Doubts and decision

As if it had all been a nightmare, the 16-year-old had been through a lot, traumatizing events that left scars on his mind for the rest of his life, but for better or worse, it helped him to mature in a rush, having to face the harsh reality that this world imposes on those who live on its land.

Of course, it was a way of speaking, because, in the end, everything was the fault of the races that lived in conflict, and with that dragged everyone around to this conflict of interests and ethnicities.

For the young Satoru Seigi, he felt overwhelmed every moment since he came into this world against his will, it made his mind that now he shouldn't feel exhausted, enjoy hours of sleep for the sheer pleasure of not having to worry about things in your surroundings.

But nothing lasted forever, Satoru had to learn to face the world, and reality, despite what he wanted, forced his mind to wake up.

Opening his eyes, what he saw was a stone room, the bed was a flat piece of the same stone that made up the walls, the only window closed by a piece of wood, perhaps to keep the ashes from entering.

There were no things like furniture, it was pure simplicity, getting up he started to wonder where he could be, of course, he had a memory of the fight, after all, he was the one who asked for something to save Envy, perhaps he also saved Hilda.

The door in front of him was thin wood, Hilda seemed to have brought him here, though he wouldn't be surprised if she tried to keep him locked up, out of fear of what he might do.

It was natural, not even he was immune to being afraid of himself, whatever that thing was, it seemed well controlled which made it easier, but if she could really control her body as she saw fit, it would turn the table over to the side. fear of being forced to do what he didn't want to.

As much as his hands were already smeared with blood from the lives of the soldiers he had taken. Shaking his head, trying not to think about it, Satoru got up and saw that his clothes were in tatters, it was the least after all he'd been through.

Still wary, Satoru opened the door and came face to face with a long stone corridor with a few shattered windows. Looking out, he was surprised to be on a mountain, he didn't could see the ground from that height, but he didn't seem to be far from that region, after all the sky was still gray with clouds.

As he continued to walk, Satoru came out into a kind of square open-air courtyard, it was even quite spacious, a sort of small arena set up in the center.

But no vegetation was seen growing in this place, however, on the other side there was a wooden door, opening it, Satoru entered a stone room with a wide table on it.

"I see you're awake." A deep voice spoke from behind him, and Satoru felt something sharp in his neck 

"Who are you?"

"S-Satoru Seigi?"

Awkwardly the boy replied with his hands up. Tension rose in his body, but he soon calmed down to see that the pointed thing was taken from his neck.

“You have a lot to explain.”

Hilda walked past him, and sat on the other side of the table, looking at Satoru waiting for him to take a seat.

And with the sound of the door closing, Satoru sat at the opposite end of Hilda.

"Don't you think you owe an explanation of what you are?"

Who started asking was Hilda to the point. Satoru opened his mouth to answer but stopped to think, he couldn't answer precisely something that even he didn't quite know.

"Okay, but I don't know much, when I was pulled out of my world, this thing appeared and swallowed me, now it's part of my body, what it is..."

Satoru stopped and looked at Hilda, it was the first time in a long time he looked someone straight in the eye — Not even the thing itself knows.

Silence prevailed for a while, neither of the two continued the conversation, after all the two sides had something to ponder, each with their problems that now intertwined.

"When you say 'this thing', what exactly are you referring to? And what do you mean: 'ripped from my world'?"

With two questions at once, Satoru pondered an easy way to explain, however it would be much easier to tell the story in its entirety than to explain it little by little, decidedly he lowered his head and remembered with nostalgia his sad but peaceful life.

“It was a special day for people, called Valentine's Day, you don't have it here, do you?”

Satoru raised his head expecting a negative response, he still didn't like this day.

"Valentine's Day? No, would it be some kind of couple celebration?"

Hilda was not a great connoisseur of human culture, so she could only respond with the least she knew of the culture of the race she hated, on the other hand in her race there was no such celebration.

“Yeah, more or less that's right, it can also be good for lucky and cute boys to get chocolate and at the same time have girls come out for them, tsk!”

Without realizing it, Satoru had just given Hilda a tip about his displeasure with such a commemorative date, so he didn't need much for her to understand how he had never had such luck that he spoke of.

"Okay, why don't you get back to what's important?"

Hilda tapped her finger on the table waiting for the person in front of her to continue talking.

"Oh, right! Sorry about that, continuing, I had gone out and found someone I didn't want, then almost back home, I was caught by this thing, right after that I woke up in the village, it took me a while to realize that this body no longer belonged to me alone."

It was not an easy task for someone to describe the feeling Satoru had when remembering what he would have to live with now, however much he referred to the thing as a being with which he shared a body, the reality was quite different, Satoru he felt like the intruder, not the owner since it looks like the thing will completely dominate his body.

"So you want to tell me that this thing has a mind of its own?"

Without knowing why Satoru saw Hilda suddenly get serious, it seemed that she didn't like to know that the thing did what she wanted.

"Yes, he does, even if I don't understand what motivates her, other than the fact that I know he's looking for something,' Satoru replied in a rush, trying to calm Hilda down.

"What is he looking for?"

"I don't know, he doesn't say, just say he's looking for something."

With that silence returned to dominate the room, one was shy and didn't know how to start a conversation, the other was dense and didn't like to talk about unnecessary things.

While no one said anything, something crossed Satoru's mind, with this conversation he had forgotten.

