85 - After(w)

Things quietened down as my breath returned into my body. The witch's death was a mysterious one, for some reason it undid all her actions. It was as if she was a natural disaster itself, and by getting rid of said natural disaster, all the effects of it disappear as well. It was possible that this was a unique trait of origin classes, after all the [hero] and the [demon lord] were the only ones who I have witness so far.

It might be due to the power of the origin class itself, it wielded the ability to mess with the world or reality itself. Technically the world is in an "interfered" state, with the origin class wielder gone, the world itself could repair itself from this "interfered" state and back into its "original" state. The world system was still far too mysterious, it simplified supernatural abilities into mere everyday skills with brackets. If it could achieve such a feat in writing the fundamentals of reality itself, then who created it and why?

Well, I should leave all of that for another day. Anyway it was the best result we could ask for, Iyori had somehow awakened an origin class and was the final push to defeat [The Witch]. Now that everything was finally fine, I could take my time and eat the cake I ordered. Dipping the shiny silvery spoon provided by the cafe into the layer of red, I scooped a mouthful and ate it. The strawberry flavoured cream permeated my taste buds as I thought about what just transpired.

It would be strange hiding Iyori's new power from Fez and James, considering we were close friends. If it comes down to it, I could erase the memories of everyone in the cafe, but that wouldn't feel fair for James and Fez. They've worked so hard, I guess the least I could do was keep less needless secrets from them. At this point I could read Iyori's class name due to my skill, she herself wasn't aware of the weight it carried.

For now everything should be fine. It was just one last thing to take care of before going to sleep. Strangely everyone was quietly eating their ordered dessert, before I picked up my spoon they didn't even eat their food. Maybe it was me who was strange? After seeing a person have their soul get sucked out, I still had the appetite to eat into my parfait excitedly.

"Neee~ Fez-chan. Let me try some of them chocolate cake!"

"No way! Go get your own! I'm not going to exchange either, your parfait reminds me of what happened... " (Fez)

"Seriously? Even though you've killed so much?" curious about her reasoning, my eyes were slightly widened as I creaked my head slightly to the right to look at her expression.

"Jeezz!! Isn't it even more strange for you! You saw what happen and here you are casually biting into the ruby colour as if nothing happened." (Fez)

"Strange..." Feeling slightly hurt, I continued to scoop more bite sizes of ruby parfait into my mouth with an imaginary tear streak down an eye.

"Pffffft, Hahahaha! Guess you'll never change huh? Well, that's the Emily I like the most anyway." (James) Adding his own creepy piece to the discussion, everyone's expressions became more vibrant. Iyori was still having too much on her mind to speak, but she was quietly listening to our conversation with a smile. So we left her off the hook.

Speaking of which, her complexion was getting slightly pale. [omni detection] didn't give any signs of any diseases or abnormal body conditions, so it could only be a mental problem. It was something she had to deal with, if she didn't open up and asked for help then it couldn't be helped.

Hmmm? Why am I the same?

"..... Hmm? Emily-chan, are you alright?" (James)

".... I guess...."

" Stop bothering her, James. It's probably a side effect of being outside her body for a few seconds. Anyway since she's Emily, she'll definitely find a way to recover, heck she may even be recovering as we speak." (Fez)

" Haha... You have too much faith! "

" Isn't it natural? You didn't even die when she took your soul. You were just held hostage, that itself defied common sense. So holding you to that standard won't hurt anyone. In fact it would benefit your allies to be less surprised." (Fez)

" It hurts me by putting unnecessary pressure... Well whatever, as if that pressure could compare to the heat of the moment when an enemy could drive us into a dangerous position in the first place. "

I've been placing the subject of the conversation on myself. It seems they haven't realised about Iyori yet, well expecting her to know what's happening to her body when I don't know mine is absurd. If so, why isn't she asking for help? Perhaps it was her new class, her skin had also undergone a small change after the battle.

After all her [omni-drain] took the witch's 'beauty' which was really just the durability of her skin. In fact her complexion should have improved from that, so what is it that is so off putting about her? Was she a traitor? Should I kill her on the spot? Ah, it was a strange question that appeared in my head. But isn't it natural? My position as 'the strongest' has been threatened, shouldn't I retaliate by taking her life? Before I've noticed it, my gaze was pasted on Iyori.

"What is it? Why are you looking at me so hard?" (Iyori)

"Ah?! Sorry, I was just thinking about how your skin is mroe beautiful now."

Well killing her would be absurd, I should just keep to observing for now. Just in case, I used [reality displacement] on tracking spells made with 'pride'. The mana manipulation ability given by 'pride' sure was useful, I create spells like these from afar and have basically an access to infinite mana if I have enough imagination. Truly, [reality displacement] was low tier in warping reality due to only having temporary effects.

Though I doubt Fez and James have anything strange going on, Iyori may have done something to them in order for them to be unaware of her condition. The one I needed to keep my eye on most was Iyori. She may have used [omni-drain] and sucked something awful out of the witch. In any case, I'll be able to respond if anything happens.

Walking back home, my cardigan swayed in the cold wind drying off my sweat. Why was there so much sweat? It has already been 30 minutes since then, I knew it. Something was weird. We even forgot to visit the church to check everyone's classes. Tomorrow should be suitable, I guess.

"Kill all origin class. Stand at the top. Kill all origin class. Stand at the top." (?)