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With a gloomy mood, I finished showering and got my things ready. It was already close to noon, so we didn\'t have much time. 

Apparently, the nobles and the people wanted to throw a party in my honor- so when they learned I\'d leave today- or rather now- they were heartbroken. Bryce even cried like a toddler, wailing even. 

Sigh.

Things were not going great. 

Once I got my things, I moved towards the garden. On my way, countless maids, soldiers, nobles wished me luck on the battlefield and my quests. I still had no idea what the people actually thought of me or what I even did- according to them. 

But I was still glad. 

And at the same time, perhaps slightly guilty.

***

"I\'ll miss you." Lia hugged me. 

We were pretty much on the verge of leaving. Ve had transformed and our party had gotten on top of her. 

Lia was being strong but the occasional wailing from Bryce from the corner was kind of making me feel guilty. 

"I\'ll miss you too." I smiled. "Oh, I forgot to tell you but- I met your aunt."

"My aunt?" Lia cocked her head slightly in confusion. I couldn\'t put my finger on it, but something about that was awfully cute. 

"Yeah, remember that woman inside the crystal? Turns out she was your aunt."

"Really!?" Lia was visibly shaken. I guess realizing she had another family member- was something she couldn\'t process at this very moment. 

"Don\'t worry. She\'s currently supervising a plot of land I secured in front of the central capital. If everything works out, maybe you\'ll meet her soon."

Elves lived a long time, so even if it took a few years, it\'d still be soon to them.

"Wait- you mean you took the land of men and they let you?"

"Well…" I smiled nervously. "It\'s complicated and I\'m sure a messenger will come soon. Anyway, I\'m getting late so-" So, I kissed her on the forehead and started leaving. 

\'Leave before you end up complicating things even more!\'

But she swiftly got in front of me and kissed me on the lips- a bit of tongue-to-tongue action. "Take care." She smiled- a genuine smile. And she had removed her half veil too. She only removed it when we were alone- but I guess this was a special sendoff- so. 

"You too." I tried to smile too, but I guess my smile probably came off as a bit awkward. I hope she didn\'t mind. "And man up a little, Bryce!"

With that said, I got on top of Ve and we slowly started to take off. My fear or heights made a crippling return. 

"I really thought the elf would come with us," Alisa said.

"Me too, but I couldn\'t bear to take her along. I have this bad feeling that something will go wrong."

Then again, I had this bad feeling ever since I came to this world. Maybe I ended up with complex PTSD after that first night in the forest. 

"Funny- I have the exact same feeling." We were still gaining altitude and not going forward, so there wasn\'t much wind to hinder our speech. "However, as long as we\'re together and united, I don\'t think we can be defeated that easily."

\'If only it was that simple.\'

But worrying wasn\'t going to get us anywhere. Instead, I had to remain vigilant. 

And hope I didn\'t fall to my death….

***

We reached Xylax by the evening and explained things to Viola over dinner. 

She was not happy that I wasn\'t going to marry her before leaving the next day. But- she did understand the situation and agreed to hold off the marriage for exactly 58 days- meaning just two days after the big fight. But that was assuming I\'d live after that fight. 

But I was glad she was willing to compromise. 

Dinner went smoothly and afterward I went to my room- my private room which wasn\'t private at all. 

I was really tired, so I kind of fell asleep almost immediately and when I woke up, I had Viola and Biteria making pillows out of me. Alias was reading a book in the corner while Ve was looking out the window. Typical. 

Life was really weird. 

It wasn\'t that bad though. 

***

I got fresh, finished my training with Ve, and took a shower afterward. 

We\'d finally leave for Dracona today. I reponed the letter of the geezer and scanned through the contents. \'If everything goes alright, maybe winning won\'t be too farfetched.\' But anything hardly ever went according to plan. As the geezer once said, if everything went as planned, there was either something wrong with the plan or the world. 

"Why are you always looking so glum? Shouldn\'t you look fired up and try to survive so you can find a cure for your curse or something? Or are you thinking of giving up?" Alisa said as she walked over to me. She was joking.

I was busy watching over the city from up here. We were about seventy floors high and even from up here I could see the people rather well. My eyesight nowadays was almost on par with the eyes of the elves- perhaps even slightly better. 

So, staring at the people going about their day, living peacefully always made me envious for some reason. And yet, I was almost always passing my time like this. 

"No, just thinking about things."

Alisa giggled. "Well, I wouldn\'t fault you for worrying. The demon emperor is said to be as strong as a god. And I guess that does make one worry, doesn\'t it?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "By the way, you know much about the demons?"

"Being?" Alisa came over and stood right next to me, staring at the very sight I was staring at even just a moment ago.

"I don\'t know. I mean there were a lot of conflicting things I\'ve heard about them."

"You\'ll have to see them with your own eyes to believe it. But- shortly, there are three of their kind. The malicious ones who hurt others, the good ones who live in a faraway continent, and the neutral ones who roam the world. Only the malicious ones are called demons- they live in Galbatia and the rest are classified as demi-humans." Alisa paused for a second. "Although, even the demons, have their own unique roles in this world, and maybe not all of them are as hostile as we think they are."

"I see. No wonder, people didn\'t run away from those ox demons."

And I did hear a lot of things about the demons, sometimes good, but the rest just plain bad. Susan had said something about demons being hunted by men while I saw demons pillaging the villages- wait, so far, I never actually saw demons do stuff like that. 

The only times, the demons acted, were times I was involved. I hadn\'t seen or heard about any recent demon attacks. In fact, I\'d heard that the world was relatively peaceful for the last ten years or so…

It made me wonder a lot of things. 

"Yes."

"I actually want to travel to Galbatia as my last place before the fight."

I still had time and I needed to know more about those things, why I was summoned. As Alisa said, the best way to figure this all out was to see everything with my own eyes, so there was no choice left but to go to the land of demons.

"Yes, I think that would be for the best. You need to know your enemies before actually fighting them."

"You\'re going to come along?"

"But of course, I will." She grinned. 

"Who do you think summoned me?"

This question was really bugging me lately. All this time I thought that the demon emperor had summoned me, but honestly, I was kind of afraid to ask. I didn\'t know why, but- I was afraid….

But it was time for me to face that fear.

For a second there she became serious. "I don\'t know. It could be the emperor to see if how you\'d survive in that forest. It could be some god who escaped death or maybe even the grand monsters, without actually realizing." She smiled faintly. "There are just too many answers."

I snorted slightly. "Let\'s go. We\'ll be late for lunch." I turned around and walked. "Thanks," I whispered. 

I didn\'t look back.