Amelia finally returned from her work-out routine, if that’s what you’d call it. She seemed really motivated to see the world above again, and she rushed straight into the bathroom from her jog.

  It made sense. Unlike me, she had lived her entire life up there, so it must have been pretty alien to be stuck underground for so long.

  I had barely seen a thing about this world, so literally everything was new and exciting to me. It was like…discovering a new book you get really invested in and can’t put down.

  … And then you start neglecting your responsibilities, being too hooked on it!

  Well… It’s pretty easy to not be too hooked on this world, considering how immediately lethal everything in here is. In fact, these quiet moments of not doing anything really made me not want to discover more.

  I guess you could say I’m straightforward to please, but try to see it from my perspective, okay? My past life was spent under the constant knowledge that everything I obtain will only last a fleeting moment.

  My final lifespan was about a fourth of what the average is, so it was pretty challenging to really grow attached to anything.

  But now, I had no idea how long I could live, but judging by the books I read on monsters, I’m sure I at least should be able to live as long as an average human does. In fact, my new body felt physically more mature than my past body was. I’d guess the physical age of the body was somewhere around twenty-five to thirty years old.

  Which was already more than how long I lived in the past.

  With this hope that my life wasn’t destined to be cut short, I grew noticeably more attached to stuff. Namely, my friends.

  These peaceful moments reminded me of the fact that there is a lot of tranquil happiness even in this hellhole of a world. I’d much rather wallow in it, than the miserable, violent blood festival awaiting us ahead.

  The magic I’ve been studying is almost all oriented towards survival and combat. But if I had the choice, I would have much rather studied something similar to ‘how do I dry my hair with magic.’

  Magic would be much nicer if it was a delightful luxury, instead of a survival necessity…BUT HERE WE ARE!

  “You seem troubled over something.” Amelia smiled as she sat next to me. She had the scent of someone straight out of a luxurious bath to her. You know…maybe roses and stuff. I don’t really know what rich people put in their baths.

  “Mmm…” I murmured to myself a bit and just shifted around, kind of awkwardly finding my way closer to the knight-mom emanating heat and soothing energy. I then rested my head against her shoulder in a very not at all smooth manner, and to add the nail to the coffin, I took a DEEP inhale of her scent.

  “…” Amelia seemed moderately troubled by my blatantly perverse behavior.

  “You may be pretty tough, but my immense levels of social awkwardness can dent even your newest armor…!” I boasted, at which the knight slammed her fist on the chair handle and burst out laughing.

  “You are A DEVIANT!” She simply stated and wrapped her arm around my waist. “Shame on you!”

  “You’re an accomplice! They’ll never believe you in court if you feign innocence!” I declared shamelessly with a hint of a smile to my face.

  “Somehow I have a feeling you might be correct…” Amelia looked genuinely troubled for a moment. “But…ahem.” She coughed a bit. “Please share your mind.” She nodded with a smile. “What’s troubling you?”

  She had this way of forcing the conversation back to the serious topics, even if I feel I made the message of not wanting to talk about something abundantly clear! Maybe it was a knight thing? Rushing straight into danger and all.

  “I was just thinking. I sort of…got complacent in the peace underground, so that story you told us as I got tattooed kind of…has been claiming real-estate in my head.”

  “Oh…! That one.” Amelia nodded a bit. “Indeed. To that I can relate to an extent.” She peered her line of sight towards the ceiling of the train car. “While I was put through a lot during my time as a knight, after I became the head of the royal guard, my life got a considerable lot more harmonious.”

  “Mm…” I simply nodded.

  “Being pulled out of that peace and quiet by being thrown into a harrowing nightmare…” She shook her head, gritting her teeth a bit. I’m assuming she was most likely thinking about what happened to her daughter, Amy.

  “…” I remained quiet.

  “I always felt the world was a kind place I had to protect… But it’s not quite what I expected at all.” The knight looked at me. “I’m traveling with a witch and my old allies are now my enemies.

  “… Yeah…” I replied quietly.

  “…” She sighed deep, seeming lost in thought.

  “This world kind of sucks…”

  “Mmh…” Amelia yielded with a quiet noise.

  “I like some people in it though.”

  Amelia’s grip on my waist tightened a bit. Fanael was asleep on my lap. It would have probably made for the most awkward family portrait, especially considering our backgrounds.

