72 Era of the Shattered World [2]

Chocolate...?

Why in the world would I have chocolate?

I stared at Delilah and shook my head.

".....I don't."

"I see."

Delilah nodded her head with her usual impassive expression. However, for some reason, I could tell she was disappointed.

Call it intuition.

"How may I help you?"

I kept my cool and addressed her recently.

Surely she didn't come here in the middle of the night to visit me for the sake of it.

Looking around the room, Delilah sat down on one of my sofas and made herself comfortable.

"....."

I remained where I stood and quietly waited for her to say something. She eventually did speak, but the words that came out of her mouth stumped me.

"It's four times now."

"Yes?"

Four times...?

What was that supposed to mean?

She elaborated.

"It's four times now that you've found yourself in some sort of incident."

Holding up her fingers, she started to recount.

"Survival training, Auction, Mirror Dimension, and now this..."

Delilah raised her head to look at me.

"Is it a coincidence?"

"Ah."

At that, I found the words that I had prepared in advance remain stuck in my mouth.

It was true. Now that I thought about it, I had indeed been in all of the incidents. For the most part, it was because of the quests.

But it was indeed rather suspicious.

"...I am a very unlucky person."

Even I was surprised by the bullshit that was coming out of my mouth.

Well...

To some extent, there was some truth to those words.

I certainly wasn't a very lucky person. At the very least, I didn't think I was.

"...."

Delilah just stared at me with her deep eyes. I knew she didn't believe me. Eventually, her gaze lowered to stare at my right arm.

"Show me your tattoo again."

"...."

I inwardly swallowed before obliging and rolling up my sleeve.

"Oh?"

It was to Delilah's surprise to see a cloth over the area around my forearm. Looking up, she meaningfully looked at me.

"I don't know how to hide it."

And I truthfully answered.

It started to become clear to me that the tattoo on my hand wasn't something that I could randomly show off on a whim.

The organization that I was dealing with was slowly starting to reveal its fangs and more and more people were becoming aware of them. I didn't know much about them, and regardless of how much I tried to find anything about them, all I'd see was a blank road with no end in sight.

Nothing.

There was simply nothing.

It was for this reason that I chose to hide the tattoo.

"I believe this is the best course of action considering that it might get misunderstood for something that it isn't."

I carefully looked at Delilah when saying those words. I wanted to gauge her reaction or lack thereof.

She simply sat where she was with her legs crossed.

It was hard to tell what she was thinking.

"...."

She was just staring at me. Her deep eyes peered deeply into me, trying to suck me in. The longer this went, the more uncomfortable I grew.

Why isn't she speaking? What is she trying to do...?

In the silence that took over the room, her lips finally parted open.

"I've asked you before, but does the words Inverted Sky mean anything to you?"

Inverted Sky?

I thought about it long and hard before shaking my head.

"No."

"Hmm."

Delilah silently nodded before standing up.

".....I can't feel any lies coming from you."

Lies?

She can detect lies?

'Uh, right... Even last time she was like this.'

Tak

Delilah placed a book on the table. I immediately felt my eyebrows raise at the sight of the book. Could it be...

"Read this book. I'm not sure how much, but it'll help you out in the future."

"Help me?"

I looked at the cover of the book. It was completely blank and devoid of any illustration or font.

"Don't think too much. It's a common book that you can find in the library."

"Then..."

"You'll find it useful."

I didn't say anything from there. She seemed to want to help me, but at the same time, I wasn't sure what her real intentions were.

For now, I could only take her at face value and agree.

Either way, it wasn't going to hurt me. Whatever it was, it must have had some meaning to it. I planned on taking my time to closely examine the book.

"Hm."

I thought she'd leave things there, but all of a sudden, she said something else.

"As you've already probably guessed, I'm keeping you close to me to observe you."

Her words stunned me.

Although I had already managed to guess. For her to be so upfront about it...

'She really...'

Was someone I had a hard time figuring out.

If that wasn't shocking enough, all of a sudden, cracks formed on her face as her lips gently pulled up.

"....I think I made the right decision."

"What-"

Before I even had a chance to say anything, her form scattered and she disappeared.

Like the wind, she simply scattered away.

"...."

In the newfound silence that took over the room, I stood in a daze for a few seconds before eventually turning my gaze over to the book.

I picked it up and ran my hand over the hardcover. It felt cold to the touch.

Even now, I was still confused about her intentions. The more I thought about it, the more my head hurt.

"Is she helping me, or using me?"

