14 A Choice (2/2)

If that thing had flown just a little bit to the left…his face would have been smashed in by now.

Clutching his heart, he tried to calm it down before turning to notice that Aaron had stood up at some point.

However, looking into his eyes Edmond's face started to burn.

There was such a strong aversion and disgust in Aaron's eyes that…Edmond started to feel more shame than he ever had in his life.

He was about to look down as he couldn't afford to look at those eyes anymore, but he was stopped by an angry shout.

”Stop being so pathetic. I hate to see anything of that sort. You have a father you want to save, but you're sitting here, telling me your story instead of trying in every manner you can. That's just disgusting.”

Aaron wasn't kidding. His anger had started to rise the moment he had seen Edmond bury his head between his legs. He didn't even know exactly why, but it had irritated him to no end.

This was the first time he was feeling something like this, and when he thought about it, Aaron vaguely understood why. He had been among creatures which fought to live and survive with every breath of their lives for too long. In the forest, there were no useless species which wallowed in despair all day instead of doing something worthwhile. Even if there had been such species, they must have been killed off long ago.

So, seeing something like this, where someone who still clearly had a chance to fight was giving up riled Aaron to no end. Right now, it was his opinion that such beings didn't even deserve to live.

Edmond only stared on in shock, realizing that this 'primitive' guy was right. He still had methods left, but their low probability of success had made him feel hopeless.

In his mind, that desperation slowly started to change into something else, something brighter, but he was interrupted by the Tera, which had just let out a sound.

”Woooof…”

Hearing it, Edmond felt like rubbing his ears to make sure that he heard right. Why did it sound as if the Tera was being…disapproving?

It was almost as if it was saying 'Here we go again…'.

As Edmond was busy examining the Tera, he didn't notice the cause of Woof's reaction: it was the expression on Aaron's face, which meant that he had decided to engage in his other past time.

Each time Aaron did so, Woof remembered that it never ended that well for them, but he would still go ahead and do it. So, Woof could only follow.

Smiling at Woof and knowing that it would follow him, Aaron said to Edmond, ”You have two choices now. You can either become a midnight snack for Woof, or you can come with me into the jungle where I'll help you find a real Bewitching Fox. After that, I'll accompany you on your journey to help your father. On the way, if I need your help, you will have to help me. Choose.”

His second past time…was to help lost little Teras find their parents again, as he got a sense of accomplishment and joy on seeing them get something he wished for, for himself.