Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 39: The Pain Inside

Having already skipped out on her classes the two previous days so that she could concentrate on healing, Koko was now facing the most difficult task she'd ever had to face, which was sending a letter home. She was already late for her promised letter to Teya... though after what had happened with Christina, Koko had no idea what to say to them. Thinking back on it now, Koko knew that she'd been incredibly foolish in interfering with a matter that hadn't involved her in the first place. And now that she'd failed...

Seeing as Christina hadn't returned to their room for the entire time that she'd been healing and it was already dark outside, Koko could only imagine that the girl was spreading the news about how she'd gotten attacked. And soon, everyone across the kingdom would know that the second daughter of Baron Cryner had assaulted the hero and attempted to prevent her from doing her 'duty'... The king would revoke their nobility to appease the church, everyone in the Cryner family would be casted out onto the street and she would most likely be either jailed or... whatever else they did to people who attacked heroes.

"Everyone... I'm sorry..." Koko cried, watching her tear drops hit the the blank paper on the desk in front of her before the door to the room suddenly opened and Koko quickly wiped her eyes to hide the fact that she'd been crying. Though after looking up to inspect who had entered the room, Koko felt her heart drop as she realized that it was an exhausted looking Christina, thinking that the girl was finally there to take her away in chains or attempt to execute her outright.

With the tension in the air so thick that Koko could hardly breathe, she watched in silent anticipation as Christina walked right past her without saying anything before the girl sat on her bed, seeming to stare at the far wall with red eyes. And as Koko started to realize the state that her roommate was in, she wondered just what had happened to make the girl this exhausted... It wasn't because of their fight, right?!

"A-are you okay?" Koko asked hesitantly before speaking her next words so quickly that they all seemed blundered together. "I'm sorry if I punched you to hard! I haven't really fought anyone recently, and seeing as you're a hero I thought that I shouldn't hold back so-"

"How are your wounds?" Christina suddenly asked while interrupting Koko's rant while gazing at Koko's wrapped shoulder.

"They're fine." Koko nervously replied. "I have a special ability that increases my rate of healing, so I should be perfectly fine in a few days. And judging from the sides of the cuts, there might not even be any scars."

"That's good." Christina strangely gave what sounded like a sigh of relief.

"Umm... about our fight..." Koko began, taking a deep breath as she knew that she was most likely about to ask for the impossible. "If you can, please don't punish my family just because of me. I know that ambushing you like that was wrong, and now that I look back on it I can realize how incredibly stupid I was, but please... please don't let the church go after my family just because of my actions. I don't care what you do to me, so please..."

Now crying again, all Koko could do now was hope beyond hope that Christina would be willing to forgive the others just for their misfortune of being related to her. Though as Christina simply remained silent afterwards, Koko didn't know what to do with herself as her body started shaking from just anticipation alone.

"Why did you do all of this?" Koko suddenly heard Christina whisper as the girl slumped her head, causing her blonde hair to cover more than half of her face as it hid whichever expression she was giving beneath it. "You weren't connected to Celdric in any way, were you? Why risk both yourself and your family to try to stop me?"

"I already said that what I did before was stupid." Koko explained. "But when I saw how the blacksmith's family lost everything and I suspected that there was nothing but greed behind it... I didn't even think about the consequences before I started investigating."

"I see..." Christina replied, seeming to be depressed as the silence afterwards stretched on. And eventually, Koko couldn't handle not knowing what the girl was going to do anymore before she had to speak.

"So... what are you going to do now?" Koko asked.

"I'm not really sure." Christina let out a sigh before looking up at Koko with what looked like a forced smile. "But before you worry about it anymore, you were completely right."

"H-huh?" Koko asked quietly, completely taken aback by what Christina had said.

"Father Celdric has been judged by the Arch-Bishop and sentenced to slavery in the Forbidden Lands for both his crimes against the people of Harven as well as the church." Christina explained with a sad laugh. "You were right because he was manipulating me all along... I'm nothing but a puppet pretending to be a hero..."

Seeing Christina start to tremble as she slumped her head even further down in a failed attempt to hide tears of her own, Koko suddenly felt herself be overwhelmed by conflicting emotions. On one hand, seeing as Celdric was proven guilty, she and her family would be able to escape from any harsh punishments for what she'd done. But on the other...

"W-what are you-?!" Christina asked in a surprised tone when Koko walked forward and wrapped her in a gentle hug.

"I'm so sorry..." Koko couldn't help but cry herself when she thought of everything that her actions must have put Christina through. "This only happened because of me... I'm so sorry..."

"N-no, it was Celdric-" Christina started before Koko hugged her tighter.

"I know that he was a bad person and that he was manipulating you, but I also learned enough about him to know that you thought of him as a real father. I- I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through what you did, and I was the cause of it!" Koko's voice cracked as she spoke. "I'm really sorry!"

"It wasn't- It wasn't your fault. It really... wasn't." Christina attempted to reply, though her sentence was interrupted as she started sobbing uncontrollably while Koko still held her. And while Koko didn't know for how long that they stayed like that, Christina eventually fell unconscious in her arms, most likely due to all of the emotional stress she'd been through recently. After gently laying the girl down in her bed and covering her with the sheets, Koko turned off the lights before heading to bed herself, suddenly feeling exhausted as she'd been worrying for so long over an issue that was now solved. Falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit her pillow, time seemed to break as Koko seemed to immediately wake up again the next morning to find both sunlight pouring in through the window was well as another surprising sight.

Normally, Christina always woke up before her and started her day before the sun was even up. However, today, Koko smiled as she saw that her roommate was still resting peacefully, though that smile was simply because of the current peaceful expression on Christina's face as she slept. Normally the girl was so stern that her face had always seemed as if it had been chiseled from stone, even while sleeping. So, as Koko thought about the new development, this was quite the welcome change.