The Druid Guardian

Chapter 18: A Dark History

"There have been other adventurers before her that tried to kill me, but they all failed and some of them even died. I didn't intend to kill them, but things just happened, and they ended up like that."

"And what about Ninja Girl's grandmother?"

"Heh, Agnes was different. Not only was she one of the most elegant and beautiful women I've ever met, but she was also skilled and deadly. Silky black hair, a thin frame, and the grace of an angel. Agnes Grimm was the perfect person in both appearance and fighting. I had a lot of trouble fighting her." Kuma laughed with a big smile on his face.

It seems like he had fun, so I'm not going to judge the part where the grandmother tried to kill him. Nope, I'll leave that be for now.

"Anyway, while we were fighting, we had a little chat between attacks. We both got to know each other better, and after the fight was over, we decided to call it a draw. We were both tired and worn out to the point where neither of us could continue, nor wanted to."

Hmm, bonding by fighting. It's not uncommon but not the type of thing I would do to get to know someone, but who am I to judge?

"Since neither of us wanted to continue fighting, we made a compromise. To get the guild off my back, I faked my death and got Agnes to announce it while claiming that she killed me. After the guild got rid of the quest paper, I was free and able to spend more time with Agnes. It was the best years of my life."

Something tells me that this lovey-dovey story was going to take a dark turn real quick. I'm not likely where this is going.

While I was foreseeing the dark turn in the story, Kuma's face turned grim. Yep, here we go.

"Unfortunately, that all changed after some Noble caught his eye on Agnes."

Well, that went a lot darker than I expected. I'm definitely not going to enjoy the story from here on out.

"There was this Noble named Phillip Sanders, who had his eyes out on Agnes. He wanted Agnes to marry him, but of course, Agnes refused. That damn noble didn't take the rejection so well and sent mercenaries to capture her. I offered Agnes to stay with me until this whole situation was over, but she was too stubborn to listen and decided to fight back."

I'm guessing things didn't work out the way she thought they would. I wanted to say this but kept my mouth shut to let Kuma continue his story.

"Due to Agnes stubbornness, she managed to get captured and . . ." Kuma didn't finish his sentence, but I knew where he was going at.

"You don't have to say it. I got a good idea of what happened. I'm assuming this is where Ninja Girl's mother came in?"

I figured that since the grandmother was captured by the noble, it's not hard to see what happens next.

"Yes, that's correct. After getting captured by that noble, Agnes ended up pregnant. Not only that, but she was weak and frail after the incident."

"And what happened with Phillip?" I asked.

I could already tell what happened after that, but I wanted to see if it's true.

"That bastard?" Kuma's face darkened. "I slaughtered him and everyone else that worked for him, including the mercenaries. After what they did, I wasn't going to let any of them live."

The air around us got a little tense due to all of Kuma's rage pouring out of him. I can understand why remembering still makes him mad.

"So, what happened afterward?"

Kuma calmed down a little and continued telling his story.

"After we discovered that Agnes was pregnant, it was decided that we were going to raise the child in the Grand Forest. We prepared everything for the child to be born and was ready. We even gave her a wonderful name, Amelia. But . . . Fate decided to screw with us again."

Just one bad thing after another, huh?

"What happened?"

"When Agnes was giving birth to her daughter, her body was so weak and delicate that after she birthed her little girl, she died."

Geez, can't these people catch a break?

"Before she died, she made me promised to always protect Amelia, no matter the cost. I swore to do so and did with my life. After her death, I raised Amelia the ways that her mother knew. I taught her all the things that were needed for her to survive because she was likely going to go to the outside world."

"What happened when she got outside?"

Kuma didn't say anything and kept quiet. He made a painful face as if something sharp was stabbing him repeatedly.

". . . Listen Ayato, I'm really tired after you woke me up from that electric attack, so I'm going back to sleep."

"Oh, okay." This was all I could say after seeing his face.

Kuma laid on his stone platform and fell asleep. I didn't have anything to say to him, so I left him alone.

Kuma must've gone through a lot with Ninja Girl's mother. I wanted to know what happened, but the way Kuma acted made it clear that I wasn't going to get it from him.

Then a thought came to me. What if I asked Ninja Girl?

I know, I must've lost my mind, right? Out of all the things that could've given me my answer, I thought about that brat.

To be honest, it wasn't a bad idea, but that's what scared me. Geez, do I really have to ask that kid of all people?

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading this chapter and I hope you'll read more of them. Please comment on the chapter to tell me what you think and vote on it if you think it deserves it.

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See Ya!