The true objective

We were reading one of the easiest obelisks we found, behind a cascade.

“Made my journey be blessed along with my friends, even when I’m gone they have been the best team in my entire life, I make sure to have them in my heart as they are now my family”

“That was short, but this person is making me a bit sentimental, I will not lie”

For a moment, that was the only thing I could hear, along with the sound of the water falling down, deep in me, I was feeling terrible, and in my mind was an immense silence, until I broke it.

“Guys…”

“What is it?”

“What happened, Ryu?”

“Is something wrong?”

The eyes of everyone looking at me, their smiles, their expectations were like poison to my mind, and a treason to my heart, words were not coming out of my mouth and it felt like an eternity just passed as I was trying to say something, I close my hands and move my head from left to right.

“I thought I look at something, sorry”

I am such a coward…

“Well, it is really dark in here, if it wasn’t for the daylight, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking there is a monster in here, besides it feels really easy to this point after the caves we have explored, almost feels like we didn’t even reach the real obelisk”

Don’t take my word, Alex…

“Yeah, let’s get out of here, this place is making me feel something after you said that”

Beatrice, don’t trust me…

While Beatrice and Alexander left, I couldn’t see Elizabeth, but she whispered to me.

“It is not the moment for you, then is alright…”

I jumped and I looked at Elizabeth, she petted my head and I was left alone in the little cave behind the cascade, I smiled but I punched my tights as I looked down on the floor and whispered.

“Don’t be so kind to me, Elizabeth…”

I left the cave and jumped through the cascade and landed on a stone, but I tripped and fell in the river. Elizabeth went to help me and I stood up with her help.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah… yeah, don’t worry…”

“If that is making you that uncomfortable, why don’t you just say it? I already told you, at least I will be by your side no matter what it is…”

I looked Elizabeth in the eyes and I held her check, she rubbed herself against it and look at me.

“You are so bright, Elizabeth Roselia, you are the brightness star in the dark sky, and my dazzling sun in the day, you are always so confident and your words always resonate in me”

“Ryu… what are you saying so suddenly…”

“I’ll tell you; I will tell you and to Alex and to Beatrice…”

Elizabeth was getting flustered, I walked with her out of the water and we reunited with the other two, I told them to make a campfire and when the sun was setting down I was looking at the fire.

“I…”

I bit my lip and Elizabeth took my hand, at that moment I closed my eyes and moved my hand from her, slowly.

“Listen to me guys, the truth is… I am not from this world…”

Everything was silent, and then I heard one of the stupidest things I could hear after I said that, or maybe one of the brilliant ones, Alexander moving his head and pointing at me.

“Are you some sort of extraterrestrial being?”

“Huh?”

Both Elizabeth and Beatrice looked at me and started to pitch my skin.

“Stop that”

I started laughing, alone, the other three were confusing, but that was the funny part, sometimes I forget that I am indeed in an era or world that is not even close to my reality, I just could laugh until tears came out of my eyes, I rub my eyes and then I move my head from left to right.

“Not at all… there is a reason why I am telling you this and how I do know about the real objective, the messages we have found in the obelisk made me think about it a lot, look at this”

I took out a piece of paper with my home language, the one that Akari handed me over.

“This is my home language; this language is not from this world but where I came from”

The three of them look at me confused, even Alex took out his helmet and look at me strangely, I look down as I didn’t want to look at their faces

“Elizabeth, remember the state you found me in? The clothes that I was wearing, I know you saw them, didn’t you feel strange about them? Maybe you thought that it was from a weird part of the country that wore that type of clothes, but, when did you see someone wearing that?”

“I…”

“Alexander, the way I reacted when I heard that you knew people that had names that were similar to mine, wasn't it strange for you? I mean, what kind of guy reacts that way for a simple name?”

“…”

Alexander didn’t have anything to say, neither did Elizabeth, they were trying to process what they were hearing.

“Finally, the real thing we are looking for is not a location, is a teleport, a teleport to my world”

At that moment Elizabeth took me and she had problems talking.

“I told you it wasn't a simple thing to say… if you hate me for finding that, I understand… I’ll be greedy to say it, but I do need your help to do it”

“It is not…”

“Huh?”

The voice from Elizabeth was cracking down a bit.

“It is not that!”

Elizabeth looked at me with tears in her eyes, I couldn’t react

“Do you hate us? Is this an excuse for leaving us? W-What did I do wrong? Ryu… are you planning to leave?”

“Are you serious, Ryu? You have been an excellent leader and… I don’t want you to leave either… but if that is what you want… I won’t stop you…”

“Alex…”

“ALEX SHUT UP!”

Elizabeth shouted, honestly it made me a bit scared.

“Liz…”

“I know… if you want to leave is your decision, but… I don’t want you to leave… if you leave… that is okay… but… but… I cannot fool myself that hard, Ryu. I love you… I don’t want you to leave my side…”

I bite my lip and hug Elizabeth as I stroke her hair.

“This is shocking, but I must respect your decision, if you go, I’ll be glad that I met a person that made me form part of his adventure”

“Guys…”

For some reason, I was hurt too, I hugged Elizabeth tightly as I said with my voice trembling.

“Why are you guys like this? It was going to be way easier if you just went away… if we were just indifferent…”

After everyone calmed down a bit, I was holding Elizabeth in my arms as the other two were on my left and right, looking at the fire.

“I haven’t decided if I will go or stay here, honestly, I still have some things left in my world, honestly… I want to come back just to see how my parents are doing, other than that… I feel so alive here, in my world I was no one, and I had none other than my parents but here… I have you guys, I am having an adventure and everything feels really nice… I don’t think I could live in my world again but that is where I belong…”

“I think you belong in here more than in your world”

“You just want me to stay over, Liz…”

Elizabeth nodded and smiled at me.

“A portal to a new world, well it is easy to know it instead of letting us guess about it”

“Sorry about that, Alex… the truth is that I am not searching this for myself, Akari exist, he just wanted to talk to me privately since we are from the same world”

“Why didn’t he search for it himself?”

“He said that it wanted someone else to do it, because he was not much of a fighter himself”

“I am going to punch that guy in the face before he returns to his world”

“Beatrice…”

I laugh and I kept looking at the fire but this time I look around, looking at the smile with confidence of Alex, the playful and dreadful look of Beatrice and the joyful look of Elizabeth, looking at me while I was hugging her, I couldn’t apart my look from her and she look at me in the eyes.

“If you are going to do something, tell us and we can leave”

“Yeah, I don’t want to be around for this”

Both of us were red as a tomato and laughed, all of us laughed, until the fire made its last spark