Chapter 59: Defeated ’Hero’, Layla Jauregia. Part-5.

"Do you think I will forgive you just because you saved my life once and helped me escape the capital!?"

Hearing those words, Layla lowered her head and didn’t even show anger after being slapped on the face.

"I am sorry, Xinran... I have failed as a friend."

"The royal prince... General Asterios was a great man; as his fiancée, I loved him the most. It took me a great deal of resolve to raise my sword against him too..."

"But... but believe me Xinran, he was already too far gone, and we had no way of saving him... he himself asked me to end his suffering!"

Hearing those words, Xinran’s expression became even more fierce as emotions like sadness, anger, and helplessness appeared on her beautiful face.

"Do you take me for a fool!?"

"He had the royal heirloom that granted immense resistance to miasmic corruption!!"

"I refuse to believe that he got corrupted so easily! Tell me the truth, Layla! Don’t force me to use my strength on my closest friend!"

At Xinran’s words, Layla just shook her head and refused to explain the matter in proper details.

"Xinran... it’s better if you don’t know about this; there is some knowledge in the world that can destroy your sanity just by knowing about them..."

"General Asterios was a strong man, and I loved him more than you can imagine, but... as a ’Hero’ I have the duty to keep evil at bay; I cannot let you fall prey to disaster by telling you information that will bring you harm!"

Xinran was not happy after hearing those words, and she grabbed Layla’s collar as her nails became longer and sharper like blades, almost ready to pierce Layla’s throat at any moment!

"Don’t play riddles with me, Layla; I know you’re hiding a lot from me! Tell me everything right now, or our friendship will be over from now on!"

A look of helplessness and distress appeared on Layla’s face as Xinran’s words put her in a dilemma.

She remained silent for a long time, and in the end, she could only close her eyes and speak only a few words in helplessness.

"No matter what you say Xinran... I am a ’Hero’ I cannot let my personal feelings cloud my judgement..."

"I couldn’t protect Asterios from suffering a fate like that, and for that I will forever be a ’Defeated’ Hero, but no matter how tarnished my name becomes, I cannot let the same things happen again to you..."

Hearing those words, Xinran’s heart shattered into pieces.

The friend that she cherished more than her own life, the fiancée of his brother, the ’Hero’ of their nation Layla, had betrayed her and killed her brother.

Layla did save her life when escaping and even tried to explain the matter to her, but her silence on the important matters increased Xinran’s doubt.

"Layla, in life there are some things that you must know the truth about even if it’s fatal!... You don’t understand! My parents have ignored my existence all my life; only he was the real family to me!"

"For me, he was the father and mother that had protected me from the true face of this godforsaken world!"

"Regardless of what dire circumstances he faced in his final moment, I must find out about it! And for that, I can even gamble my life!"

Seeing that Xinran was not going to calm down, Layla shook her hand off and stepped back.

"You are not in the right emotional state, Xinran; you will eventually come to understand my decisions once you calm down."

"Going back to the capital will be dangerous, and if you stay with me, you will never have a day of peace... It would be better for you to go to ’that’ secret hiding place for now..."

"I will go take care of any troubles that might bring us harm in the future; we can talk once I have made sure that there are no more pursuers."

With that said, Layla’s body suddenly glowed brightly with moonlight, and before Xinran could react, she flew away into the distance with such speed that it seemed like she was teleporting!

"Where do you think you are going Layla!? We aren’t finished talking yet!!"

Xinran shouted at the fading glow near the horizon, but Layla ignored her and left without giving any proper explanations. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"I hate you, Layla! I hate you!! Don’t think you can run away just like that! I will find you sooner or later!!"

Powerless, with no family and no place to call home left for her, Xinran collapsed on her as tears appeared in her eyes.

Sitting all alone on the cliff, she seemed like a fragile girl abandoned by everyone and everything in the world.

There was no one to hear her cries, there was no one to share her sadness, and there was certainly no one left in the world that she could rely on in times of need.

Xinran was now just an aimless boat wandering the vast ocean with no destination in mind.

Looking at this scene, Zephyr could only sigh and shake his head.

’This is why I don’t like making friends... in the end, there’s no such thing as absolute loyalty...’

’Well, their argument is likely just because of some misunderstanding, and if the two of them talk things out, they can solve the matter...’

’What’s more intriguing here is that Layla... who’s clearly quite strong, likely even stronger than Xinran, is refusing to talk about a certain ’Knowledge’ that she mentioned...’

Zephyr had read his fair share of manga and anime and knew that often times, whenever some high-rank beings or matters related to them are involved, that kind of knowledge is something that most people cannot handle.

Just knowing the true name of a powerful entity is enough to erode a person’s mind and completely shatter their soul, as just knowing it would put an immense burden on their soul.

’But of course, I can understand Xinran’s point of view too...’

’There’s no knowing if Layla is really unable to tell or if she’s hiding some other secret or some other plan of her own.’

’Xinran might have a reason to raise these doubts too...’

The memory fragment was quite interesting to watch as it seemed to be telling Zephyr about the lore of this horror world.

’The more I know about this world, the better it would be for me, as I would have more advantages later on...’

’Even if it’s just random useless knowledge, it’s still welcome...’