I more or less knew the answer to that question, and I didn't mind it. So long as it benefitted me in some way, then I didn't mind getting used.

In the end, I had to just stop thinking about it and I flipped to the first page.

I was bound to find something from this book.

Flip

"...."

Laying my eyes on the first page, I read out loud.

"Era of the Shattered World."

It was an interesting title, and it immediately gained my interest. I was just about to flip to the next page when all of a sudden something flashed before my eyes.

It was a simple notification.

One that I knew was bound to happen.

But even as it happened, I felt my shoulders grow heavy.

".....I guess it's starting."

[Synchronizing]

Kiera Mylne : 2% ---> 9%

The penalty of my decision.

***

A few minutes prior.

"Ah, fuck... I forgot to buy them again."

Smack

Kiera smacked her forehead and let out a curse. Rummaging through her pockets and finding nothing, she clicked her tongue and kicked one of the pebbles along her path.

Despite the darkness outside, the presence of lamps lining the path served to ward away her fear.

The thought made Kiera chuckle.

"It's funny."

Her traits were purely [Elemental] with her skills rooted in [fire] and [darkness]. Despite her aversion to the darkness, her power was inexorably linked to it.

It was for this reason that she never used her other element.

She simply had a hard time using it.

But of course, that didn't apply to the events of the day prior when she went to visit her aunt.

Her anger had taken away the fear that she had towards the darkness.

"Haaa."

Kiera suddenly felt her mood lift at the thought of her aunt.

Thinking about the death of that woman, Kiera felt like she was flying.

"Finally, she's dead."

It sounded too good to be true. The woman who had haunted her for so long was finally dead. And to think, she was the one who ended up killing her...

"...."

Kiera felt an odd sense of relief.

Even though she had sworn to be the one to do it, she didn't think she'd have the opportunity to.

"I can't believe it."

It still felt like a dream to her. A very nice dream.

In any case, Kiera's thoughts couldn't help but drift towards a certain figure. Had it not been for him, then she would've most likely died, or even worse, been kidnapped.

She hated to admit it, but...

"I guess I owe him one...?"

Tilting her head, she mumbled to herself.

"Uh, no. Technically speaking he owes me one too."

Right...?

Kiera felt her face scrunch up and she ended up rubbing her head.

"Ugh, fuck... This shit's so complicated."

Clearly, the values between their debts were quite different. He had saved her life, while she had... minded her own business?

There was an obvious mismatch in the level of their debts.

"But still. What was he doing here?"

Setting the fact that he had helped her aside, why was he there? She had sneaked in because she wanted to meet her aunt.

But what was the reason for his appearance?

He was also very strong. While it was indeed true that her aunt had her mana sealed and was just waiting to recover her strength, he had managed to keep up with her.

He was a far cry from how he was in class. He was definitely hiding his real abilities and intentions.

Of that she was sure.

The question was why he was doing all of this. What was his motive behind his appearance back at the lockdown cells and why had he helped her?

"Surely he ha"

Kiera's words stopped all of a sudden. Her vision blurred and her surroundings started to change.

'What... What the...!'

A scorched smell lingered in the air.

The ruins of a familiar city and the lightning that crackled in the air. An air of oppression gripped the surroundings.

'....What's going on? Where is this place?'

Kiera found that she had also lost her voice.

However, she didn't need her voice to see what was going on. In particular, in the distance, she could see a figure.

They stood at the center of it all, their figure blurred.

Everything gravitated their way. As if the world revolved around them.

'What, why...'

There was something else that shocked Kiera outside of the blurred figure.

It was...

'Why am I feeling this way...?'

The intense feelings that were invading every part of her body.

All she could remember was feeling an intense hatred.A hatred that seemed to devour her entire body.

And all of it was directed toward the blurred figure in the distance. For what reason, Kiera didn't know.

However...

All she could think about at the moment was the hatred she felt towards the figure.

It was intense, and Kiera had a hard time containing it.

Suddenly, Kiera felt her mouth part open as a voice familiar with her own rang out.

"You... You are the one who let her go... I trusted you, and yet...!"

Kiera felt her teeth clench as her body moved on its own.

Darkness started to spread over every inch of the land. It covered everything in its path, devouring all light from the world.

".I'll kill you for it!"

The voice ended there as the world froze.

Not long after, the world started to collapse and Kiera found herself back in the park.

"W-what...?"

Kiera found that her voice was back.

But that wasn't enough to shake off her confusion.

"Haaa... Haaa...."

With heavy breaths, she looked around her.

"What... Haa... the hell was... Haa... that?"