Chapter 65. A New Task

I looked back up to Asteora. She was looking at me with a thoughtful expression. I wasn’t sure if she was convinced about the thing that I said, but I wasn’t going to lie to her either.

After a moment, she tilted her head from one side to another a couple of times.

“Make amends, huh…” she trailed off, turning to look out the window and then back to me. “There might be something that you can do for that.”

It worried me whenever she said that in the past. It usually would entail something of extreme effort. But I wasn’t one that could afford to say no after the things that I’ve done.

“And… what might that be…?” I asked with some uncertainty, not really wanting to know what it was, but not being able to avoid it.

“As you may already well know, there’s a few people that are aware of your existence—those demons and the ambassador of Arretia, for example,” she said, plucking another grape and quickly eating it. “So, it’s just a matter of time before the whole world knows who you are.”

I frowned and looked to the side. I hadn’t considered that, even when Bo’guth easily identified me a while ago. Some part of me had given the warning, but I had convinced myself that if I stayed quiet and didn’t say anything about my old life, that I would be able to go around without any issues, more so when Bo’guth and Igladith didn’t make a big deal out of it.

“Then… what are you suggesting?” I asked, turning to look at my old master.

“Despite everything that’s happened since the time of your fight with Salrak, I’ve been able to keep a rather friendly relationship with the Emperor of Leyfall, Lodrick,” she said, her face turning to one of annoyance. “He might be… a rather annoying child, but his heart is in the right place.” She paused to look at me, her expression turning to a slight smirk. “I want you to meet with him.”

I raised my eyebrows in response. “Does that mean that… you want me to… marry him…?”

Asteora smirk turned wider, before it turned into a chuckle and a shake of her head. “Not at all. I wouldn’t do that to you, and there’s no point in doing those things in this world. Very few people care about who marries who, so there’s no point in you marrying him—no, what I want is for you to simply talk to him.”

“What for…?” I asked, since I couldn’t see another reason to meet with that man, who once claimed that he was going to marry me.

“You’ll know when you get there, but all I’ll say is that it is related to your past and the repercussions of your legacy in this world,” she said, reaching for a strawberry of the few that there were. “But before you do that, you need to get stronger—much stronger than the… laughable amount of power you currently have.”

I tightened my lips. I wanted to deny her, but just the small little test that she did on me just now showed that I couldn’t stand to fight whatever was needed to fight. I was wondering if even with Darkness and Hellfire Power I could beat someone like Reeta.

“How much time do I have to meet him?” I asked, since if she asked me to be as strong as I was before within a few days, then it would be impossible.

“You have… as much time as either the Holy Gods take to get here or until you’re ready to go—although, the longer that you take, the more likely it is that you’ll get in trouble, just like you did over the past couple of days,” she leisurely said, taking a bite out of the juicy red fruit in her hand.

“And… should I be strong enough to kill a God again?”

She shook her head. “No. Just strong enough to… I guess, either being able to kill that Beastkin trainer of yours, or somewhere between A+ or S rank in this world’s system.”

“Huh?” I exclaimed since I had almost completely forgotten about that thing.

“What’s with that face? Don’t tell me that you don’t know what I’m talking about. You got yourself registered on this world’s strange ranking system,” she said, finishing the strawberry. “Last time I checked, you were a C rank; still quite some ways from being strong.”

I looked at the Watch on my wrist—something that I hadn’t done in a while—just to check the information that Asteora was asking about.

[Status]

Name: Althea Sanctus Stultus

Rank: C+

Strength: C+

Body: B-

Magic Power: C+

Mana Levels: C

Skills: [Skill list collapsed due to amount. Tap here to expand]

Note: [Unknown Skills (?) have been registered. Get in contact with support to determine skills details]

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I’m on C+ rank now, but… it says here that there’s some Unknown Skills registered…” I said without turning to look at Asteora.

“Ah, that must be that Darkness and Hellfire Power. Nobody has that, so it’s no surprise that the system wouldn’t know what to do about it,” she said without worry as she grabbed yet another strawberry. “I’m actually amazed the thing didn’t outright break after detecting that, but I guess it just doesn’t detect the other strange bits of your power.”

“Is that so…” I said, putting aside the Watch to look back at her. “Should I go get that registered?”

She was eating the strawberry with the same nonplussed expression. “Sure—if you want the world to know about you even faster,” she said, eating half of the strawberry. “Keep it as it is. There’s no point in going over to get that stuff looked at. That system’s just a silly little thing that the people of this world created.” She paused for a moment to look over at the remaining fruits. “You know, I found it amusing how the people of this world desire to quantify and qualify every single little thing; even those useless spells that nobody would think about have a name and rank.”

I had wondered about that as well when I looked at the spells on the Watch, where even the tiniest things I would do would carry a name.

“Then… I shall work on becoming stronger. There’s a Tainted Land not too far from here where I can accumulate more of the power left behind by Salrak. I’m planning on going there,” I said as I walked closer to the table.