  I guess I could open the circumstances up a little before I write more about our conversation.

  If you remember from a bit ago, I discussed the possibility of getting tattoos to add mana circuits to my normal arm as well.

  “YOUR TATTOO STUFF! LET’S GO GET TATTOOED TO INCREASE YOUR KILLING POWER!!” Fanael’s nasal voice roared through the library as I was studying magic.

  “R-right now?!” I squealed. “But we just ate!

  “WAITING IS FOR LOSERS!! LET’S GO!” Fanael seemed to be the type who gets very hyped up when drunk.

  Amelia hoisted me over her shoulder. It was a lot less romantic than the usual princess carry. We had just been in that restaurant I promised Amelia as a thank you for everything we went through, and she had…a few drinks.

  The person who was to tattoo some mana circuits on me lived inside the castle. Alcomelia was walking around, staring at her reflection off the marble floor and then laughing at it a bit like a dumbass.

  She was totally wasted, so I had to endure being carried all over the corridors of the castle as Amelia had to marvel at every little dumb thing her clouded mind found amusing at the moment.

  Eventually, Fanael came around and dragged Amelia along by her hand.

  We went up to what, I think, was the seventh floor. It was a bit of a hassle to see with the way I was being carried.

  The door opened to a well-lit up path, and it seemed like the place was bustling even though it was getting quite late. There were a bunch of doors to both the left and right of the corridor, it revived some unwanted memories of the hospital hallways…

  I could see my reflection as Amelia carried me. I remembered avoiding looking at the reflection of the smooth flooring in the hospital because it just reminded me of my inevitable end.

  I distinctly remembered seeing that face… or… did I…?

  I raised my head up a bit, I’m sure I was having just a momentary bout of forgetfulness…

  What did I look like again? What were my facial features…? I remembered being short and kind of feeble… but at that moment, I made a mental note of being unable to recall any detailed features about myself.

  Usually, when someone asks you what you look like, you’d answer with something along the lines of what color your hair is, what kind of clothes you are wearing or whatever, right?

  I definitely remembered staring at the reflection of my face on that floor, and yet I was somehow completely blanking out on what the person looking back at me in the reflection looked like.

  Was… I starting to lose memories of the past…? Or did I remember these features in the first place when I reincarnated?

  What was my name…? I remembered thinking about this when I chose to become ‘Yverna’. I remembered thinking my old name wasn’t fitting for a witch…

  What…was my name? What did I look like…? I couldn’t remember…

  “So! She is here!” The cheerful voice of a Mhiir’im girl welcomed me. She had pure white hair and wore big glasses. Her nose was a bit red. Maybe she was prone to sniffling.

  “Yeap! One witch, coming right up!” Fanael guided Amelia to plop me down on a little bedding.

  “Let’s get to it! I have a busy night ahead of myself.” The doctor…or tattoo artist? Or whatever one would call her, seemed to be in a bit of a rush.

  She had some kind of schematic on paper with some magical sigils drawn on it. My curiosity was instantly piqued, but my excitement was stifled immediately after as I was provided a towel and then got asked to undress. I really didn’t want to see the stump of my leg that much, so I was pretty hesitant.

  In my past life, I absolutely despised everything about my body. I feel a bit of that negativity dragged itself into this world too, so I had a hard time being confident while disrobed. It’s not like my new body was unpleasant to look at. It all just had this innate air of discomfort to it.

  Luckily, Amelia seemed to pick up on this despite her still slightly inebriated state, and helped me keep the towel wrapped around as I took my daily clothes off.

  As I laid down on the table, the unmistakable scent of sterility in the room had made me a bit nervous. I really wasn’t good with the hospital-kind of scenarios. I honestly wished the tattoo artist had been a chain-smoking bearded guy in some sleazy backstreet store. Even that would have been more comfortable to me than this.

  I did my best to steel my nerves and took a deep sigh. The paper with the magical sigils was pressed against my back as I laid there, and to my surprise, a replica of the schematic appeared over my skin. It was a glowing hue of blue. The schematic went over most of my back and over my normal flesh and blood arm.

  I suppose it was like a guideline for the final product, which proved to be true, as soon as the buzzing noise of the needle started whirring.

  Amelia sat next to me and took a hold of my choralium hand as I laid there.

  “Are you okay…?” She asked softly.

