Chapter 118 - Cracks forming
Elysia stared blankly at Clara for a moment, processing what she just said. Clara was a little shy and fidgeted slightly waiting to hear her response. After Clara’s change, it felt as if she was an entirely different person, seemingly resetting their relationship back to step one.
Clara also saw that Shaman turned into an egg and noticed Elysia was not freaking out so she thought nothing of it.
‘A little odd but seeing as they are beastmen, it might be something normal.’ Clara was rather ignorant of the ways of the world so she thought it wasn’t impossible for something like this to happen.
“U-uhh well Shaman sort of saved my life after being captured, she has been the one to take care of me in the human cities. I used to live all alone in the slums, which was very difficult in a human-based society. Even when I’d try getting a job, I would just end up being taken advantage of. But now I found a place to belong and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Elysia got a little carried away with her explanation since she was talking about Shaman and ended up getting lost in her own little world.
“So how long was it before you got together after she saved you?” Clara felt like their relationship could have been based on mistaking comfort for love and needed to confirm a few bits of information before making any assumptions.
‘I only wanted to make some small talk, but it seems like I have walked into a tangled mess.’ Clara only wanted to break the ice as she was only curious about their relationship and hoped that getting closer to them could help her decide if she should stay.
“Well I would say a few days after she saved me and I had to save Shaman since her mana veins were fried from using an advanced spell she could not handle, I also think it was at that moment Shaman fell in love.” Elysia answered without thinking much of it, and her answer short-circuited Clara’s brain.
‘Okay this is not love, this is just a hell of a lot of misguided feelings.’ Clara was convinced that their relationship was not love but rather just two lone people that found comfort in each other due to their circumstances.
“Ehhh? Are you sure you can call that love, I mean you hardly know the person, are sure you're not mistaking your feelings?” Clara wanted to at least bring up the subject to see how Elysia would react.
Elysia’s face became cold from Clara’s statement causing the temperature to suddenly plummet.
“What are you trying to imply?” Elysia's eyes glowed slightly red, as she took quite the offence to what Clara said.
“I don’t want to barge in on your relationship but I just want to make sure that your feelings for each other are not based on a misunderstanding.” Clara was not intimidated at all by Elysia’s cold response. It only confirmed her suspicions about their relationship further.
“I am bound by loyalty and love, so you have no right to intrude on our relationship.” Elysia continued her cold glare, even releasing her 3 other tails.
“We will just have to see if you can hold on to these feelings once you have reached your goals.” Clara could only see them drifting apart once they have reached the end of whatever common goal they have, as they finally realize what they had was not true love.
Clara’s statement had pushed Elysia over the edge, instigating her to attack.
“You bitch, this is MY Shaman we are talking about.” Elysia had snapped out of nowhere showing a new side of her which was not entirely unexpected. Clara had already seen signs of Elysia’s craziness throughout the dungeon as whenever she got close to Shaman, Elysia would always stare at her with clear killing intent.
Elysia pulled out her spear and lunged towards Clara trying to pierce her heart. Clara was able to swiftly pull out her whip blades barely managing to block the blow.
‘How the fuck did this obsession get this bad, I can see the crazy in her eyes.’ Clara saw the look on Elysia’s face and it had contorted to something that did not look sane.
‘I knew she was protective and a bit possessive but this is just borderline crazy.’ Clara wanted to hold back as she did not want to hurt Elysia but it seemed like she was determined to kill Clara.
“If I kill you right now, I won't have to worry about her being taken away from me hehe~.” Elysia quickly pulled back her spear and stabbed it into the ground. Using it to lift herself up she kicked Clara in the face, pushing her back.
‘I need to knock her out as soon as I can.’ Clara was not keen on using her lightning but it seemed like she would have to rely on it in order to win.
Elysia followed up by pulling out her spear from the ground and throwing it at Clara, keeping a ball of fire attached to the end of it. Clara was able to easily dodge the spear, however, the fireball attached to it bursted out in flames. Clara quickly pushed off her feet with her lightning, barely getting hit by the fire.
