236 Let's talk

Evlin and Hana continued to stare at each other as the crossbow mage continued to wait for the demon goddess to reveal where they could find Knucker in order to end his life.

Gustav and Daren then stood up at this moment.

"Hold on, Evlin! We really trusting what this woman is saying?"

"What if it is a trap!!?"

Evlin just looked at the two and sighed, "Just let it go, guys... The discussion is over... Nobody wants to listen to me so let's just go with the flow and get this done as soon as possible..."

"But... Evlin..." Daren tried to say.

The brown-haired lad was about to try to argue with her, but one look at her eyes showed that her mind was made.

Hana was about to continue the conversation, but the loud noise of someone snoring grabbed the attention of all of those present.

Ellie, Joseph, and Dia all looked as Claire's head was glued to the table while the girl continued to lose herself in dreamland.

"Oho... I just acquired some valuable information..." Joseph whispered while holding his phone out and taking some pictures of Claire's noise.

"It's been a long day..." Marcus commented, "How about we pick it up tomorrow?"

Evlin and Hana traded glances until the mage decided to reply, "Sure... Let's rest for now... We can talk about our mission tomorrow..."

Hana at this moment hurried to stand up and bowed towards her, "Thank you!! Thank you very much!!"

Evlin looked at that gesture and just glared at her again, "I'm not doing this for you... I'm doing this for my niece... I don't want to be thanked by someone that uses threats to get what she wants..."

The mage then placed her niece in her arms since she still wasn't able to properly walk, as well as the sleeping Claire, and moved towards a room that Leona had assigned to her earlier.

Joseph and Dia followed behind and Ellie was forced to look at the ponytailed girl's eyes of concern.

She then raised her hand for Dia to hold it, "Everything will be ok! My aunt will help your grandma!"

Dia smiled at Ellie and grabbed her hand, "Thanks, Ellie!"

Seeing Dia's smiling face made Joseph's skin turn completely red, "She's right, Dia!! Everything will be ok!! There is nothing to worry about!!!"

"R- Right... Thanks, Joseph..." Dia replied while shaking a little due to the boy's agitated way of speaking.

Everyone else continued to leave the room leaving only three ladies still inside. Hana who was lost in her thoughts wondering if she was really going to be able to pull off her revenge, Leona who was staying by her side awaiting her command, and Detra who just continued to analyze the new goddess.

"Can I help you...?" Hana asked.

"Just curious as to how someone managed to go from being a demon to becoming a goddess..." Detra replied, "you mind if we chat for a bit longer...?"

"Your kind gets power by feeding on the misery of humans... What would you call something like that? Politicians?" Detra said with a smirk while holding her chin with the back of her wrist.

"... What do you want to know...?" Hana asked, trying to dodge the question.

"For starters, what happened after Angela dragged you into her world? I want details on this realm of terminal beings... What could you possibly have seen that made you change your whole way of life?"

Part 2

All the other individuals continued to move to their rooms. They all were letting the previous conversation sink in and think about what this would mean.

A dangerous enemy was out there somewhere, and the only ones that can stop him were a mage, a champion, and two girls, one with amnesia, and another with an unstable body.

After placing the kids in their rooms, Evlin noticed Ashley waiting for her in the hallway.

"Hey... Can we talk?"

Evlin wasn't in the mood to chat with her sister right now, but there were a couple of things that she felt needed to be made clear.

"Sure..."

The two moved to a balcony where their voices could not be heard and began their small chat.

"I haven't seen you in five years..." Ashley commented, "I honestly assumed I would never see you again..."

"Yeah..." Evlin replied, bluntly.

"How have things been... After you got home...?"

"What do you want, Ashley?"

"... I told you... I just want to talk... I missed you..." Ashley replied while looking down.

"You missed me so much that you won't even be on my side?"

"Evlin, come on! What's your deal?"

"My deal?? My deal is that I just lost my body to a child that was being manipulated by your old green friend and the freaking moron that was the north god... My deal, is that my whole family almost died in a war against all of my old friends! My deal, is that the moment I finally try to free myself from this craziness, you, my own sister, won't have my back!!"

"I was just trying to help... I thought you would be excited to go on another adventure with us... Help people... Spend some time with your friends..."

"Why!!??" Evlin shouted, "Why in blazes would you ever think that?? I dedicated everything to get out of this world!! Why would you ever think I would want to have anything to do with it ever again?? And why would you think I would want my freaking niece to be involved as well??"

"... Because we need you..."

"And what about what I need?? What about what I want?? Have you considered that maybe I don't want to risk my life again for some woman I never met to go after some guy I never met??"

