It was already night; he had wasted the whole day, Kopii thought as he walked through the streets of Orario. Why did it work out? Why didn't it succeed? Kopii thought about Raven, about how he had spent a lot of time trying to copy Raven's feelings, but all in vain.
"Maybe I was wrong." But Kopii's thoughts were interrupted by a jolt. Someone bumped into him. The sharp smell of alcohol hit his nose. Kopii frowned, feeling nauseous from the smell, and wanted to leave quickly. "Excuse me," he said, walking away.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" He froze. "That voice…" flashed through his mind. Turning around, Kopii focused his gaze on the person he had bumped into. His brows furrowed as he approached the stranger.
"Oh, it's you, Kopii," the man spoke. "I'm so glad you're alive…" But before he could finish, a punch landed in his gut. "Kha, kha, what are you doing?" Yet, he didn't stop; he struck again, this time in the face.
"What do you think, you've leveled up? I'll show you your place," he said in anger, drawing his sword. "You forgot that pain."
Hearing this, hatred began to fill Kopii. He lunged at Gedo like a wild beast, blow after blow.
"Stop, stop!" But his cries were in vain. Leaping away from Kopii, Gedo felt pain radiate through his body from the hits. "This is illegal. I didn't do anything to you; Kanao forced me…" Before he could finish, Kopii froze, a smile appeared on Gedo's face that he quickly tried to hide. "You're still a child," Gedo thought.
"I don't care. You made me go through that pain. You submerged me in despair," Kopii screamed, unable to contain his raging hatred. The more he looked at Gedo, recalling his contemptuous and superior gaze, the way he mocked his family, the more he remembered that pain…
Gedo watched as Kopii slowly lost control, hiding his hand behind his back. He grabbed the concealed magical blade. "I'll show you your place." He began to approach Kopii but froze halfway. His eyes turned black; Gedo thought, horrified by what he saw.
Now all of Kopii's attention was solely focused on Gedo. Gedo felt weakness in his legs from Kopii's glare. He could no longer move; his body trembled continuously. The pounding of his heart echoed in his ears. He didn't understand why he felt such fear before him.
"Kopii…" he uttered in a trembling voice. That was the last thing he said before the flame attacked him. Blow after blow. Cracking sounds were heard.
"Stop… Aaaaaaa…" Gedo cried out in pain. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…" Kopii thought, recalling that despair.
Bam. He flew back against the wall. "I didn't react in time," he thought, realizing he had come to his senses. His vision was blurry, but slowly, steadily, it began to return to normal. Finally, he was able to see who had attacked him, or rather, to be more precise, her.
It was a beautiful elf. She had green hair. Kopii recognized her; he had seen her when his Raven invited him to eat at the "Goddess of Fertility." She was still wearing the same waitress outfit. Kopii felt the coldness of her gaze upon him.
As he stood up, he asked, "Why did you do this?" To his question, she merely narrowed her eyes. "I understand how this looks, but people like him deserve this kind of treatment."
"In my eyes, you just attacked and beat him to a pulp," she coldly replied, looking at Kopii. He understood her; who would believe him in this situation? Looking at the unconscious Gedo, he sighed. "This will serve as a lesson for him," he said, slowly walking away, not taking his eyes off the elf. He was afraid she might attack him.
Slowly but surely, Kopii left, drifting deeper into the darkness. He heard footsteps; someone was running toward him. Looking in the direction from which her friend should emerge…
"Ah, ha, I'm so tired. Where have you been, Ryu?" she said, leaning against the wall.
"I just heard a sound of a fight." After Ryu's words, she finally noticed the beaten man.
"Who could have done something so cruel?" she said, approaching the man and examining his wounds. "Come on, Ryu, help me; he needs help."
"Alright, Sir."
"How lucky I am," he thought about the recent incident as he walked home. She managed to defeat him in one hit, when he hadn't even heard or seen her approach, and especially when he was consumed by his thirst for revenge and hatred.
But Kopii was grateful to her, for if it hadn't been for her, he would have killed him and continued killing everyone until he was stopped. But Kopii didn't understand one thing: why did she let him go so easily? Maybe she believed me… But Kopii immediately dismissed that thought, for believing him would be utterly foolish, even if it were true. "I wonder what kind of family she comes from?" thought Kopii before entering the "Blue Pharmacy."
A week later…
"Kopii, I've been wanting to ask you one question: why do you live in my house?" Raven asked, looking at Kopii.
"If you don't like it, I can leave."
"No, no, I'm just curious," he said, taking a sip of tea.
"Well, to be honest, just because," Kopii said, getting up from the table. "Well, alright, I'll go; I need to help my family," he said, walking out of the basement.
"Why can't I? A whole week later…" thought Kopii. He had been trying to copy Raven's feelings all this time, but everything was in vain. No matter how hard he tried or how much time he spent with him.
Now he was sure his skill was passive. As frustrated as he was about this fact, there was nothing he could do about it. But the most important thing he realized over this week was that without the dungeon, his life was quite boring.
He spent the night at Raven's and then returned to help Nazah all day. He noticed that each day was more boring than the last. Nothing interesting happened in his life at all.
He realized one thing: he couldn't have a calm life as before. He was just bored with such a life. Kopii had never noticed this about himself before; there was a chance that he had also copied that feeling from someone without even realizing it. But Kopii dismissed that guess because he didn't want to waste time on it.
He had a lot to do. He didn't want to fill his head with useless conjectures that were likely just his imagination. With such thoughts, he spent the whole day.
"How was your day, Kopii?"
"Don't you get tired of asking the same thing every day, Raven?"
"No, I'm not tired. But, for example, today was an important day for me."
"And why is that?" he asked, turning to face him.
"I managed to join a family!" Raven said joyfully, hitting his chest. "See, I made it, and you said I wouldn't."
"Well, who is your god?" After this question, a long silence fell. Kopii didn't understand why he was silent for so long. The longer he continued to be quiet, the more irritation mounted in Kopii. "Why are you silent? It's a simple question."
"Uh, uh, alright, I'll tell you," he said, noticing Kopii's irritated face.
"Let's hurry up."
Seeing Kopii's impatience, he said, "I won't tell you; I won't tell you, but I'll give you hints to make it interesting."
"Are you kidding me?" Kopii said irritably. "Well, go on."
"There are just five of us in the family: me, the god herself, and three women. I'm the strongest."
"What? You're only level one; if you just joined today, what kind of family is this where the first level is the strongest? What a ridiculous family."
"What, Kopii, don't say that about them. You will get to know them well in the future, very well. Two of them you already know. So I'm sure you'll figure out which one I joined."
"I already know three?" Kopii asked again. "But I hardly know anyone. Why can't you just tell me?"
"Just like that, Kopii." After a moment of silence, he said more seriously: "Because it's our fate, Kopii."
"What?" Kopii replied in confusion. "What do you mean by our fate?"
"Well, alright, Kopii, don't fill your head with this," he said with a strange smile. "That's it, let's go to sleep. Tomorrow I'm going to the dungeon, but first, we'll celebrate this at the 'Goddess of Fertility.'"
"Well, alright," he said, closing his eyes and slowly falling asleep.
"Oh, and the last hint is my name. You know what my name means in raven?"
"Yes, I know."