Coincidentally or not, the two psychos were headed for a place familiar to the adventurers.
It was the exact same bar they'd visited right before the colossal battle broke out.
***
Just over two hours had passed since we started our slow trudge away from the battlefield.
Naturally, the both of us were barely fit to move quickly.
Kaela was injured, and I still needed some time to recuperate from the heavy mental blow she'd dealt me.
Well, that's what I'd like to say.
Truth be told, I was still terrified at the prospect of becoming a regular human, as I was barely stronger than a Second Tier without Voracity's help.
It was also quite a big shock, to learn that Voracity was a real being lodging within my soul, and not just some arbitrary name assigned to the Threadrippers' powers.
Wait, doesn't that mean… That it resided within every Threadripper, and not just myself?
No, couldn't have been the case. If the other Threadrippers also had the ability to draw as much power out as I did, they wouldn't have died so fucking miserably.
Eventually, I'd decided to stop worrying about all that crap, since there existed a perfect guy to ask for answers.
I'll just have to wait till Voracity recovers. Until then, the questions can wait.
The environment grew noisier. A pleasant kind of noise - brimming with life, unlike the oppressive sound of demonic howls.
And that was only natural. After all, we'd reached a human settlement. A segment of Nether yet to be overrun by demonic beasts.
I walked up a flight of stairs, catching stares from passing humans.
My heart skipped a beat; it felt like I were being scrutinized from all angles, the men's gazes being exceptionally burdensome.
But contrary to my fears, the stares eventually eased off, as if the people were losing interest.
Right. Nobody suspects a thing right now. I look no different from a human at the moment.
That raised a question of its own.
Why on earth does every person seem so interested in looking at me?
The answer came in an instant.
It's Kaela's fault, no doubt.
Something soft pressed against my back every time I took a step, even more distracting than before because of the stairs.
At last, my patience - along with my ability to handle the embarrassment - wore thin, and I threw a desperate look at the culprit.
"Yo, Kaela. My dearest of friends. Surely you can walk on your own two legs by now? Everyone's staring."
"What did you just say? Unbelievable… And here I was, thinking I could rely on my best friend for such a simple request. Alas, it seems I was mistaken about you."
With those words, Kaela threw her arms into the air in an exaggerated fashion, nearly falling off of my back as a result.
I quickly took a step back to balance her weight, after which she clung unto my shoulders even tighter.
"God, I wanna punch you so bad right now…"
"Hooh? Beating a defenseless, injured young maiden like myself? How unsightly of you."
"How the hell are you possibly a 'young maiden'? You're, like, twice my height! I could pass for your little brother, ya get me?"
I wasn't a joke, either - with me having reverted to my teenage appearance, one could easily mistake me for a child.
And of course, Kaela was a head taller than even my grown height.
All in all, we looked damn ridiculous; an unusually short kid piggybacking an unusually tall woman.
The ragged clothes didn't help one bit.
It was no wonder, then, that every passing human took the chance to throw us furtive looks.
Actually, I take that back. Those looks ain't furtive in the slightest - they're drilling holes through my back.
Well, whatever. I'm an adult, mentally at least, so I can handle a few weird glances just fine. What I can't handle, thought, is Kaela's soft pair. Ugh…
"Aight, since I can't beat you logically, lemme just say it how it is - I'm losing my mind here, my dear friend! Your outfit was already too provocative, and now it's torn to shreds on top of that. So please, for the love of god… Just get off already."
Just as I feared, an ominous laugh rung out from the girl on my back.
"Hehehe, is our little Ori getting flustered? My stunning figure giving you impure thoughts?"
Kaela's voice was thick with sarcasm, and I could tell she was mischievously smiling from the tone alone, without any need to see her expression.
Clearly, she was expecting me rebuke.
But I've already made up my mind. If I wanted her get off for real, I'd have to be genuine, just this once.
And so, I pushed the desire to argue back deep down, and voiced my thoughts:
"Yes, I'm getting flustered! Happy now? Look, I spent half a decade living alone like some sorta recluse, no people in sight. So how, pray tell, am I supposed to remain calm when a stupidly attractive girl like yourself gets all close and personal?!"
I growled those words out, voice raised to mask the my intense embarrassment.
…Which didn't sound imposing in the slightest, what with the prepubescent voice.
Shit man, I wanna fall through the floor right now.
Within these bustling streets, nobody but Kaela heard my pathetic outburst; my voice was buried in the noice.
Well, that wasn't quite true - none of the mundane humans reacted, but there were exceptions.
Three of them, to be exact.
***
The three in question had blank expressions on their faces, unable to comprehend the words they'd just heard leave Ori's mouth.
Eventually, Bill broke the silence:
"Rennie… You wouldn't happen to have messed with the sound transmission?"
"I did not."
