Chapter 365: Insight of Another Story

———Karra———

<1: 59 pm>

I stored the drone away and walked towards the school park. Streaming a walk through parts of the town is a bit of a chore since I’m taking it slow, so I want to reward myself with a fruit or two, if Emmie hasn’t snatched it all by now…

…Doesn’t look like there is a lot, but it’s enough to fill me up.

I simply grab a few off the trees, maybe ten of them just to be a bit greedy. They grow back in a few days anyway, and I don’t have to be picky about which one I grabbed. Some have more corruptive energy to them, but Wiina can easily purge that for me if it ever became an issue.

*Munch* *Munch* *Munch*

Sweet yet bitter… It’s like these things have tannins in them, but I’m pretty sure it’s just the demonic energy eating at me… Well, tannin can also cause problems in high dosage, so it’s not that different.

Once I’m done with that I throw the inedible bits to the ground and go sit on a nearby bench.

Looking at the statistics of the latest stream… Solid numbers as always. I do have the experience and clout to make eye-catching streams. The number is more modest this time around, but considering it’s not planned with anything fancy it’s good enough.

…Now then. When it comes to the next stream… I have nothing in mind at the moment. For now, I should relax and not think about that…

Hmm… There is that thing Wiina talked about when it comes to the event last Monday. I think all of us have speculated on some sort of continuation, but hearing it from her does feel validating.

“Ah drats, looks like I got here too late?” Jennla asked as she walked over, looking at the stems on the ground.

“There are still some left, don’t get too worked up.” I replied. She can only look around awkwardly in response.

“It’s already looking pretty barren… Whatever.” She said, sounding quite defeated as she sat down next to me. “First come first serves with these things. They provide minimal boosts for us anyway. Even an average student wouldn’t gain a lot of progress compared to simply attending the P.E. class.”

“It will add up just by eating one every day… then again, considering certain kinds of fruit can have… irreversible consequences, that is not quite on the table.” Even the most tempting and corruptive of fruits won’t do much, but like any poison it accumulates in our body and takes time to be flushed out. “There isn’t really an easy shortcut to power. The methods that do that would usually turn its recipient into an unrecognized pile of flesh.”

“Yeah, real morbid stuff.” Jennla remarked. “...I know it’s patronizing to say this, but I’m surprised you are as strong as you are. Malk and Qyunda are both really strong, and yet you surpassed even that. I have never taken you for a fighter.”

“Not gonna blame ya for that.” I honestly don’t think I’m a naturally good fighter like Sixson or Jeyst, let alone those two. The only reason I even get to this point is because of Wiina’s extra training.

She won’t do crazy stuff like rewrite my biology or trapped me in an alternate dimension for a long time to quickly power me up. Not even constantly charging and healing me as I go buck wild during a dungeon run.

Special training sessions and simulated battles are enough from her point of view. While she does give me an item to bail me out when I do my own training that might carry some risk, that’s the extent of it. It’s obviously way more than what the other guys get, and if anything… Kenni and Emmie really are monstrous.

“Do you have a secret training method or something?” Jennla asked.

“Are you even gonna follow on doing something like that? Last I checked you are starting to fall on the power leaderboard.” I said to dodge the question and take a jab at her as well. “Do you even have the competitive spirit within you?”

Her face scrunched up at the question. It is certainly becoming a sour spot for her. Who knows how long she was trapped in that time period, but it was definitely long enough for her to gain a large amount of power when she came back… and now she isn’t even in the conversation for so much as the second strongest person in our class. A tragic fall from grace, truly. An ironic situation for someone whose favorite forms of entertainment have powerleveling as one of its mainstream trends.

“…Nah. Maybe I’ll just settle around these areas for the rest of time.” She said, trying to sound graceful about it. “I didn’t have the energy to savor that feeling when it came back. I feel… tired about it.”

“Isolation is basically a form of torture, so I can’t blame you.” I said, seeing that she is genuinely feeling quite melancholic. It’s been a few months but she still hasn’t fully recovered from that. “…Maybe if you go find someone from there you can get a good sense of closure, if you feel like that would fix it.”

“That wouldn’t work. If anything I’d just feel embarrassed from seeing them again.” Is that so? I guess Wiina’s observation about her reaction back then was truly telling. No one called her out on it or perhaps didn’t even notice it, but during that visit to the blacksmith elf, she was fidgeting and averting her gaze, trying to say very little.

I personally didn’t notice it myself. If it wasn’t for Wiina it wouldn’t even be something I’m thinking about right now. Who knows what else I missed?

“Why is that? I don’t think you ever talked about offending them?” I still don’t know why she would feel so awkward about it.

