Chapter 67 World B: The Tenas Arc Ends - Their Friendship...
Their friendship was so beautiful, but people always have to grow up. Ethan joined the Mage's League and went to the battlefield.
To be honest, there are moments when Tenas also hopes that Ethan will find out everything, and wants to see his shocked expression; that expression would be amazing.
But sometimes he would wish that day would come later, so that he could stay in this relationship, which was like that of an ordinary person, a little longer.
However, encountering Ethan on the battlefield was something he hadn't anticipated.
...Bertha, don't you think going to the battlefield at thirteen or fourteen is too early? He became a Guardian at fifteen.
In short, Tenas quickly dismissed the various thoughts that flashed through his mind and winked at Ethan, just like always, but the other man still didn't seem to react and stared at him blankly.
Tenas knew this was only temporary; once Ethan realized what was happening, things would get interesting. Sure enough, less than an hour after the battle ended, Ethan found him.
“It’s me.” Tenas readily admitted, with Ethan’s familiar smile on his face, as if he were talking about something trivial: “Little Ethan, you’re not mistaken, what you just saw was indeed me, I am the Guardian.”
Ethan's pupils contracted sharply. A powerful force struck, and Tenss, caught off guard, was grabbed by the collar and yanked back, followed by a furious punch.
As mentioned above, Tenas was caught off guard when his collar was grabbed. Everything happened so suddenly that he was punched in the left cheek before he could even stand up straight, which forcefully turned his head to one side.
It took him several seconds to feel the burning pain on his face. The punch he had just received was so heavy that he almost thought it was a slap instead of a punch.
“You, you actually…” Little Ethan gripped his collar, his hands trembling. He lowered his head, each word he uttered sounding dry and forced out, as if squeezed from between his teeth: “…Are you fooling me? The Guardian? You’re a Guardian? The Guardian of Sunfire City? You’ve been a Guardian from the very beginning! How dare you deceive me…”
Tenas's head tilted back as he was pulled hard on the collar. He gently touched the side of his face that had just been hit, feeling a little numb.
Little Ethan's punch was really hard; he doesn't usually throw that much force... I think I tasted blood.
Tenas thought absentmindedly, "My wisdom tooth hurts a little."
“Little Ethan—I’m not kidding you.” Tenas drawled, still using the affectionate term. The person who had been hit didn’t seem angry at all; instead, he smiled and looked at him. “I’ve never denied that I’m not a Guardian, and you didn’t ask me. Although I sometimes disguise myself when I appear as a Guardian, I was born in Sunfire City, and I have blond hair and blue eyes. Aren’t my features quite obvious? I told you I’m from Sunfire City.”
The flippant tone and the high-sounding excuses fueled Ethan's anger. Did he really think that such a charade could appease him?
Tenas felt his neck being tightened, making it hard to breathe. He thought Ethan was choking him. He looked down and met a pair of eyes that seemed to be filled with burning flames. His usual shyness vanished completely.
How beautiful the flame is... It's such a pleasant surprise that my naive friend has grown up.
But now is not the time for surprises. Little Ethan wants to hit him again. Although it seems that he is in the wrong, he is not the type to stand and let others hit him. He grabs Ethan's wrist when Ethan is about to hit him again.
Of course, a mage can't break free from the strength of a physical warrior, but Ethan's attitude was still fierce. Tenas held his hand down, but he was still struggling. He seemed to be out of his mind and even tried to headbutt him, but he was too short and could only hit his stomach.
Haha, it's normal. Ethan is only thirteen or fourteen years old, so it's normal for him to be short. But he bumped into his stomach and it hurts a little.
"You! You deceived me—" he roared angrily, like an enraged little beast charging wildly: "From the very beginning—you deceived me, our beginning was a lie..."
“I admit, I did approach you with ulterior motives at first. I knew from the beginning that you were one of Bertha’s people, but—” Tenas’s tone shifted, his casual expression vanished, and his voice became sincere: “But as we got closer, I got to know you better, and I didn’t expect that we were so compatible in every way—our ideals, interests, hobbies, and so on. I don’t know when I forgot my initial purpose. I became immersed in the time I spent with you, just like a true friend…”
He knew it... Ethan's fist was clenched so tightly that his bones cracked, and the veins on his face bulged.
As expected, the ending was deliberate from the start. Was he trying to find a way to defeat Bertha and the others? Their friendship was a joke, just a pretext for getting close.
At the same time, he broke out in a cold sweat.
That was close! He almost let the person in front of him succeed. Ethan couldn't even imagine what would have happened if he had inadvertently revealed any information that would have been detrimental to Bertha and the others... He would have been dead for sure.
“What I mean is, we’re still friends… I want our friendship to continue.” Tenas saw the fleeting fear in Ethan’s angry eyes and said helplessly, “Okay, little Ethan? Or you can become a Guardian, and we, the Guardian Alliance, can continue to be good friends!” His eyes lit up at the end, and he seemed very pleased with his suggestion.
