Earth’s Doom Starts with… Me?

Chapter 58: Let's grind! (6)

"Why do I have to tell you?" I asked while trying to sound as unbothered as possible.

"Hey hey, relax. Having scars is normal, okay? I just want to know how you got it because that doesn't look accidental." He raised both of his arms in a 'calm down' gesture.

"I--it was." My voice cracked a bit.

Silence fell upon us, and for a moment, we just stood there, staring into each other's eyes. My heartbeat grew faster as the seconds passed. Did he notice? Did he realize that...

"Haa..." He let out a sigh.

I flinched a little, but I was able to keep my face straight.

"Listen here, kid. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he lowered his hands, "I just want to assure you that having scars is not something to be embarrassed about, okay?"

I gulped and nodded slightly. I knew that. I knew that scars were not embarrassing at all. In fact, some scars were attractive, they weren't flaws, and some of them held stories that only the owner knew, just like mine.

"You're looking like a scared kitten right now," he chuckled and extended his arm towards me, "come. You don't need to be scared around me."

After taking a few deep breaths to calm me down, I finally took a few small steps forward and took his palm that was surprisingly smooth, unlike my calloused ones.

"Here. Wear this." He loosened the sash around his waist and draped it over my shoulder, covering my entire back. Fortunately, he had more than one sash, so his robe didn't come undone.

"...Thank you. And I'm sorry." I pulled the sash closer and looked down. I felt kinda bad for overreacting like that, but...

"Don't worry, kid. C'mon, let's go." He ruffled my wet hair a bit before immediately brushing it tidy again and walking away.

...But, I didn't want him to know that these scars were grim reminders for me that I've committed war crimes.

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We hurriedly went back into the forest, and he turned back into his snake form, since as he said, he 'no longer need to cook and take care of a kid', which was me. After sulking for a bit, we continued our grinding and hunted down some monsters just like how we did yesterday, but without quests.

This time, we went to a few monster camps and wiped them out one by one without having to use any baits.

'Stab!'

"That should do it for this camp." I withdrew my hand that I had just used to stab the worm monster, leaving a hole in its chest. It turned out that I could just make a knife shape out of my fire magic and use it on my arm, and bam! I was now Stabby McStab.

[Yup. Let's go to the next one.] Luke said as he wrapped himself around my shoulders.

"Let's!" I answered happily.

[Alright, follow my direction.] He pointed towards my right using his cute little tail.

"On it, captain!" I skipped towards that direction while humming, "oh yeah, big bro, you don't mind me treating monsters like free real estate?"

[Not really.] He shrugged.

"How so?"

[Why should I care just because I'm the same species? I like my life right now as it is.]

"Hmm. Well, alrighty. I guess that makes sense." I nodded.

[You're not going to lecture me?]

"Nah bro. That'd be hypocritical of me." I brushed it off and continued speeding towards the direction he pointed.

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For hours upon hours, we kept piling up monster carcasses on our way around the town's outskirts. We only rested when it was time for lunch and dinner. As the moon started to rise higher and the air around us grew colder and prickly, we started to look for a proper place to rest.

"This here should be good..." I glanced around as we stopped under a tree which was pretty hidden from outside. We weren't too far from the town, which was perfect since I would need to return tomorrow to be safe. It'd be bad if that eel and that senile geezer came back early and found us missing.

[Are we done for today?] Luke asked as he poked my cheek with his tail.

"Yeap. We need to wake up early tomorrow at dawn and sneak in, remember?" I said as I sat down under a tree and leaned back.

[Aww, and I was starting to enjoy our walk. But I guess relaxing in hotel rooms ain't bad, either.]

"Yeah, you're probably going to be able to relax, not me though." I sighed because I knew that I would start doing exercises and practice my psychokinesis over at Elena's room.

[Why are you so caught up in training, anyway? What's the hurry?] He asked.

"I want to smack a certain person's memory into existence, I guess," I shrugged while closing my eyes, "he's apparently crazy strong for some reason, and I might meet him in our next raid, so I can't waste any time."

[That's a wacky motivation, but I guess you do you.] He said as he curled his body onto my lap again.

"What's so wrong with wanting to live a normal, peaceful life with someone? Not my fault I'm not some comical villain whose life purpose is to dominate or destroy the world for no reason." I sighed.

[Nothing's wrong with that. It's just that most humans I've met usually harbor grand desires like wiping out all monsters, saving a nation, become a king, saving someone, or something.]

"Living peacefully with someone is pretty grand for me."

[Haa... I can't tell if you just had a messed up life or a messed up definition of 'peaceful',] he sighed, [but I'll support you, kid.]

"Thank you." I patted his head lightly until he closed his eyes and dozed off.

I let out a long, deep sigh. Conquering the world or becoming the strongest somehow never really appealed much to me. What would I even do after that? What was the point of being at the peak of everything?

Not to mention the fact that there will be a need of a whole lot of unnecessary bloodshed if you wanted to stand on top. Well, not that I mind spilling some blood for my goal, though. But at least I wanted it to be a sensible bloodshed.

Anyway, now that he was asleep, it was time for me to check my stats and sell my loots~ Gold, here I come!