Dillion just held his head down and took whatever Asmodeus did and never fought back. All of this was to protect himself from his own emotions.
The human mind is very complex, it would force itself to set up defense mechanisms and convince itself that it's perfectly fine when in reality it isn't. Let alone the human mind Dillion's heart was hurting and it wouldn't be healed by Aldrich.
Aldrich didn't know how to comfort another person. His sister had always been strong and forced a smile whenever she saw him. Kazuki knew how hard Aldrich was working for her and so whenever she encountered any pain she'd shove it down and act normal to not worry Aldrich.
His parents in this world always treated him nicely and never showed any sadness or anger. Even when they were forced by the world to submit to the queen they never showed any of it to Aldrich. Even when his father was grieving as much as Aldrich was, Albert held his son and put Aldrich's feelings over his own.
'How long did this go on? In the game it never specified how old Alice was when she met Dillion and Dillion hasn't told me his age. I assumed he was my age but Maybe things are different and Hecate didn't get pregnant because Alice was never there to help Dillion.' Aldrich thought to himself.
'In the game Dillion wasn't like this. Sure he was still kind of pathetic but he knew he was sad and angry. Alice had comforted him and he was able to get over his feelings before they developed into what I'm seeing Dillion is now. How long has he been experiencing this kind of treatment?' Aldrich again thought to himself.
Getting more and more annoyed by his own thoughts, Aldrich grabbed Dillons hand and teleported to a nearby Forest.
"Whoah!!"" Dillion, surprised at being in a new place, yelled and fell face first into the grass. Wondering what happened he went to ask Aldrich where they were only to have a wooden sword thrown at his chest. The wooden sword fell to the ground and Dillion asked Aldrich what he was doing.
"H-hey how did we get here? And why did you throw this at me?"
"Pick it up and fight me."
"H-huh? W-why would I do that?!"
"You're too damn stupid to realize what you're feeling. So I'm gonna beat the shit out of you until you realize what you're feeling." Aldrich said in a cold tone as he took out another wooden sword. Aldrich himself wasn't mad at Dillion but rather himself. To think he couldn't even muster up a simple sentence to bring some awareness or comfort to Dillion.
Furthermore he felt angry that he was feeling things he hasn't felt in a while. The original Kenji wouldn't be as mad as Aldrich is right now. The reason being was the dark magic Aldrich created to separate himself from the people of this world.
'Pity? Comradery? Guilt? Didn't you create a specific magic to not feel these things for the people of this world?' Aldrich thought to himself.
He shut down almost all of his emotions ever since his mother died with his magic he created. Only allowing himself to feel things for his father. Even then his father was incredibly busy and could only meet Aldrich once a week due to his wife's passing.
His magic was created from a child who didn't know how to grieve properly. He was afraid to get close to anyone in this world due to the nature of the world. He was the villain, a pawn for the world to use to make the hero's and heroine's have an enemy.
But the magic impacted him more than he realized. A human being couldn't control their emotions without repercussions and Aldrich was feeling them at this moment. It was letting out all the emotions he contained and they came out in full force as a cold rage.
"WHAT THE HELL?!? Are you trying to kill me?!??!" Dillion, who was still in a stupor, was forcibly brought out of it by Aldrich. Aldrich charged at Dillion and swung down with his wooden sword Dillion reacting by pure instinct barely dodged it
The sword which Dillion had avoided had gone and destroyed a nearby tree as if it was nothing. Dillion could only imagine what would happen to him if that sword had hit him. But he had no time to just stand around as another sword strike was going towards him.
"..." completely silent with a stoic gaze Aldrich just attacked without any of the beauty he had whenever he practiced swordsmanship.
"Hey! I- ooo!! What the hell! Hiiiii— HOLY FUC— gahh!!" Dillion on the receiving end of the sword strikes was barely dodging them. Until Aldrich had slammed the hard end of the sword into Dillion's stomach, launching him into a nearby tree.
