The Demon King's Paladin

Chapter 59.5 Lucy's Journey

Lucy Smith's Point of View

I've been on a journey for 10 days now. We've trained for nearly 3 months readying ourselves for this. The journey has had its difficulties. Most of the problems stem from my idiotic brother. Sometimes I wonder why I still bother. It probably comes down to the time we spent as little kids. He was better then. I was currently sitting in my tent; I thought I might head out to speak to Laura and see how she's been. I've been concerned about her these past few weeks.

I started worrying ever since that day I saw her look at Luke with killing intent. Laura's actions have only gotten more concerning since then. She acts normal around everyone, but when she's alone the look on her face completely changes. It's like she becomes emotionless and only exists to train and get stronger. While this has been good for the strength of our team, I can tell that something is eating at her and moving her body is the only way to keep them at bay.

As I began to move to the door of the tent, I was surprised to find 2 figures already there. It was Ashley and Jaime.

" What are you both doing here?"

I asked, full of surprise. Jaime was the first to speak.

" I have something to tell you. I've already told Ashley and I think all 3 of us should bring this to Laura."

" Well, come in and tell me. I was actually on my way to Laura anyways."

We all sat in the tent and Jaime explained the situation. I was appalled by my brother's words. My feelings leaked out of my mouth.

" How terrible of him!"

" Calm down Lucy! Your killing intent is going to alert everyone!"

Ashley alerted me to my bloodlust leaking. After calming down a few moments later, Jaime began to speak.

" So, Jaime. How did you know that John was an orphan?"

I was surprised at her question.

" Ashley! You told her?"

" Yeah. Whoops!"

Ashley just pretended it wasn't a big deal. I squinted at her as Jaime waited patiently for my answer.

" When I was working as a class rep, I was given a pile of those papers that ask for your choice of college. I was bringing it to the staff room when I overheard a conversation between John and Ms. Cathy, our homeroom teacher. She was asking John about why he chose a college so far away from home. He said that he already had imposed on the family who took him in after his parents died and he wanted to alleviate that burden as soon as possible."

They were both shocked at my explanation. I continued to speak.

" And that same feeling you have is what I had and that's how I ended up telling Ashley about it. Out of respect for his privacy I didn't look more into it. However, I feel like if we want answers, we'd need to get them out of Laura."

" Why Laura?"

Jaime responded innocently to me. I started to explain why.

" Laura is John's childhood friend. I doubt she wouldn't know about his living situation. If I had to guess either she was asked not to tell anyone or she's keeping it to herself for some reason. I think we should find out."

" I see. But what if she doesn't react well to us talking to her about it?"

Ashley asked me a normal question given the circumstances.

" I think it will be better to talk this out with her. She's obviously holding something in. You've both seen it these past few months, right? I can understand the feelings about Luke. Honestly, I'm not too ecstatic about him either."

They both nodded to my words. Jaime started to speak first.

" If she keeps going like this I don't know if she will be okay. It's like she thinks of its not about getting home its useless. She may be able to handle it, but I don't think it's healthy to continue on like this."

After Jaime speaks Ashley began to add onto to her words.

" She's been overworking herself for a while now. It's not hard to tell it's because she wants to get back to John as soon as possible. But there's something else there to. It's like she has some sort of extreme urgency for some reason."

We all agreed there was a problem. I asked the most imperative question to them.

" How do we break this news to her then?"

" Well... I think we should all go and just explain it to her and hold her back if we have to. Once she's calmed down, we can get her to tell us about what we don't know."

Jaime responds to my question. Ashley and I sat and thought about Jaime's answer. There are pros and cons to it. But to think that Laura would just easily accept it and not attack Luke. Somehow, I don't think that will work out. Ashley seemed to agree with me.

" Maybe we shouldn't tell her yet? Maybe we should ask her about her relationship with John first. If she's in a decent mood, we can tell her about Luke and go from there. We need to be careful though since she's the best member of our team. We need to keep her from doing anything too harsh to Luke otherwise, we might not be able to defeat the Demon King. And at the absolute worse, she may kill Luke."

" Again, though that means we have to tell her and see if we can calm her down. Are we sure we can do that?"

Jaime followed up with concern to Ashley's idea.

" Either way, I feel like keeping this from her is wrong. And if we don't tell her now when she finds out she will have an even bigger reaction, I think. At least right now we all are here, and we can work as a team to calm her."

We all just stared at each other. We checked to make sure we all knew what to do when we explained it to Laura. I mentioned how she looked at Luke the past few months. They all knew about it. Here goes nothing. We began to walk, and I just hoped that at the end we can all be friends for real again.