  “S-sort of…!” I nodded, yelping a bit as the needle made contact with my skin. It was a bit prickly, but at this point my pain tolerance threshold was pretty high, so it didn’t bother me that much.

  “Don’t worry…! It shouldn’t take that long.” She tried to cheer me on. “It doesn’t look particularly pleasant.”

  “Oh! This will take a moment! Do realize we’re going over her entire back and one arm! I hope you can handle the pain.” The doctor giggled a bit… I didn’t like her! Yeah! She was cute! But I got this weird sadistic vibe from her!

  “It’s not…the needle…!” I mumbled, unsure if I should even bring up the topic. “I mean… I’ve burned off an arm…carved magical sigils in my body…burned off a leg…! Getting pricked by this needle feels a lot less uncomfortable than getting gnawed at by the horrifying bug swarm…” I sighed heavily, feeling a bit nauseous.

  “You do make a good point.” Amelia chuckled. “So, what’s getting you so tense?”

  “It’s just the whole hospital environment. It makes me uncomfortable…” I mumbled so quietly it was probably difficult to hear under the buzzing of the tattoo needle.

  “Ah…!” Amelia’s eyes widened. She looked away a bit. “Mm… I understand.” She nodded, a bit of clarity returning to her eyes. “Would you welcome a small distraction?” It was pretty astonishing how well I could feel her touch through the metal. The only thing I couldn’t feel was the warmth of things through the arm, but it was a small price to pay for getting my entire arm back.

  “What kind of…distraction?” I asked a bit curiously.

  “Maybe I’ll tell you a story from my knight training days!” She smiled, but then lifted her index finger up. “It’s a bit unnerving! So, you’ve been warned!”

  “HAVE AT IT!” Fanael declared as well as she marched to sit in front of me. Her presence was pretty calming despite her loud demeanor. “Also… Maybe sometime you could also tell me about this…hospital stuff.” She nodded a bit awkwardly.

  I couldn’t help but smile a bit. It’d be quite a ride to try to explain my rebirth into this world to her. While Amelia was more religious and seemed to believe in a bunch of mysterious fantasy stuff, Fanael seemed more invested in research and science. She seemed to even consider magic a form of science, which would make explaining my case quite challenging, I’m sure. Despite all this, it was still Fanael, so I’m sure she’d just make fun about me over it and call me a lunatic while grinning, so I didn’t fear talking to her about it too much.

  “Go on…! More to do with dungeons?” I sighed as I managed to relax a bit more on the table.

  “No… Not quite.” Amelia seemed to be lost in thought. “I…don’t quite know what it was…”

  Amelia began her story. I’ll retell it in her perspective here in the usual manner, so it’s easier to get in the mood.

  “It was towards the latter parts of my training…” Amelia’s narrative began in a soft, almost whisper-like tone.

  Near the kingdom of Rachasia, there were many perilous territories that needed the Knights Order to keep them in check.

  The knights were held in extremely high regard due to the protection they provided from the monsters and other sinister beings that lurked in the near vicinity of the kingdom.

  One evening, the emergency bell rang. There was apparently an upsurge of monsters near a cave system not too far off from some human settlements. Now, while on paper, it sounded quite intimidating, in reality this was common.

  Especially nocturnal monsters were known to breed within caves, which sometimes caused upsurges in their populations if left unchecked.

  Our duty was to inspect the sudden increase in their numbers, and then cull as many of them as possible, while also potentially seeking and destroying their source.

  A large-scale strike team was organized, and we were set on our way. The mountain was a few days trip away even on horseback, so I got to hear some interesting conversations along the way.

  “It’s strange…” The commander spoke. You might remember him from the encounter I had with the dungeon before this.

  “What is?” One of his aides inquired.

  “Something about the air around the mountain. It feels different from the usual.” He spoke. Now, to be clear, the commander did have a tendency for embellishing some of his stories, but I always felt he had something akin to a sixth sense for danger. Something about those words made my skin crawl.

  “Hah? The air? Does it smell weird to you?” Another knight laughed. “Commander! It’s just a monster spawning! We’ve seen plenty!”

  “Mmmh… I do hope that is the case.” The commander grumbled a bit, and we continued on our way.

  Days turned to nights, and soon we began getting closer to the mountain. As we raced towards it, suddenly a warning horn was blown, informing us that a monster was approaching.