"How pathetic. Not surprising from a guy whose childhood friend is being fucked by another Pathetic man." In a cold voice Aldrich looked at the keeling Dillion was spitting out some blood. Aldrich was even using expletives he would not use due to his noble upbringing.
"Y-you." That was all Dillion could say. In a matter of minutes Aldrich had completely changed. To Dillion Aldrich was sort of Cold and aloof while also being curious to his surroundings. Kind of like a cat. But the Aldrich in front of him now was just plain scary.
" "y-you?" Is that all you can say? Are you that pathetic you can't even speak? No wonder she didn't want to stay with you. You're a loser who can't even stand up for himself." Aldrich said. His words were merciless. He needed to be. Someone like Dillion wouldn't react to kind words or any kind of affection.
So he used violence. Though the main part of his violence was because Aldrich was mad at himself.
"Shut up." Dillion said in a voice not even he could hear.
"What was that? Look how pathetic you are. Can't even use your anger to attack me with words." Aldrich said and kicked Dillion in his stomach, sending him through a tree.
Though he was hit with a kick that would probably force others to start internally bleeding, Dillion didn't grunt or even yell in pain.
"Can't even voice out your pain? How pathetic can you be? Well that's all you ever be, just a pathetic loser. Do you imagine it? Do you imagine her being bent ove-
"I SAID SHUT UP!!!" Dillion finally lifted his head which was down the entire time, lunged and thrusted the sword at Aldrich. Of course Aldrich simply parried if and pushed the sword down while also making Dillion trip.
"Is that it?" Aldrich said, taunting Dillion but Dillion got back up and unleashed a number of strikes.
"Haaaaaah!!!" He yelled as he attacked Aldrich. Aldrich was merely using minimal footwork while blocking each of Dillion's attacks.
"Don't you want to use this against him? Tell me again, are you angry?" Aldrich said to the rage filled Dillion. His voice was as cold as before. Dillion didn't stop though and yelled loudly as he kept launching strikes at Aldrich.
"OF COURSE IM FUCKING ANGRY!! WHY WOULDN'T I BE!" Dillion yelled at the top of his lungs.
"I'M ANGRY THAT HE'S STRONGER THAN ME, I'M ANGRY THAT HE'S BETTER LOOKING THAN ME, I'M ANGRY THAT HE TOOK MY CHILDHOOD FRIEND, I'M ANGRY THAT HE'S A HIGH RANKED ADVENTURER!" Dillion finally let out all his bottled rage.
It was a complete 180 compared to the boy Aldrich had run into when they met.
"FOR 2 FUCKING YEARS I HAD ENDURE THEIR CONSTANT HARRASMENT! I'M SAD, ANGRY, CONFUSED AND SCARED! "
"Didn't you say you weren't sad a few minutes ago?"
"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?!?! WHO WOULND'T BE SAD IF THEY WEREN'T IN MY SITUATION!!"
"So what do you plan on doing? Do you plan on continuing attacking me or do you plan on actually directing that anger and using it to better yourself?"
"I-i… gwahh!" Dillion, stopping in his tracks due to Aldrich's words, was about to say something but was hit in the chest by a sword hitting the wall that surrounded the town. Before Dillion could get up Aldrich grabbed him by the tips of his hair and lifted him up.
"You're fucking pathetic. That is obvious but you don't need to stay that way. Stop feeling bad for yourself and do something about it."
"I-I what can I even do? Just like you said I'm Pathetic."
"What the hell are you talking about? Did you not see what you did to my sword?"
"H-huh?" Dillion looked in surprise at Aldrich's wooden sword. It was destroyed; it barely even resembled a sword.
"Just because you can't use magic you think you're pathetic? You have other ways of becoming strong, you moron." Aldrich looked at the trees that were cleaved in half by Dillion. Dillion in his anger used the 4 tier of body strengthening.
"I-I did that?"
