Kanjori

Chapter 18: Weakness

"I'm ashamed of myself", Romeo said while swinging his sword at the air.

It has been 3 days since our encounter with Sophia and the cloaked person, and not a single one of us have forgiven ourselves for our poor performance. It took about 2 days for Gideon to wake up, Lily woke up this morning, and Romeo had been up this entire time.

"It's fine Romeo, don't beat yourself up over that fight, none of us really held up too well anyway", Gideon replied while staring at the ground.

"I'm a knight and I couldn't even swing my sword at 2 idiots with strong weapons, I HAVE to beat myself up over that if I ever want to improve."

I walked over and put my hand on Romeo's shoulder and gave him a smile of reassurance. It makes sense that a guy of his caliber was embarrassed about what happened. The 2 of them managed to break his spirit without swinging a single sword... but I can't lie, I never really understood why.

Romeo turned back at me with a sad look in his eyes, then he turned back around.

"You're probably wondering what all that stuff they were saying meant."

I hesitantly nodded in agreement to his statement.

"In all honesty, I'm not really sure what they were referring to myself. From what I remember, what they were saying is that I traded my mother's life in order for me to receive all of my dad's attention, but that simply isn't true. I've already explained to you that my mom was killed by some men for an unknown reason, maybe it had something to do with my dad, but I can't 100% say that that is the true motive behind it all."

"Well you did look pretty rough out there, if it isn't true, why'd it affect you so much?" I said half jokingly.

Romeo flinched and then looked at me in disgust. "How DARE you turn this into a joke Rin. My mother was KILLED BY EVIL MEN, AND I WAS TOO WEAK TO PROTECT HER. I SHOULD'VE BEEN THE ONE TO DIE, NOT HER."

"You still haven't answered her question though", a voice said from behind a tree.

Romeo readied his sword as the person emerged from behind the tree.

"DAMIAN??!" Gideon, Lily, and I exclaimed.

Romeo's nostrils flared as he focused his eyes on Damian. "How long have you been there you pompous bastard?"

"Long enough to know that you guys must've been in a pretty rough fight." He replied coldly. "Anyway, back to the original topic. Like I said, you never really answered her question. Why DID you get so shaken up by whatever they said if it isn't true?"

Romeo was about to lunge towards Damian, but I held his arm and shook my head. "Relax Damian, it's been a long week for all of us and the last thing we really need right now is another fight."

Damian looked at me and laughed. "What is he, your new boyfriend?"

"Sounds like you're a little jealous" Gideon said in a teasing manner.

"I see nothing has really changed about you, fast mouth but slow body" Damian replied.

The 2 of them stared at eachother while the rest of us looked at them in silence. The air was so tense that  you could cut it with safety scissors.

"A-Anyway, where have you been Damian?" Lily asked, hoping to change the mood.

"Oh, I've been training in my special spot. I'd tell you guys where it is but I'd prefer not to be bothered when I'm training. I ended up finishing everything I needed to do about a week ahead of time, and when I came back, Gregorio said you all would be here."

"Are you sure he did, because my Dad warned me about you. I doubt he would want you around us."

Damian's eyes widened the same way they did the last time I saw him speak to Mr. Gregorio. "It seems like bruising your ego caused you to let out some information you probably weren't meant to say out loud."

Romeo covered his mouth and stared at the ground. Though it wasn't very noticeable, I could feel a disturbance in his aura flow.

Though I'm not sure what it is, Damian knows something about Mr. Gregorio and his son that we don't, and it's clear that they have something worth hiding if Romeo had to be warned about him. Maybe Damian is right to suspect them of being shady, but it's hard to really know what some NPCs would have to hide from players.

"So what were you all doing here in this forest anyway? Well, aside from getting beat up" Damian asked.

"I actually almost forgot! I came here because I wanted to get the crystal heart so I could get a new rare weapon. Clearly we got a little sidetracked though...." I replied.

"We have a couple more days until the tournament, so we might as well get to that crystal heart now so we can have enough time to travel back to the inn" Lily said while stretching.

Damian and Gideon nodded in agreement.

It felt good to have everyone back together again after a whole month of training alone.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's go get that crystal heart!" I yelled with excitement.

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