  “Nightrazer at twelve o’clock!” Shouted one of the knights from the scouting party.

  A nightrazer is an insect-like monster with long sickle-shaped forelegs. They are generally only active at night, but are extremely dangerous when hidden within the shadows, thus the name.

  Its horrifying screech ensured the monster was welcomed with a precisely aimed rain of arrows. It kept on rushing towards the strike team, which quickly cut it down with the help of a defensive formation.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I could tell from this point onward, that the commander was probably right. There was something wrong here.

  “This is…unnerving.” The usually courageous and loud man spoke in a low tone. It was rare to see the commander in this state.

  “W-what? What’s wrong? Isn’t it good we took down the beast?” A noticeable murmur of confusion rose among the knights.

  “It’s a nightrazer.” The commander grumbled. “Do you not see what’s wrong here?” He sounded almost angry.

  “Sir! A nightrazer is known for only being active after dusk! Not only that, it is an ambush predator! They never directly rush at prey!” I shouted. Shamefully enough, I recall feeling a sense of pride for being able to answer his question.

  With this, a silence fell over the group. “I-it is…a bit weird isn’t it…?” One mumbled, when suddenly another warning horn was blown. There were three more nightrazers rushing towards us.

  “DEFENSIVE POSITIONS!” The commander roared, and soon the next group of the beasts was slain.

  Now there was a noticeable state of unrest among the knights. Everyone had made note of the situation. “W-why aren’t they even fighting back…?” One of the knights looked around, as if desperate to hear an answer from one of his fellow men.

  “Something is wrong. Let us make our way to the cave post-haste.” The commander spoke with such urgency, it made my entire body shake with nervousness.

  We rushed over to the cave, only to find a most bizarre sight. There were numerous nightrazers screeching incredibly loudly, rushing out of the cave in massive numbers.

  To our surprise, the monsters entirely ignored our group, even when some knights swung at them with their weapons. The monsters simply ran off past us even if they got wounded by our attacks.

  But this wasn’t all. There were fairies.

  For the sake of Yverna’s understanding, fairies are a Forestwalker species distantly related to the elven races. While physically completely detached from the very humanoid elves, the fairies shared their extreme mana conductivity in common with elves.

  Occasionally, a fairy would simply float into the cave, disappearing into the darkness, while screeching monsters ran out.

  It was a completely bizarre sight.

  Not only were the monsters ignoring easy prey in the slowly flying fairies, but the fairies would not respond to any calls or shouts, as if they were completely mesmerized by something awaiting them within the darkness.

  After the nightrazer numbers thinned out, night began falling. The monsters posed no threat. It was clear enough at this point.

  “It’s…as if they’re running away from something.” A young knight sat on a stump. “I’ve hunted a number of nightrazers, and I am almost certain this kind of screech is a warning… or one of fear.”

  “Indeed… I fear the same.” The commander agreed quietly. “Whatever is within that cave, is dangerous enough to scare off an entire colony of nightrazers.”

  “W-what of the fairies then, sir.” I asked, still utterly dumbfounded by the bizarre situation. Even as we spoke, some fairies would occasionally fly in. One of our men caught one, but it was completely unresponsive, staring blindly into the direction of the cave even when prevented from entering.

  Fairies have their own language, but they are known for being very sociable, so it is not uncommon for them to understand Plainswalker languages as well. We kept asking the fairy numerous things, but nothing seemed to get a response out of it. It simply stared at the cave entrance, attempting to fly there whenever our lines of sight would break away from it.

  We were obviously not complete fools, so it was unanimously agreed upon to wait until the morning before our entry into the cavern. Entering a pitch-black tunnel at night is among the most self-destructive things one can do within the Rachasian territory.

  Once dawn broke, the team was divided in two. The groups would keep a good distance, so that in the case either would get ambushed, the other one could rush in and help without issue.

  The air was tense, and it was clear everyone had the same thing in mind at this point. Anything fearsome enough to incite terror such as this to an entire colony of dangerous predatory monsters must have been truly unfathomable…

  Nobody wanted to find out what was hiding inside the cavern, and yet, it was our duty to do so.

  I was already finding favor for my deeds at this point, so I was honored with a position in the first team, getting to see the cave firsthand along the commander and a group of other reliable men.

