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  “...Lety, we didn’t leave him behind.” Clover said at last. “He’s the one who left us. Don’t you remember?”

  “I don’t remember.” Lety said, matter of factly. “Tell me the story again.”

  Now, that caught my attention.

  L’teya never got my side of the story. Never.

  From Day 1 of our separation till now, she has been with Clover and only been exposed to Clover’s stories. Now I’m not calling Clover a liar (not right at this moment) but I wouldn’t put it past her to have some warped view of the events that paints me as the villain. Or comes up with a lie to paint herself in a positive light.

  But somehow, I doubted that.

  I don’t think Clover would maliciously twist the story to make me look bad or make herself look good. You can see by how L’teya treats Arione –I’d think that someone who rescued her from a burning city of dying orcs would be treated a little nicer than how the Elven Barbarian treated the Elven-Player-Mage. L’teya treated him like dirt and her loyalty to him was no higher than what was strictly required in a party: just enough to protect them if they were threatened from an outside source but not enough to really love them.

  Yeah, Clover didn’t lie.

  But I do think that she told her own version of the truth.

  Beastman, Orc, Elf… it doesn’t matter. We’re all mortal beings and in a sense, all just regular ‘humans’. We are imperfect beings with imperfect memories with an imperfect recounting of how things actually happen. There’s some studies I read in college which talk about how the information we get from our eyes, nose and ears are all discombobulated. It actually strains the brain –because the brain got the information from the eyes first and the sound reached the ears way later. I’m not an expert on MSS biology but I’d bet my dimension ring that it’s pretty much the same here.

  We’re never really living in reality. We’re simply living in our own perception of it and our brain does its best to fill in the gaps with what’s preferable to us. Take a car crash for a example with a dozen different witnesses. You’d be lucky to have two people agree on who caused the crash and in what way and at what time. Why? Because we all are looking at things from different angles, from different places with a different mindset. Someone might be paying more attention and someone might be not.

  And that’s just the physical aspect of perception.

  Add in emotions, personal vendettas, fire, smoke and the general shellshock of being caught in a war and…

  Well, I could almost understand Clover.

  Almost.

  Like I said, I don’t really think there’s good or bad people in this world.

  Just circumstances and the choices that we make in them.

  I’m not making excuses for Clover for what she did to me. But what I am doing is making sure I keep a rationale accounting of what happened –not just to me, but to Clover and Arione.

  Because the moment I start believing I’m right 100% of the time… well, that would be a short road down the path that others Players go down.

  Like how Arione has no doubt that what he did to the orc civilians in the Samak Horde was the right thing to do.

  Again… I’m not judging.

  But when time comes for me to bury the hatchet with Arione in a clash of swords and sorcery, I won’t be killing him in the name of justice or what’s right. I won’t be doing it because I hate him. I won’t be doing it touting a symbol of whatever moral conscience I believe in and painting him as a villain. I don’t want to justify my sins that way. That’s the path of a madman.

  I’ll be killing him because it’s necessary.

  Nothing more, nothing less.

  I have to constantly watch myself and keep my ego in check. That was the only way I wouldn’t hurt anyone –that I could live with the choices that I make for myself and others. Because now, my choices were starting to affect the lives of many others. My party, the orcs and soon the Dwarves. I can’t just rely on my perception of events and enact justice on people.

  Because that’s just one step away from being my own Judge and Executioner. How long until that evolves to something else down the line, where I’m hunting evil-doers who have nothing to do with me? Where I make a split-judgement call on who should live and who should die? Without hearing them out?

  No, that’s not me. I refuse to let myself become that.

  I can’t be perfect, but I can try to be a good person when circumstances come.

  ‘Like how you just wanted to use Lety?’

  ‘Only because I thought she’d use me first.’

  So being the good person I was, I lay there in bed eavesdropping on their conversation.

  What? I already said I’m not perfect. Besides, this was more entertaining than a Sunday Soap Opera on a slow afternoon.

