Chapter 6: Internal Conflict
Out of nowhere, the crystal glowed extremely bright—so bright that it was blinding me in a flash of white. With every passing second, It kept glowing brighter and brighter.
Oloris exclaimed, his face obviously shocked
"Don't tell me, this is—"
"BOOOM!!"
The crystal shattered…
I felt dust drifting onto my skin as I got blown away by the explosion.
"Kid! Are you alright?"
"Cough—y-yes, what happened?"
"I never thought I'd see it myself, but the crystal was overloaded"
"Overloaded?"
"Yes. White crystals are created to absorb a small amount of mana, then they show the colour of your mana. But when you placed your hand on it, it absorbed more mana than it can handle, so as a result—it explodes"
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No no, not at all. This only shows us how much potential you have, you have more mana than anyone I have even seen before. You're a genius, a prodigy meant for greatness"
The damn ghost is making me look like a super talented one in a trillion genius. I know that all this is just the effects of having him inside me, this will be a problem if I can't control his mana.
"W-What happened?!!" Aria ran as fast as she could, "Grandpa, what happened?"
"Oh my Potato, it's nothing serious. You don't have to worry about it"
"That's right, 'PO-TA-TO', there's nothing to worry about here"
"Y-YOU! We're the same age so stop acting like you're older than me! I'll beat you up!"
"I-I-I am so scared. P-P-Please spare me I beg you, O'Great great potato" she chased me around instantly, and we ran around for a while. And of course she couldn't catch me, hahaha.
After training a few more hours, the sun fell beyond the horizon, and night arrived.
The chilly air drifted through my skin as I walked back to the main house. It was a rather cold night for summer.
I quietly entered my room from the back door, and prepared a bed to have a good night sleep.
Then, I heard murmurings from the other room, "Today's sight was not to be forgotten, but striking now will be a blunder that will only worsen our village condition, I ask the Village council and our general to restrain themselves from making rash decisions"
I quietly pushed the door open in ghost-silence, and from the narrow gap I saw Fenris, the four village council and the general, all sitting around the table.
I saw Kor standing up, he was one of the four village councils, "Cowardice is the sickness that befalls the weak, and the weak shall perish. Lord Fenris, if we keep running away with our tail between our legs, only death awaits us. I say we march out tomorrow, and kill those damn minotours."
The room was dead silent. It was quiet, so quiet that I could hear the insects crawling and whispering.
Lord Fenris stood up, "A fool that leads his comrades with false ambition is more dangerous than a horde of goblins.
A wise man once told me, 'Know yourself and your enemy, and you shall be ever victorious'
Right now we're in the dark, we have no information regarding the numbers of the minotours. We could be ambushed as soon as we enter their territory. I will say this again, waiting is our best option."
Kor tilted his head, and spoke in a rather annoying tone, "That wise man you talked about, is he the same human that supposedly saved you when you were out travelling when you were young?
"Yes he is"
*Look, lord Fenris, you're the only one in this village that does not hate humans. Everyone goes along with your decision to take the human child in, only because it's you who made that decision—If not for that we would've killed him on sight.
And the same goes for today's incident, if not for your intervention, we would've killed those Minotours on the spot and Poro would still be alive."
Fenris smacked the table, even I could see he was angry, "I took the general's place because he was out hunting, had I not stopped our men, they would've been wiped out!"
"You don't know that! Stop acting like you know everythi—"
"Be quiet!!" General Mordo halted their argument
"I agree with Lord Fenris. Right now, we lack the knowledge that will give us any advantage, it's better to wait and see rather than risking our lives for reasons that are not justified. Can we all agree on this?"
Except for Kor, they all nodded their heads in agreement, and left shortly on their way
"Thank you, General"
"Don't mention it, it is my duty to support you when you make the right decision. The people depend on you Lord Fenris, so make sure you don't let them down."
As the room was left in silence, I stepped out from my room, "Lord Fenris, are you okay?"
He looked at me, and I could tell he was tired, "It's you Aether, did you hear our conversation?"
"Sorry, i didn't mean to eavesdrop"
"It's alright" He offered me a place to sit, then he spoke again, "Let me ask you a question, do you know why us warewolves, or any other monster race for that matter, hate your race so much?"
A seemingly simple question, but one could go hours discussing such topic, "...No" I answered
"It's because of the human selfish perspective of life.
They view any race other than themselves as spawns of evil. To them, killing us means doing a good deed. They see it as a righteous act so no guilt ever befalls them.
I once tried to communicate with them, befriend them—and I thought it could work. But the moment they saw me, they rang a bell, a bell that calls magicians of theirs to hunt me down. I barely survived, and I never once tried that foolish act ever again."
"Then, why did you save me back then?"
"That's because everyone is different in their own way, only a fool would judge a kid from the mistakes of his race. I learned this lesson from a man I admired, his name was Kuroiichi. He might be younger than me, but he was a great man, greater than I could ever become.
Kuroiichi was a human like you, the strongest person I have ever met. Even though he was a human, his eyes never bear any hate towards me or the others. He saved me when I was deep in trouble, and it's not an exaggeration to say he's the reason I am still here and still believe that humans and monsters can live together."
"He seems like a really amazing person, do you still keep in touch with him?"
"Sadly no, he treated me and helped me survive, but once I recovered, he left, and I have not seen him ever since."
The late night silence enveloped the room. The torches dimmed, and the village was as quiet as a shadow.
"The night is late Aether, go back to your room and sleep, I shall do the same."
And so I went back to my room, and the day was over.
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The Moonlight shone as bright as a star, covering everything in its ashen light. And under that light, is a person in a black cloak standing at the pinnacle of a mountain, viewing Wolfvillage high up from the sky.
"They told me to capture them, but this is wayyy more fun isn't it."
A creepy smile he expressed, "Yes yes yes YES! be a good PET! and let me play with you more, heahhahhhahahhaha.
The war is COMING! Once we gather alllllll the Paragons, there will be no who can stop us! Hahahahaaha!"
His psychopathic laugh echoed, and slowly faded away into the darkness.
End of Chapter 6.