  It was completely silent. Whenever you encounter absolute silence in nature, it means there is something nearby which is the source of said silence. The most prominent source of such stillness is fear.

  Numerous claw marks and some abandoned nightrazer nests were carved within the walls.

  The monsters used their long claws to carve out holes in caves and mountains, covering the openings with a paper-like substance, not too different from the kind wasps use to build their nests with.

  A good rule of thumb, my commander taught me, was that if you traverse through a forest and find large swathes of trees having been cut down and gnawed at, it means nightrazers are nearby.

  There were numerous nests, but no monsters and no fairies at that either.

  I’m certain at least a hundred flew into the cave over the night.

  The cave kept going in deeper, and the deeper we went, something began troubling me. I wasn’t certain what it was, but something kept ticking at the back of my head. Something I could hear.

  “Sir…” I distinctly remember the uncertainty my voice shook with as I spoke.

  “What is it?” The commander’s reply came without as much as a glance towards me. He was absolutely focused.

  “Can you guide your lantern to the floor?” I gulped dryly, in reply to which the commander’s eyes went wide, as if he had realized something was strange as well.

  He rapidly crouched and let the light of his lantern hit the floor properly.

  “What is…this…?” He gently trailed his hand over the floor of the cave. It was absolutely and utterly smooth. Not smooth like the way a river smooths out a rock, but more like glass.

  “Commander! The walls are made of the same substance!” One knight went over to inspect the supposed stone surfaces we were surrounded by.

  “Ceiling as well!” The way light reflected off the smooth texture was almost as if it were water.

  The sound our footsteps made had been the source of my concern. I couldn’t remember exactly when it had changed, but it was noticeably different.

  The glass-like surface of the cavern somehow caused our footsteps to echo a lot more. As if the sleek substance reflected the noises infinitely within the dark depths, almost as if to function as a clever echolocation trap.

  If such was the case, whatever lurked within the depths was surely more than aware of our presence at this point.

  As if the tension from going inside the cave wasn’t enough, now the strike team was getting jumpy. It wasn’t unusual for someone to suddenly scream, only to figure out they simply saw distorted reflections within the uneven mirror-like walls.

  The team traversed deeper, and to our surprise, there was a faint light at the end of the tunnel. The commander silently gestured for the team to be on their guard.

  Weapons were drawn as silently as possible, and yet it sounded as if we were a symphonic orchestra of steel, due to the acoustics of the tunnel.

  Something ticked me the wrong way about this. Would your average monster truly be intelligent enough to devise such an extravagant method for detecting danger? Would any monster in general be that crafty?

  Despite all this, we went in deeper, only to find a cave opening of medium size. It was large enough to let the entire strike team within it, but it was a bit of a tight fit, so a portion of the group stayed behind.

  Within the ceiling, there was a hole that let in moonlight. The light bathed the room in a cold blue hue. The reflective surface of the stone cavern had turned into an utterly otherworldly glow due to the moonlight, causing it to look like almost as if there were a shifting mist everywhere.

  Other than that, it was empty, outside of one curious detail.

  In the dead center of the room, there was a completely and utterly pitch-black sphere, that had been partially crumbled on top.

  Never in my life had I ever seen something similar to it. So immense was its darkness, that not a single speck of the vivid moonlight shining upon it was reflected off its surface.

  It felt wrong to even look at it, as if my mind was unable to comprehend whatever was in that spot. It was pure black, almost like a hole had been ripped into the very reality itself in the middle of that cavern.

  A sword was eventually tossed at the dark sphere, only for it to crumble…and slowly turn into gray ash.

  The cave ended there.

  There was nothing else to be seen. No monster, no nightrazers nor fairies.

  After inspecting the cave thoroughly, we had no choice but to rule the incident out as a freak accident and exit the cave. Maybe it was some sort of ritual for the fairies to fly into the cave and then out through the hole we found in the final room.

  The men were tired from the mental test the cave put us through, and they seemed more than content to bask in the sunlight of the day.

  And yet, all I could feel was the cold beads of sweat gliding down my brow.

  I don’t believe I had ever felt horrified of standing in warm sunlight before. The air was warm, I could smell the slightly moist grass outside. It was a perfect day out. The commander clearly realized this as well, and rushed back into the cave with wild eyes, and I followed along.

