For I Am A Side Character - 106: The Day continues on, as well as the Storm.

I’ve experienced hell…

I’ve faced against an immovable demon…

A man who wears the armor of a dragon who was covered in ash and blood…

Yes, I know fear…yes, I know cowardice…

My will and my mind, they know what it means to truly fear…

What I felt that night…the night when I let out my anger towards the angels…

That was simply me being afraid…

The concept of fear can’t be removed from the body and mind…but it can be embraced…and I’ve embraced fear for all my time.

So even as I stood strong and spirited against any form of danger, I still feel fear. I fear for my death…I fear for my life…

As a man who encounters the dangers that could one day take his life, there’s not a day goes by that I do not fear for my life…

Although I can embrace it and face it head on, I can never truly erase the feeling of fear.

…simply put, the anger I let out on Gypsy and Adifer were nothing but my ramblings of a man with a soul. For each mission I come upon after the other, I always fear for my life…and for each day that I get to spend my time with the woman who I love, my fear only goes deeper.

But I must stand strong.

“…”

“What’s wrong?” asked Jessica as she noticed me staring at my morning coffee.

With her wearing a rather cute apron on, she was in the kitchen preparing us our breakfast for the morning.

“…Nothing, I’m just worried if class would continue even on this day.” I said as I stared at the window. The sight of a slightly heavy and and rough rain still continued to pour down.

“Hmm, I don’t know…but the academy didn’t announced anything new. Also I already called up my car to pick us up and take us to the academy. Any minute now, they should be arriving.” she said happily as she acted like a newly wed wife. Seeing as how playful she was with cooking breakfast, these were the kind of moments where it made my heart calm itself instead of fear.

And seeing how chipper she was today, I think her good mood was only applied because of the great time we had yesterday…

“Hmm, seeing this kind of weather, I just hope it dies down soon.” I said.

“I hope so too.” she said as she flips a pancake into the air and catches it with a plate.

“Here you go~” she said as she placed a stack of pancakes in front of me.

“Oh, they look good.” I said in appreciation.

“Be careful, its still hot, so you might burn your tongue if you bite in early.” she said.

“Hmm…don’t worry, my body can easily handle something this hot.” as I said this, I took a whole flat piece of pancake and I bite into it without hesitation.

“…Well?” waiting for my reaction, she smirked at the scene of me just smiling with a mouth full of hot pancakes.

“…Hmmm~~ its good.” I said.

“Hmm, you really are an idiot.” she said as she smiled from ear to ear. She knew for a fact that I burned my mouth the moment I swallowed that pancake whole.

And to her cute compliment, she pats me in the head and starts to remove her apron.

“…Hm- ow.” in the end, I felt my tongue burn, but I couldn’t show it in front of her.

“Come on, lets get ready, the car is going to arrive soon.” she said as she puts on her uniform.

As I ate and cleaned the dishes, I quickly put on my uniform and after, the car finally arrived in front of our house.

“Looks like the car just stopped in front of the house, lets go.” she said as she stood by the door.

And being in hurry, as we opened the door, it still rained at a moderately heavy level.

“Okay, lets go then.” I said, and we ran to the car.

When we did get inside, I noticed that a few drops of rain were on her hair, so I pulled my handkerchief and I started drying her off little by little.

“The rain is still pouring hard, what did the news say about the weather today?” I asked.

“They say that the heavy rains would die down soon.” said a voice up front in the car. And to this voice, I recognized that it was from Jessica’s father.

“Dad?!”

“Yo!” he said as he happily greeted us on the driver’s seat.

It looks like he was the one who was driving the car here to pick us up.

“…W-what are you doing?” she asked.

“Oh, I just decided to come and pick up my baby girl…and her friend.” he said as he turned to me with a rather odd smile put on.

“He’s my boyfriend dad…didn’t you already accepted him into the family?” she asked.

“Ah yes….hahahaha” he laughed…creepily so.

“So, what made you come all the way here Mr. Oliver?” I asked formally.

“Oh, its just been a while since I saw you two. I missed you guys, that’s all.” he said as he started driving to the school.

“We didn’t get to celebrate after your achievement with the first event of the academy, it was a shame.” he said as he pointed out to our victory yesterday.

