The Demon King's Paladin

Chapter 22.5 Bookworm's Thoughts

                                                                   Jaime Wilkin's Point of View

My name is Jaime. Through good or bad luck, I was summoned to another world and made part of a hero's party with my friends and 1 interloper. It's been 3 days since coming to Gaia. On the first day we were appraised by an old woman, I had the job of Wizard. Apparently, it's a class that requires a lot of hard work and studying to be useful, learning both black and white magic spells. I never found studying to be hard however I wasn't too sure about the hard work. I breathed a sigh of relief when my teacher told me the hard work was through meditation, and not physical activity.

Laura my good friend. was given the class of Cleric, it was apparently a class based on healing and support. But given time she could upgrade into classes with serious firepower. Ashley the 2nd of my good friends, was given the class of Monk. A class where you use punches and kicks to fight, it fits her well. She has always been restlessly moving around in one form or another. Lucy the last of my friends to be transported was given the class of thief. despite the name, it seems the class is useful for trap detection and tracking, its strength in combat being the blinding speed the user has. And finally, we have the interloper, Luke. He was given the Hero Job. It's what it sounds like, after we were appraised, the King of Promethia who had summoned us, explained why we were here in the first place. Simply put he wants us to defeat the Demon King of a demonic country called Diablos.

The 4 girls were apprehensive, Luke was excited. The King seeing our apprehension said that only after defeating the Demon King could we go home. It seems the Demon King is in possession of a spell to send us back home. After hearing that, all 4 of us had sharp looks in our eyes. It seems we all had similar thoughts of returning, but not for home, for a boy we all knew. Yes, I need to get back to him! So, I can make up for all the wrongs I've done to him through the years, due to my cowardice.

He... John was always so kind to me. Starting with our first meeting, he saved me from hurting myself and since then I've always held feelings for him. But I was always afraid to talk to him due to my shyness. I always wondered what he thought of me, but it seems it wasn't much, because I never took the warm hand, he kindly extended to me, due to my cowardly self. But no.. It's all excuses to hide behind, I was too afraid of what would happen to our friend group if I were to try to advance. I sense this is also why no one had made much progress with him, no matter how much we all would try to steal glance of him in school, it amounted to nothing. I hoped at that party I could have some time alone with him to talk to him for once, but we all fell into routine.

It had finally reached a breaking point because of that man. That insufferable man! Any time one of us were ready to approach John, he would always interrupt the attempt and make it awkward for us. If not for Lucy desperately apologizing for her brother, I wonder what would've happened to him in high school. Laura has never forgiven him for what he did in freshman year, many a night had passed with all of us trying to reassure her that she wasn't hated, but it seems from slight after slight, John has stopped thinking well of us. Which only fuels us to wanting to get back as soon as possible, and our anger towards Luke.

The day after we had arrived, we were all given teachers. My teacher was an elderly woman called Ethel an S-Class Adventurer. She is a Wizard Lord a higher version of my own job. Kind but strict, her classes were the type I enjoyed. When I would stumble onto a question, she would answer in a calm and warm voice. My time with her was very comforting and enjoyable. Then the rest of the day would come. Laura who had originally been despondent since arriving, like her entire world had ended. Suddenly had endless vigor in her training. the same for Lucy and Ashley. It's plain to see why, it's the same reason I attack my classes with diligence, even doing extra work at night to try to gain one step towards my goal of returning to him. Having said that our friendship is still strong but a little strained the only thing we all agree on is our bubbling anger towards Luke, who continues to try to talk to us regardless of how curt our responses are to him. Laura looks at him like she wants to kill him and for some reason even Lucy is looking at him with very distant eyes.

That may have something to do with the way he has been acting. Ever since he found out he had the Hero Job; he's been acting even more selfish and self-centered than before. Ashley and I try our best to avoid talking to Luke, using our classes and fatigue as reasons why. Unfortunately for Laura and Lucy they can't seem to be rid of him, Luke has always liked Luara and it was plain to see from his singling out of John or how he would attach himself to our group like a parasite due to Lucy. Lucy being his sister has had to play middleman to Luara and Luke since I've been friends with the girls. But now that relationship is actively starting to cause Laura to be angry with Lucy. And it is with these frayed nerves and tensions bubbling that we continue to train in hopes of getting back and never speak to Luke again.