"Yes, you did that." Seeing that Dillion could see what he did Aldrich threw him to the ground and moved aside showing all the trees Dillion had cut in his anger. The trees in this world were extremely durable compared to the trees on modern earth. The trees were living things which allowed them to grow with mana.
Making them quite durable. Durable enough it required magic tools or magic to cut down something a wooden sword could never do. Yet Dillion had done it unconsciously.
"I'll give you the opportunity to do what you want but, you need to tell me what do you want?"
"What do I want?" Dillion echoed. Dillion had never thought about it before for some reason but now he wanted to beat Asmodeus. He wanted to beat the shit out of him, he wanted to laugh as Asmodeus went crying with his tail tucked in between his legs, he wanted to beat the shit out of Hecate for breaking their promise.
"I'll ask again, do you want to stay the pathetic person you are now? Or will you stand up and fight for what you want?" Aldrich reiterated coldy. Dillion looked at him and with a new found resolve he spoke not with the anger before but with a voice filled with confidence.
"I'll fight. I wanna see Asmodeus crying for what he's done to me." Standing up, Dillion looked directly into Aldrich's eyes.
"I see. Very well then if that's what you want I'll help. It won't be easy though. You'll probably get your ass beaten to the point where you can't feel your legs."
"That's fine. I'm tired of just accepting their constant harassment. I won't allow them to have their fun by laughing at me anymore." Dillion said. Completely unlike the boy who forced his head down while Asmodeus and Hecate messed with him.
"Good. From now on I'm your master and you're my student, understand?" Aldrich, feeling quite relieved himself, spoke to Dillion.
"Yes master."
"That isn't enthusiastic enough, say it again!"
"Yes master!"
"Say it again!"
"YES MASTER!" Dillion yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Then starting tomorrow at dawn we will begin your training."
"Yes master!" Dillion said with enthusiasm. He was ready for whatever Aldrich threw at him.
.
.
.
.
.
.
After that Dillion collapsed. Aldrich had not held back enough and had broken several of Dillons ribs and other bones. The only thing keeping Dillion conscious was pure adrenaline. Aldrich panicked seeing Dillion fall down in such a way and teleported to his father. Aldrich could heal Dillion but he couldn't replenish the blood Dillion lost; only Albert could do that.
Albert, excited to see his son, had looked coldly at Dillion thinking Dillion was after his little boy. Aldrich Wanted to destroy the weird misunderstanding Albert had come up with but needed Albert to heal Dillion before the damage was too irreversible. Aldrich feared for the day his future wife met her father-in-law.
Aldrich, after getting Dillion healed, dropped him off at his family's house. It was currently in the dead of the night that all the townspeople were fast asleep. Only Aldrich was awake sitting on the edge of the bell tower that was installed to wake up townspeople for their jobs.
"I called him pathetic but I'm the pathetic one. Haha." Laughing at himself Aldrich looked down from the bell tower. Aldrich wasn't just fifteen, he was 27 in his past life. Combining the two his mental age would be 42. 42 years of age and he threw a tantrum like a child.
"God, that's so pathetic!" Aldrich exclaimed while reeling from embarrassment. His anger that he showed towards Dillion was just a tantrum. There was no difference between a child throwing a tantrum and what Aldrich did.
"Haaa. This must be what Kazuki calls 'black history.' But it was just as I suspected. 2 years he said. Dillion must be 17 now." Aldrich thought of what Dillion said. Hecate had gotten pregnant at 15 which if he were to assume Dillion's age it would be the same as Hecate.
It was worse than he had thought. If Dillion had been experiencing this for two years, who knows how long it could've lasted if Aldrich didn't appear.
"You're really a bitch aren't you, world?" Aldrich said, looking towards the sky. He didn't know who forced these events to happen but whatever it was it clearly didn't care about its inhabitants. Aldrich had originally thought that the world would only care about the main characters of the game but he was wrong.
Sighing to himself Aldrich teleported back to his room in the inn and fell asleep needing to get ready for his training session with Dillion.