They both stayed in that position for a long time. For the first time in a while, Acht felt peace. All of his life, he had to face all kinds of hardships and suffer from all kinds of painful experiences. But, at this exact moment, he felt as if all of that was nothing...As if that was really nothing but a bad dream that he finally woke up from.
But, he wasn't some kind of delusional maniac. He knew very well that this peaceful time was nothing but an illusion. It was painful for him to be aware of that but he was also somehow satisfied since he was able to face one of his eternal fears.
'I should leave now. it's already been too much to stay here. I might even start entertaining the thought of living here forever.' He chuckled at his own thoughts before releasing himself from Dia's grip and wiping the tears from his face.
"Are you fine now?"
"Yeah, I feel a lot better because of you. Thanks, old hag!" He smiled at her.
"Ohoh! You little shit! I told you millions of times to stop calling me old hag! I'm 16!" She shouted loudly.
Acht laughed at her all-too-familiar of a reaction and then took a long look at her face.
She saw that change of expression and stood silent for a moment.
"Are you going to leave?" She asked.
"...Yes, I have to. I already stayed here longer than I expected." He answered as he shook his head.
"I see…" Her expression immediately turned to that of a sad person. She seemed to understand the situation so she didn't say anything else.
"Anyway…I'm going to leave now...But, don't worry…We will meet again for sure…I promise you that…"
"...keep your word, ok?"
"You know that I always keep my words, right?" He waved his hand up and down as if he was dismissing her words.
"Yeah, I was just making sure…"
Then, with a small hesitation, Acht turned around and walked inside the room again. He wanted to take a second look at her but he shook his head as he knew that if he looked at her again he would lose his resolve.
Then, he sat down on the chair and tried to fall asleep again. It seemed to be the trigger for his transportation from that world to the normal world so he tried it.
A few moments later, he felt his eyelids lose their strength and his body relaxed completely. Then, without any sounds, he fell asleep.
Through his closing eyes, he saw something that he almost didn't believe. It was just a mere fraction of a second that made him question his eyes. Dia, who had been looking at him with a regretful expression, smiled widely. Almost, too widely.
'Was it my imagination?'
But, since his mind wasn't fully working, that scene disappeared from his memory the next second.
When he opened his eyes again, the first thing that welcomed him was the familiar ceiling of the dungeon and the eerie sound of the inner walls of this giant cave invaded his ears. He took a good moment to make sense of his state and then he helped himself up.
Tania was also sitting near him just like the previous time. Even though he had experienced this before, she was still extremely worried about him so she didn't care about personal space and lunged at him like a small predator.
Acht almost fell down again because of her sudden jump but he supported their weight with his right hand.
Tania buried her face in his chest and then asked.
"Bad dream?"
Acht didn't answer immediately but took his time to remember what happened carefully.
"No…it wasn't that bad after all."
But, there was something that kept bugging his mind. The fact that this illusion was created by the goddess is a given and she even admitted to it. So, he didn't know why she made him confess to Dia even though it ended up being a good thing to do.
'Didn't she want to make me her own plaything? This all seems to be extremely weird. What's her goal?'
All kinds of questions popped up in his head like a bad advertisement on a shady website. But, he had no clear answer to any of it. In fact, the more he asked himself the more confused he became.
But, even if he had answers to these questions, he didn't have any way to prevent Livia from doing whatever she wanted…not for now at least.
"Tania…could you please release me from your grip?" He asked the cute girl that was hugging him like a squid.
But, the small girl refused to budge or release him.
'What should I do with her?' He sighed inwardly and sat down for a moment until she would release him.
He took a look at the monster and it seemed that Tania had already extracted the soul stone out of its body.
"How long did I stay unconscious for?"
"I…don't know." She said.
Then, after almost 5 minutes of just pure hugging, she retreated slightly and released him.
"Are you good now?"
She nodded in response with her face more relaxed now.
"Good, because we need to leave this place now. The smell is disgusting here."
Then, both of them stood up and walked out of the boss room. Outside, they found Leon laying down in the corner snoring like a panda. A trail of saliva traced his chin all the way to his neck and his mouth was open wide like a Hippo. He seemed to have fallen asleep after waiting for a long time.
Acht walked to him and kicked him roughly. The boy was sent flying before landing head first on the ground.
"Aww!!!" He screamed in pain as he scratched his nose.
"What was that for?!" He shouted with an annoyed tone.
"Your snoring makes me want to kill you…Do you want me to kill you?" Acht asked with a cold tone.
"N-No! I-I apologize, sir!"
"Good! Get your ass up…We are gonna leave!" He ordered him before walking ahead with Tania by his side.
"It won't harm anyone if you were a little bit nicer." Leon could only mutter with puffy cheeks.
"What did you say?" Acht pretended he didn't hear him and asked in a threatening tone.
"Nothing!!!!" Leon jumped on his legs and ran after them like a small scared pet.
The trio walked all the way back to the entrance of the tunnel. They had already cleared it so the trip back was way shorter than before.
Acht checked the surroundings before they got out to see if the guards were still there or not. Turns out the area was extremely calm…almost too calm.
'Huh? What is this weird feeling?' Acht released his aura, even more, to check a bigger area yet he didn't find anything.
It was as if every existence in that vicinity vanished from existence. Even animals didn't seem to be walking around near the tunnel.
Tania and Leon were about to walk out but Acht stopped them with his hand and asked them to keep their mouths shut. Then, he closed his eyes and tried to sense any kind of abnormalities other than the lack of living beings around the place.
*Swish*
As he was doing so, he heard a small sound coming from a little farther away. The moment his ears caught that sound, all alarms in his body turned off and he insensitively moved to the side. His movement was enough for him to dodge an arrow flying at him.
But, because it was a sneak attack, the arrow scratched Acht's cheek and made a small cut on his face. A trail of blood found its way down his face.
Yet, even with this, he didn't panic and calmly spoke to his two companions.
"There are some people hiding in the bushes outside. I don't know how many but there seems to be quite a few of them."
Then, he immediately pulled one of the boulders outside with his gift and closed the hole to the dungeon.
Then, he pulled Leon roughly and started touching all of his body.
"W-What are-"
"Shut up." Acht silenced him and kept on searching his body nonstop.
Then, in the lower part of his stomach, he found a small black chip stuck to it.
He immediately knew that it was a tracking device.
"Dammit." He clicked his tongue and crushed the chip.
"They are tracking your position all this time? You fucking moron." Acht was displeased.
'Tch, I need to calm down. It's probably something he didn't know about. How are we going to deal with them now?'
There was also one other thing that bugged his mind. It was the fact that he couldn't sense their presence even though they were in the range of his soul aura.
(Note: I'm searching for a good proofreader who could help me out with chapters. If any one of you could volunteer and have confidence in his English skill then answer this comment. It's for free though so sorry :) )
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