"You did it for Daren and his team..."

"Yes!! Because there was a chance that doing so would bring me back home!! What in the world am I gaining by going after this dragon?? I'm not some hero, Ash!! I don't just go around saving people out of the kindness of my heart! I'm a selfish prick that just did what I did because I was against the wall and had no choice!!"

Ashley began to glare at the mage, "Oh, bull..."

"What's that!!?"

"Who are you trying to fool?? You think East didn't tell me about how she offered you a way to get home and you rejected her for us??"

"I was eighteen!! I was a stupid teenager back then!! I would have rejected her if she had just called me ugly or something!! But I changed! I have a job! A have students waiting for me! I have a life there that gets farther and farther away every time I get involved with this world!! Nothing good ever happens from getting involved in this world!!!"

Ashley looked away as her eyes began to tremble, "The reason we ever met, was because you came to this world..."

"..."

"Does that mean nothing to you as well?"

"..."

"You... Have NO idea how much of an impact you had in people's lives here... The girl that came out of nowhere and defeated a demon leader and a god... The first human to master the three types of energy... The crossbow mage, the strongest earth mage, strongest re-creation mage... People look up to you, they see the things you achieved and want to be like you...

Do you have ANY idea how many come to our guild asking to learn earth and transformation magic? How many ask to get a staff in the shape of a crossbow? You are their hero! And now they are in danger because of some dragon out there and you just want to go home and forget about them? Forget about us??"

Ashley wasn't aware but she started to cry in the middle of her statement. Evlin just continued to listen in silence.

"You're right... You changed... The old Evlin was never a coward like this..."

"I'm a coward because I don't want to risk my life...?"

"You're a coward because you are abandoning those who need you!!"

"I see..." Evlin then turned around and moved away from the balcony, "When I go face this Knucker, and he ends up killing me... Could you please write on my gravestone 'Well, at least she wasn't a coward'? I'm sure my mother is gonna appreciate it while she buries my corpse..."

"I believe you can win!" Ashley stated as Evlin distanced herself, "I believe in you!!"

"Of course you do..." Evlin replied while looking at her own hand, the hand that shot Mia, "After all... You are not the one that has to go out there and fight him..."

Part 3

Marcus was laying in his bed while thinking if he made the right call in the meeting. This was the first time he did not take Evlin's side, and he still didn't know if this would be a smart move or not.

All he knew was that both Evlin and his father always tried their best to help those who needed it, and right now, their priority should be to actually find out if Knucker was really a threat that needed to be dealt with, if possible, or just some delusion of an extremely emotional goddess.

While thinking about it, he began to hear the knock on the door.

"Daren?" he assumed, reprising the time where his brother-figure came to talk to him in the middle of the night to discuss how to deal with Mia.

Marcus assumed Daren was going to try to convince him to ignore Hana's request considering his hate for gods, but to his surprise, the one at the door was a blond woman wearing a white robe.

"Leona...?"

"... Is it ok if I come in...?" she asked.

"S- Sure..." he replied.

The mage then entered his darkroom and took a seat on his bed. Marcus noticed that her expression wasn't looking so good.

"What's wrong...?"

"... When they asked you to make a choice... You picked Hana's side instead of Evlin... Why...?"

"... I don't know... It just felt the right thing to do..."

"How do you know that?" She asked while raising her face and staring at him.

"W- What...?"

"I just found out that the goddess that I used to worship used to be a demon... And she just asked you and the others to kill a dragon out of pure revenge... She asked kids to kill for her!! What kind of goddess is that??" She yelled while placing her face in her palms, "I'm... I'm so confused... I don't know what to believe in right now..."

Marcus didn't know what to do and just moved to sit by her side while holding her hand.

"Hey, hey... Don't worry... Everything will be fine..."

Leona revealed her face and stared at his blue eyes with her brown eyes as the light of the moon invaded the room and reflected on them making then shine, "Can I stay here today...? I don't wanna be alone tonight..."

Marcus began to feel his face burning, "You... You wanna spend the night with me...? I'm not sure if it's safe..."

"Because of your weapon abilities...?"

"No... Be- Because... I might get weird ideas by being in a room with a woman..." he replied while blushing.

Leona then grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips, gently.

"What kind of ideas...?" she asked after letting him go.

Marcus felt his heart beating at high speed and proceeded to kiss her back.

The two continued this back and forth for the rest of the night while enjoying each other's company in a moment where both had their heads filled with doubt and searched for something to comfort them by using one another as an answer.