Chapter 15: Snarky

"...." What? He wants to ask for forgiveness?

'Seriously? The one that started the whole meltdown wants to apologize? And by themselves, at that? You don't see that on TV.'

Although completely blindsided, Moonshine quickly answered. "U-um... You want to... apologize?" Well, she tried her best to answer, anyways.

"Yes, I do. Now, may I began?"

"Wow. You're actually being well-mannered as well?" She couldn't help but snarkily say that.

That caused him to blink suddenly. "Y-yeah, I'm sorry for that too."

'I have all the power now, don't I?' s slight, but devilish smile started to grow on Moonshine's face. "Alright then: I suppose you can tell me your apology." Godspeed shuffled his feet a bit, obviously not used to these circumstances. "Mm. I'll begin." And so he did.

Kind of. "How did it start again?" he muttered to himself. "'Moonshine, I wanted to apolo--', no. Not that one. 'Moonshine, I want to say sorry---,' nah. 'Moon, I want to ask for forgiveness--' Yeah, I like that one."

Finally choosing his first sentence of the essay, his monotone voice began to spell. "Moonshine, I want to ask for forgiveness for my previous actions. I understand that what I did was out of line, and----"

"Hold up right there." Maybe the muttering wasn't so subtle. "Are you really reciting an apology letter from your mind?"

"Uh, I mean... not completely." Smooth. So smooth.

"Okay: I'm done here." With that she quickly began to walk away. "W-wait!" called Godspeed, chasing after her. "I actually do want to apologize!"

Then talk normally!" Moon finally stated what bugged her. "A speech like that isn't heart-felt!"

"What are you, a girl?" A shot from out of the blue, turned the Shine from the Moon cold.

'Shit. I'm getting too emotional over this.' She tried to fix her high-pitched sounding voice. "N-nooo. I'm just saying that something formal such as that won't sound natural from a guy that feasts with his hands during dinner."

"O-oh. Well, I'm just not used to this, ok---"

"I can tell." Snarky.

"---I-I usually just write something out and hope it's good enough, ok?" he exasperatedly said. But Moon wasn't going to let him go like that. 'No siirree~'

"Well, it's not good enough," she replied, crossing her arms. "First off: The apology has to be natural; you can't just be monotone. I can tell if it is natural if you're constantly fidgeting or feel uncomfortable."

"...Weirdo."

"____________"

"... Sorry."

"See? Now THAT was natural. And THAT is what I want. You just have to admit that you were wrong, understand it, and say you are sorry," she explained.

"... Mm. Alright, I'll try."

*Cough* "Moonshine.... Iiiiii~~~ wanna say I'm sorry."

"And what are you sorry about?" she interjected, enjoying the moment.

"I am sorry about... uhmm, I'm sorry about lashing out--"

"Even though it was your fault." She was giving him no break.

"--E-even though it was my fault. I want to say sorry about acting so rude and apathetic---"

"Especially at the dinner table."

"Tch." He clicked his tongue.

"Hmmmm? Wha~t was that? Was that you saying that you didn't want to reconcile, making me want to walk away from here? Hmmm?"

"N-no?"

"Hmmmm... Then it must have been you talking about your behavior when you eat."

'Damn. He acts just like a mother.'

________________________________________________________________________________________

Bowing down, Godspeed tried to put in as much sincerity into his final words as possible. "ONCE AGAIN----I am really sorry!!!"

'Please accept!!! I don't know how much more of this public humiliation I can take!' While following Moon's words, he could see the people around him staring at the two, as if a servant was asking for forgiveness from their sadist master. It was extremely degrading.

"Hmm~~" Moon's voice trilled. 'Come oooo~n!'

"Alright."She finally gave him the thumbs up. "I accept."

'Hallelujah!' Finally being able to straighten up his back, he looked at the sky, tears filling his eyes. In truth, it was very uncomfortable for him to stay bowing down like that for more than ten minutes. But to those watching, it looked like a kid just escaped a whooping from their father.

With the apologizing/groveling over, Moon began to talk again. "Well, I'll see you another time. I wasn't joking earlier when I said I had to go hunt."

"W-wha? Wait, didn't I tell you that I would take you to the guy at the Local Guild?"

"Already went," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh..." God deflated immediately. 'Wow... The first person that I've given a chance to in who knows long... and they've already gone off without me,' our dear God thought somberly. "So, what did he say?"

"That there's no point."

"!?"

"Yes: Apparently I am too high leveled to make any process or something along those lines. It's fine though. I guess I'll just go about becoming stronger the old-fashioned way..." She finished, her words at the end getting quieter and quieter.

"Hmm..."

And then...

"Light-bulb!" God exclaimed.

"Wha?"

"I can train you in his place!" he offered his solution, feeling useful.

"Huuuh? Players can do that?" She asked, completely taken back.

"Only if you are a early player, can your stats increase with just basic body tempering. And even then, there are limits.... but you do fit the criteria, seeing as a beginner is someone who still has the starting class 'Warrior.' So what do you say, Moon? Want to go on a Hermit's adventure to increase your power level?"

".... A hermit? Why are you talking about crabs? And what's a power level?"

Somewhere, in that sandy, mediocre town, you could here the sound of a man's heart being torn to threads, realizing that his 'male' friend didn't read manga.

'Da~mn Japanese!!!'