"As for Envy, she…"

"Don't worry, she's sleeping, that child has been through a lot, let her rest."

Hilda didn't let Satoru finish talking, and she answered right away, but deep down she felt relieved, knowing that he still seemed to care about something and wasn't just an irrational being.

"You can go back to your room, I'll let you know when it's time to eat."

Hilda got up and left after saying a few words. Satoru wasn't good at reading people, let alone closed people like Hilda.

Not knowing quite what to do, Satoru got up and started back the way he did before, knowing Envy was fine, he could worry about what to do.

There were several alternatives for what could happen, in the worst case, the thing gets out of control and starts to destroy and kill everything it thinks it should, in the best of them, Satoru gets rid of this burden and the thing takes him back to his world.

But it was also the most unlikely, she went to all the trouble to bring him here, it was surreal that she was going to take him back, but that raises the question: why was he chosen? what did he have that no one else had? Maybe he'd never even find out in the end, but something else worried him now, something he cared about so much but hadn't associated with.

As soon as he got back from the room he would have to muster all his courage to try to figure it out.

⊛⊛⊛

Envy, barely knew her parents, they only took care of her until she was four years old, after that she was left to be taken care of by her grandfather, thanks to him, she never felt completely alone, but still missed someone to play with.

Her curiosity was to see the outside world, discover what were green pastures, flowers, living trees, animals and eat something good that wasn't hard or dry every day.

How the arrival of Satoru Seigi she thought could be different, however, to the poor girl's dismay, not only did he disappear overnight, her village and people she knew were killed out of hand.

Everything she knew had died, but there was a last thread of hope, the person she thought was gone reappeared and theprotected from evil men.

With a thump of something metallic resounding, startled Envy got out of bed, she then remembered, that she was brought to the village protector's house after everything calmed down, after arriving, she took a shower and lay in bed after that, having no idea how much time had passed since then.

Startled, she got up from the straw bed and opened the wooden door, opening into a corridor, the noise seemed to come from the left, a metallic sound of something falling.

Heading towards the sound, Envy stopped at the end of the corridor where there was a wooden door, she was afraid to knock on the door a few times.

Suddenly any noise stopped, and the door was opened slowly, when she saw that figure with black hair and green eyes, her expression of fear was replaced by one of happiness.

"Uncle!"

The girl ran and hugged the young man who was surprised. After a few seconds, Envy let go of Satoru, she hadn't seen him anymore after he passed out.

"I'm glad you're okay," The young man said, stroking her head, who smiled happily. Curious, Envy looked at Satoru's body and there she saw a fallen sword, probably the source of the sound she heard.

Satoru looked a bit awkward, not to mention that the upper body was uncovered, something that even he hadn't noticed yet, it was the muscles of the body tense, something worthy of tremendous effort from an intense workout and controlled eating could bring.

In the past, before his life turned upside down it was the normal sight for Satoru's body, but now he had done nothing and there was a physical bearing worthy of a true athlete.

⊛⊛⊛

The two talked a little longer, Satoru felt good knowing that Envy trusted him, even with all that she was still a child who had been in a difficult situation since birth, it made her more mature than most of the same age, on realizing this he had to make a decision too.

Amused, Satoru played rock, paper, and scissors with Envy, a game he had to teach this world lacked games like this.

But Satoru felt sorry for Envy not winning any, which frustrated her a little.

However, the fun was cut short when Hilda appeared at the door. Envy was excited to finally be able to eat, Satoru even though he wasn't hungry, could still enjoy the taste of things, even if his taste buds were a little messed up.

Before he left, Hilda handed him a new pair of clothes, not very good, but better than not wearing any. Satoru already knew the room where they were going to have dinner, Envy on the other hand was happy to see such a big table, even though it wasn't for that much, what Hilda had prepared was a big piece of meat, with the little girl's eyes shining he devoured his food like there was no tomorrow.

But Satoru lacked seasoning in the meat, however, he had no right to complain, he very much doubted that in this world anyone besides the lucky ones with a lot of money had any kind of seasoning.

Yes, there was cutlery on the table, but only Satoru used it, for the other two it was as if it was just an ornament.

"Eh? Does the uncle know how to eat with these things?" Envy with the mouth all dirtyhe asked as he chewed.

“Not much, actually, in my world, it's common to use a knife and fork."

Seeing why to be impressed by something common, Satoru would have to get used to this less advanced world.

"Something happened, do you look a little paler than you did earlier?", asked Hilda when she finished eating, as she wiped her hand on an old cloth.

"No big deal."

Satoru, surprised by the question, dropped his fork and knife and replied lamely.

"Then follow me to the kitchen." With her and Envy's plate in hand, Hilda walked away.

Satoru told Envy to wait there and followed Hilda, of course, he also took his plate.

The kitchen was in the doorway behind where Hilda sat, it was a rectangular room with a large window with iron bars, it had a wood stove, a square table, and another door. In the very corner, a barrel full of water was where Hilda left the dishes.

"Why did you take a sword?"

Surprised at how blunt she could be, the young man placed his plate in the barrel and turned toward her.

“I needed to be sure of one thing,” Satoru replied, trying to avoid Hilda's gaze.

"So, spit it out, did you get what you wanted?"

“Not exactly what I wanted, but now I know there's no going back, so I need to ask a favor.” With his eyes closed, Satoru spoke, but he decided to confront the fear once and for all.

"Please teach me what you can about fighting and this world!"