NOVEL NEXT Chapter 202: A Confession?
Chapter 202: A Confession?
“What’s with the bag?”
“How about we leave the bag for later?” The Paru sighed, casting it aside. “I came to talk, mostly.”
“Okay, fine.” Roka rested her cheek against her clenched hand, elbow on desk. “What is it you wanted to talk about exactly?”
He remained silent for a moment.
Where to start? From the beginning, probably.
“I have this… Ability.” The Paru explained, raised a hand. “I can gain abilities by eating stuff. Eating… Things. You can think of it as me copying some properties from… Whatever I eat. That’s most obvious when taking into account how I changed after our first time on Tyl. By eating Graniliths, my body changed, almost completely.”
“Right…” Roka muttered. ‘Freaky, but kind of cool.’ She thought to herself. ‘I can understand why Raya is so mesmerized by him. A peculiar Species, to say the least…’
“Our first time on Tyl,” The Paru continued. “I left the ship pretty much after we landed, and defeated Wizzos that were in the area. A Granilith was also approaching the ship, and the tribe it came from wasn’t too far either. A Wizzo similar to the one you dealt with using that plasma weapon of yours as well.”
“Huh?” Roka frowned slightly. “No one is denying that you helped us, or that you saved our lives.”“Let me continue.” The Paru scratched his nape. “On Serolia, I was only useful because I changed so much on Tyl. I mean… Can you imagine me fighting a Giganto Zilla with the body that I used to have?”
Roka nodded. She understood his point.
She didn’t answer. It was a rhetorical question anyway.
“The reason why I could help on Serolia was because of how it went on Tyl. And the only reason it went the way it did on Tyl… Is because I took the Tsero Crystal.”
The Commander frowned again.
She remained silent for a couple of seconds before speaking.
“Is that supposed to be an excuse?”
“No.” The Paru shrugged. “It’s a reason. I didn’t know what it was or how valuable it was for you in the first place.”
“That still doesn’t make it alright.”
The Commander as well as the crewmates had decided to forget about it. To not question it or talk about it. The problem had been solved after all.
But being talked about it this way, directly, Roka couldn’t just shrug it off.
“People died for that Tsero Crystal.” Her tone had become cold as ice. “Many died for it.”
“Yes.” The Paru answered as honestly as he could. “I’m sorry about that, but it has nothing to do with me.”
“Nothing to do with you?”
“Mm.” He nodded. “I understand that people you cared about died, but that isn’t my fault.”
“No.” Roka sighed, relaxing back into her seat. “It’s not your fault. But it shows how valuable the thing you took is. How valuable it is for us.”
The Paru let his back rest against the wall, crossing his arms.
Roka sighed internally, thankful that he wasn’t naked.
“Ever since I joined you, I tried to help here and there. Fortunately, not one of you has died since.”
Roka’s eyes narrowed.
“I’m not saying that no one died thanks to me.” The Paru looked away for a moment. “I wandered off and away plenty of times, and bad things could have happened then.”
“We don’t expect you to guard anyone of us.”
“Yes, I know.” The Paru sighed. “Still, no one died since I joined you. We took fuel from Tyl, took the needed Tsero Crystal from Serolia, and we came back here for more fuel. Everything went smoothly.”
“So? What are you trying to say?”
“People died for the Tsero Crystal that I took. But no one did for the one you have now.”
“That’s true. But it doesn’t matter. A Tsero Crystal is a Tsero Crystal. The two issues aren’t related. You took one and replaced it. I know that I talked about their values, but objectively-”
“They are different.” The Paru waved a hand. “Objectively, it’s the same, sure. But it still can’t feel right, I assume.”
“You have a habit of assuming things, huh?” Roka chuckled. Her slight annoyance was hidden well. “It feels as it should. We made it.”
“You don’t ask yourself sometimes…” It was a risky question, but he still felt it was necessary to ask. “How it would have gone if you had found me sooner?”
“…?”
“I mean… Had I been with you from the beginning, before all of the deaths.”
Roka’s hand, which had been cooly resting on the desk, curled up.
Of course, she had thought about it. Many, many times.
Roka was the Commander after all.
If he had been with them from the beginning… Then the dead would still be here. Compared to what they had gone through, the present time felt like a vacation. Had he been there from the beginning, they too…
The Paru scratched his neck at her silence.
Roka successfully hid her frustration and rising anger.
“I’m not sure why I asked that. It sort of felt necessary to say…” He raised his gaze towards the ceiling for a bit. “A cigarette would be nice right now…”
“I do think about it, I suppose.” Roka admitted. “What of it?”
“I’m really not sure… I guess now would be a good time to get the bag out.”
He turned around and reached for the bag.
“I can’t do anything about the dead, and I can’t do anything about the Tsero Crystal that I took. All I can do is this.”
The bag was opened and laid on Roka’s desk.
“Those are…?”
“I’m not sure if two additional Tsero Crystals make up for the one that people died for, but it’s all I can do about it.”
“You… You really don’t have to.”
“I know.” The Paru nodded, stepping back until his back reached the wall again. “You’re kind enough not to ask for more.” He scratched his cheek, slightly embarrassed. “I appreciate that. Really.”
“A heart-to-heart?” Roka chuckled. “What’s next, a confession?”
“Actually, yeah.”
“…?!”