“I certainly wasn’t… It’s just that… I don’t feel like I would even be remembered, and nothing I did back then was even deserving of praise. It’s just mostly non-flashy work like holding back hordes of nobodies.” She explained. “I certainly didn’t participate in the big fight myself. Even the second-in-command was too much for me.”

“They were demons, correct? Even as we are now it would be difficult to kill one that isn’t a shade.” I pointed out. In that case there was no reason to feel ashamed.

“It still feels like I chickened out. Imagine seeing a big red oni like it’s out of a Japanese myth and can’t even muster the courage to throw a punch.” She replied… Why is there an oni there? This took place in Europe, right?

“That’s weird. It’s not in Japan like you would’ve liked, isn’t it?” I asked, since I might as well try to get more information out of her adventure.

“How would I know? I just know it’s an oni when I see one. Looks very stereotypical.” She answered. I really don’t fully understand the correlation between the type of demons in each region and their actual origin…

“I guess beings that originated in a different space altogether wouldn’t have a fixed spawning point.” I remarked as I tried to think about it a little more. Perhaps demons are more drawn to places that believed in them, but it’s not always the case. “You were bold to even fight the lesser demons, that was probably before most of us could really handle one.”

“That’s generous for you to say.” She said with clearly some heavy feelings in her heart.

“...By the way, how strong were you relative to the others?” I asked, since I don’t think she had given a clear answer to that inquiry.

“Not that strong. There were multiple standouts during the final battle that I can’t quite recall.” She explained. I think she simply doesn’t think she can do a good job conveying their power. Words lack the gravitas to describe someone on that scale.

“I see… What about the person who sent you back here?” That should be the most important question. That kind of power doesn’t just exist in anyone, and from the sounds of it said individual sent her back without using ritual magic.

Teleportation alone is already an advanced spell that is nearly impossible for anyone to innately perform without tools or other people. The power to trace the flow of time and send someone back to their original point is a few levels above even that. Anything that touches casualty is nothing to scoff at.

“...She has long violet hair, blue cloak, eyes somewhere between red and orange, and uses twin swords and a bow.” She recounted. That is not a whole lot to go off on. “Also a really prominent ahoge.”

“You don’t see that every day.” I remarked. Even compared to exotic hair and eye colors, that kind of odd physical characteristic is much rarer in comparison. “How strong was she?”

“Very strong… I mean, I sensed stronger presences, but considering she came out unscathed she probably has something up her sleeve.” Jennla explained. That sounds odd. If she was already at the level to manipulate time like this, then shouldn’t there be multiple apocalyptic-level warriors going at each other? “She was much stronger than me, that’s for certain.”

“How much stronger are we talking here?” I asked just to get a clearer picture.

“Umm… If it’s the current me… I don’t know, maybe at least five times stronger?” She answered… That is still far from enough. The fact that she can’t confidently say something like fifty or hundred times stronger means that…

“...Now that’s interesting.” I said with a grin. If my speculation is correct, she met someone extremely extraordinary. It’s not surprising that she doesn’t realize that something is off. She was no doubt caught up in the moment when she was stranded there and didn't dare to ask any questions. Her survival is of the essence, after all. Prying into secrets doesn’t really optimize her chance.

“How so?” She asked, picking up on my sudden interest in this particular topic.

“Providence magic is not something you can just learn, at least not at the level you are talking about. This woman is no doubt blessed with the kind of power majority of mages are envious of.” I explained. While talent in that particular area is not unheard of, even a large boost in comprehension will take one a long time to master even the basic abilities of that category. “Say, does she teleport around often?”

“She did it effortlessly.” Jennla answered. Now that really solidifies it for me.

“I see… I see…” I muttered while trying to think if I needed to elaborate further or not. “Looks like you really lucked out with your allies then. That sort of individual can be said to be one in a trillion, if not even more.”

“Seriously? How come this was never brought up before?” She asked as if that was our fault.

“You were the one who insisted on not talking about it. Don’t blame me.” I pointed out. “But don’t get too hung up about it. She is genuinely from a different world than ours, you really can’t get attached."

“I know…” She said before taking a long sigh.

“It’s a shame, but we can only focus on the present situation right now.” I said before pulling my phone out. I was going to check something earlier before the idea of an impromptu stream kicked in.

…Yeah, this thing about another city-destroying rampage. Here I thought it would be behind us by now. Clearly, I was wrong.

It looks like a good chunk of people evacuated before it happened, but that still left a lot of people’s fate unknown.

“What are you looking at?” Jennla asked.

“Oh, just some news stuff. I need to memorize them a bit when I go on a yapping stream. Gotta have trending things to talk about, you know?” Obviously some bleak stuff like this probably shouldn't be talked about, but just in case something brings it up, I should at least acknowledge it.

As for this dangerous individual… There is no doubt a lot of people who could jump in and subdue him now, but that’s not for me to dwell on.