Asteora turned away from the fruits to look at me with a mocking smile. “And to get money. I noticed that you’re severely short on it.”

“T-that is…” I trailed off, since it was true that I was also planning to go over to get money.

She chuckled and shook her head. “This is all so amusing.”

Saying that, she stood up from the chair and walked to the opened window. I followed her movements with my eyes, and I wondered whether or not I should ask the things that I wanted to know from her.

I took a deep breath and with a step forward, I finally asked, “How are you still here?”

“Hm?” she asked back, stopping momentarily to half-turn her face to look at me with a questioning expression. “I’m already leaving, as you can see?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean: how are you still alive? I—I saw you die; I saw your magic flare up the sky and your essence disappear. How can you still be alive?”

“Ah,” she said, fully turning to face me. “I was never dead. Never planned to be.”

“Then… how?”

She subtly smiled. “You know… I never really liked your quest to banish all darkness from the world. At first I helped you because I didn’t know any better and I had grown attached to you, but it didn’t take long for me to realize the mistake of my actions…” She paused momentarily to look down slightly. “But it was far too late to do anything. You were far beyond what common mortals could stop.”

“You mean to tell me that…” I trailed off, not wanting to say out loud what I was thinking.

“To tell you that… what?” she asked. She didn’t like to finish what other people were saying.

“That you—That you…” I replied, tightening my lips as I looked down for a moment, before looking up to her and forcing the words out. “You were never… my friend? That you—that you were on Salrak’s side?”

She looked seriously at me from the position she was standing, next to the window as the light from the moon reflected on her flowing hair, and the cold wind of the night entered the room.

I feared for what she was going to say, and I felt like I had to run away; like I had to hide somewhere; like—like everything that I lived in my old life was a lie.

“I was your friend,” she finally said, and I felt relief wash over me. “But I wasn’t in the end.” She continued and that relief left just as fast as it had come. “I did try my best to be both a teacher and a friend of yours, but in the end, I completely and utterly failed. Eventually, I joined forces with Salrak, and what you saw was nothing more than an act that would’ve allowed Salrak to keep his power, fuse it with mine, and face you.”

I felt like tears were about to break from my eyes, but I held it in, as I had always done. “T-then… you were never dead… you were just watching…”

“I was. And… I’d hoped that I would never see you again,” she continued, not moving from where she was, her expression much colder than the wind entering the room. “You were better off dead.”

I deeply frowned, clutching my hands into fists as I lowered my face and forced my eyes shut. I couldn’t deny her words. I caused so much death and so much destruction, that perhaps I should’ve stayed gone with Salrak.

“But,” she said, and I looked up at her once more, expecting her to say more of the things that I’d been denying myself. “It’s all in the past now. This is a new world, a new life, and a new opportunity. Take that power and talent of yours and make sure to use it for the right thing this time.”

She softly smiled, placing one hand over the window sill, leaning over it.

“I’ll be watching you—and don’t worry, I won’t be spying on you anymore so…” she finally dropped out of the window to float a few steps away from it in the air. “Don’t disappoint me—at least, not again.”

I looked on as she disappeared as fast as the blink of an eye, leaving behind nothing more than a lingering sweet scent that was already fading. I turned to look at the fruits to ensure that Asteora’s appearance hadn’t just been an illusion, a ghost, or just my mind playing tricks on me, but the few that she ate were indeed gone.

She had been here, and from the sounds of it, she had been aware of me being in this world almost as soon as I appeared here.

With a self-loathing chuckle, I sat in the same chair she had been sitting just a moment ago and grabbed one of the strawberries. What else could be expected from my master? I should’ve known better than to think I was going to have a peaceful life in this world, or that I could just enjoy watching movies and training with Nicole in this room.

I bit a small part of the fruit, but the sweet and acidic taste of the fruit wouldn’t enter my mind. All I could think about were all the things that I’d done in the past for her and with her.

And I thought about all the enemies I’ve faced. There were too many of them who could rival her, and if she already knew about me, then chances are that there are many others who also know about me, and who will wish to do harm to me and those around me.

I hadn’t realized how lucky I had been with people like Bo’guth and Igladith, the latter who, despite the clear resentment she had for me, never went out of her way to do me any harm—even if she was stopped by Bo’guth, since she had more than enough power to go over him.

There was also the goblin, Erus, who not only looked past who I was, but has gone as far as to befriend me and do far more for me than should’ve been expected from anyone.

Despite what Salrak said about living my life as I chose to live it, I knew that I didn’t deserve that kind of kindness. I had to get stronger. I had to be prepared for when the Holy Gods come here—and if they didn’t, then I had to be strong enough to find them and make sure that they didn’t come here.

With a wide chomp, I completely ate the strawberry. My master was right. This is a new opportunity, and I can’t waste it by sitting here, neither enjoying life, nor loathing the mistakes of the past. There was no more room for hesitation.