"I'll come back to see you all as soon as I can."
I reluctantly bid Adrian and Selene goodbye as I watched Serena and some of the other angels fly straight up into the sky. Then I turned to face Alfread's group.
"Thank you all. If you hadn't taken Selene and me weaklings in, we might never have made it back," I said emotionally, realizing this could be the last time I'd see them.
"Hey! I'm not a weakling!" Selene protested annoyedly.
"The only true weakling here is you, still only 3rd rank! I can't believe an angel's rank is lower than mine."
"How did you know about that?" I exclaimed in shock, horrified that my shameful 3rd rank status had been exposed to everyone.
Had Adrian or Alfreed told her? But when I looked at them questioningly, they both shook their heads to indicate they had nothing to do with it.
"We've known for a while already!" Eleanora couldn't help but speak up.
"We heard everything clearly from upstairs that night you were talking to the Captain."
"Huh?" I was stunned again. I'd thought I hid it so well, but apparently my secret was blown from the start!
"Then why didn't you say something earlier..." I asked in confusion.
"Because we never actually thought you were only 3rd rank!" Hayden replied matter-of-factly.
"Eleanora and I were always wondering if the examiners from that Association made a mistake. No 3rd rank could have escaped from two level 5 monsters surrounding them."
"Plus you later fought and defeated that level 5 succubus with us, and even saved everyone. Although that situation was a bit special..." Eleanora chimed in supportively.
Hearing her perspective, I suddenly realized they had a point. Looking back, my battle record did seem quite impressive after all.
"Feliciana, have more confidence in yourself! You're not weak, and you'll become stronger in the future!" Alfreed encouraged me. I felt touched as Adrian also smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Humph, since Captain Alfreed says so, I guess I'll reluctantly admit you're slightly more capable than I imagined," Selene grudgingly conceded, turning her head to the side.
She seemed almost tsundere about it. I couldn't help smiling a little as I sincerely told everyone again, "Thank you..."
"The others are waiting for us in the sky," Nicola whispered, reminding me.
"Oh right!" I quickly followed behind her as we flew up into the sky. I waved down at the others as all the angels accompanied me upwards.
"Goodbye!"
...
"You look quite emotional, are you crying?" Nicola teased with a smile, flying alongside me.
"No way!" I hurriedly dabbed at the corners of my eyes but didn't find any tears.
"You tricked me!"
"Ha... Actually I've known about your self-esteem issues since high school," Nicola quickly changed the subject, turning to face the front.
"Huh? How does even you know about it..." I was speechless again. I didn't even understand these issues myself, so how did it seem like everyone was just watching my embarrassment daily?
"Because you often came to school covered in bruises and wounds, especially in summer. It was obvious to the whole class you'd been beaten by your parents again. Lots of classmates even made fun of you for it, don't you remember?"
"Uh..." I couldn't deny it when she put it that way. These embarrassing past incidents had left quite a deep impression on me after all.
"So you mean it was caused by the domestic violence..." I sort of understood what she was getting at now. I'd heard that theory before, just never thought it applied to me.
"You should know better than me on that," Nicola said helplessly.
"Anyway, I felt like you came to school 'injured' a lot, at least once a month on average..."
"It probably doesn't matter much..." I knew she had a point, but hearing someone else bring up my experience with domestic abuse made me feel ashamed subconsciously. I didn't want to admit it.
"Actually, many people close to you could sense how sensitive you are," Nicola went on.
"Sensitive? No way!" I immediately denied it when she put it that way. Now I genuinely felt she was spewing nonsense.
"You don't even notice it yourself?" Nicola gave me a meaningful look as she spoke.
"Then let me ask you, do you still remember how you and Quinn broke up?"
"Quinn? What does that have to do with anything?"
I was blindsided by her sudden swerve to this topic, giving a helpless laugh.
"I'm not too clear on the reason either. It was probably because after that street incident where I saved her, she felt I was unreliable..."
It had been so long ago, I had nothing left to hide about it so I just came clean with my conjecture.
"But why did I see you actively avoiding Quinn for weeks after, not even daring to speak to her?" Nicola gave a cold laugh, directly refuting my explanation.
"That was because I was afraid she'd reprimand me..." I hurried to defend myself, but had to admit I did seem rather pathetic back then.