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When Clara regained her footing she was suddenly shot in the shoulder by a fire arrow.
“GAAAHHH!!” Clara screamed out in pain as her shoulder was being burnt on the inside. In order to dispel the pain, she tried using her mana to take control of the fire. Thankfully she was successful as lightning fell under the bracket of fire allowing her to manipulate and extinguish it.
“Tch looks like your mana was able to overpower mine.” Elysia was familiar with the concept of controlling other people’s mana. The only way for it to work is if the other person is weaker than you or the amount of mana used was too small.
Because the shoulder wound was caused by fire, no blood came out of it but it rendered her arm useless as moving it caused Clara great pain.
‘Looks like I have to take advantage of the benefits of being a demon.’ Clara then stomped the ground and her body began to transform slightly. Her horns grew longer and became a vibrant red just like Elysia’s red-tipped tails. Her skin turned even paler, and a new pair of fangs grew on her upper jaw.
Elysia tried firing more arrows but those would be instantly struck down by lightning whenever they got near Clara. Meanwhile, Elysia made her way to her spear and stored it back in her inventory.
Clara had finished her small transformation and the wound on her shoulder was fully healed making her arm usable again.
Elysia became worried as Clara’s new capabilities were uncharted territory for her and anything could happen. What she did not realize was that Clara had already vanished leaving a small crack of lightning where she was standing and appeared behind her in a flash of lightning.
“Sorry, but I can't stay like this for too long.” Clara then chopped down with her hand to the back of Elysia’s neck. Elysia tried to react but Clara’s speed was unmatched resulting in Elysia taking the full brunt of the blow.
Using a bit of lightning Clara was able to knock Elysia out with ease leaving her to slump over to the ground.
However, after knocking out Elysia, instead of savouring her victory, Clara simply fell to her knees, trying to regain her breath as her body transformed back to normal.
‘Shit that was only a few seconds and I have already expended all my energy.’ Clara layed on the floor to recuperate her energy before finally getting up.
After recovering enough to get up, Clara looked over at the knocked out Elysia that laid limp on the floor.
‘Let's hope she doesn’t remember much, otherwise, this is going to cause me even more headaches.’ Clara hoped that since Elysia was in a crazed state, her memory of what happened would be repressed.
‘Now what to do with their relationship, I only wanted to find out more about them to see if I wanted to stay but it seems like under the surface they are in need of serious help.’ Clara held her forehead as she was still conflicted on whether to leave them to deal with their problems on their own or stay and help them sort it out.
‘It seems like Elysia is the only one with this obsession issue and that Shaman is only attached to her. But why would Shaman get attached to Elysia, does it have to do with the fact that Shaman could have been alienated from the world because she is royalty. Ahhh no use thinking about it when I should just ask the person in question.’ Clara wanted to get to the bottom of how they got together as it was not natural so asking Shaman who seemed more honest would help her fill in the blanks.
‘If I take into account what Elysia said, it leads me to believe that they could have mistaken the feeling of dependency or gratitude for love.’ Clara pondered on the concept of love as she hasn’t had much experience, but she did hear a lot of stories and tips from people she worked with. This also made her come to the conclusion that what Shaman and Elysia have was indeed not love.
‘Maybe I could try to get with Shaman.’ Clara shook her head instantly as it was an absurd idea.
‘If I do that, Elysia might end up breaking or leaving altogether, unless she can come to understand that what she has isn't really love. However, if they do break up, maybe I would still have a chance.’ Clara fell deep in thought for a moment before finally coming to a decision.
‘Fuck it, I’m staying, I can’t leave Shaman with this crazy son of a bitch Elysia.’ Clara was too deep into their business to ignore it and she wanted to repay Shaman’s understanding by helping them.
‘I have no other place to go back to now anyway and if it comes down to it, I can just get up and leave.’ Clara decided to tag along with the group for now, in hopes of fixing Shaman’s relationship, but if anything were to go wrong, she would leave in an instant.