“Hey! What happened to her and why do we even have to fight! You haven’t explained much! And what is her weakness meant to be!”

  “It’s just that she’s someone from the past and I made a promise that I would bury her and defeating her is the only to leave this place. The only real way to leave any attacks on her is to beat her hard. But just focus on defeating her."

  “Beat her hard?”

  Raelia had a confused look and Ciel nodded.

  “Give her a beating that she can never forget. Something to punish her for all the times that she had called me a door-mat.”

  “Uh sure. Since we are going to fight her, it’s natural that will end up happening. Even though I don’t know what life is like in the outside world or your drama with this woman I will continue fighting by your side because you are my friend and ally!”

  “Good. Don’t let her have a moment of peace!”

  My eyes flared up with crimson determination as the battle started once more.

  —

  It was the day following that Mnestia would come to me with an odd look. For whatever reason she had decided to dye her hair red. An action in defiance in our village elder's traditions and mandates which held our natural green hair as something supreme. It was also an action of hers that caused a fair of controversy in her own family…

  “Was it really something that you had to do?”

  “It’s odd to see you be the first person to start conversations but I don’t regret it in the slightest. Green hair can be beautiful and does fit on people like you but for people like me, green hair isn’t exactly fro me. Green hair is meant to be for calm people but I am not calm in the slightest because I am a hopeless adrenaline junkie so naturally red fits me better.”

  “You know if you continue to live like this, the others may be looking at you in an unfavorable light.”

  “They were already looking at me in an unfavorable light for whatever reason. For being rich, for being a Gaia Hair, or being born to a well-off family. Another justification for them to hate me don’t bug me at all. Those guys can continue hating and it won’t affect me at all!”

  “Aren’t you afraid that one day that you will be declared as being one of the expelled. If that happens, people will be coming after you and I don’t know if you will b-”

  “People were already coming after me and I don’t care but if there is someone that has to kill me, I want it to be you. Rather than someone that I have never met in my life, I would rather have it be you.”

  I slapped her across the face as tears dripped down my face.

  “Why the hell would you even dream of me killing you!?”

  “I don’t want anything like that to happen but hypothetically if it has to come down to that, you have to kill me for my own sake. And sorry for making you stressed out.”

  “Don’t say such stupid things and cling onto the value of your own life and you better not do anything stupid.”

  “I won’t. I won’t. And it’s nice seeing you not act like a door-mat for a change. It’s something nice but I wish that it weren’t in circumstances like this that you decided to stop being a damn door-mat.”

  “Shut up about your door-mat stuff just take me seriously instead of babying me around.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “I’m sorry but what do you want to do in the future?”

  “WHat do you mean about that?”

  “I want to run away from the village after all just like you mentioned earlier, people will be coming after me because of the fact that I became one of the expelled and since you are going to be coming along after me, you should get your hair dyed as well.”

  “Huh?”

  Before I knew it, the very next day I was standing right side of a hair salon with Mnestia standing right at my side holding my hand. She chuckled as she saw my face.

  “What’s with that nervous look on your face? You look like someone’s going to stab you!”

  “Shut it… I don’t really want to hear it.”

  The door of the hair salon opened and a man came out. He was a man with well groomed brown hair and a fine mustache dressed in a black suit and tie. It was surprising to see someone like this out in the fields of no where but apparently his business was capable of running here.

  “Greetings young master Mnestia and who might this be? A friend of yours?”

  “Yeah I’d like to dye her hair and the only reason why I am here is to help you restrain her if she chickens out or anything like that.”

  “Hey! I only came along since you told me to come along not b-”

  “Chicken out you say? There’s no reason for you to worry at all young maiden, after all our hair color changing therapies are a quick process that will transform you into somebody new before you even know i t and besides if you do chicken out, I could take care of you myself.”

  “Umm… Was that a threat or something?’

  I thought to myself with a nervous expression across my face.

  “Haha! That’s a great joke but our place has jacuzzis which are perfect at sedating the soul and body!”

  The rest of the memory went by in a flash but ever since first seeing that man, I knew that there was suspicious about him. Something that would come to be brutally proven in our later years as adventurers.

