Sinful Pride - Volume 2

Keita’s strength left him when he heard these words. He felt betrayed and his head hanged down, hiding his face. It was true that he and Koba butted heads regularly, but he considered him a comrade. An irreplaceable ally. His words brought pain, unlike any other.

“Koba!” Nao shouted. It was rare to see him angry with Koba but he was more accepting at Keita’s “situation” than regular Humans.

Even Anne, though she was putting a cold front, had stopped asking questions and treat Keita with hostility. Lia on the other hand, seemed interested in other ways. She was fascinated by Keita’s magic power at the time he fought against Wrath and was pestering him with questions. Not about said magic power but about magic in general. Keita had gave up at some point and agreed to talk to her.

Lia’s goal was made apparent at that point. She wanted to learn Spells from Keita. Even though he was no Mage, someone with such a strong magic power was undoubtedly dabbled in the ways of magic one way or another. Unfortunately, Keita had no affinity towards the elements so he would make a poor Mage, back when he was a Demon. He did learn spells and studied the arts though. The Magic Bullet for instance, was a spell he tried to learn. It was an ancient Spell, invented by a Human Hero that apparently had next to zero affinity for the elements but unusually strong magic power. That Hero, invented all sorts of Spells that were mostly upgraded forms of existed one. Of course, that fact that Lia was able to show such results in just six months, showed her potential as a Mage was outstanding. Even now, many Mages studied the Magic Bullet all their lives, trying to figure out some hidden trick to it with nothing to show for. And such, Lia and Keita had a strange pupil and student relationship.

Reika’s, opinion on Keita’s Demon magic power looked to align with Nao’s. Only she never really talked about it. On the outside she seemed willing to accept Keita. But Keita knew that it was just a front. Not only did she figure out that Keita was once a Demon, she even knew which one. Pride, of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Demon, largely responsible for the dying out of her species, the Shape-sifters. Keita had no idea what she was thinking but she didn’t seem to pursue vengeance as her primary goal. His feelings for her were complicated to say the least. He was afraid that one day she might use her knowledge against him but she had shown no signs of doing so. On a certain way, he was thankful to Reika, not only for keeping his secret but for letting him be a part of the team. She was willing to speak out for Keita and in her own way, protect him. That’s what he thought but on a certain day, she had gotten drunk and revealed that the Orc’s leader that Keita fought against was a Demon. The ones who heard, mostly though of it as a joke but a rumor has spread…

That was why, Koba’s words wounded Keita deeper than any other. His attitude towards him has been “Well, if the others are fine with it, I won’t ask” but it looked like he had his own thoughts on the matter.

“Koba, I’m fine.” Reika said. She was smiling as always and had a cheerful voice. “It wasn’t yours or Keita’s fault so don’t worry. I should have sensed the gob coming since I can sense magic power sources too, so if anyone is to blame, it’s me. So don’t beat yourself too hard. And Keita, you too. You shouldn’t blame him.”

Koba opened his mouth to argue but no words came. He was feeling ashamed.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.” he said, looking straight at Keita. “I was angry at myself and took it out on you…”

“No, I’m the same. Sorry.” Keita responded. “Just to be clear though, I still think you should lose the hammer.” he smiled.

“Shut up.” Koba said and smiled back.

Keita turned and sat besides Reika. Nao was looking anxiously next to her, as if he didn’t know what to do.

“How are you feeling? Can you walk?” he asked.

“I should be fine. I will try not to slow you down.” she responded.

“Alright.” Keita said satisfactory while getting up. “Should we head back to Atestari for our reward?” he asked the party.

The others looked at him with a blank expression. As if they thought they heard incorrectly.

“He is a Demon.” Lia said.

“He is.” Nao agreed, nodding his head.

“Demon!” Reika yelled in a playful voice while pointing at Keita.

“What…?” Keita wanted to ask. Did he do something wrong?

Reika raised to her feet and stomped the ground, puffing her cheeks.

“How long have we been after these gobs?” she asked. The way she said goblins has quickly became they way the whole party referred to them. “Two weeks!” she continued. “We’ve been after these gobs that escaped the nest for two weeks! Do you even know how far from Atestari we are? We passed three different countries to get here! And now I am injured! I want to sleep on a bed! And you boys need to take a bath! You stink!” she complained.

It has been a little more than two weeks since they started this quest. It was supposed to be a simple extermination of a goblin nest but they ended up leaving some of them escape. It was their job to hunt them down of course but the goblins were surprisingly fast. They sought to escape into another goblin nest but the party messed up again and some escaped. They ended up raiding three goblin caves before finally hunting down the last strays.

“You stink just as much…” Koba retorted.

“What did you say?!” Reika walked towards him. She was surprisingly energetic… “Girls don’t stink!” she said pointing her finger to Koba’s face.

“Ok, my bad, seriously, forget I said anything.” Koba said immediately. Reika was right in front of his face. Too close to be honest.

“Ok, then it’s decided. We’ll start looking for a city. Bring out the map!” she said. She was acting like the leader.

“Can we maybe not go to a city? Let’s find a village. We can ask someone to take us in for a night or two.” Nao was surprisingly against he idea.

“Why not a city?” Anne asked. “I also want to sleep in an inn and take a long bath. Besides, we need to look for a blacksmith for maintenance and other things, right?” she brought a good point.

Keita was considering the options while looking at the map, Lia next to him.

“There is a city nearby.” he said. “I don’t see any villages. Is something wrong, Nao?”

It was uncharacteristic from Nao to complain about something like this.

“Well you know, if we go to a city people might recognize us… our team I mean…” he said, scratching his cheek with embarrassment.

“So? They might even give us better prices if they recognize us.” Keita said.

Nao looked at him. He was clearly a bit angry. Keita didn’t know what to say. He had no idea what went through Nao’s head.

“It’s your fault to begin with!” Nao said to Keita. “Little Rookies! What kind of name is that? It’s because of you! Look at us!”

It was true that Little Rookies was a stupid nickname considering Nao was over 200 centimeters and Koba close to 190. The girls were not short either, expect from Reika.

“How is it my fault?” Keita asked. It was a sore subject for him. That name. It wasn’t only his part as Pride talking. After all, Keita wasn’t really short. He was close to 175 centimeters, making regular. Problem was, when he stood next Koba and Nao he seemed tiny. “Isn’t it your fault for being freakishly big? That’s why everyone thinks I am short!” he complained.

“You just don’t get it.” Koba interjected and hugged Nao from the shoulder. “We tall guys have one thing going for us. It’s that we are tall! Looking down on people while we talk is the best thing about being big. Calling us Little Rookies is a travesty for all tall guys.” he said while pointing at himself with his thumb. Nao was just nodding besides him.

“How stupid.” Anne said. “It’s just a nickname.”

“Then it’s decided.” Reika choose to ignore them. “We are staying in a city. Alright, let’s go.” she said.

The two reluctant tall people looked as she started walking. Lia and Anne followed her, ignoring them. Keita looked at the map and his compass and followed soon after.