  We rushed past the nests…we rushed past the glassy walls…and ended up inside the final cavern…

  And to our horror, it was completely pitch black.

  There was no hole in the ceiling. There was nothing there, almost as if there had never been a hole there to begin with, and yet I was absolutely certain there had been one shining moonlight into the room earlier.

  Even though it was the middle of the day outside the cave.

  The commander and I exchanged a glance, but nothing came of it. We couldn’t find the hole, so all we could do was exit.

  There were theories thrown around like it being some sort of portal or an illusion to distract us with.

  We never got any answers, retaining to our venture.

  One last thing that left the memory haunting my nightmares, was a carefree suggestion one of the knights tossed around as we raced back to Rachasia.

  “So… That black thing? Didn’t it kind of look like the shell of an egg?”

  I distinctly remember that in the moment of realization I lost control of my horse and almost fell off it.

  It did… It did look like an egg…

  As Amelia finished her story, the room was left totally silent. Even the tattoo-doctor got distracted by the conclusion of it, so she stopped the needle for the moment.

  “S-so…did you ever find out what all of that was…?” I asked softly, as the tattooing picked back up.

  “I did not, unfortunately.” Amelia shook her head. “To be fully transparent, something about the experience just makes me want to forget it, and yet I cannot.”

  “You have any idea what that could have been?” I glanced at Fanael.

  She simply shook her head in response. “The world’s full of all kinds of strange occurrences! It’s precisely the reason I love adventuring.” She nodded. “Isn’t there a kind of excitement in trying to find out answers to such mysteries?”

  “Hmmm…” I weighed her words in my head only for a moment. “I’d generally prefer to get answers to secrets from a safe distance away.”

  “Hah! Where’s your adventurous spirit?!” Fanael poked her tongue out at me.

  “In the library!” I poked my own back at her.

  “AND DONE!” The sadistic little doctor slapped my back, earning a hearty yelp out of yours truly.

  I was assisted to stand up by Amelia, who guided me to a mirror. The areas where the patterns had been tattooed on were a bit red, but the magic circuits were incredibly precise and well-drawn.

  Luckily, Fanael knew white magic, which helped my skin recover rapidly. I was able to put on clothes, and soon, there was one giddy princess bouncing in front of me.

  “NOW TRY IT!! Come on!! Let’s see if it makes a difference!” She was clearly excited to figure out this…newfound lethal force I was supposedly provided with.

  “R-right!” I began casting magic, and to my surprise, it was quite fast this way. Since casting ice magic required two sigils, I could create one with my choralium hand, and the other with my normal one. Combining the sigils was easy enough, and it created a mouse sized chunk of ice.

  “That’s…it?” Fanael seemed very disappointed. “It’s just…faster casting?” She groaned.

  I looked at the icy piece floating above my palm. To my surprise, I could spin it with my tattooed hand. Spinning it allowed me to look at the chunk from different sides and angles. It was…VERY pointless but kind of fun!

  “Maybe try and see if you can change its shape.” The doctor guided as she was putting away her stuff.

  “Shape…?” I turned to look at the ice chunk, and began using my free hand to do little squeezing motions and such. Nothing much happened, until I started guiding mana through my hand, after which my silly squeezing motions actually…began changing the shape of the chunk!!

  “WHOA!!” Fanael bounced back into life.

  “Like…this….” I mumbled and formed the frozen blob into a sharp, thorn-like shape.

  “NOW, THAT LOOKS LETHAL!!” Fanael danced around. “You can shoot it, right?!” She cheered as her violent rain dance continued.

  “I think so! And it’s poisonous!!” I began getting excited too.

  “WHAT?!” Fanael’s eyes sparkled with joy.

  “All water-based magic I make is poisonous!” I declared proudly, at which Fanael began clapping her hands with such joy on her face, I don’t think I had ever seen her that happy before. She really was a bit weird.

  “W-why are you lunatics so happy about creating something so morbid…?!” Amelia’s response was much more realistic.

  “Shush you! Your powers cause things to go into necrosis instantly! You aren’t in a position to complain about people’s powers being morbid!” Fanael’s counterattack was pretty fair. Amelia had the scariest powers of all of us, and she was supposed to be some kind of paragon of justice.

  “N-now! My powers come from a place of well-meaning!” She defended herself, but got ignored.

  “Fuhu…huhu…” I began giggling.