But she curtly denied the accusation, eyes dead. It was the look of a child who'd just walked in on their parents doing the deed - disgust, contempt, or perhaps both.
"Are we sure this is the right guy? 'That' Ori? You know, the one who just killed thousands of people in cold blood..?"
Kanna chimed in, her tone filled with just as much disbelief as her two companions.
"He just said that he'd lived as a hermit for half a decade. It must be him."
Bill stated the obvious, though it seemed as if he was having difficulty accepting his own words.
"…"
"…"
They stood in silence, no longer able to deny the truth laid out before them, before Kanna voiced another theory:
"We might still be wrong - not about his identity, but the integrity of his words."
"How so?"
Bill raised an eyebrow, unsure how Ori's words could possibly be spun to make it make sense.
"Just think about it. The Threadripper's got years of experience hiding his identity; hell, he even managed to deceive us at first. What I'm trying to say is - he's probably putting on an act."
Kaela's mental gymnastics made sense, to an extent; it was a perfect way of mystifying their opponent, in line with the image of a cold, heartless killer.
It was in their best interest, to see Ori as some sort of evil mastermind, dead set on wiping out humanity to quench his insatiable hunger.
But on the off chance that he never intended to cause this scene - but was instead a victim of circumstances, forced to take drastic measures for survival, and capable of feeling the same human emotions as any other…
Well, then the blame for the atrocious bloodshed would land squarely on the adventurers' shoulders.
After all, Ori never intended to fight us. And not just that - we poked the bee's nest ourselves, initiating a fight that could have otherwise been peacefully avoided.
"Sound logic."
Bill replied dryly, though his words didn't reflect his inner thoughts.
"Right?"
Kanna readily accepted Bill's agreement as evidence enough, but Bill wasn't done talking yet:
"But you're wrong. Did you see him get all queasy in embarrassment? That was real… As much as I hate to admit it, he's not that amazing at acting, or we would've never caught him red handed."
Bill's face was grim as he spoke. Kanna's and Rennie's faces slowly took on the same look.
Ori isn't an evil genius, or anything of the sort.
That would've been easy to accept. The reality, however, was much more grim.
"We dragged a person, whose only goal was a life of seclusion, into human territory, where he was forced to fight for his life-"
"-And, left with no other choice, he did what he had to, all because of us."
Kanna finished Bill's words, no longer able to deny the obvious.
Some more memories surfaced; Ori's distraught mental state upon slaying the king, and his saddened gaze across the battlefield.
He never wished for things to end up the way they did.
"…Shit."
Finally, they believed that the truth had been uncovered.
Ori is victim. And we made him such.
And thus began the first ridiculous misunderstanding, in a chain of many yet to come.
***
Kaela didn't know how to respond.
She was prepared for any scenario, even ready to receive a sucker punch for teasing too hard.
And yet, her friend's genuine admission was not one of them.
Did he just call me attractive? For real? Him, of all people?
Unable to pick any good response in this mind boggling situation, she wordlessly got off of Ori's back, landing shakily on her injured legs.
I mean, I did try squeezing a flustered reaction out of him, but he should've retaliated. What the hell do I say now?
Even more unexpected than Ori's bizarrely honest admission was her own reaction.
Kaela felt really weird - weirdly happy, to be exact.
Okay, let's think about this rationally; I've known the guy for less than a month, and he's the biggest piece of shit. Plus, I've seen a plethora of handsome men before, and their compliments never got through to me.
So this feeling of joy - it must've been caused by head trauma.
Umm, do I need to see a doctor, then?
Thanks to the self induced delusions, Kaela succeeded in calming her frantic state of mind.
Just then, the dreadfully awkward silence was broken by the man in question:
"Uhh… Kaela. Hey!"
Ori called out to her with a scratch of his head.
"Yessir! What? No, I mean - yeah, what's up?"
Kaela's response came out as a jumbled mess, entirely unlike her usually verbose manner of speech.
"We're here."
"Humm?"
She raised her gaze from the ground to look around. And indeed, they'd reached the bar.
This is my chance; nothing better for seeing all this awkwardness out than a good meal in a bustling pub!
With those thoughts, Kaela confidently strode inside. Ori promptly followed, just as relieved to be rid of the weird tension.
***
How strange. I'm not hungry despite losing my powers. I thought I'd become entirely human-like, but I suppose that's not the case?
Still, the taste of human meals was divine.
…For the most part.
The steak was juicy, potatoes soft, and bread fragrant.
"Holy shit Kaela, have you been eating like royalty all along? Ya know, I might be ever so slightly jealous."
"Ahaha!! Right, I almost forgot you were a hermit for a second. This is slop, my friend. Cheapest food money can buy."
She kicked her head back in laughter at my amazement, but I wasn't offended; a larger revelation took the forefront.
"…No way. You're telling me better food exists?!"
