Chapter 145 Valdel's contemplation

While Ren and Hilda were planning how to flush out the assassin that uses curses, Valdel was in his dorm room feeling lost. Zwei and Nika tried consoling their master, but Valdel blocked their mental link. This move of his was an indirect order from their master to leave him alone. As beings that were in a master-servant contract with Valdel, the two decided to stop bothering their master and simply watch as events unfold.

Kuro also tried to console Valdel, but she was ignored by Valdel he didn't even bother looking at her. Knowing that no matter what she did she wouldn't be able to get through Valdel in his current state, Kuro decided to find Valdel's allies. She remembered her master had two people that might help him in this situation, the stoic woman and the scary smiling guy. Those two especially the scary smiling guy were really famous right now, so it would be easy to find them if she asks around.

Kuro needed one of them to talk to Valdel who was acting this way. She informed Valdel of what she was about to do, but like before Valdel completely ignored her.

...

Valdel was sitting on his bed at the dorm room assigned to him and the others. His new school friends that he met recently, were supposed to be here with him, but the room was now empty would only him present. It was just a few days ago they were still here, happily chatting with him, full of life, and full of dreams.

Valdel clenched his fist while gnashing his teeth, he felt pain and sorrow flood his senses. He felt his heart aching, screaming at him. He felt powerless, more powerless than he ever felt before. More than any of that Valdel felt disgusted at himself.

When Valdel saw the citizens of new Grenton mourning their dead, he felt sympathetic but in a corner of his heart, he felt relieved that the lives that were lost only amounted to this much. If they had lost then everyone in Grenton would've died. Even though he kept on saying that he wanted to save everyone and keep everyone's smiling faces, somewhere inside of him he knew that wish of his wasn't possible. Yet the moment he heard that his friends have died, he for a fraction of a second had a thought pass through his mind, 'Why was it them?'

That single thought, that selfish thought of his made Valdel question if he was truly worthy of becoming a hero. He was full of hope and dreams of becoming a hero, that could save everyone. It sounded nice to hear such a dream, but in the end, was he simply chasing an ideal that was nearly impossible to gain? Since unlike his friend Ren, he didn't have the strength, the resources, the intelligence to reach that dream of his.

'These hands couldn't even save people who are close to me... How am I supposed to save others... No... I could not save anyone, not the people who were right in front of me, nor the friends that I have gained, I could not even save myself from despair.'

"In the end, was I..." Valdel punched his face in anger as he was about to say something that he should never say. He could practically hear Ren's mocking voice, telling him, "is that it? Is that all your dream meant to you?"

"What the hell am I doing!" Valdel stood up and started to bang his head onto the rock-solid floor, he kept on banging his head on the floor, until the floor had some cracks on it.

'Am I really this weak?! Is my heart still so fragile?! I already swore on that day that no matter what, even if the path was full of thorns, I promised myself I would move forward, always onward until I achieve my dream!'

He then remembered what he and Ren were talking about a while ago. Ren told him that he was trying to save as much as he could with as little sacrifice as possible. Valdel with his naivete thought he could find a way to save everyone without sacrificing anything.

'In the end, I'm just a hypocrite... But nothing will change if I keep on moping around!' Valdel stood up and left the academy, trying to clear his head. While he was walking he tried to reassess Ren's plan. Even though his best friend didn't tell him his whole plan, Valdel had a rough guess as to what some of Ren's plans going forward were going to be.

...

As he was thinking about what he should do next, Valdel noticed someone weird among the crowd of people. Even though at first glance the person looked rather normal, and was like Valdel just another person simply walking around town. Valdel still found the person's behavior rather odd, he wasn't really sure why that person was odd Valdel simply had this feeling that something was off about that person, which made him look at the person more intently.

The person in question was the assassin, Ren was trying to flush out. The assassin noticed Valdel was looking directly at him. He knew that this person was part of Ren's circle of friends which made the assassin feel very uncomfortable. He tried his hardest to remain calm as he continued to move naturally among the crowd.

'Did he figure out who I am? No, if he did he would've captured me already.' The assassin was feeling his back sweating as he tried to calmly and naturally move farther away from Valdel. Once he got to the corner of the street he wanted to sprint away, but that would raise Valdel's suspicion of him, so the assassin decided that he needed to find a place where he could lay low for a while.

He couldn't return to his house in New Grenton since Ren would most probably have someone watching the place. He then decided to hypnotize someone into taking him in. The moment Valdel stops following him around, the assassin decided to hypnotize the first person he saw.

...

The assassin entered a pub to have a meal, and Valdel followed. Surely Valdel would get bored stalking him if he sees that he wasn't doing anything suspicious. While the assassin was eating his meal, Valdel was about to leave, but then Kuro, Ren, and Hilda entered the pub.

'What the f*ck?! Did someone put a f*cking curse on me?!' The assassin that uses curses screamed in his mind.