"Well, actually, I like him a lot."…I'm almost positive those words had a deeper meaning, so what do I do if they did? I mean, I've been with him every chance I've gotten… …even this time. And even knowing I'm doing something to help the people I'm supposed to call "Enemy", I just feel happy being able to be of any use to him. Are these feelings just happiness, or something else that merely involves happiness…?
-
Tenebrae had settled on having us search in the Ossa Trail's maintenance passage, as that's where he believed he was able to sense Solum's Core the strongest. He'd said he sensed it to be as far into the passage as possible, and of course, the area had been worked on some recently. The Trail's passage had several paths that lead to even more paths, not only making us have to search through every path until we found the Core, but the fact that there were so many different paths made it hard to tell which ones we'd been through already and which we hadn't.
I realized shortly after we'd arrived at the Ossa Trail that when Decus said he had an errand to do, he must have meant that it was to find the Core he'd lost. It didn't take all that long before I was sure that was the case, because I could smell him from paths before paths away.
"I believe Solum's Core should be down the path and to the right, and then down that path…" Tenebrae suddenly said, breaking the silence.
"To the right's forward path? Isn't that supposedly where an Underworld demon was said to reside?" Richter asked, although sounding pretty sure of what he was talking about. "In that case, Decus was probably trying to fight it while in possession of Solum's Core, and dropped it there. More than likely, he wouldn't have realized he'd dropped it until he was back at the Vanguard's base."
"Uh… w-we're not gonna have to fight this demon guy, right? To get the Core back?" I asked nervously.
Richter sighed. "Only if it's guarding it now, which it wouldn't have a reason to. Unless, of course, it just wanted an excuse to fight us."
"But if it's a demon from the Underworld, of course it would want to fight us! I mean, not that I want to fight it… I'd prefer to avoid it, if that's even possible…"
"If we have to fight it to get the Core back, then we're fighting it. Unless you'd prefer to stay away while I handled it?" Richter asked, raising an eyebrow with a slight smirk on his face.
"I… No! That's not it! I just wasn't really expecting to have to fight!" I said hurriedly, which both Richter and Tenebrae clearly noticed.
"He just wanted more time alone with you than fighting." Tenebrae snickered.
"Tenebrae! That's not what I said!" I whined. Yet, I felt like that was almost true…
"I didn't say you said it. But knowing you, Emil, that was the meaning behind those words." He paused for a brief moment and looked at me, then started laughing.
"W-What?!" I snapped.
"Oh, Emil… Just the look on your face… You look so upset about it… It's quite humorous, really." He said, holding back any further laughter.
"No it's not…" I huffed, but Richter seemed rather amused by this. I looked over at him and blinked for a moment, then asked, "A-Are you laughing at me?!"
"Not laughing. But it is rather amusing…" Richter sighed, shaking his head. "But we should find Solum's Core before you make anymore jokes, Tenebrae."
"Oh yes, most certainly." He nodded. "Although I'm not quite sure that would be a joke at this point…" I heard him mumble, then chuckle, which I responded to with a pouting face.
-
Once we'd gotten to where Solum's Core was, I groaned at the situation. Naturally, my least favorite was the one that had to happen—a giant monster guarding the Core.
"Huge black skeleton, huh?" Richter said, looking amused. "Guess the situation's exactly like I expected it to be."
"What is that thing?" I asked uncertainly.
"A demon from the Underworld— the Sword Dancer. I'd heard it was defeated, but… perhaps it came back."
"That's not fair…" I huffed.
"Fair or not, that's the way things are. And if I were you, I'd move."
"Huh?" I blinked, then turned to realize said Sword Dancer was already attacking us. I let out a small squeal when I moved out of the way, but apparently, I hadn't moved far enough.
I found myself holding off the monster's sword from slicing through me with my own, but its physical power was clearly more than I could handle. I quickly held back my own arm from holding the Sword Dancer's sword in its place, but just as quickly shoved it backwards.
"You have a wonderful helping hand!" I spat at Richter as the Sword Dancer stumbled backwards.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I figured you wouldn't need any help." He shrugged, but clearly speaking in a sarcastic voice.