  There was movement in the air and I could almost see the room’s outline through the blindness. Clover must have turned her head to look at me, checking to see if I was awake and pretending to be unconscious.

  Joke’s on her because half my face has been melted off by acid. If she had healed me instead of bickering with L’teya, then she might have been able to tell. Hell, I would probably have left after thanking her. But thanks to the general lack of… a face, she wouldn’t be able to tell.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Ha. Lock Slaveborn, One. Clover, Zero.

  “He left us, Lety.” Clover’s voice was firm, like repeating something for the umpteenth time to a child who refused to understand. “When we needed him most, when you were captured, when I was stuck in the Orc Den, he left us.”

  “I thought he was taken by the Orcs.”

  “And he could have come straight back for me!” Clover’s voice rose a pitch and something clattered across the room. Did she throw something at Lety?

  “Instead, he goes to rescue that fucking orc; Arrosh, and then finds new friends. The very same mage who hunted us in the desert, oh don’t tell me you don’t recognize who Kyrian is, Lety, we both know you know exactly who he is.” Clover continued, the words spilling out of her, “And he brings Skaris. You know what Skaris tried to do when we were Slaves? He was constantly undermining you, and he even tried to recruit Lock. Do you remember that, Lety? Do you?”

  “Skaris challenged me to an honorable duel.” Lety replied.

  “He. Was. An. Enemy.” There were footsteps again. Footsteps that were light, but not light due to any type of special training. Light because the person in question was dainty. Clover was pacing around the room.

  “Lock left us on our own, Lety. And he planned to escape by himself.” Clover continued, “He had found new allies and the only reason he happened to give a glance our way was because we happened to be there. A coincidence. He would have happily left without us. That’s how he always was.”

  “Cunning, calculative. Always looking to survive, no matter who got hurt in the process.”

  …She was right. I saw where she was coming from.

  That’s who I was back then.

  I didn’t want to trust anyone. Even if I did, I wanted it to be a trade. An equivalent exchange. I wasn’t looking to make friends; nor was I looking for comrades. I was looking for allies, business partners, people that I could use and could use me in turn. And all the best if I could get more use out of them then they could get out of me.

  And honestly, in the beginning, Lety and Clover were exactly that.

  Just conveniently placed people –no, I used to even think of them as NPCs— that were there for me to use. Just a part of a questline… a plot, so to speak. A background character.

  Fear does that to you.

  Back then, it felt like I was being hounded at every turn. The training by the Orcs during the day, then the labor that they imposed to farm the monsters around Samak City. The chase was given by the Akka Xalud forces; which had Kyrian in there. The brief encounter with Skaris where he tried to turn me against Lety. There was nothing else on my mind except living to see another day.

  And it disgusted me.

  Because if you ask me honestly what I would do right now if I was in a similar situation… I’m not sure what my answer would be.

  I’m not entirely sure what different choices I would make.

  I’m not sure if I’ve changed at all.

  There’s no good people or bad people. Just circumstance.

  God, I’m disgusting.

  “He didn’t leave us in the Dungeon.” Lety replied softly. “When my leg was broken. Do you not remember? He found Oung’s hidden chamber. He dueled a monster, without a single Core to his name. In my Clan, not even the strongest of warriors have such a tale; to risk one’s very life and soul, to battle a monster stronger than one’s self. Without a Soul Blessing or a Blessing of one’s God,” she was talking about Cores and Racial Traits, “to challenge a monster for the sake of another and live.”

  “He didn’t leave us then, Clover,” finished Lety. “He didn’t leave us at all. It sounds like a misunderstanding."

  “Maybe back then he didn’t, but he left us when Arione showed up.” Clover said. “Don’t you get it, Lety? He chose the orcs over us.”

  “For all his good points, Slaveborn has a soft side,” replied Lety. I wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or an insult. “And that is precisely why he would not leave us.”

  Clover must’ve thrown her hands up in the air. “It’s like talking to a wall. Really.”

