That Time I Got Reincarnated as an Overpowered Elf (Tensura x OC)

(FH3) 'The False Hero'

[One Week Earlier]

"Grow strong, Elle. Strong enough to live your life happily, no matter what that may entail or who you have to go against. I know you can do it."

Once Radriel's Mom; Aria; said those words, she simply dropped to the ground. Limp. Bloodied. Devoid of life. And at that moment, Radriel did the same.

Sure, he was still breathing, but metaphorically speaking, a part of himself; something deep within his soul; had died off alongside her, perhaps trying by some means to chase after the departing soul of his mother.

And as time went bye, it seemed like that piece of himself had yet to return. There was the occasional movement, outside of the few shallow breaths he took every now and then: every now and then he would move his head or his arms, looking at and reaching for something only he could see, but past that, you could barely say he was alive.

But, despite his condition, I still found myself coming around to his house daily.

Bringing around food and water that he rarely touched, if ever he even looked at it or acknowledged its existence.

Trying to talk to him, despite his condition.

"Hey, Radriel. You... feeling any better today...?"
"..."
"Right. Stupid question. My bad..."

And after a while of trying and failing to bring him back to the land of the living, I gave up and cleaned up any old lunchboxes I had brought around before. Only to come back and do it all over again the next day.

And, why did was I doing this, you ask? Putting myself in this stupid and supposedly hopeless loop with no end in sight? Well, simply put, I'm a selfish piece of trash.

I'm not sure how else I could put it.

My life in Ulgrasia up until Radriel had showed up was pretty dreary and lonely. So much so that one genuine compliment from someone that I had only had one interaction with; not even a positive one, at that; was enough to get me to take them all the way to Sarion, just to maybe make them happy.

But, in the end, all my big mouth and my stupid thoughts wound up doing was get him hurt. And then get his mom killed as a result.

And, what do I do to try and make up for that? Like I even could make up for it? I walk into his house every morning, bring him food that he doesn't even eat, and then talk at his comatose body for hours on end.

Like it was gonna do anything other than make me feel a little better about myself...

Honestly, I couldn't help but laugh at myself while I was busy bumbling random strings of words at Radriel.

"Man, I'm really pathetic. Heh. I'm using someone almost six years younger than me as a freakin' scapegoat... Sorry, Radriel. Turns out I'm a crappy Hero and a crappy person."

After laughing at myself for a good while, I opened my eyes, only to find Radriel's glazed eyes focused in my direction, and one of his hands outstretched towards me.

"Uh... Radriel? Are you... awake?"

His mouth opened, and stayed like that for a second, as if he was trying to say something. But soon after, they closed again, and his arm fell limply to the side of his bed.

"I... guess not. Here, lemme get that. Y'know, if you keep moving around like that out of the blue you're gonna end up falling off your bed."

I slowly lifted his hand and set it down on his chest. As expected, he didn't resist at all.