  …

  “This is incredible! Your hair is pretty now that it’s black! It makes you look so charming and elegant so much more than your boring passive green color!”

  She grabbed my chin again and gave me a deep stare with those hypnotizing crimson eyes of hers and she smiled. We continued to stare at one another which caused visible confusion by the business owner.

  Me and Mnestia.We lived together and by each for most of our lives. We've even ran away from home for one another. Specifically I ran away in order to watch this rascal but after this moment of dying our hair, we were sisters for life rather than some friends from childhood.

  —

  ‘But why… Why do we have to fight now?’

  I thought to myself as I gripped my sword with a look of anxiety on my face as I faced her as I stood in the arena. After running away from home we decided to take upon various jobs as mercenaries in order to acquire a living. And the circumstances of this job called us to fight one another to the death…

  “Fuck… I should have read the fine print instead of you because of course you would miss out on the fine print.”

  I said with an irritated look.

  “It’s not really my fault since the guy was pressuring me.”

  “Even still what you did was stupid as hell.”

  Normally if a situation like this had occurred we wouldn’t have to fight one another and instead we would have just turned our back and stab the person responsible for this. But unfortunately that was not the case. The contract that we had signed was a magical contract and hence it had restrictions on our actions preventing us from our rebellion in killing our “master”.

  Magical contracts are an especially dangerous device which creates a vow around your self where if it is broken, you are guaranteed to die. That is assuming that the terms of the vows are not nullified through any special conditions. Something that was unlikely to happen but even still, the two of us continued to fight for one another and ourselves.

  Fighting slowly and with all the effort and endurance that we could, we fought for days and nights against one another to delay the inevitable. Only striking hardly at moments to make our battle seem convincing. Just for some sort of plot device to save us from this unfortunate fate, the two of us continued to fight to the displeasure of the arena master.

  He looked upon the two of us with a disgusted look. This battle had been going nowhere and he definitely wasn’t going to be making a profit off of such a monotonous battle but there was a way that he could benefit from this very situation.

  “The two of you can stop now. I am not longer interested in what the two of you can do. You’ve fought for far too long and all the spectators left to go home but now that I am looking at you two girls properly, the two of you are pretty beautiful.”

  Me and Mnestia stared at one another with a stare. Thankfully we didn’t have to fight each other to the death for the time being but now we have to pleasure this fucking bastard… Looks of clear and obvious anger formed on our faces.

  At the same time, a man was kicked into the arena as a care-free blonde man carrying a sword walked into the arena.

  “This is a nice place that you’ve got here Arena Master…. Or should I say Count Rodrigan Morgan.”

  “Wait! Who are you! It’s a crime to break and enter into the places of nobility and there is no reason for you to come into here!”

  “I am not a criminal after all I was given the task of beating corrupt bastards like you but to see you use adventurers and force them to battle each other to the death using a magical contract. That’s something that I can’t tolerate.”

  “Who the hell even are you! Don’t you know that I am a vital supporter of the king!”

  “The king? Who cares what the hell that old bastard says. God sent me.”

  With a single slash the head of the Arena Master was decapitated and fell onto the ground and with his death the magical contract had expired. The blonde man stared at the two of us.

  “Hey girls, I am surprised that you even lived for so long. Fighting for days and stuff. Would you want to become my secret friends?"

  The two of us immediately shook our heads. While we were grateful for this guy for saving our lives this guy was suspicious as hell and we weren’t going to sign our life off to another psycho.

  “That’s alright. I won’t force you. There’s someone else that I also wanted to meet here and I think they would be able to make up for what I’ve lost here. But just so you girls know, the guy’s treasury is in the basement and his key to the treasury is on his necklace.”

  "The care free blonde man walked away out into the distance as he waved to us with the back of his hand.

  “Thank you…”

  The two of us said.

  —

  From that day on, Mnestia began to train with the sword to try and become someone that could be respected by that mysterious blonde sword guy. But at the same time I decided to train with the spear which I was already using and with several decades the two of us became some of the strongest adventurers of the region.

  That was the case until that accursed day that took her away from me.

  —

  Blood dripped down my eye as I held her cold body in my hands. It wasn’t something that I didn’t want to do but it was something that needed to happen. It’s what you wanted so don’t blame me for it...