"Reprimand you for what? For being unreliable? Did Quinn ever explicitly indicate that? Or was it your assumption?" Nicola stared at me strangely as she questioned doubtfully.
"My assumption... wasn't it quite obvious?"
I was starting to break into a nervous sweat. Quinn hadn't said anything like that.
"If she wanted to dump you for that reason, why would she have waited for you so long!" Nicola sighed, seeming a bit helpless as she said it.
"Do you know what was secretly circulating in the class? Everyone was whispering you'd abandoned Quinn with some petty thugs threatening you both, so you just ran off yourself. How do you think that made Quinn feel as the person involved and a girl?"
"Huh? Why did it get distorted into something like that?"
I found it a bit hard to believe. I remembered telling only some close friends at the time, but surely they wouldn't have spread it around everywhere?
"Ultimately, it was because you didn't dare to step up and explain everything clearly, forcing Quinn to be the one to suggest breaking up," Nicola cut straight to the crux of the matter.
"I see..."
Looking at it from her perspective, I finally realized I had completely misunderstood back then. As Nicola said, Quinn hadn't blamed me at all. It turned out everything happened purely because I was overly sensitive and overthought things.
"But how did the rumours start spreading in class?"
I recalled not that many people even knew about the incident back then.
"How would I know? I never breathed a word of this to anyone! You'll have to ask yourself and Quinn for that!" Nicola impatiently retorted.
"I think I did tell some close friends at the time, but surely not to the extent of..."
I'd assumed they wouldn't take it and spread it everywhere.
"That's hard to say. Rumors are scary things. And Quinn was the class beauty—tons of guys in class wanted to pursue her!"
Nicola gave a cold laugh, reminding me of this angle.
"Yet she just happened to like you. So many were eager to sabotage things."
"So you mean my friends back then were unreliable?"
To be honest, I didn't feel much about it. After all, I barely kept in touch with most friends from that time anymore.
"Of course. You can never truly know someone's heart!" Nicola meaningfully lectured me.
"So you've got to be careful who you befriend in the future. Like that Adrian..."
"Speaking of which, you were the most popular with the girls in our class, right?"
I suddenly realized a huge blind spot.
"Can you guarantee you never had any ideas about Quinn yourself?"
I was growing more and more suspicious of Reilly's role back then. Asking which beauty in class he hadn't gotten involved with, Quinn was definitely among the minority he hadn't touched.
And his conveniently showing up to help us defeat those petty thugs was also rather questionable. The street where it happened was so far from school—what a coincidence he just happened to run into us there?
"Wait a minute! I think you've misunderstood something..."
Seeing me abruptly pull out the longsword I'd borrowed from Hayden, the smile vanished from Nicola's face. She hurriedly raised both hands in front of her chest.
"Calm down for a second. We're going off topic! And we're supposed to be brothers! How could I possibly do something like that?"
"You still dare mention brothers to me! Just confess honestly! Were you trying to NTR me or not?"
I angrily pointed my sword right at her. This wretch had even wanted to seduce me in the past! He was truly a devil—what evil was he not capable of?
"No way! That was ages ago, why are you still hung up over ancient history?" Nicola yelled out injustice. She quickly flew further away, afraid I'd impulsively stab her through in my agitation.
"I can guarantee I never had any ideas about Quinn!"
"With how much of a playboy you are!"
I'd originally just wanted to scare her a little. But seeing how earnest she looked, I somehow couldn't work up any anger anymore. I put my sword away.
"Sigh..."
And she was right too. It had been so long already, what use was there in dwelling on it further?
"So you're actually..."
Nicola seemed to find it unbelievable I'd let her off so easily.
"Don't worry, I already figured it out long ago. We broke up so many years ago, what else can happen now?"
I gave her an exasperated look.
Part of the credit had to go to Adrian too. He'd helped me wake up earlier, making me realize how laughable it was to cling to those residual feelings I had for Quinn—it helped open my mind.
"Hey, that was your words!"
Nicola didn't seem entirely convinced at first, but upon seeing I genuinely didn't intend any other actions against her, she finally shuffled closer bit by bit. Still, she didn't forget to remind me along the way.
"My life is extremely precious. I still have to go back to the past and save everyone in the future, so no accidental deaths allowed!"
"Relax, you won't die that easily!"
Seeing her frightened look felt a little funny.