  I couldn’t see but I knew Lety well enough to know that she was smiling that goofy barbarian smile again, which didn’t belong on a face as beautiful as hers. “Because I’m right.”

  “...I’ll heal him.” Clover replied and there was the scent of flowers and earth that came close. It was faint due to my injuries, but it was still there. Oung’s influence in her Kaguras seemed to manifest as a particular scent connected with nature. Shara, Stole’s sister, also had a similar scent to her.

  Briefly, I wondered if other agents of the gods had similar tells.

  “I want you to take him and leave afterwards. Before he wakes up or people come looking for him. Trouble is always following him.”

  “But I want you two to-”

  “Lety, I’m not joking.”

  And just like that, the conversation was over.

  Clover had a way of saying things that could put a stop in the conversation. A tone, an outburst of authority if you will. It has nothing to do with the person’s size, gender or what they’ve achieved in life. Everyone’s encountered this type of person just once, where the air around them changes at the flip of a switch and suddenly the room is full of tension. Clover is one of those.

  As always, there was warmth in her hands as she laid them on my face. The injury must’ve been pretty bad; when I met her in the Scavenger Tunnels she didn’t have to touch anyone to heal them. Her palm rested on each of my cheeks and the warmth turned burning hot for one painful second. As always, the healing system in MSS was accompanied by intense pain followed by pure bliss.

  I groaned, reaching up to touch my face.

  "He's awake." Lety commented.

  "Probably from the healing." Clover slapped my hands away. “I’m not done yet, Lock.”

  Whatever she was doing was working. My [Smell] stat returned in full force and even the [Hearing] stat became amplified. I hadn’t even known my ears had been affected. Now I see why Ear, Nose and Throat are tied together in the medical field.

  I stayed there, basking in the afterglow of having my face returned to normal.

  When I opened my eyes, I could see again.

  I hadn't expected a miracle, but it was a grim reminder that I was still blind in one eye.

  Quickly turning up to a seated position, I saw Lety and Clover studying me. Lety had a faint smile on her face while Clover had turned her back to me, messing around with some herbs on a small workstation she’d set up at the other side.

  Clover’s tent was sparingly simple. The small workstation with various herbs and plants laid out. A cot that served as her bed, which I was lying on. And a simple adventurer’s bag made of leather stuffed in the corner. I knew she had a Dimension Ring of her own, so I had to wonder why she bothered carrying a bag around.

  “Thank you.” I said to Lety. “I won’t forget this.”

  “It was a pleasure, Slaveborn.” L’teya replied, but somehow her smile seemed sad.

  I think it’s because in the past, I wouldn’t have added on that second part. Like I owed her something. Something small that’s there… but there nonetheless, which L’teya noticed. I’m not sure if she understood why she was bothered, but she definitely had some mixed emotions. That went double for me.

  Because as touched as I was by L’teya’s actions…

  When I leave this tent, L’teya won’t be coming with me. She’ll be staying with Clover. And Arione. And Maria Akka Xalud.

  The Elf Barbarian looked small. Lonely.

  I forced myself to stop looking at her, facing Clover, though she still had her back to me.

  “Thank you too, Clover. I’ll owe you one.”

  “You do.” Clover said without turning around. “Now get out, before Zenom finds you here. He’s tearing up the whole camp and he’s livid.”

  Even if she hadn’t said it, I couldn’t stay long to chat. My party needed me.

  I got up to leave. “I… uh….” What did I want to say here?

  “Go ahead, leave.” Clover said. “I don’t want to be caught seen with you.”

  Pursing my lips, I left the tent.

  Clover waited till Lock’s footsteps were gone. It wasn’t long until L’teya left too, to take a good look at what was happening inside the camp.

  “Go ahead and leave, Lock Slaveborn.” Clover bit her lip, unsure why she felt this way. “Leave like you always do, after I clean up your mess. After I heal you and your friends. Leave, without a single care about what’s going to happen to me if someone finds out I healed you after doing the thing you did.” Her hands trembled as she picked up an herb. “I don’t need you anyways.”

  “Leave.”