"You can't be serious!"
"I am."
"Come on! This is a joke, right?!"
"Unfortunately, no."
I had nothing else to say. I just stood there under the Oak Tree with a shocked expression.
This can't be happening. There's no way that this was happening.
I have to continue to work with Ninja Girl?! Are you kidding me?!
My mind was in a frenzy to the point where I thought it was going to short-circuit itself. Smoke was probably pouring out of
"Kuma, I only teamed up with this kid because we were wasting our time arguing at the mansion. I wanted to deal with Marcus and wrap up that entire situation." I tried to explain.
"Yes, but Marcus escaped." Kuma reminded me.
"Only because that brat lost her head!" I pointed at Ninja Girl in anger.
"Hey! Who are you calling a brat, Forest Freak?!" Ninja Girl couldn't stay quiet any longer and snarled at me.
"Who do you think?! If it wasn't for you, I could've dealt with Marcus and finished my business with him." I barked back at her.
"Did you forget that I had business with him too? If you killed him, then I would've missed my chance to finish him off myself."
"The safety of my home comes first, Ninja Girl! I'm not going to let some slave owner take over the place that's been taking care of me. I'll do anything to keep it safe, no matter the cost!"
"And I'll do anything to get revenge! I was that bastard's slave for half a decade! Can you imagine being that monster's personal toy?!"
Tears started building up in her crimson red eyes. Wait, weren't her eyes gray before?
She did something similar the first time I met her while I was in the city. Her eyes seem to light up red whenever she gets angry.
Despite her personality and my overall hatred for this brat, she was very pretty with red eyes. Yeah, I'm definitely regretting what I just said.
I mentally kicked myself and stared at Ninja Girl. We both just glared at each other for a few seconds until Kuma stepped in.
"That's enough, you two." Kuma stepped. "If this continues then a fight is bound to happen. Miss Grimm, I would like to speak with Ayato alone."
Ninja Girl didn't say anything and just glared at me for a couple more seconds. After that, she left while stomping away.
"Well, that could've gone better," Kuma commented while walking his way back to his stone platform.
"I can't believe you, Kuma! You knew I wanted her gone as soon as she was back to normal and now you want us to work together? What were you thinking?!" I couldn't control my anger any longer and explode at Kuma.
I thought Kuma was going to yell at me for doing that, but he just stayed quiet. In fact, something seems off about him, like he's distracted.
All the rage and frustrated that was built up suddenly flowed out of me. The only thing that remained was confusion.
What the hell happened between those two while I turned my back on them?
"Kuma, you okay?" I asked.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Kuma didn't appear to be paying attention to me, as if he was staring into space.
Something's clearly up with him. After meeting Ninja Girl, he's been too absent-minded, which isn't like him.
"What's gotten into you, Kuma? You've been acting weird ever since you talked to Ninja Girl."
"Oh, have I? I haven't noticed." Kuma nervously chuckled.
I'm worried.
"So, what's wrong?" I asked with a concerned face.
"Hmm? Oh, nothing's wrong. I'm just a little tired, that's all."
I knew that he was lying. I could tell by the way he was acting.
He always pays attention and very organized. He has the personality of a gentleman with proper manners.
He never wavers nor gets distracted by anything, even when he's tired. In the past few months I've known him, I can tell when somethings up with him.
The fact that he's lying to me means that he's trying to hide it. I don't know what's with him and Ninja Girl, but there's no way I was going to let this go.
"Kuma, why did you want Ninja Girl and me to work together?" I quickly asked him
This was my plan. I'll ask him questions about Ninja Girl and see what he says.
If he makes any reaction to the question, I'll know I'm on to something.
Kuma stared at me after hearing my question. It wasn't as if he was angry, but more like he was trying to read me.
"Why is it that you hate Miss Grimm?"
Oh, so you're going to pull the "Answering a question with a question" routine, huh? Fine, I'll play ball.
"It's not that I hate her, but I sure as hell don't like her." I began. "She's reckless, stubborn, arrogant, ignorant, and more. I can make a list for you if that helps."
"I see. It's true that she does act rashly and rushes into trouble, but that's how she is. She takes more after her mother than I originally thought."
. . . Huh?
Wait, did he just say "She takes after her mother"?
So, she knows who Ninja Girl is? And also her mother?
What the hell is going on?
I wanted to ask Kuma, but for some reason, I couldn't muster any strength to speak. It's like my vocal cords just closed and no words were able to come out.
I didn't need to speak though, because Kuma kept talking.
"Heh, I'm surprised by how big she got. Not only that, but her appearance resembles her mother almost perfectly." It looked like Kuma was reminiscing about his past.
He had this smile on his face as if he was remembering his favorite moment in his past. Maybe whatever his relationship with Ninja Girl's mom was his memorable moment.
"Kuma, how do you know about Ninja Girl or her mother?" I asked.
". . . I know them because of Miss Grimm's grandmother. Her name was Agnes Grimm."
So Kuma knew Ninja Girl's grandmother, huh? I wonder what his relationship with her was.
Since it was the grandmother, it had to have been three to four decades ago since then. I'm curious about their history.
"So, how did you meet her?"
"Ah, I met Agnes when she was exploring the grand forest. She was an adventurer at the time and was doing a quest."
"What was the quest?"
"The quest was killing the Beast Of The Forest, which was me."
Wait, so Ninja Girl's grandmother was trying to kill Kuma? Sheesh, talk about a bad first impression.
"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.
Also, share this book with your friends to spread the word about it and I hope to see you guys in the next chapter.
See Ya!