  “What’s with you now?” Fanael chuckled a bit herself.

  “W-well it’s just… We really are a sinister bunch.” I stared at the ice dart spinning on top of my palm. “A witch with poison needle magic, a paladin blessed by the goddess of death…and a bloodthirsty little bundle of hatred.”

  “HEY!!” Fanael burst out laughing in feigned rage. “WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A BLOODTHIRSTY LITTLE BUNDLE OF HATRED?!”

  Now Amelia and the doctor were laughing as well. After the whole tattooing thing was done with, I was given some aftercare instructions, and then I got carried out of the castle by Amelia. She flopped me over her shoulder again, but this time it was supposedly done to not put any strain on my back. I somehow had a feeling she was just being an asshole deliberately due to our comments over her goddess being creepy, though.

  Amelia’s voice snapped me back to the present all of a sudden.

  “I know it’s unreasonable of me to ask this…” She spoke softly, still holding on to my waist tightly. “But please try to understand. Someone incredibly precious to me is being held hostage by that horrid monster…”

  “I get it.” I adjusted my sitting a bit. “I know what it feels like to worry over someone you really care for.” I flicked Amelia’s nose a bit. “Especially when they’re the type to blindly rush into danger…”

  Amelia seemed a bit surprised, but her expression of bewilderment rapidly calmed down into one of her usual gentle smiles.

  “Although…” I looked at Fanael sleeping.

  “Although?” Amelia turned to look at me curiously.

  A moment of odd silence ensued. I knew what I was about to say was most likely unnerving, but somehow, I felt I really needed to say it. I felt like I’d be betraying Amelia if I didn’t.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the last moments before you escaped from Rachasia, your husband walked over to Claire, the golden princess who betrayed you, as if he was suddenly on her side, right?”

  Amelia grimaced and clenched her fist, then nodding. “S-so it seemed, at least… I do not yet know what all of it meant.”

  “Well. With that in mind.” I turned to face Amelia directly.

  “Y-yes?”

  “If it turns out your husband is under some sort of mind-control, even if it is your husband, I will kill him if he tries to hurt you.” I stated unusually clearly.

  “W-what do you mean…?!” Amelia gasped.

  “I’ve never met him. I don’t really know him, or have a personal connection to him.” My words just kept flowing out of my mouth, even if I feared letting some of my thoughts out like this. “So, if he tries to hurt the person who I do have a personal connection to, I will defend that person. With lethal force, if I must.”

  “B-but…!” Amelia was obviously shaken.

  “I’m not joking.” I replied coldly.

  Amelia turned to look away from me. She slowly withdrew her hand from around my waist and held her hands in fists on her lap.

  “I can’t say I approve of this…” She admitted quietly.

  I simply stayed silent. None of the things I told her were lies anyway. I had no intention of letting my best friend die, even if it meant killing those, she loved the most in this world.

  If Matthias, Amelia’s husband, was truly in even slight control of his actions, he wouldn’t directly try to harm Amelia.

  But I knew already the bitterness of this world and that it wasn’t that convenient. It didn’t exist to make me feel happy about it, so expecting a man under brainwashing to simply snap out of it with the power of love felt almost nonsensical.

  Amelia fell in love with Matthias and shared a major portion of her life with him, but if Matthias was under the complete control of this monstrous girl, who seemed to slowly gain the favor of everyone around her, he was no longer the same man Amelia fell in love with.

  … Or so I justified the completely remorseless words in my head.

  I wondered if what I said was wrong…or evil somehow. Somehow, despite the obvious pain I was inflicting to Amelia, I didn’t feel particularly bad about it.

  Because as I mentioned before.

  The thing I had grown to love about this world was none other than my friends… and I had decided to keep them safe, even if it meant becoming their enemy in the end.

  “I’m sorry.” I added after the silence. Even if I had no remorse over my words, I knew I hurt Amelia by vocalizing my thoughts.

  She simply shook her head quietly. “I certainly hope it won’t come down to it…”

  “Me too.” I gingerly placed my metallic hand over hers and, to my relief, she didn’t recoil from my touch.

  “S-somehow I feel you might be lying…” She whispered shakily.

  “… Maybe I am, to be honest.” I slowly withdrew my hand. “But, please know this.” I turned to look at her more seriously again.

