Mortal Decoy

Chapter 19 - Samara

The next few days were relatively uneventful. Kivani and the other Clunaics went out each day to try to clear out all the demons. They returned bruised and tired everyday, but now that the tear was closed, the demons were down to a more manageable number.

I of course did not go on these extermination missions. I'm not that altruistic. I'd helped them close the tear when I didn't have to so I owed them nothing. In fact, I rather think they should be trying harder to repay me for my heroic deeds. But unfortunately the townspeople had no idea how to worship a hero. You could see their lack of effort to thank me in their food. It was severely underwhelming. Not outright disgusting, but bland to the point of boredom. And I hated being bored.

Why didn't you just go help the Clunaics fight demons if you were so bored? You might ask. I think you have the wrong idea. Sure, fighting demons could sometimes be fun, but I'd been doing a little too much of that recently so it didn't hold quite the same appeal anymore. Plus my mana levels were finally back to normal and I liked it like that. Let the humans fix their own problems.

"You're cheating!" I whined.

"I wouldn't stoop so low." Suetin said. "You're just terrible at playing cards."

"Rude." Even if it was true, he didn't have to say it so bluntly. I'd taken to hanging out with Suetin while the Clunaics were out cleansing the area. He of course was unable to join them due to being short a leg. And don't you go thinking I'm being so nice to keep him company while he's feeling down about his injury. I only resorted to spending time with him because I was bored.

"Sorry, but it's true."

"You know you could do to be a little less blunt sometimes."

"So could you." Suetin countered. Fair enough.

"What are going to do now?" I asked bluntly. I thought it would be nice to prove his point that I could be blunt too. Really it was his own fault for bringing it up.

"What do you mean?

"You know exactly what I mean. Do you plan on trying to still be a Clunaic or will you do something else?"

"I don't know." He said, his voice getting quiet.

"Seriously? You haven't thought about it at all the last couple of days?"

"No. I mean, I have. I just still don't know what I will do. Becoming a Holy Knight was sort of always my purpose. My father was a Clunaic so it was sort of assumed I would be one too. I used to think that was a curse. I mean, who would want to be destined to fight demons the rest of their life? But then I met Kivani during our apprenticeship and... well he made it seem like the most glorious career. Like the danger we faced so many times was always worth it if lives could be saved." Suetin paused for a moment, a dark look overshadowing his face. "But now I'm more of a burden than a hero."

"If I was philosophical I would probably say something like, your weaknesses are what you make them. If you're willing to put in the work and effort, you can make a weakness into an advantage. But I'm not into that sort of inspirational thinking so I say, you should probably just be depressed because things look pretty hopeless for you."

"Thanks, you're so good at comforting." Suetin said sourly. He looked to the side, his expression defeated.

"Well, I'm hungry. Want to walk over to the kitchens?"

"Did you seriously just ask if I wanted to 'walk'?

"Oh, my apologies. Would you like to hop over to the kitchens?"

"You know, you're pretty insensitive."

"Maybe, you're just overly sensitive."

"Just hurry up and go."