"Oh, you have no idea."
That was perhaps the biggest shock I'd experienced today, even rivaling the discovery of Voracity's identity.
I wanna rave about how awesome humans are, but that would be a bit too much of a giveaway, eh?
Unfortunately, I still had to upkeep the image of an uneducated country bumpkin, as behaving my identity revealed in my useless state would spell instant doom.
Glimmering with excitement, my eyes darted from one dish to the next, before eventually landing on a mug filled with a golden colored drink.
This must be a delicacy, even amongst the meals present - one look at everyone's enthusiasm over this drink is enough of a tell.
Even the overly spoiled humans, who unenthusiastically chewed on what could only be described as steaks sent from the heavens, downed mug after mug of the fizzy beverage.
I wiggled my fingers like a perverted old man, expression off-putting to say the least, and grabbed the mug.
As I slowly brought it to my mouth, hands quivering in anticipation, I noticed a disgusted frown in my peripheral vision.
"Ahh, why are you looking at me like that, my dearest of friends? Can't a man show his true emotions for once?"
Though I directed my words at Kaela, my eyes remained laser focused on the drink.
"I din't say a thing, Ori. Your imagination's running wild."
"Heh, sure it is. Anyways, wish me luck, Kaela; might just go into anaphylactic shock from sheer joy."
A slight smile formed on her lips.
"I'll make sure to resuscitate you if that happens - just don't blame me if I break a rib or four in the process."
My hands paused, mere centimeters separating my mouth from the drink as I turned to look at Kaela with a mockingly hurt face.
"Come on now, that's not fair. Surely I deserve a mouth to mouth resuscitation after saving you from a lifelong prison sentence?"
"What are you talking about, dimwit? Tryna get me in jail for intimacy with a child? One month in the Royal Detention was plenty, please and thanks."
My hurt expression became genuine.
"That was a low blow, Kaela, going for the touchy subject of my appearance. Ya think I look like this on my own accord? Hell no!
Actually, you know fine well that I'm older than you! …Even if I don't quite look the part."
However, as if getting pleasure out of my suffering, her grin only widened.
"All I hear is the cries of a prepubescent teenager going through a phase, Ori. And anyways, mouth to mouth is reserved for romantic novels, not real life."
I could only nod in agreement.
With the second part of her statement at least.
"True that. Actually, I wanna complain about something real quick; ya ever read children's tales before?
There's this idiotic trope the heroes like to have, where they go 'Oh how unfortunate. Looks like I have no other way of saving the princess, so excuse me, but I'll have to steal your first kiss for myself. This is all for your sake…' And then, after spouting some bullshit like that, they go for the lips. Urgh…"
I felt myself growing unreasonably riled up at just the thought of those brain dead stories, the urge to beat someone to a pulp welling up.
"Right?! I must say, you seem to have a better head on your shoulders than I gave you credit for."
Why throw in a jab, when you could've just agreed with me? Well, whatever. Something like that couldn't possibly ruin my perfect mood right now.
Realizing that I couldn't do a thing about her love for being annoying, I shelved the conversion with my professional aggravator of a friend and returned to the ever so lovely, golden colored beverage.
My heart raced.
Just what kind of delicacy am I about to experience? Hehehehe…
Finally, I carefully brought the mug right to my lips, and with a slow tilt, allowed the liquid to grace my taste buds.
My pupils dilated, eyes springing wide open.
"…"
*Pshhh!!*
And then, I proceeded to spit the golden liquid straight outta my mouth, expression changing to one of sheer disgust.
"Eww, what the fuck is this?! Did I just take a swig of pisswater?!"
It was among the worst tastes I'd ever experienced. In the bottom ten, at least.
Demonic beast guts, Sepulcher hearts, rotten kidneys - you name it, I've tried it.
So, when I say this drink ranks amongst the worst, you best believe I'm not kidding.
Now, let's get back to the new issue at hand:
Another, uhh, 'incident' occurred.
It seems like I was too absorbed in my inner thoughts to notice at first, but there did appear to be a human before me.
One I haven't met before.
And currently, they were soaked in the piss colored - and piss tasting, might I add - drink. The big gulp of it that I'd just spat out, to be exact.
I looked them up and down, a blank expression on my face.
They returned the blank stare, perhaps even more surprised than myself.
Mhm, so that's how it is. Of course; couldn't have been any other way…
The person, being a girl with an oversized pointy hat, was unmistakably a sorceress.
A really powerful one, judging by numerous runes inscribed on her skin.
Okay, let's break the situation down: I just spat a mouthful of urine(?) at somebody whom I couldn't afford to anger, even at my full strength.
Which I'm not right now.
And on top of that, Kaela is way too injured to put up any proper fight.
So all in all, I'd say my predicament is rather straightforward:
I'm fucked…