The Laughing Swordsman

Only until Vicar was completely out of sight, did Willow regain the courage to move.

And the first thing she did...

Was scream.

"I WILL KILL YOU. YOU WILL DIE PAINFULLY. AHHHHHH"

She grabbed onto the sides of her head, slamming it down onto the ground, sending some snow into the air.

For the longest time, she only continued to scream, venting her anger in the only way she knew how. However, even in such a frenzied and unstable state, she felt like something was off.

It unsettled her so much.

Willow decided to deal with it by burying it deep within her, pretending that it didn't exist. And that was how she dealt with it for years.

Now, at present, she was on her knees in the middle of the snowy forest. She was looking up into the sky, as though looking for an answer.

It was then she finally realized.

That was the first time in Willow's life she ever saw Vicar get angry.

No, it was the first time she saw him without a smile on his face.

Vicar had always been an extremely nice person. Even when things didn't go his way or he was treated unfairly, he would smile and simply let it go.

Even when Willow would complain and play unfairly.

Even that one time she began beating him up with a wooden sword because she was upset from losing.

Vicar simply smiled, even as his body had been bruised.

For the longest time, Willow just took his accepting personality for granted. In fact, she didn't even realize how mean she had been, acting on impulse all the time.

In reality, Vicar really was naive for thinking that Willow could be more accepting and think with more than just emotions. After all, that was how Willow always operated.

She never thought about the other person's perspective.

The only reason Vicar did so was the goodwill that had been built up over many years.

But now, witnessing the memories once more, Willow finally realized how terrible she had been.

Tears began to fall down from her face.

"S-Sorry..."

She felt guilty for the first time in her life.

"Sorry, Vicar."

Willow slowly breathed in, trembling slightly.

"Sorry... Apollo."

Every time, she told herself that she would talk to Apollo and make things right. Yet, each time she was given the opportunity, she just pretended nothing was wrong.

Like it would all be fine if Willow ignored it.

That was just how she dealt with her stress. It was a habit built up somewhere along the way. In a certain sense, this habit was almost like a slow acting poison.

Willow wouldn't deal with it, as she knew that it would be painful. However, that only let it fester within her, becoming even worse. If Willow dealt with it after that, then it would only be worse than how it was before.

So, she would continue to suppress it.

But eventually, the poison would be enough to kill her and would jump out on its own.

And that was almost what happened as Willow kept it buried for so long. But now, though it was not entirely her choice, she opened up the truth.

Willow now fully accepted how disgusting of a human she had become after so long. But now, she wanted to fix that.

She had actually been searching for Vicar for a long time, but was never able to find him. It was as though he disappeared. However, that was for the sake of revenge.

Willow had no leads on him, but she did know that Apollo wouldn't be too far away. At least not across the world. Thus, she decided to first make things right with him.

She definitely made things harder for Apollo. That was clear from the hatred he held for her. Willow didn't fully understand, but now she would truly take her time to think.

And so, Willow stood up, wiped the tears off her face, and walked forwards.

She was going to find Apollo.

...

"Dammit."

Talon grimaced painfully as sizzling sounds came from his mouth.

"Why does it still hurt so badly even after it is cooked?"

He was in the middle of the forest with Lena, a campfire, and a dead wolf a few meters away. The wolf had been harvested for its meat, evidenced by the clean cuts over its body. There were also several skewers of meat above a campfire.

It should've been a nice meal considering there wasn't much to eat in the snowy forest, but there was something wrong with it.

Despite the flesh being cooked, it was still extremely harmful when consumed. However, that didn't seem to matter to Lena.

She sat down on a log from a tree they cut down and constantly took bites out of a meat skewer. It was very clearly painful as sizzling sounds of burning flesh came from her as she ate, but it was as though Lena couldn't hear those sounds.

Talon hurried over and held onto Lena's arm when he noticed this.

"Don't eat too fast. It will be too painful."

Lena giggled.

"You don't have to worry about me brother. It may be painful, but it is the only thing we have to eat. So long as we are alive, that is what matters."

Talon's lip twitched.

"O-Ok..."

He slowly, but reluctantly let go of Lena's arm, letting her continue eating the meat. As for Talon himself, he too sucked it up and began eating as much as it hurt.

The skin on the inside of his mouth began to tear up. Sections of the skin simply dangled, but there was little he could do about it.

Thankfully, the black flesh in his body promptly repaired the damage he took from eating these kinds of things.

Soon, they were finishing up their meal.

That was when a small child wearing a blue hood on the back of a shadowy bird came into sight.

It was Hex.