  Amelia was nervous to meet my gaze. “…”

  “I will never do anything to hurt you, unless hurting you is the only way to protect you.” Surely, I sounded like an obsessive lunatic at this point, but somehow, I couldn’t stop talking.

  “But…who are you to determine if I need protection.” Amelia had a hint of irritation in her voice.

  “…” I crossed my arms and leaned back against the chair I was resting on. She had a good point. “Okay. Let me word this in a less heroic way.” I conceded. “I’ll protect you from anything that would take you away from me. Even if it hurts you in the process.” I turned to look at her with my orange eyes. She didn’t seem to wish to match my gaze.

  “You…” Amelia shook her head a bit. “You are sick…” She seemed bewildered by the whole situation.

  “Mmm…” I nodded a bit.

  “Do you not realize these words alone could cause me to wish to get away from you?” Amelia retorted, and she made perfect sense. I was absolutely objectively the one making no sense right now.

  “I don’t think they would.” I began gently caressing Fanael’s hair with my cold metallic hand.

  “What makes you so certain?!” Amelia began raising her voice, and she had all the reason to be agitated. I did just threaten the life of her most beloved person, after all.

  “You wouldn’t be a knight if you were that soft.” I replied roughly, starting to match her heightened voice.

  Amelia stared at me in stunned silence. She slowly sat back down in her seat next to me and took a deep, shaky breath.

  “Do…you realize how much your words pain me?” Amelia whispered so shakily it was clear she was about to cry.

  “I do.” I replied firmly. “But it’s the only thing I regret about them. I do think you deserve to know.”

  “W-why!?” Amelia began sobbing. “W-why would you say something like this?!”

  “Because I truly mean it, and I’m afraid you’d be even more hurt if I did something this vile as a surprise.” I replied, my voice slowly starting to lose its confidence.

  “What…?” Amelia uttered in the midst of her tears.

  “At least this way…you’ll have your hatred towards me portioned better.” I whispered shakily, making it probably harder to hear due to the noises the train made. “You won’t have to flood all of it on me at once, since you were already warned of it beforehand.”

  Amelia’s eyes glinted from the tears. She just sobbed to herself for a moment, seeming to need a moment to gather herself.

  “W-why are you so willing to sacrifice yourself like this!?” She suddenly blurted out.

  I was…caught off-guard again. What was she talking about? I was…literally threatening to kill her husband. What sacrifice was she talking about? Did she misunderstand something?

  “W-what do you mean…?” My bravado broke and was replaced with confusion.

  “You’re saying… you’re willing to sacrifice yourself, just so I have someone to direct my anger towards in the event, that my husband is no longer himself, and he has to be struck down!” Amelia shouted, causing Fanael to start waking up.

  “N-no! W-wait… I didn’t think of it that way!” It was like a slap to the face.

  “If helping us comes at the cost of hurting yourself, I refuse it! We have already discussed this!” Amelia suddenly began straight up screaming at me.

  Fanael was in for a rough awakening. She had no idea what was going on, as I started weeping too. To her shock, she had to play the mediator in the situation.

  Somehow, I never realized Amelia’s perspective to this.

  I felt…grimy.

  Sacrificing yourself to protect those you love was the very same thing I scolded Amelia for only a short while ago. It was the same thing that caused my heart to ache to the point of forcing me to cry for the first time in what felt like forever.

  I was now proudly, arrogantly claiming I’d do the very thing I despised so.

  The hypocrisy of my words made me feel sick. I…thought we were talking about what a bad person I was for stating I’d hurt Amelia’s husband if it came to it…

  But it seemed Amelia was angrier over me being so willing to be the target of her hatred in the event the worst-case scenario happened. Even in the face of my awful threats over killing her husband, Amelia still had the endless heart to worry over ME.

  I cried and wailed my apologies at Amelia and Fanael, who was shamelessly accepting the apologies despite the fact that she had nothing to do with the whole thing.

  After a bout of weeping, I most likely looked like a total mess. My nose and eyes were probably really red and puffy.

  Fanael was pointing at me and laughing.

  I didn’t expect this conversation to get turned on me like this. I was afraid that Amelia would hate me for saying something as ruthless as hurting her husband, and while it’s clear she was shaken by it, she clearly was madder over my blatant disregard for my well-being.

  She really was a mom… I felt really ashamed of being scolded by her.

  … Mostly because I knew she was right.