"It only must have looked obvious." I grimaced, slashing several times at the attacking Sword Dancer. Thankfully, I'd gotten no response from Richter, as he just backed me up from then on. I probably would've thrown come crazy, violent fit over having been protected by him at least five times during the coarse of the battle, but I pretty much got my feelings about that out on the Sword Dancer. It didn't make it any better that Richter was rather amused by these actions the entire time…
"You know, you didn't have to protect me that much!" I snapped, as the Sword Dancer faded away, talking some crazy nonsense of "Strong ones" and meeting again.
Richter just shook his head. "Actually, I did. I wouldn't put myself in harm's way for you or anybody if it was unnecessary." He sighed, brushing hair out of his face.
I blinked for a moment, then quietly said, more to myself than to him, "So you wouldn't treat me any differently than any other person…"
"Hm?" Richter turned his head to me, but I just shook my head.
"Um… Nothing."
"Well, I doubt you'd be mumbling about 'Nothing' to yourself." He said, his head still turned to me.
"Well… you're not looking any other way right now, so… does that mean you're… expecting a response?" I asked uncertainly.
"I'd prefer one, since as I said, you wouldn't be mumbling about nothing to yourself. Unless, of course, it's got to do with us being enemies and you're just thinking out loud. Something like that certainly isn't something you'd be willing to tell me."
"N-No!" I said quickly. "I don't think of you as an enemy… I prefer to think of you as a friend…" At this, Richter raised an eyebrow at me.
"A friend? Even though I've been trying to kill Marta?"
"Well, I mean… you were my first friend, and you helped me try to become emotionally stronger! I've looked up to you ever since then!"
"So if I do kill Marta, would you be just as willing to befriend me?"
"Um… Well…"
"You can decide about that on your own, can't you?" He asked, looking away now and walking over to the Core.
"Y-Yes… but… after everything you've done for me, I can't just… hate you all of sudden, can I?"
"That's up to you to decide." Richter sighed, picking up Solum's Core from it's resting place on the ground.
"But, Richter… do you really treat other people no differently than… you treat me…?" I asked, looking around the cave, trying to look anywhere besides Richter.
"Usually. I've fought alongside other people, but any of my actions vary depending on the person I'm with. Everyone acts and fights differently, which requires different courses of action on my part." He said, turning back to me.
"Oh… So then, I'm… just another person…? I'm not anything… special, or different to you?" I asked, looking to the ground, asking that question clearly without even thinking of what I'd just actually asked.
"Special or different? Am I supposed to?" He asked, yet again raising an eyebrow at me.
I hesitated before answering him again, realizing what I said after he'd repeated my words.
"Um… Well… like, you know, am I… just an acquaintance, or am I like… a friend? Or close friend or something?" I asked quickly, aside from the brief pausing between words as I tried to back up the meaning behind the words that even I wasn't sure of. And for some reason, my heart started pounding again…
"I'd have to settle for acquaintance for now, like with everyone else. It's true that I've traveled with you more often than anyone else, but I don't do so out of any sort of affection. We usually just meet through random occurrences. I don't usually seek you out, like I did this time." He answered, walking back over to me.
"O-Oh… Okay… I guess that kind of makes sense…" I nodded stupidly.
"Kind of?" He almost laughed. "It does make sense."
"Uh… Um… Yeah, of course." I nodded more normally this time, although simply receiving a sigh from Richter, followed by a just as simple, "Let's go now."
I nodded again, and we turned to leave, but before getting out, Decus had rushed in and breathlessly exclaimed, "Oh, thank goodness! You… found it for me! And you even brought… my biggest fan along…! Well then, I'll… meet you outside of this cave!" He nodded quickly and rushed back in the direction he'd arrived in.
Richter sighed again and began walking, but I hadn't even noticed at the time, being too busy wondering what exactly he'd meant by "For now" and "Usually". Was he really going to befriend me if we traveled together more or something? And by "Usually", did he mean he only looked for me under certain occasions? If so, what were those occasions?
Richter snapped me back out of my thoughts when he called over to me, saying, "Emil, let's go! What are you just standing there for?!"
"I-I'm sorry! We can leave now!" I again nodded quickly, running to him to catch up, then walking at a normal pace beside him.
I was surprised when he didn't say anything about me walking right next to him, which brought up yet another question in my mind: Did he really not mind me walking beside him? I mean, didn't walking side-by-side practically mean we were equals, or friends…?
-
A/N: Please excuse Emil's bi-polar-ish moment there. Please mind that later in the story, as well as any other bi-polar-ish moments he may have later on. :3
