Bab 38: The decision

"*Siiigh*, Athis, I think we have to talk," Eden Said after a long sigh, before sitting on Athis' bed who still had his back turned.

"Yeah, we need to talk." He replied. "So, what do you plan to do tomorrow? Are you excited? Or stressed maybe?" Athis continued after turning toward Eden.

'Is he trying to avoid the topic? God, it's a bad omen then.' Eden thought while worrying internally.

"I don't know actually. I probably apprehend things a little bit? I mean, it's the first time that I will go there, it will be a new environment, and I don't know if I will meet good or bad people, or even if they have hidden agenda or not." Eden said while trying to bring what they were talking about toward what he wanted to know.

"I don't know where you grow up, or how you lived before coming here, but you don't have to worry though. Mankind isn't that bad, so you don't have to burden yourself with those types of thoughts." Athis replied with a gentle smile.

'Is he the one who's saying that? After undergoing what people did to him every day?' He thought while being even more worried.

"What about you? Do you feel scared? Or are you excited to meet new people?" Eden asks in return while sending back a beautiful smile.

"Hmm, I don't know actually. You know how I am with new people, and I'm afraid that they will go away once they will know how useless I am." He replied with a worried face.

"For god's sake, who said you were useless? I'm going to beat him to dea..." Eden was saying before seeing Athis' face.

His face was normal, at least for someone that didn't want to pay attention to what he felt. If someone truly cared for him like Eden, it would be easy to see how sad he was.

"Athis, what happened? Why does your face is that sad? Can you talk about it with me?" Eden asks in succession while approaching Athis a little bit more.

"Yeah? I'm really okay, why do you ask?"

"No your not, Athis. Why do you try to fool me so hard like this? I can tell that something is wrong. Did I do something wrong to upset you?"

"No, no, you got it all wrong. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why are you avoiding what we talked about the last time?" Eden asked with a firm voice. Unbeknownst to him that his eyes were glowing with a little tip of red.

Of course, Athis saw his eyes, and while he find it pretty, it also sent down shivers through his spine. It was like something was urging him to tell Eden the truce.

A truce that he didn't want to say.

While Eden's eyes were glowing just for a millisecond, the following silence was way longer. Both of them were waiting for the other to say something. But at the same time, they didn't want to say more.

While Eden was waiting for Athis to tell him what he wanted to know, Athis was waiting for the shiver to go away.

It was beginning to tire him out. Not physically, but mentally. So much that even his back was sweating.

After a few more moments, Eden decided to say something. It was quite sad, but he couldn't force Athis to answer.

"*Sigh*, so be it then. I won't force you to answer me, but at least hear me out." He said with a sad face. "At the beginning, I wasn't going to be friends with anyone in this world. I live some things that just crushed my hope in mankind, but as you said, not everyone is bad.

"I wanted to be friends with you. The memories that we did during our last outing were amazing, and I couldn't ask for more. You're an amazing guy, Athis. I'm sure that you could have a lot of friends, and when I say friends, I mean true friends, not just acquaintances. You just need to be a little bit more confident in yourself.

"Unfortunately, even though I still want to be your friend or even your best friend, there's no relationship that can exist when it's just one way. And before you say something, I know that you too, want to stay like this, but it will be hard if you don't give me an answer.

"And, Athis, I don't find you useless at all. I know that people can't go hand to hand, or even kill someone just like this, but I never ask you for any of this. I just wanted to be friends with you. I wanted to level up with you, laugh, or even cry, but well... it can't be helped.

"And one last thing, if you want to fight, then don't forget that a summoner doesn't need to go hand to hand. Your summons can do the job for you. You, you just need to analyze the enemy's pattern, and react accordingly, by giving a buff to a summon for example or even calling back one of them to send another one more appropriate for the fight.

"You don't have to be sad for what happened back then. I know that you could have done something, but I don't think that any of your summon will have been enough to defeat even one of these guys."

"Anyway," He said while standing up. "I'm going for a walk, and I will probably come late at night, so you don't have to wait for me." He said while heading toward the door with a caring smile.

After Eden had taken the door, Athis was alone in the room. Once again, he felt like his room was way bigger than what it was, and unbeknownst to him, tears were flowing down from his eyes.

What Eden had said had touched him more than what he was prepared for, and his resolution for breaking their friendship had once again crumbled.

During this week, he had changed his decision as often as a kid who wanted a specific flavor for his ice cream.

He had gone from staying friend and continuing their lives, to disappearing totally from Eden's life.

And yet, here he was, alone in his room, not knowing what to do. Tears were continuously flowing, and he didn't know what to do anymore.

Meanwhile, Eden was heading toward the garden. Taking a walk during the night with beautiful flowers everywhere was calming his mind more than he could've imagined.

Once there, he walked for an hour or so, before deciding to go toward a hill that was a little further away from the garden.

There, there was a giant cherry blossom tree, with petals that were flowing everywhere. The moon shone brightly, and it was reflecting on the cherry blossom. The scene was amazing, and only someone with night vision could appreciate such a moment.

"Did I do wrong by saying all of these to him?" He asked himself after seating down under the tree. "I know that it's hard to tell him these things, but he needs to be a little more decisive.

"… But was it necessary to say things like that? I could've just let him go without saying anything." His thoughts were conflictual, but he couldn't do anything about that.

Some would've said that what he had done was a good thing, but not for him. Not now at least.

He liked Athis like he was his little brother. He needed to make sure that he would grow up in a good environment, but it was all too late.

He had come in his life too late, and a day of good memories couldn't possibly replace years of bad ones, right?

"Haigh, I don't know what to do..." He said while leaning back on the tree.

"You should just let things flow normally" A voice suddenly said from behind the tree.

"Who's there?" Eden asked while creating his clones and waving multiple spells.

"I mean no harm, young one." The man said while coming from the back of the tree. "I'm just like you, I go out to take a little stroll, and for your information, I was there since the beginning" He continued while crossing his arms behind his back.

The man was quite old, in his late sixties maybe. Despite his age, he had a handsome face, blue eyes that shone under the moon, white long hair, and a beard that was blowing with the wind. He wore a grey wizard robe with gold shade on both sides of it. There was also a little wisp that was floating at his side, but the more prominent feature of the old man was his pointy ears.

"I see, hope you have a nice evening mister," Eden said before deactivating all of his spells and turning back.

"You don't have to go, young one. It will even be pleasant to talk with a vampire like you" The old man said with a benevolent smile.

"How do you know?" Eden asked before once again creating all spells he could imagine.