22 Hozora Kingdom (10)
The person wore a white shirt and black pants, with a katana sword that he carefully sheathed. But he looked different than the others; he had a foreign look.
Black hair and brown eyes He looked like a person from East Asia. There was a small frown on his face.
"How were you so fast?" The purple monster asked in shock.
"Shut the f*ck up and die." The man said as another blue flash appeared.
The purple monster was cut into multiple pieces.
At the same time, a giant horn sounded out loud. It echoed through the whole kingdom; it was like one of those horns the vikings would use.
And as I stared at the distance, I could see multiple people on giant eagles fly out to the north, east, and west.
"The reinforcements are here!". The woman yelled out loudly in excitement.
I looked at the person with the katana,
'But who was he?'.
He killed that SS-rank monster as if it were nothing.
Well, it doesn't matter now. Since reinforcements have arrived, I should see if the others need my help.
I traveled through the kingdom by jumping from building to building.
I couldn't help but notice the efforts of the members of the Flaming Star. They were spread out in the kingdom, rushing to help injured people or collecting dead bodies.
As I jumped from building to building, I noticed the quality of the houses decline. Decaying rooftops and broken windows.
It looked like those houses would crumble at any time because of their low quality or the passage of time.
Even the streets, which were made of cobblestone, were worn out and uneven. I was on the outskirts of the kingdom, and I moved deeper, trying to see if anybody needed any help.
I heard someone cry, but it was faint.
Without hesitation, I tried to find the source of the crying, which led me to an old, worn-out house.
The door hung loosely from its hinges, and the windows had a lot of cracks.
I opened the door gently, and what I saw next left me stunned.
There was a giant hole in the ceiling, which made the gray clouds visible. And in the middle of the room was a giant meteor.
Dust and debris surrounded it, and next to it was a kid hugging his knees.
Faint sounds of sobbing could be heard from the child, and there was a little bit of blood on his clothes. It was as if someone had dropped paint on him.
When I looked closer at the metoer, I saw blood surrounding it, and there was an adult hand sticking out.
F*ck.
'It killed someone'. Because I removed the barrier, it caused a lot of deaths.
I went to the crying kid. He looked like he was 8–9 years old with black hair.
I crouched down and patted his head.
'What are you even supposed to say in this situation?'
So I chose to be quiet and let him grieve.
I heard sounds of something creaking and breaking as I looked above. I noticed that the house was crumbling before my eyes because of the structural damage.
Before the house was about to collapse on me and the kid, I quickly cast a barrier that enveloped us and the giant rock.
The transparent barrier blocked the crumbling house, and the crying kid looked up.
Green eyes.
Just like the main character, he also had green eyes.
Unluckily, this kid's hair was black, so he wasn't the main character.
"That barrier". The kid stopped crying and said it with a tired voice.
"Were you the one who cast the barrier above the kingdom?". He asked.
My barrier was a little unique in the sense that it was transparent, but at the same time it had a faint color of red.
"Yes". I struggled a little to admit it.
Tears started to show up on the kids faces again.
"Why did you remove it?".
Why did I remove it?
I looked down on the ground in shame.
"Because I was a coward.".
There was one thing that I lied about.
The meteors never broke my barrier; rather, I was the one who removed it.
Because I was afraid.
If I had strengthened the barrier, the mental fatigue I would have gotten would have been painful. The area was simply too big to cover. The mana wasn't the issue; rather, my own brain couldn't keep up.
I had an almost bottomless well of mana, but that was at the cost of how much my own body could handle.
But I wouldn't have died.
I felt it when I enveloped the whole kingdom with my barrier. I had a slight headache at first, but when the meteor hit the barrier, I felt a sharp pain.
So I lied to myself that the barrier would break so I could stop feeling the pain.
But in reality, it wouldn't break as long as I kept up with the pain.
In short, I could have strengthened the barrier, but I didn't because I was a pathetic coward.
All the deaths that I saw in the city. There was only one person to blame, and that was me. That was the reason I felt so guilty, and it was also the reason I was feeling so horrible.
'Never would that happen again'.
It started to rain as I removed the barrier.
"What do you mean?" The kid asked with tears and small drops of rain showing up on his face, and at the same time, there was a cloudy look in his eyes.
But strangely, he didn't cry.
"Because of pain. I was scared of the pain." I said this while looking at the ground in shame again.
The kid with the same look in his eyes asked again,
"Why?".
'I guess he couldn't believe what I was saying'.
"Because of the pain that I would have felt. I removed the barrier.".
"Why?".
"I didn't want to feel the pain of holding the barrier up, so I removed it.".
"Why?".
"I have told you multiple times that because I was afraid of the pain, I removed the barrier.".
"Why?" He shouted.
I snapped, "What do you want me to say? Because I was a pathetic coward, is that what you want to hear?".
He looked down on the ground, and he clenched his fists.
"My parents died because you were a little afraid of pain?" He said it in a strained voice.
"That's right, your parents died because I was afraid of pain." I answered.
That was wrong. I shouldn't have said that.
In the end, he was still a kid. That was not the correct way to respond.
I calmed myself and reached out my hand to pat his head.
"Kid, I am sorry I didn't-"
"Don't touch me!"
Bang!
I felt a huge force knocking me back, and I crashed into multiple walls on the other side of the street.
