Trust

“A-are you sure?” Akiko asked. “I don’t want you to feel pressured into telling me anything; I want you to trust me enough to do it of your own free will.”

“I’m certain.” I smiled, “I know I can trust you.”

So I told her everything. From my first encounter with the deity to the vision he showed me—I didn’t leave anything out. The more I talked, the more this weird paranoia gnawed at me, like I was making the biggest mistake of my life. But it didn’t matter to me, well, not anymore.. In my old life, I would’ve shut down the second it got risky to trust another person. I stopped asking for help, I chose to handle it all alone, and I did everything but reach out for help or let someone in my life. In all honesty, it just made me miserable, but that was all I could do. That was all I knew. I called it independence back then, but looking back… I was just being a coward; I was just stuck in isolation. Running away whenever I was afraid someone might actually care or when I was scared they would turn on me. Honesty, it’s just so pathetic. But not anymore. I don’t want to be alone, I want to be scared, I want to trust. Even if I don’t fully know if I can trust her, I’m willing to be betrayed to keep our friendship.

After I told her everything, it became quiet. I guess it was too much all at once.

“Hey… are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah… I’m just shocked,” she admitted. “Can I ask you something, though?”

“Yeah, sure, what is it?”

“The enemy, who is it exactly?”

“It’s—”

Wait, even though I’m not in that realm, is it safe to say his name?

“Who is it again?” she asked, tilting her head.

“It’s him,” I said vaguely.

“Who exactly is this 'him’?”

“You know, the guy that’s running this academy.”

“Vael—”

I shot up and slapped my hand over her mouth. “Don’t say his name!”

She flinched, eyes wide, face turning red. After a moment, she gently pulled my hand away. “Okay, I won’t. But at least warn me next time you’re gonna do something like that.”

“Sorry,” I muttered. “It’s just—every time his name is spoken, something bad happens. It doesn’t feel safe.”

“Is there a reason that his name itself causes trouble?”

“From what the deity told me, his name is like a chant. Saying it empowers him or something.”

“Or something?”

“I don’t really get the specifics, but I know one thing—he’s not someone we should be messing with.”

“Is there anyone else we would need to worry about?”

“Yes. Like I said, the deity warned me they’d start going after the students.”

“Students? But isn’t the entire point of us being here to defeat the Demon King? Why would they sabotage their own plans?”

“I don’t know. The deity was acting weird. First, he was all serious about Vael—him, then he said not to worry about it. Then he appeared again and suddenly said the students were in danger. Now I don’t know what to prioritize.”

“That does sound confusing… Which warning was the most recent?”

“The one about the students.”

“Then we should focus on that first,” Akiko said firmly. “If he left that as his final warning, it has to be the most important. And you said they get stronger the more students they take, right? Then stopping that should be our top priority.”

“That makes sense… but how do we even know who to target?”

“Well, since we know the students are the ones being targeted, we can rule them out. That only leaves the staff.”

“…Yeah. You’re right. I just hope we can stop it before anyone dies.”

“Have you considered telling more people? Especially the other students, since it does involve their safety.”

“I want to. I really do. But if word gets out, he will hear about it, and who knows what he’ll do. Especially with how strong the Demon King is, we need to stay on his good side. Even if that means…” I clenched my fists. “…some people might get hurt.”

“Y-yeah,” Akiko said quietly. “But it still feels awful hiding it from everyone.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“So… what do we do now?” Akiko asked.

“The only thing there is to do is get stronger.”

She stood up. “Then let’s head to the training grounds.”

“Don’t you have classes to go to?”

“Yeah, but remember what we agreed upon last night? I would help you with the ascended elements.”

“I don’t want you to miss out on training for my sake.”

“It’ll be fine, I train better with you either way.”

“...Thanks. That means a lot.”

“Y-yeah.” She looked away. “Any time.”

“Okay then, we should get some health and mana potions before we train.”

“You think we would need them? We’ve been training fine without it.”

“It’s not for training. It’s in case someone ambushes us while we’re tired. After that, Yuno guy attacked me out of nowhere, I realized walking around injured is a dumb idea.”

“True.”

“I also just got a bunch of credits from Nensho, so I can spend them all on the potions.”

“I’ve got some saved too, so I’ll do the same.”

“The only problem is carrying all of those potions around; it would look very suspicious if we did that.”

“We can just put it in our inventory.”

“Inventory?”

“Yeah, our crystals work as an inventory space for any items we would need to carry. I heard adventurers of this world use the same technology to carry their equipment.”

“How does it work?”

“Just use chants and deposit or withdraw stuff. Like this,” she held out her hand. “Withdraw, one potion of healing.” A vial appeared out of thin air.

“Woah, that’s awesome. It’s like an inventory space in a video game.”

“Yeah, it’s super convenient. I’m surprised you didn’t know about this yet.”

“Well, I didn’t really have a need for it up till now. It’s not like I had a lot of stuff to carry around.”

“I keep forgetting that you’re a commoner with not many riches.”

“Is that supposed to be a jab at my poor family?”

“N-no, I didn’t mean for it to come off like that!” She bowed her head at me, “I’m really sorry if that was rude.”

“I’m kidding. I know you wouldn’t say something mean. At least—” I smirked. “—not on purpose.”

“Hey, I would never say something mean in general.”

“I mean, you just did.”

“Well—”

…

Akiko sighed, “Never mind, yeah, you’re right.”

I chuckled. “Alright, let’s split up and hit different stores. The more potions, the better. Meet at our usual training spot after?”

“Okay, sounds good.”

“And Akiko, be careful, okay?”

“Y-yeah, and same to you.”

After we left my dorm, both of us rushed to different magical stores. Walking into one, everything amazed me. It was my first time being in one since I’ve never really had the need to buy anything. Well, I probably did need something, but chose to spend all my money on wagyu instead. Thinking about it now, I’m sad to see all this money used on something that’s not food. But it’s fine, it’s for our safety.

The shop that I was in was small, but it was filled with anything and everything. There were armor sets, swords, wands, and anything you can think of from a fantasy world; you can find it here. But I didn’t see any potions.

I walked up to the cashier and asked, “Hey, do you happen to have any health or mana potions?”

“Yes, of course. In fact, we just had a new shipment come in.”

“How much will ten thousand credits get me?”

“Goodness, do you really want to spend that many credits on potions?”

“Yes, sir, I do. So how much would this get me?”

“That is enough to clear us out of our inventory.”

“And how much would that be?”

“It’d be one hundred potions of health and one hundred potions of mana.”

“Perfect, I’ll take it all.”

“Would you like me to directly deposit into your inventory?”

“Yes, please, that would be amazing.”

Walking out the door, I felt proud of myself for gathering so many potions.

I wonder how much these actually heal. If they suck, I’m gonna regret not spending it all on wagyu.

I made it back to the training ground and realized Akiko still hadn’t made it.

Shit, could she have been attacked?

Without thinking, I bolted.