My Life as a Mage in Another World

Chapter 13

 Akira and I found ourselves lost in the drenched and muddy forest, I felt a little bad for Akira she was walking barefooted. The rain had left behind a grey, damp, and dreary atmosphere. I ignored my current environment and pressed forward looking for any sign of a group of people that had previously been present. Unfortunately, I found nothing, if their was any clue the rain had most likely washed it away. I tried to keep my head up.

 Akira's lack of noise, not including her breathing, didn't do me any favors. I can't blame her though, why would she want to talk to me after the way I treated her? I felt great remorse. All she wants to do is help me, but I pushed her away out of frustration. My heart kept pounding hard in my chest, I needed to tell her how I felt.

 I stopped walking and turned to Akira. Akira raised her head and I met her  gaze.

 "Hey Akira," I started to feel sick when I spoke to her "can we talk for a minute?"

 For some reason I felt a hint of sadness in her expression. My heart ached as I opened my mouth to speak again.

 "I-i'm sorry. Look, I know I reacted the wrong way. I was just frustrated and I lashed out at you. I know you were just trying to help." I said. 

"I know that's not the kind of person you are. I'm willing to forgive you." Akira said.

 Akira let a big smile spread across her face, a smile formed on my face too.

 "I'm glad we cleared that up." I said.

 We started walking again, Akira by my side. We kept chatting until we came upon a sadly familiar sight. The place where Inanis slaughtered the others. Akira turned to me.

 "I'm going to go pray for them," AKira spoke softly "I understand if you don't want to come with me."

 I felt a strange sense of shame.

 "Yeah I'll just go around and wait for you . . ." My words trailed off as I shifted my gaze away from Akira. 

 Why do I feel like this? This isn't something I should be ashamed of right? No, even if I tell myself that I know my feelings won't change. I wish I was someone braver like Reina, Corvus, or Reiki. People like them can handle everything. At that moment I didn't recognize my childlike naivety.

 I walked around the location of the bodies not even looking their direction. I'm a coward. I came to this realization while I was alone waiting for Akira to appear by my side. In truth I had been aware of this my whole life, but I chose not to acknowledge it until now. Sadly, I still haven't accepted this fact.

 I leaned up against the rough bark of a tree while waiting for Akira. I felt lonely, but not sad. I thought of my plan for the time being. Meet up with another group, acquire The Prophet's sword, and finally leave this place. Another thing that crossed my mind was a possible connection between Inanis and Maven Hollowblood. An alliance was likely, but not yet confirmed. I had to keep this in mind to stay even the slightest bit positive.

 Also, something that worried me was the fact that I had no idea where the other squads were. On top of that, I don't know the exact number of Divine Knights are on this mission. Obviously the more the merrier. Surely that could help the situation right?

 I let out a deep breath. 

 "All I can do right now is hope things will get better from here on out." I said those words to reassure myself.

 Suddenly, I felt a great sudden force upon myself. I fell to the ground as the horrific creature before me opened its drooling mouth revealing its jagged rough teeth.  I held open the creatures maw with my hands making contact with its slimy sticky body. Its kept trying to chew my face off as I struggled to keep it off of me.