Chapter 42: Apologize

42 42 - Apologize

Abigail was a beautiful woman, apparently 19 years old, with long black hair that was tied in a ponytail so as not to disturb her during the battles mainly because she was an archer and depended a lot on her own vision to be able to hit an enemy; having hair covering her face would be inconvenient. Her appearance was the option most likely to be the fault of why she was so arrogant even though she was still 19 years old with no sort of achievement to support this arrogance Noah figured in his mind.

It was common knowledge that the younger someone was, the more impulsive they were, too, so Noah just determined it to be the fault of her age. Since Noah had no contact with anyone his age except Carlos, who was forced to be mature because of the family business, and Noah himself had to mature very early in order to survive alone, he did not know what other people's mentalities were like from about the same age.

"Okay, after we leave I will talk to you outside the Fortress," Jasper told Noah before leaving, after seeing that Abigail wanted to talk to Noah.

Noah nodded in agreement to Jasper and turned to Abigail. Looking at her, Noah remembered what happened before they entered the Fortress, as well as all the arrogance she had also displayed at the Rank F Fortress at which they met and the little scenario that happened before they came to attack the goblin camp. What made him realize how strange it was was that she remembered his name even though they never had any kind of interaction with each other besides that Rank F Fortress. He himself only remembered her name because he was reminded of it by Jasper, since from the encounter at the Fortress that happened a few years ago, Noah automatically forgot her name because it was not an important name in his life.

Abigail looked at Noah and was unable to know what he was thinking, as he always kept a poker face staring as if he were bored. She noticed this seemed to be a more recent development in his character, since before, he was definitely more cowardly than not. When Abigail had first met him, she was, like her other girl friends, captivated by his handsome appearance, but upon discovering that he was just a Blessed Rank F, all her interest in him was replaced out of contempt, since she would only want someone powerful to be associated with herself.

This would have been the end of their interaction, except for the irony of fate. Today she had met him again, and not only had he become more beautiful than when she first met him, but he had also become much stronger - even stronger than she herself was. Abigail wasn't stupid; she knew she had already spoiled any kind of good relationship she could have had with him because of the way she acted before, but she still wanted to work things out. "Hi..." She spoke in a low voice.

"I... I'm sorry. I talked to my friends and they made me understand how wrong it was, what I did. I'm sorry for everything I said. I believe I ended up getting carried away by prejudices that I had and if you hadn't shown up, those three wouldn't have been the only ones to die to the Boss. I don't expect you to forgive me; you have every right to feel the way you want. But I at least wanted to show my gratitude that you left this matter aside and still helped us. I hope at least we can get on with our lives and leave what I did behind," Abigail said as she looked at the floor, sometimes looking up momentarily, but quickly looking away again out of shame.

Seeing her reaction, Noah couldn't help raising an eyebrow in amazement once again. He was used to people talking poorly about him. If he was going to hold a grudge against everyone who wronged him and keep wishing evil on each one of them, his heart, which was already very well occupied by his sister and good things, would have had no more space; since so many people did terrible things to him, there would be so much resentment that he would go into depression.

But seeing that Abigail was really sorry from her body language, due to her constantly looking at the floor and messing with her hair which meant nervousness, Noah was surprised, as this was the first time anyone was mature enough to apologize to him.

Harry and Wendy were the two great recent examples of immaturity: even though their lives were practically saved by Noah, because of childish pride they took him as an enemy. But Noah had already become so accustomed to dealing with troubled and childlike people like them that dealing with someone mature like Abigail was a breath of fresh air.

With a serious look on his face, but an amused smile, Noah replied. "Your apology has been accepted. Don't worry that I would hold a grudge for something silly like what happened before. I'm happy to see your attitude; few people are able to bow their heads and accept their error when they do something wrong."

Hearing this, Abigail felt relieved, and with a smile she went over towards a woman's corpse. Noah, seeing this, assumed that the woman could have been her friend.

Suddenly a section of the forest distorted and a large black portal with the familiar purple plasma was available for the Blessed to cross.

Some just went through the portal; others gave a last farewell to one of the corpses; while the big man who carried the goblin was now carrying the corpse of a young man while he had a sad expression on his face.

Noah watched this all from the side while looking at the Boss, or rather the ashes left over from the now burned Boss.

The Boss's bow had already been sold to an archer and the money would be distributed evenly to all the Blessed. Noah already had one of the daggers, and no one dared to ask him to pay for the dagger after he practically saved the lives of each of the Blessed at least once during the invasion.

Now alone, Noah was happy to see that a corpse had been left abandoned. Looking at it, he knew he couldn't take long, since even if nobody said anything, someone might still have a doubt that he had stayed because he was a pervert, since the corpse that remained was that of a woman.

Noah obviously wasn't a pervert, so he quickly conjured the flames of hell and set fire to the woman's entire body.

When looking at the body beginning to be burned, Noah's only concern was whether this woman would have sinned enough to make "cleansing" possible or not, and that she might just be turned to ashes.

Noah didn't take long to think about it, since as soon as the woman started to be truly burned, a system message appeared floating in front of him.

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[Today: 4/6]

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