Chapter 105: True past (1/2)
”What is this, out in the distance?” Layn asked, breaking the long period of silence.
”Huh? Isn't that just a mountain?” Irea attempted to answer, even though she could only make a guess.
”Doesn't seem like it,” Layn said, shaking his head. ”The amount of mana coiling at its bottom… It wouldn't be a lie to claim it's comparable to that barrier we saw before,” he added after a moment.
”Wait, what?” Irea froze in place, taking her sweet time to digest the meaning of what Layn just said.
”Is this a source of the monsters or something? An automated facility to produce guardians of the place?” Layn voiced out his thoughts, rubbing his chin in deep thought.
”You are now saying some pretty revolting things, you know that?” Irea asked, staring wide-eyed at her partner.
”Does it matter? We are all alone here,” Layn shook his head, returning to his senses before looking around. ”Right, how many do you think will return?” he asked, dropping the previous topic just as rapidly as he started it a moment ago.
”Half?” Irea leaned her head to the side before making a guess. ”Maybe two-thirds? One-third?” She then shrugged her arms. ”It all depends on how strong they really are. And let me remind you…”
”I didn't pick anyone with strenght sufficient to deal with the monsters on their own. I'm aware of that,” Layn said before the girl could finish her words. ”Still, I want to believe they learned something over the past few days.”
Just as one could expect from the desert, even after traveling for over a week already, the landscape has yet to change. Surrounded by nothing but sand, sandhills, and sand dunes, Layn felt as if he was in the middle of an ocean, unable to even look to the stars to navigate his way out.
”I doubt they did,” Irea suddenly stated. ”It's not like people can easily uproot something they believed in since their childhood years, don't you think so as well?” she asked.
”Didn't you do it though?” Layn rebuked with a small smile.
”If you want to go this way, let me ask you another question instead,” Irea rolled her eyes. ”How many of those men did you fuck?” she asked while raising one of her eyebrows.
”Excuse me?” Layn wasn't angry but startled. 'Just where did this question come from?' he asked himself in his thoughts before looking sharply at the girl. ”What does that have to do with anything?”
”Everything,” she answered, lowering her arms and her head. ”Look,” Irea took a step forward, wrapping her arms on Layn's chest before hugging herself to his back, ”ever since we turned intimate, I started paying a lot more attention to everything you say and you do. What's more, we started spending all the time we have together, so I had no other choice but to see all the other exploits of yours that constantly break everything I believed to be an absolute truth so far.” Irea explained while rubbing her cheek against Layn's back.
”Still, what does that have to do with fucking others?” Layn asked, unable to understand this point of the girl. ”If you mentioned just the time we spent together if you brought all the things that you saw me do, I would understand, but fucking?” Layn asked once again, before taking Irea's arms off his chest, turning around and hugging her himself. ”Please, don't you ever mention something so sad. It makes me feel as if the only reason you are so close with me are my powers. And I don't like that any bit.”
For a moment, Layn's aura changed. For this single moment, all the grief, pain, and sadness of his days right after he learned about Ortensia's true colors, returned. Even though he long accepted the adventures in this world as a form of therapy for himself, Irea's innocent suggestion now brought the horrors of his past back.
”What? Wait, no, that's not what I meant!” Irea protested. Then, her face suddenly lit up as she pushed Layn's chest away so that she could look him in the eyes. ”If you think all the way back, to the first time I got affectionate with you… Did I know how special you are back then?” She asked, staring right down Layn's eyes.
”Well…” For a moment, the archmage scoured his memory to see whether what Irea said was true. And sure enough, the moment when his cultivation spiked for the first time. The time when he felt pleasure from the closeness of a girl for the first time since Ortensia broke this part of him, was indeed way before he revealed any part of his real strenght to this girl! ”Well, I can't deny that. I'm sorry.” Layn apologized truthfully.
”Why does it feels like you are just trying to avoid the topic?” Irea pressed the issue, clearly unhappy with how Layn attempted to deal with it.