“Oh, um…dad, actually my friends and I decided that we would stop by at a karaoke place after school to celebrate.” she said.

“Oh…I see.” hearing Jessica’s explanation, I could hear a slight oozing tone of jealousy from her father’s words.

And yes, this was true. We would have celebrated this yesterday, but because of the storm, we had to move our celebration to today.

“So dad, anything happening in the house lately?” she asked.

“Oh, nothing much…but in regards to the guild, I’m happy to say that we finally were able to take ownership of a dungeon that has newly been discovered. And judging by the evaluation from the hunter association, it has a high resource value.” he said.

“Really? That’s amazing! We can finally take part in raiding a dungeon with a high resource value.” she said excitingly.

“Hmm, don’t be too excited. It took a lot of our family’s funds to take ownership of this dungeon, and judging by the rank it was placed on, I want to test your skills before you move into to conquer it.”

“Really? And what rank is this dungeon?” I asked.

“A B-ranked dungeon.” he said calmly as as he looked ahead on the road.

“!?” Jessica was a bit taken aback by how high-leveled this dungeon was.

“I’ll send you both the information later, so be prepared and come by the house when you have the time. We’ll make a strategy on how we’ll approach this dungeon together.” he said.

“Okay, we will come by.” she said.

***

As we arrived at the academy, we said ou goodbyes to Jessica’s father and made our way to the academy.

As walked in the halls, I could see a glint of anticipation in her eyes.

“Are you nervous about the dungeon?” I asked.

“…I am. The last time I fought against a B-ranked monster, I couldn’t last as long.” she said.

“Well, considering that the first B-ranked monster you fought was a Grizzled General Orc, if I were to evaluate your growth from the past and today, you might have a chance at winning against the orc. You got enough of the experience to go on head to head with that monster. And if you use the daggers you got from the drake in the C-ranked dungeon, I’m sure your chances of success will only increase.” I said as I tried to encourage her.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Of course I am, I’m not trying to make light of an evaluation about your skill, especially if its things like these.” I said.

“Okay…thanks.” she said as she looked more calm than before.

Now as we made our way to our classroom, all of a sudden, from the distance, I noticed that a familiar face was walking in the same hall as we did… She wore her natural disguise of a simple attired student and to her walking in the halls, she came and stop before us with a rather cold Gaze. In reaction, we too stopped to wonder why she approached us.

“…Tyen.” I said as I called out to her name.

“Do you know her Soril?” asked Jessica as she was a bit taken aback by how I know the student in front of me.

“Yeah, she’s an acquaintance of mine.” I said.

“The principal has asked you to come into his office by lunchtime. Be sure not to be late for even a minute.” she said.

And after saying so, she simply continued walking on without acknowledging our presence anymore than she should.

“…She’s quite straightforward, isn’t she?” asked Jessica.

“Kind of…now come on, lets got to class.” I said.

“what did she meant by you going to the principal’s office? Did something happen?” she asked.

And as she asked such a question, all I could think to back then was the scene of the angel’s corpse…

“…I don’t know…but its probably nothing.” I said as I played it off.

“…Okay.”

Soon enough, we went on with our day in the class.

At first, when we entered the classroom, our classmates cheered for the victory we gained for getting second place in the first event.

Along with that, Sgt. O’riley came and looked to us with a proud gaze. It seems as though despite his rough personality, he was soft in moments like this…and soon enough, he went on with his teachings.

And so on, we moved forward with our other classes.

One of those classes was Professor Morrison’s class. And during his usual lecture, I would notice a few glimpses from him from time to time. It made me a bit nervous, but soon enough our class coming to an end.

For all the time I’ve spent going to his classes, I would have expected to learn a few magic skills by now…but during my time in his class, he has done nothing but create lectures after lectures. Sure they were interesting enough to catch my attention, but not a single one of his discussions lead me to learn a new skill. Not once.

Now, in this usual time when classes were about to end, I would have packed my things and went my way to the canteen, but before I could Professor Morisson announced something that caught my ears.

“Now then, since we are already crossing the second half of the semester, through all the time I’ve spent lecturing you all in the aspect of magic, its finally time we move on as simply taking in quizzes of thought and instead embrace the actual path of a mage.” as he said this, all of the students were quickly taken aback by his words.

