Arata returns to his room, taking the bit of time until they fight to unwind for one last time. It's do or die but he can't focus.

  “Ravenna, you gave Rachamah a 40% right? Can you give me your interpretation of the fight?”

  Ravenna thinks for a bit, complete silence waiting for a proper response to form. “I give her a- no 40% isn't right, a real fight’s too varied to attribute it to a statistic. Besides, you wouldn't feel safe enough with any answer but a 100%. Instead, I'll just give you a warning: if you want to get the Erlking's script, you might have to fish him out of Rachamah's throat.”

  I appreciate the sentiment but that is a disgusting picture… “I'm fine on this one. I'm not going for 100% completion of a bestiary.”

  Ravenna nods, ascending back into the theater to leave Arata alone with his thoughts.

  *Knock knock*

  A familiar, timid voice echoes, “Hey… Morgan, could I go in to talk first?”

  A slightly competitive and tired voice responds, “He’s still my squire first. So no, sorry.”

  Celine and Morgan together? “Hey, you two just both come in for now. I think it's be good to talk to both of you before the battle anyway.”

  They both comply, entering the room yet now, seemingly, both their limbs crumble apart as soon as they pass the doorframe.

  Hmm, Celine’s probably been training nonstop while Morgan just finished the trek. Fair reaction.

  Morgan takes off her helmet before melding into her seat, her hair falling majestically alongside her form.

  Arata goes silent, concealing his reaction towards her with a smile. I’m still not quite used to it… Oddly makes sense, Morgan being royalty. I just wish I could know more about her.

  “Celine, you don’t seem too surprised at Morgan’s face. You think others are curious about what’s under the helmet as well?”

  Celine stops in confusion, “Arata, did it ever occur to you that a homonculus might be out of the loop. I don’t really have the context why that’s a plot twist.”

  Morgan’s eyes go white with shock, “I should be the one surprised… can’t you lay onto me the fact that this country’s hero is a homonculus more tactfully?”

  Arata stops, an awkward silence permeating the space, “Well, you’re not shouting over the fact, so you’re fine?”

  “No you’re mistaken, my brain still hasn’t registered if it should or not.”

  Arata nods before turning to Celine, opening up the topic straight away, “So, what brings you here?”

  “I wanted to talk to you before the battle arrived. Mostly just here to calm my nerves, expectations come from being around the soldiers and the rest of my party.” Celine tries to explain through her flustered state.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  No, you definitely worked hard. I hope the hero can at least go into the battle before growing unnerved.

  Morgan clears her throat, “Well, I was hoping the rest of the squad could join us. I wanted to offer my sincere thanks. When you left our squad, it was only thanks to your discoveries about our enemiesthat we made it out the other side.”

  Continuing, Morgan tags on, “We even heard about an active Oni tribe but the path you created allowed us to avoid fighting them. How did you find that whole Rabbit hole?”

  “Uhhh… it was all calculated I guess?” Stop lying to yourself. Maybe that's what's been getting to me… not just me, but her too.

  “Celine, since coming to this world, I slowly been able to piece together why the original hero committed suicide. Especially since fighting here and now.” A tear finds itself on Arata's cheek.

  “The world we come from was peaceful, vastly more technologically advanced. We were capable of designing explosives that leveled cities so countries grew too scared to fight each other. The people of many countries stopped seeing war. Yet being the hero of this world means you must become a hero of war.”

  With a newly found darker expression, Arata gives himself a second to breathe before continuing, “You are the propaganda to ease the people's fear placing expectation, every time you lose, it becomes everyone else's loss. In fighting, you will see death, yet when I took a life for the first time, I felt my body revolt. I was thanked for it because it was the right thing to do. Yet from my perspective, I couldn't take it.”

  “Leading those men through the woods, I have never done something so terrible, witnessed a life of loss so great. It was then that I realized, I couldn't live with being what this world wanted to make of me.”

  Arata passionately gets to his final point, shaking and speaking through an ugly face, “I- I'm too much of a coward to abandon others, I- I push myself to the limit, I-I fear I'll fail. I tell myself it's all I can do, if I do all I can, then that's enough but it's not, Morgan. I didn't plan to avoid those Oni, it was by pure luck that I wanted to investigate the area, by pure luck, I made it out of the very abandoned prison we first met. I wasn't meant for this.”

  Arata feels his tears being wiped away on Morgan's shoulder. His cold, introspective unravelling was cut short by a warm embrace.

  Morgan slowly speaks, “Arata, I, as a sheltered princess knows what it's like to adapt to such a life. Yet it is due to that I cannot begin to fathom how much you were suffering in silence this entire time. I made it so much harder for you, with the expectations I placed but I won't say sorry.”

  “The royal family is obsessed with record keeping, the preservation of our history and selves is the most important thing to us. It's where I learned about our military’s history. We used to employ a tactic called the Faded death runners… you’ve seen already if you exhaust your mana what monster you turn into.”

  Despite her body's warmth, her words were cruel and brutal, “We planned to make people expend all their mana, using their final moments to charge at the enemy, no cover, no weapons. This ensures the mutual destruction of both sides. To March to war means you're already dead. It happens even on its own, faded beings tend to pop up during wartime.”

  Then why- “Morgan, then why did you talk about saving those men in the camp with us? You acknowledge that they’re already dead.”

  “If they survive the battle, they return to life. I’m just not so quick to give up on the dead. Arata, even if you can only save a single life. That's one reason you can live with yourself.”

  Arata, Morgan and Celine all stopped. The words needed time to marinate, although not directed at her, that piece of advice was equally coveted by Celine.

  Eventually, the two of them leave the room, Arata warps himself into the theater.

  Ravenna upstairs, gaming away on her console, she had gotten lazier every time she didn't have something to do, now that Arata often put her to work.

  “Hey Ravenna, on the day when you told me that I could only move forward in this world. When I realized it was too late to go back to save those men, what actually was the difference I made that deviated from the original outcome?”

  Ravenna looks up at him, “10% of the men managed to survive, why do you ask?”