From a Talentless nobody to An SSS Class Dragon

Chapter 230: Accepting Reality

Two weeks have passed since the girls came back. Still no sign of Rokuro since then and Lust hasn’t made an appearance.I found myself staying up most nights while trying to think of what is the best approach to handle my own emotions while the others started to sort themselves out.

Lilly is still broken, Velia is training with Aria, and Eliza is just trying to see what she can sense.

Meanwhile I’ve been holded up in one of the old rooms replaying memories from all the adventures we had. Each one has hit me worse and worse.

Velia keeps preaching for me to accept reality so that we can make a game plan to push forward... But I can’t yet. There is just something that keeps changing my mind every single time.

The thought that he will show up. It is a thought that refuses to go away no matter how hard I try.

A quiet knock reaches my door.

I already know who it is since she is the one who comes to check on me the most out of any of the other girls here.

"Ghost?" Velia calls out from the other side.

I don’t answer.

Not because I don’t want to answer her or anything but because I don’t really know what to say. Everything feels like some sort of nightmare that I can’t wake up from.

Another knock follows shortly after.

"We need to talk Ghost," Velia says.

I let out a long sigh before standing up from the floor.

The room looks exactly the same as it did two weeks ago. I didn’t do anything or try to make the place look better since it isn’t a permanent home.

I make my way over before opening the old wooden door and upon opening it I see Velia is standing there with her sword resting against her shoulder while Aria waits behind her.

Neither one of them are smiling or anything.

"Morning," Aria says quietly.

"Morning," I answer without much emotion.

Velia appears to be studying me for a moment.

"You look worse than I expected," Velia says with her usual monotone voice.

"I feel worse," I reply while putting my hands into my pockets.

"We’ve waited long enough," Velia says.

My eyes narrow.

"What do you mean?" I question with a bit of confusion in my voice.

"We can’t stay inside this church forever Ghost," Velia answers with a bit of a serious tone starting to show.

I glance past them towards the entrance.

"It has been two weeks and we still haven’t been given a single sign he’s alive. It hurts but he’d want us to do something instead of sitting around here," Aria chimes in.

Those words sting more than I expected.

I know we haven’t been given any signs but maybe it would be nice to have a little bit of hope that he’s on the way back.

Ugh. This is just not how I expected this morning to go in the slightest.

"What if he comes back while we’re gone?" I ask.

"He’ll find us," Velia assures me.

It isn’t surprising that she’d have an answer to that so quickly since she’s always been like this. Quick to answer and quick to keep moving forward.

But it is kind of nice to hear something positive from her after what Aria said before.

It tells me that I’m not the only one who thinks he might be alive... At least I know I’m not completely alone in it. I’ve never been alone during this but... It feels different now.

"We’ve gathered what supplies we can," Velia continues.

"Akina isn’t here to help so we don’t have access to easy food or resources for survival," Aria chimes in again.

She’s not wrong there. If Akina was here we’d be in a pretty good position regardless of what happened to Rokuro. We’d have as much food as we need and the resources to stay here for as long as possible.

So maybe it is best to accept reality for now... We need to be smart about our next steps so that we don’t end up dead.

Information. It always comes down to gathering information.

"If we are leaving, we need reliable information moving forward," I say with more of a serious tone.

He never liked sitting around waiting for things to happen so this is the best approach.

I slowly lower my head.

"What are you suggesting?" Velia asks with curiosity in her voice.

"We need to track down someone who can provide us with any sort of important information. Maybe Eliza knows someone," I respond while scratching my head.

"That isn’t a bad idea. This is a step in the right direction I believe," Velia says as she turns around.

"But we need to be careful with Lilly," I warn them before they start walking.

"Lilly was banished from here so that’s something to keep in mind. We’ll keep her safe as we begin to travel," Velia responds with confidence.

Every part of me wants to stay behind, yet I know this is the best thing for all of us. It’ll only continue to haunt us as we sit around waiting for someone who may or may not come back.

Velia is right about a lot lately... As much as I hate to admit it.

I look back at the room for a moment before following behind them.

"Let’s see what Eliza says," Velia says while walking towards the front door.

Eliza is just sitting in one of the old pews as she appears to be praying. I haven’t seen her in two weeks.

But they both approach her without any sort of hesitation, almost like they’ve been waiting for some sort of move. Eliza doesn’t appear to be surprised either.

"Eliza do you know where we might be able to find important information on anything in this realm?" Velia asks.

The problem is that we don’t even know what we are looking for. Is it another lord or maybe another king? Multiple kingdoms do exist within the demon realm.

"I might know of a place to start," Eliza answers as she slowly stands up.

I guess she’s eager to get out of here.