“In our next class, I will conduct a test that would determine your potential to take on the path of a mage. Knowing your grades, some are mediocre to the lessons of magic, but others…they have the potential to become great mages. So be ready…if you pass, I will personally guide you to a path of magic so grand, you will leave the path of a sword behind.” he said.

And to his words, he stared at me directly…

“.…” it was as if he had intentions..intentions that made me cautious.

After that announcement, it was time for classes.

And while this would have been the time that me and the group would have gone together to the canteen, I had to excuse myself since the principal called for me.

“You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up later.” I said as I part ways with them.

Pacing myself to the principal’s office, it didn’t take long for me to arrive.

And as I knocked the door, I was greeted by the principal with his typical busy nature.

While working on his desk, Tyen came by with a set of tea placed on the table.

“Please, have a seat.” said Tyen-li.

And having to comply, I sat down and simply waited for the principal to initiate in the conversation first.

“…”

“How’s your body?” he asked.

“…Its fine.” I said.

“Knowing what you must have gone through, I expected that you would have been bed ridden for days…but it seems as though you’re ability to recover is remarkable to say the least. But its to be expected of God’s agent.” he said.

“…Why did you call me here.” I asked in a cold manner. Knowing that I revealed my identity to the house of shadows, I thought that I would have been more secured since I felt like I could trust the house, but for some reason I felt even more anxious than I usually would.

“To talk…and more specifically, to put some kind of pin to your identity.” he said.

“…I see, so you want to dig deeper into my identity…and knowing the Crow’s power, I’m sure you already had everything you can get about my family’s history.” I said.

“Here’s what we know about you, please add in any details if you think we’re missing something.” he said. And to him, came Tyen-lin who carried a piece of folder.

“…Soril Remus…born on December 25 2006, 16 years old…current civil status, in a relationship with Jessica Young. At a young age, both of your parents died out of natural causes and as for your sister, she died of cancer You were left with nothing but the house that your father was able to fully pay through. After your sister’s death, you decided to become a hunter due to financial reasons and you started off as a typical F-rank hunter, yet soon you gave up….but months later, as soon as your hunter’s card was expiring, you retook the hunter’s exam…and from then on, your rank started to rise faster than anyone else could imagine.” said Tyen.

“I can imagine that on before your parents and your sister passed away, your life was just like any other. You never considered being a hunter…you never considered doing any sort of dangerous work…but as tragedy fell one after the other, you soon turned to the life of a hunter. In that moment, am I right to assume that in that time, you were bestowed the title of God’s Agent.” said the principal.

“…”

“I’ll take your silence as a yes…” he said hesitantly as he watched for every move I took.

“…What did you do with the body of the angel?” I asked.

“Ah yes, the body…for now, its being kept safe in the 11^th branch, so you have nothing to worry about. Cecil and your master are watching guard over it as we speak.” said the principal.

“And the vault?…Chrome…what about him? Is he alright?” I asked.

“Chrome is currently under repair and the same goes for my vault…so for a few months, the library will be in lockdown.” said the principal.

“I see…I’m sorry about the vault…I didn’t expect that an angel would attack that day.” I said.

“…You didn’t expect for the angel to arrive?”

“Be that as it may, what does the house intend to do with me?” I asked.

“As of now, we’ve reported your identity to the main house. Your existence isn’t something we should play off as another sort of ‘target’. The fact is, you’re a member of the house of shadows…even your master has claimed to support you in your time of need…but I can’t say the same for the main house or the other branches…”

“…I see. I’m glad that my master still allows me to be his disciple.”

“You’ve taken the oath to serve the house, that in of itself is a vow that is hard to break. As long  as you remain loyal to the house, I’m sure that nothing drastic will fall upon you.” he said. Assuring me of my future.

“…Thank you.” I said sincerely.

Knowing that I was trusted by my master…it lightened my heart…

And the worries that I had carried…the identity that I had hidden, for it to be revealed and accepted…I can’t help but smile in relief.

“It must have been hard to be chosen by God at such a young age.”

“I don’t think it matters if God chose you at the age of fifty or twelve…simply put, once he chooses you, all forms of stress will fall on you like a damn storm.” I said.

“I see…you have it rough, boy.” he said sympathetically.