Regretful Past

Hours had passed, and despite his best attempts at trying to think about something else, the image had been etched into his mind, and it would certainly not be an easy task to forget that. Something had changed in Yotsuya's style of combat as a result of the emotions that still lingered. Unnecessary memories and hypothetical situations were appearing consistently in his memories, and as he continued killing every monster he could get his hands on, his style of fighting became way less technical and more suited for pure, unbridled violence. The system had never disappointed the people stuck in the world, but it has always led to something big happening somewhere. Even Arthur had become affected by it, although not to the same degree.

Arthur tried to do his best to help Yotsuya, but it wasn't to any success. Yotsuya was basically a different person when his emotions went out of control, and there was only one person that Yotsuya could trust enough to bring him back to stability. Even so, Arthur didn't know if it was the proper time to act. Despite having known each other for a few months, having traveled and fought together every single day during that time, they still knew close to nothing about each other except for their name and some background. No matter how much he attempted, he had never managed to get Yotsuya to tell him about his background, specifically pointing out the time period from the start of the game up until the point they had met. He couldn't even begin to comprehend how a regular civilian of such a peaceful country as Japan could become so brutal, emotionless, and brave in a way that he had no fear on the battlefield.

More hordes of monsters continued to come, and the steaming hot air from the desert made it all more tiring. But it was still to Yotsuya's delight. He continued to slash through every monster that stood in his way, and with every kill, he grew slightly stronger. At one point during his fighting, Arthur could see a side of Yotsuya that he had never seen before. Something vulnerable, something he wished he could have done. It was apparent that something deep had been bothering Yotsuya, and it became even more so as his aggression towards the giant sandworms clearly grew, and he began screaming out as he continuously stabbed them despite already having killed them. It wasn't until that point he knew that he had to snap Yotsuya back to his senses.

He appeared behind him, holding his sword so that he wouldn't be able to strike again. As he tried to stab with the other, Arthur blocked that as well. In confusion, Yotsuya acted rashly and attacked Arthur. Although the cut was shallow, Yotsuya was obviously still blinded by his own rage and confusion as he rushed to continue attacking him. As long as Arthur was able to deploy a faint layer of mana around him, he would mostly be fine from Yotsuya's attacks as he didn't seem to be using it himself. Even so, his attacks were clearly only suited for killing, as he continued to blindly attack his fellow comrade. "Yotsuya! What's gotten into you lately!?" Yotsuya didn't seem to stop his attacks even after Arthur having screamed. Yotsuya's attacks grew more ferocious, and it was clear that something was either clearly wrong with him or that it was something heavy that he was carrying on his mind, possibly even a state of a huge amount of confusion.

"Yotsuya!" Arthur screamed out even louder as Yotsuya's blades both touched the same side of the neck. No further pressure was applied as he finally came to and realized what was going on. His face turned to complete shock and horror after having realized that he almost took the life of his best friend completely unknowingly. Arthur was breathing heavily and had fallen to the ground. Even if he had twice or thrice the amount of mana applied, if Yotsuya had actually carried out the attack, he would have been dead. Even if it was only for a short moment, he could see his life flash before his eyes. "I-I-I'm so sorry!" It took Yotsuya a few extra seconds to fully remove the blade and sheathe them. At first, Arthur was terrified at what had almost happened, but as soon as he got more room to breathe, he quickly changed emotions. As Yotsuya turned around, he was met with a quite peculiar expression.

"Yotsuya, you fucking idiot! What the hell is wrong with you?" He was continuously shouting throughout his dialogue. Yotsuya tried to not dampen the mood further but couldn't help to look away in disappointment of himself. "Yotsuya, listen... Whatever it is that happened to you in the past, I promised to let it go and not talk about it, but right now, you either tell me what happened, or you're kicked from the guild. If you go around and almost murder your own guildmates because of some emotions about something that happened in the past, you will be nothing but a liability for everybody else. How do you think the others would see you? I'm only trying to help and understand you, but it's hard to do that when you almost killed me, you idiot." Arthur tried to calm down as he spoke and even tried to tease him with a joke on the last part of his sentence. What he didn't expect, however, was a more than a shocking face from Yotsuya. It looked like his soul had left his body.

