Aftermath 3

When I woked up, the first thing I saw in the corner of my sight was a black haired girl that had two horns on the side of her forehead, sleeping while holding my blanket.

I was about to say something when the girl suddenly opened her eyes and sat up.

"Huum...." She let out a cute humming sound as she rubbed her eyes before stretching out her arm.

It looks like she hadn't noticed me yet... Because of this, I closed my eyes to pretend that I'm still sleeping.

After she was done stretching, the girl turned her attention towards me and poked my chest with her little fingers with a pout.

"Hey... Wake up already." The girl continued poking me on the chest, then arm, then up on my leg. This continued on until she went and decide to poke my cheeks that made me open my eyes and shove her hands off in annoyance.

"!!?"

"Stop that, will you?" I unconsciously opened my mouth to speak.

The girl's pouted lips disappeared as she then crosses her arms and stared at me in complete silence.

𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵... After realizing my mistake, I averted my eyes elsewhere. It was thanks to this, I finally figured out where the dumb sword I picked up had disappeared.

He was just placed on the corner alone... Seeing this, I could somehow understand what he was feeling.

The boy was feeling a bit lonely over there... I guess I should start spending more time on him.

[𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘥𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘴!]

I heard his embarrassed voice entered my head. Because of this, I quickly turned my attention back to the girl who's expression was slowly changing into a frown.

"M-morning... Alicia."

"..."

She just sat there in silence. This action somehow made me flinched.

I don't know why, but her gaze scares me.

"H-hey... say something." I began to stutter from my sentence every time I tried to say something to change the cold atmosphere.

This one-sided conversation continued on for a couple of minutes until Alicia finally opened her mouth to speak.

"You know, I was a bit toooo worried after I saw you almost ended up obliterating every part of your bones in your body." While she said this, Alicia made a creepy smile that sent shivers in my spine.

If I were to describe the smile she was making, it was a bit more scary than the Onyx we've met a nine years ago. More than that, Alicia, who was usually expressionless, was showing this kind of smile. I'm sure that today must've been a rare occasion if someone were to see this. Oh, not to mention, it'll also cause some misunderstanding.

Right, I already heard rumors about me having a secret relationship with Alicia, and also, about Athena too. I already have too many problems I have to deal with, I don't want to increase my work load just because of this good-for-nothing rumors.

While I was thinking about this, I suddenly remembered what she said.

𝘖𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴!?! My expression hardened after this realization. Then, I lifted my head to stare at her and said.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's just like I said, you used a high level skill even though your body is still not prepared from the aftereffect of the skill."

"If it weren't for our teacher, you would have been crippled for your entire life... No. Worse, you would have died!" While saying this, Alicia had an upset expression before making a cute pout.

Her eyes... She looked like she was about to cry.

Instead of listening, I ignored her words and lifted my left hand to squeeze her cheeks.

"Y-you..."

"Relax. I'm fine now, aren't I? I'm sorry I made you worried," I said this words sincerely as I looked down without removing my eyes from her.

With my hands still intact with her cheeks, Alicia averted her eyes elsewhere. "Okay..." She said as she moved back and sat to the seat behind her.

I let go of her cheeks and went back to my comfortable position as we once again continued our conversation.

Alicia began to tell her story on how they entered the huge door and how they've managed to survive until I (the sword who possessed my body) reached them.

I didn't say anything when she continues speaking as I just nodded without saying anything else.

"After that, that's when we finally saw you... Anyways, how did you managed to get through there in the first place." Alicia asked as she tilted her head with a curious look.

Then, I paused for a moment.

After letting out a long exasperated sigh the break the silence, I pinched the middle of my brows and opened my mouth as I finally decided to tell my story.

"Okay, then. First of all..."

I began my explanation since the beginning where my team and I decided to separate with the other group.

Of course, I didn't say anything about the things I've found out during the exploration like how I obtained the sword. I just told her that I got trap in a room for a couple of hours until I've finally found a way to escape.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵... 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴...

***

When I finally finished telling her about what happened in my group, Alicia made a decision to leave the room to let me rest.

Before she left, I asked her to call a certain someone (Arthur) for me saying that I wanted to ask him about something.

Not long after she left, as I was just about to close my eyes to rest, the door suddenly opened as an unusual guest had entered the room.

"What are you doing here, Athena?" I asked staring at her with my left arm crossed against my right, that was still covered in bandages.

Athena took a few glance around the room to see if I was now alone, and after she was done, she took the seat Alicia used earlier and sat down.

"I just came here to ask you some questions. Is that fine?" Her arms began to cross as she stared at my eyes looking fierce. But instead of being intimidated by this, I felt that her gaze was somehow giving me an uncomfortable feeling.

Letting out a sigh, I responded, "But before that, can I ask you first?" I returned her gaze coldly without showing any more signs of emotions. To put it more simple, I just sat on the bed with an indifferent expression.

Athena pondered for a moment after she heard what I said. And, it took her a few seconds before she finally nodded as a response to my question.

When I saw her nod, I picked up the empty glass from the table. "I don't want to take much of your time, so I'll get straight to the point." Saying this, I broke the glass without using mana and used my dark magic to fix-turn it into something else.

A photo, that's what it was... But not an ordinary photo actually...

"Do you know this person?" I handed her the photograph as Athena took it before she began examining who the person in the photo was.

"This!?" Her whole body shook after she finally saw who it was. Placing her hand to her mouth, Athena tried so hard to keep herself from crying.

Thanks to this, although I still have many questions in mind, I am still thankful that I've finally managed to confirm something.

Smiling, I rested my chin on my palm, "Looks like I'm right."

When she heard this words coming out from my mouth, Athena raised her head to look at me straight in the eyes.

I also stared straight onto her, as I soon noticed out that her eyes was watering.

𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦...

With her fingertip, Athena wiped the tear that'd softly fallen from her eye. Seeing that she was crying as the fierce gaze of her from earlier had also disappeared because of me, I somehow felt a little bad.

"You are my brothers girlfriend, aren't you?" As I said this, I turned my head to face towards the window without removing my eyes onto her.

"You..."

Before she could say anything else, I cut her words short by raising my finger and placing it onto my lips.

"In the flesh.".