“Don’t you often criticize my systems for being flawed? You think the laws I issue are twisted and full of loopholes? As long as you join the Guardians, we will still be best friends. You can even gradually perfect what you want to achieve perfection…” Tenas’s voice was sometimes high-pitched and passionate, stirring people’s hearts, and sometimes he would deliberately lower his voice, which was full of temptation, enticing people to agree to his request: “Even—if you want, we can work together to make this world a better place.”
Ethan was so angry at Tenas's shamelessness that he almost laughed. How could this guy have the nerve to say such a thing?
Doesn't this guy know what he's done? He pretended to be an ordinary person to trick him into becoming his 'friend'? Seriously? Does he think Tenas would be happy if all the mages were wiped out, and he wants to infiltrate through him? Don't even think about it! What kind of 'guardian' is this? He must be crazy to join.
Ethan couldn't contain his anger, and his bad attitude was brought out again. His sharp and sarcastic words were like blades, stabbing Tenas hard, but Tenas remained calm.
Now that his identity has been exposed, he's still acting all high and mighty, showing absolutely no guilty conscience. Maybe he's not guilty at all. Anyway, should he listen to what he's saying?
Is this mentally retarded?
Sorry, I made a typo. Is this cerebral palsy?
Ethan kicked Tenas hard in the knee and tried to break free when Tenas was caught off guard and almost fell. However, even as Tenas was about to fall, he held onto Ethan's wrist tightly and pulled him down with him.
Ethan bumped into Tenas's head, then quickly got up. He saw Tenas covering his left cheek, which he had just punched a few minutes earlier, and the other cheek, which he had just bumped into again, looking thoughtful.
Seeing this, Ethan kicked him a few more times, then left, saying, "Don't say such disgusting things as 'friends,' it means Tenas's childish 'friendship' is over."
Tenas: "..."
Tenas took out his phone with a resentful expression and made an appointment with the dentist.
Tenas wasn't just saying he wanted Ethan to join the Guardians; he genuinely believed the method was effective. He even said he wouldn't launch another campaign against the mages if Ethan joined, provided Ethan agreed.
After that, Tenas harassed Ethan multiple times, trying to get him to join, but each time he failed. At first, Ethan would read his messages but not reply, but later he stopped reading them altogether.
Well... we'll have to use some tricks.
The tricks really worked. After pretending to be an ordinary person and using his looks to deceive and kill Bertha's top assistant, Lily, Ethan bombarded her with messages, a barrage of questions, insults without profanity, sarcasm, and crazy talk.
Among them, "Are you crazy?" appeared 79 times, "What did you do?" appeared 21 times, "!!!" representing anger appeared 107 times, puns used to insult people appeared 53 times, and "Where are you?!" appeared 743 times.
He kept sending messages on and off for a week, often in the middle of the night, which suggests he wasn't sleeping well.
But Tenas waited a long time, and Ethan still didn't approach him to say he wanted to join the Guardians.
Tsk, isn't one death enough? It seems he overestimated her importance in Ethan's heart.
After killing some more, Tenas saw Ethan becoming increasingly ferocious on the battlefield and stubbornly refusing to join, but he still felt it wasn't enough.
It wasn't until he killed Reena to gain ownership of the Alliance, and shortly afterward plotted to kill Bertha, that he finally saw a different Ethan.
That time, Ethan's voice was so sharp it cracked. It was the first time Tenas had ever heard Ethan make such a sound, and he wanted nothing more than to deafen him.
He unleashed all the magic he had learned on him, paying no attention to himself during the fight, only wanting to kill him. Even if he was injured more than the enemy, he was willing to kill him.
"It's all your fault, it's all your fault..." Even after being subdued and pinned to the ground by Tenas, he was still muttering to himself, "You killed Bertha..."
Speaking of Bertha, Tenas originally wanted to surprise Ethan with a gift, and wanted to use his favorite comic book packaging style. However, Bertha lost too many body parts in the process of killing him, and was missing some limbs, so he couldn't collect six gift boxes for Ethan.
Tenas felt a slight pang of guilt for not being able to deliver the surprise. Looking at the dazed Ethan, he leaned close to Ethan's ear to comfort him: "No, little Ethan, it's not my fault. Killing the opposing forces was something the Guardians had planned to do long ago. It wasn't that I selfishly wanted to kill your foster mother. You deserve credit for it too." Just kidding, I had a lot of selfish motives, hehe.
Her eyes, which had been staring blankly at the dark sky, slowly turned to look at him, and blinked sluggishly.
“Because I still have a tiny bit of selfishness on my mind~” Tenas said sweetly, making a tiny gesture with one hand and pinching Ethan’s cheek with the other, with an almost innocent feel to it: “Because I still want little Ethan to become a Guardian—if you were here, you could have suppressed this decision, and Bertha wouldn’t have died, but what could I do? You didn’t join, and the other Guardians agreed that I should kill Bertha, so she died.” He added a playful wink as he spoke.
"I...I?" Ethan was dazed, his pupils trembling violently.
