Chapter 538: Not Everyone Wants to Be Strong

The training field that usually had the sound of weapons clashing and Mana explosions coming from it now had only three people.

The large cafe near the central square was half-empty.

Even some of the educational buildings had closed the doors to their side sections.

Lian put his hands inside his pockets.

Hearing so many normal sounds and seeing so much empty space was calming.

He followed the stone path beside the Academy’s gardens, letting his mind stay empty for a while.

Until a familiar face several dozen meters away caught his attention, a girl was sitting alone on a bench beside the path.

Her head was slightly lowered and a small book was beside her.

At first glance, Lian only felt that he had seen her somewhere.

Then he got closer and recognized her.

Claire.

It had been a long time since he had seen her, Claire was the healer of their group in the border city.

Before that incident, most of what the young Vorhelm remembered about her was her relatively calm behavior, great caution, and good healing skills that had helped the group many times.

Then two of their group members died and everything changed for the girl.

The incident had affected every member of the group, but not in the same way, some became angry, some trained more, and some tried to become stronger faster.

But Claire had pulled away, and there had been no news about her for a long time.

Lian slightly changed his path and walked toward the bench, the girl was so lost in thought that she did not notice his presence until he sat beside the bench.

She was slightly startled and turned her head.

She looked at him for a few moments and then the tension on her face slowly disappeared, a small smile appeared.

"I didn’t expect to see you like this."

"I didn’t expect to see you here after all this time either." Lian leaned against the back of the bench and gave her a short look.

She looked better than the last time he had seen her.

"When did you come back?"

"About a week ago."

"Welcome back." He said quietly.

"Thank you." The girl’s smile became a little wider too, as if seeing an old friend after all this time made her happy.

Then silence formed, but it was not the uncomfortable kind.

Both of them looked at the path in front of them and a gentle breeze moved through the small trees in the garden.

One of the three students training in the field farther away used a skill incorrectly and the sound of something hitting the ground could be heard.

Neither of them cared.

Several minutes passed.

"Everyone has been talking about you these days." This time Claire was the one who spoke, and after a short pause, she continued.

"Almost everyone who is still here." There was a small smile on her face.

"Your rankings, the competition, what happened in the Ruined Realm, even the professors talk about you."

Then she tilted her head slightly.

"I think I should have realized back then that you would become famous one day."

Lian said nothing, the girl looked at him for a few seconds and then her smile slowly disappeared and her fingers locked together.

"All of you continued after that incident."

Her voice had become quieter.

"You. Cassian, Marcus, Selina, Liana..." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Her thumb moved across the back of her other hand, a small movement that showed that her body was nervous.

"But I couldn’t."

Lian did not interrupt her.

Claire took a slow breath.

"For a long time, I thought maybe the problem was me. That I should never have come with you."

A pause.

"I wasn’t like you."

"I was weak."

A moment later, she corrected her own sentence.

"No... more than weak, I was scared."

She gave a short and bitter smile.

"You know what the stupid part is? I never wanted to become an Awakened." The wind moved a few strands of hair beside her face.

"Almost everyone wishes to successfully Awaken, families celebrate for their children, everyone talks about getting a good Class and a good Talent."

She raised her eyes.

"But from the beginning, I only wanted to stay away from these things."

Her voice trembled very slightly for a moment.

"From monsters, from the Ruined Realm, and from waking up every day knowing that someone beside you might not come back."

She looked at the ground again.

"Then I became an Awakened."

This time she laughed, but it was not a happy laugh.

"A lot of people thought I was lucky."

Lian said nothing for a few seconds, prepared advice would not help, telling her "You are strong" would not change anything.

Claire herself knew that she had healing abilities, that was not the problem.

He had no idea how he should comfort her, their views were different, he had always wanted to become an Awakened but his first two Awakening processes had failed.

But this girl was different, she had never wanted to become an Awakened.

Because of that, he could not simply tell her that he understood.

In the end, he said.

"Being afraid of something that can really kill you is not weakness."

She raised her eyes.

"If you are never afraid, either you don’t understand what is standing in front of you or you are an idiot, I mean, it’s normal to be afraid of monsters, they are really ugly and scary."

"Your way of comforting people is strange." Claire smiled again and even laughed quietly.

"I’m trying." Lian continued after a moment.

"But if you want to come back, this time come back because you want to, don’t come back because everyone else continued, not because you think you have fallen behind, not because someone expects you to act like everyone else."

Lian leaned his shoulder against the back of the bench.

"If you really don’t want to enter the Ruined Realm, don’t."

"Are you serious?" Claire looked at him for a while.

"Yes."

"I thought you would tell me that I have to face my fear."

"You don’t have to fight everything you are afraid of, you only have to make sure your fear isn’t the one making the decision for you." The young Vorhelm added.

Another silence formed.

This time Claire thought for longer and then slowly nodded.

"I think that was what I had been trying to understand all this time."

"Are you better now?"

She slowly pressed her lips together and then nodded.

"A lot."

She paused for a moment.

"Of course, I didn’t just sit at home during this time, Professor Aldric made a plan for me."

That name made Lian pay more attention.

"First, simple Mana control exercises, then only healing people who were injured during training, after some time he allowed me to stay beside the training field, and then monster simulations."

Lian could guess the path.

A gradual return, not throwing someone who had been hurt by battle directly into another major event.

Aldric, despite his strict appearance, knew exactly what he was doing.

The girl slowly breathed out.

"The first time, I couldn’t even stay until the end, the second time was better, the third time was the same... I think maybe I can return." Her eyes stayed on her hands for a moment.

"Good, I guess it won’t take long until you succeed." This time Lian answered without thinking much.

The girl’s expression softened, this time she said nothing, there was no need.

A few minutes later, the atmosphere of the conversation became lighter.

"How are the others? Cassian, Marcus, Selina, Liana."

"They’re all fine, they are probably in the Ruined Realm right now."

"Have they improved a lot?" Claire nodded and asked a few moments later.

"Compared to the last time you saw them, probably a lot, all of them have passed their first evolution."

It took a few seconds for the reaction to come.

"All of them?"

"Yeah."

She slowly breathed out, and for a moment, something appeared in her eyes that he recognized.

The feeling of being left behind.

"And they were all waiting for you to come back." But before that thought could grow, he continued.

"Really?" Claire became still.

"Yeah."

"Even after all this time?"

"You weren’t removed from the group, you just went away for a while to get yourself together." The young Vorhelm looked at her.

The girl lowered her eyes, this time her silence was different and a few seconds later she asked.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What have you been doing these days?"

"Exploring and trying not to die in the middle of the way."

Claire stared at him for a few moments and then started laughing, perhaps it was the first completely natural laugh Lian had heard from her since that incident.

He also gave a very small smile, at least this meeting had not ended badly.

The following days passed more quietly.

Lian saw Claire several more times.

The first time, the girl was standing beside the training field and only watching two students fight.

When one of them was injured, her body became tense for a few seconds, but she did not move away from the field.

The second time, she entered the treatment area herself.

Her hands were still shaking a little at first, but when the healing Mana started to flow, the shaking became less.

The third time, she entered a simple simulation with a training group for a few minutes.

It was still not a real mission, there were still no real monsters, but she was no longer running away from getting close to the training field.

That was enough.

At least for now.

And anyway, the day came when he had to leave.

The capital’s large transportation center was crowded from the early hours of the morning.

The huge building had several separate halls, and each hall was assigned to a group of intercontinental portals.

Normal travelers were rarely seen in this section.

The cost of direct transportation through a portal was still not low enough to replace airplanes and trains for everyone.

And his destination was on another continent.