"... A murderer?" The sentence wasn't even directed at Arthur. Yotsuya's face clearly showed that his mind was somewhere completely else again as if it was visiting some old and distant memories. His eyes were completely wide open, as it looked like he had seen a ghost while, in reality, the only things he could see in front of him were memories of things that he wished never happened. Pictures of him watching his first party get brutally killed right before his eyes, able to do nothing about it. Pictures of having had to spend multiple weeks without access to food or water, surviving off the poison that was meant to kill him. All the physical and mental torture he experienced while locked up. Memories of getting saved by a person truly unique, the only person he's ever considered his true friend, sacrificing his life to save Yotsuya's just a week later. That coupled with the following months of solitude and battle made for a feeling even worse than before as he gripped his head as if he was feeling physical pain before slowly letting his hands fall down.

"... I'll tell you later, Arthur. I just need some... time to think this through first." With that, Yotsuya began walking away, leaving Arthur completely alone and confused, surrounded by the dead corpses of the monsters Yotsuya had killed. "Well, at least I got him to finally tell me about it... but why did he have to leave all of these monsters to me..." Arthur wasn't sure how to react until he half-smiled, knowing that it was the least he could do, even if the smile itself was forced. Even transporting a single one would take minutes because the city itself was still far away, and when he finally turned around to see just how many it was that he had to carry. It was then he saw an entire field, completely covered in the corpses of the monsters. "...This is going to take hours, isn't it?" He felt a little bit betrayed from having been left behind completely, but he was pretty used to it.

Hours had passed, and the sun was still shining ever so brightly. Arthur had just made it back into town after having carried all of the monsters back. He was completely burnt out from having carried it all, and he had no idea where Yotsuya could be. The city was huge, and there was no way of finding anyone specific in a short amount of time. But he did have a suspicion of where Yotsuya was going to be. Despite the two of them not knowing a lot about each other's backgrounds, he still knew enough about him to be almost certain of where he was going to be.

"Found you." Arthur's calm voice spoke as he jumped up onto the roof. Yotsuya was calmly lying there, staring up into the blue sky, completely absent of clouds. "It took some time." Yotsuya turned his head to face the direction he heard the voice coming from. "That's because you left me with all the monsters. Don't you know how long it takes to carry a single one?" Arthur's voice sounded calm, but the few stutters made it obvious that he wasn't exactly happy. "Sorry. It's just, I've been getting more and more flashbacks recently. And the sandworms... I guess they reminded me of a peculiar dungeon back in the day." Yotsuya continued lying down on top of the roof. Arthur joined him soon after. "What was that dungeon like?" Arthur was genuinely interested in every piece of information that Yotsuya went on to share. He told him that it all began when he and one of his friends went to a dungeon, thinking nothing of it. It then got more disturbing as Yotsuya was sure to not miss a single detail until finally ending it with the fact that he barely had made it out alive himself and that his friend, Velios, died trying to save him.

"I get it..." Arthur didn't want to talk about it either after having heard about it. He obviously wanted to ask a bunch of different questions but found no suitable time to do it. "You're probably wondering what he was like as a person, don't you?" Yotsuya had read Arthur like an open book as he responded with a nod. "He was an amazing person. He showed me mercy and knew that I was a good person while everybody didn't. Right... I was falsely accused of having killed my party back in the day as well, so I was sentenced to death." The sudden turn made Arthur nearly choke on his own saliva. His eyes opened widely in shock having been unprepared for what Yotsuya had just told him. "In the end, he saved me and even proved my innocence. That was one week before he died." Arthur wanted to ask even more, but he couldn't bring himself to. He was left completely speechless, and he could clearly see sadness in Yotsuya's eyes. "I'm going to my room. If you have any more questions, just ask tomorrow." With that, Arthur was left alone once again as Yotsuya jumped down. "So his name was Velios, huh...?"