“Yes!” Tenas responded positively, offering emotional support and wondering how Ethan would react this time. He figured Ethan wouldn’t be able to hit him.
Snap.
It's the sound of water dripping.
Tenas's voice vanished in an instant, and his body froze.
Hot tears slid down Ethan's cheeks and flowed into Tenas's palm, burning him so badly that he recoiled as if electrocuted.
Perhaps this is the temperature of magma? Tenas wondered.
Ethan let out a very soft moan, covered his eyes with his arms, and cried silently, his tears quickly soaking large patches of his clothes.
This was the first time Tenas had seen Ethan cry.
It was different from what he had imagined, and different from the tears he had seen from others before.
Those people's tears were tears of resentment, pleas for mercy, and anger; their voices were shrill, either shouting or cursing in anguish.
Ethan, on the other hand, was silent, making no sound whatsoever. He was just quietly crying, and you might not even notice him crying if you didn't see him. His body was trembling from crying, and his breathing was rapid; he had probably cried so much that he was experiencing some respiratory alkali poisoning.
But Ethan's crying was the most deadly thing, pinning Tenas to the spot, making him unable to move.
Ethan didn't know how long he had been crying, but when he let go of her arm, his eyes were bloodshot.
“I really regret meeting you,” Ethan said.
Thump!
Tenas heard a series of sounds, but he didn't know where they came from. However, the sound was like a thunderclap that shattered his eardrums.
Ethan left, his steps steady, leaving Tenas behind, staring in the direction he had gone, unable to come to his senses for a long time.
...
They truly broke up completely after that. It was several weeks later when Ethan saw him again. No one knew what he had done, but Ethan appeared before him with a disfigured face. His once bright eyes were now filled with hatred and murderous intent, and there was nothing left but emptiness. Their relationship had reached its lowest point, and Ethan dreamed of killing him.
At first, Tenas thought there was a chance for him to become a guardian, but later he came to terms with reality and realized that with this deep-seated hatred, the possibility of becoming best friends was over.
Tenas didn't regret killing Bertha; Bertha was going to die sooner or later anyway. He was just annoyed that he had misjudged the situation and hadn't realized how much Bertha meant to Ethan.
No, it might not just be about losing Bertha; it's about all the people lost before, which are now erupting in anger.
For many years to come, things remained the same. The number of wizards was slowly decreasing, and every time Ethan saw him, he wanted to take him down with him.
Even Nadia, after Reena's death, became distant from him, becoming polite and respectful like his subordinate, filled with fear of him. She no longer showed the somewhat mischievous nature she had as a child, and her mental state was precarious, especially after she killed someone.
...Reena used to not let Nadia do those kinds of missions, but rather give her some minor, insignificant tasks, which is why Nadia was excluded from the Guardians' power circle.
After repeatedly stopping Nadia's suicide attempt, even Tenas was exhausted and couldn't help but recall the past.
Do I regret it? Or will I not regret it?
He just regretted that he had made such a rash decision back then; he should have had better options.
Little Ethan's counterpart was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect that they would both be guardians in other worlds, so they weren't that close, but they seemed to be good friends.
Little Ethan's counterpart is really like Little Ethan when he was a child—a somewhat shy, kind-hearted character who doesn't know how to refuse others, and is also a bit too trusting. He easily gleaned a lot of information from people, which made Tenad have wicked thoughts and want to try to repair the relationship.
The result, of course, was no good. After sending Ethan to little Ethan, they never heard from him again. It was a failure after all...
Well, there's nothing I can do about it. It's time to end this boring life, since that's the outcome little Ethan wanted... and I can't save someone who's determined to die.
So, that's settled then.
The world is still in chaos. The residents of his city can only maintain a superficial peace. His power has indeed declined, but not by much, which shows that the stable and prosperous city is just a dream. He has no way to change the world or make it the way he wants it to be. Instead, he makes the world worse.
Like now, if the world were a book, he would definitely be the villain, so he's a bit tired.
Hopefully, Ethan will like his final choice, and he will get what he wanted.
He just wanted to fulfill a long-held wish for little Ethan at the very end, and maybe little Ethan would be happy.
It seems he wasted his life.
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Author's Note: Regret over Tenas: It's just a pity.
In conclusion, this explains why Tenas is afraid of Ethan's tears. I feel like even writing about their deep-seated hatred is a bit silly; I really don't know how to write anything dramatic.
The department is so busy. I only worked one day yesterday, and I already wanted to end my internship after just one day. So many people on the day shift are so busy, I really can't imagine what my night shift will be like. Tomorrow I'm starting...
None of my favorite departments were included in the seven busiest departments I was assigned to [gynecology isn't busy, so it's excluded]. My update schedule is unstable and the frequency is not guaranteed; I can only guarantee one update per week because I have one day off each week. However, if there's a ranking list, I'll try to write more [even though it's practically nonexistent].
I've been fishing in Green and White lately, you can check it out.
There will probably be a Nadia side story later, part of the World Bif route.
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