Broken walked slowly towards Charmelyn, who stood motionless. Now, her body appeared solid and no longer transparent as before. Although he wasn’t sure how much she knew about what had happened, he was certain he held a significant secret that he wasn’t ready to share just yet.
Standing in front of her now, Broken looked at her as she gave him a slight bow.
“Broken… forgive me,” she said softly. “I was curious about what happened after my guildmates left. Goldrich was here, too, but he didn’t make it to the end. I couldn’t hear what you were talking about over there; I could only see what was happening to you.”
Broken smiled and nodded. “I guess we haven’t had the chance to properly get to know each other.” He extended his hand towards her.
Charmelyn hesitated before shaking his hand. “I’m Charmelyn. My class is Elite-grade Stealthy Shadow. You could say I’m in the assassin category.”
Broken smiled and nodded again. “I’m a…” He hesitated.
“You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to,” she said softly, letting out a small giggle.
“So, what do you make of what happened?” he asked.
Charmelyn remained silent for a moment, her gaze drifting away before she answered.
“A Mythic-grade spirit was born, seemingly because of something you did. Most of my guildmates were killed because of it… and after that, I saw you talking to the spirit. Then… the spirit vanished. I don’t dare to draw any conclusions about what happened.”
Broken nodded slowly, recognizing that the events must have been vague and confusing to anyone witnessing them. Although individuals like Maylock and Goldrich might have some inkling of the truth, for now, it seemed the full extent of what had transpired remained unclear to most.
“I apologize for staying after Goldrich left,” she said. “I wanted to understand everything that was going on here, even if it wasn’t my place to know. You can trust me to keep everything I saw and heard a secret. I’ll watch over it all discreetly.”
This was the first direct conversation Broken had with Charmelyn. The Ass Guild had thirteen members, and while they had done many things for him-including losing their lives due to Gaia’s presence he hadn’t had the chance to speak with all of them until now.
“I don’t know what you’ve heard or what you know, but if more people find out what happened, I’m not sure what it will mean for my future,” he began cautiously. “But please, do me a favor and keep it under wraps until then.”
“You can trust me on this. I won’t say a word,” she replied confidently.
With Polly and Gaia at his side, Broken’s strength was gradually increasing, and he was slowly becoming a formidable player. Even though he wasn’t yet on the same level as the top players, he had obtained enough materials to craft his new weapon. He also planned to secure significant funds by offering his blacksmith services to some important people he knew, especially members of the Ass Guild. This would give him the resources needed to craft a full set of armor. There was still much work ahead.
“Thanks for understanding,” he said gratefully.
Charmelyn bowed slightly. “Consider it a token of friendship from me.”
“Thank you. I know the other members of the Ass Guild will have questions about what happened today, but I can assure you that I wasn’t entirely responsible for it,” he added, trying to keep his explanation vague.
“I understand. I hope there will come a time when you can provide clearer answers to everyone,” she responded.
He nodded. “Let’s head back to town,” he suggested, and she nodded in agreement.
As they made their way through the forest, the little four-tailed fox, Polly, appeared around Broken, causing him to stop in his tracks. He crouched down and gently petted her head. “Hi, Polly, are you okay?”
“Yes, Master,” she replied softly.
“Can you take us both back to the town?” he asked.
Under the moonlight, Polly’s form shimmered with a silver aura before growing larger.
Broken smiled and jumped onto Polly’s back. He extended his hand to Charmelyn. “Come on, we can get to town faster by riding my spirit beast.”
Charmelyn hesitated, her eyes diverting briefly before she accepted his hand and climbed onto Polly behind him.
He turned to her with a reassuring smile. “Polly can run pretty fast… just a heads-up,” he said, grinning.
With that, Polly darted through the forest, swiftly navigating the terrain. The journey back to the town was shrouded in a comfortable silence, with Charmelyn maintaining her characteristic quiet demeanor.
Occasionally, a monster would show up, but Charmelyn would cast a duplicate of herself that would quickly deal with it. Each clone handled the threat with ease, and her attacks were especially powerful against single targets.
“You’re really amazing… This is my first time seeing a high-level assassin in action,” Broken remarked, clearly impressed. “And those clones are cool too.”
Charmelyn nodded slightly. “Not really… I’m not on par with the others in the guild,” she replied humbly. “I am more…” she said softly, “amazed at what you do…”
Although riding Polly was faster, nighttime monster attacks proved harder to fend off, forcing them to stop repeatedly to fight. It was clear that Charmelyn’s stamina was nearly depleted from the hard battles they had faced since morning.
“You stay here, okay,” Broken said as he dismounted from Polly, but Charmelyn insisted on getting down too. However, Broken easily dealt with the monster.
He climbed back onto Polly, “Come on, we need to get back to town quickly.”
Charmelyn got back on Polly and rested her head against Broken’s back, knowing that her stamina was almost gone and she might pass out soon.
“Hold on to me,” he said. Reluctantly, Charmelyn wrapped her arms around Broken’s waist from behind.
After some time, they finally arrived at the town, dismounting from Polly right in front of the
town gates.
“I’ll log out here. See you next time,” Broken said, before vanishing from sight, leaving Charmelyn standing alone in quiet contemplation.
Charmelyn gently touched her mask, which had been damaged from the recent battle. After a moment, she removed it, taking a deep breath. “I have to fix this,” she muttered to herself.
“Broken…!!!”
A voice echoed from behind her, startling her. Spinning around, she found herself facing a woman clad in an archer’s outfit, her striking red hair standing out.
As Freya approached, Charmelyn stood frozen in place.
“Oh… haha… I was searching for him, but it appears he has already logged out,” Freya said with a casual laugh.
“Hello, Charmelyn. It’s nice to finally meet you. We haven’t had the opportunity to introduce ourselves before,” Freya continued.
Realizing that she had removed her mask, Charmelyn quickly put it back on, feeling exposed. They stood facing each other for a few moments. Charmelyn couldn’t help but wonder why Freya didn’t seem surprised to see her face. Had Freya known about her secret all along? This question lingered in Charmelyn’s mind as she felt a chill run down her spine. Charmelyn bowed slightly and looked at Freya. “You know me, don’t you?” she asked.
“Huh?” Freya looked surprised.
“Please, tell me you know my true identity?” Charmelyn pressed on.
Freya grinned at her. “What do you mean? I don’t understand…”
Charmelyn paused before speaking softly, “Can you keep this a secret?”
Freya’s expression grew serious. “Look… whatever happened between you two, I’m not
getting involved,” she said, smiling gently.
“Does he know that I’m someone he used to know?”
“You came here with him from the forest, riding Polly. Did he act like he knew your identity, Ms. Ex-girlfriend?” Freya replied with a giggle.
Charmelyn fell silent for a moment. “Are you that close to him? Do you have a special relationship with him? If you do… I’m sorry… I just wanted to explain some things to him. I didn’t mean to disrupt his life now,” she said, her tone apologetic.
Freya shook her head. “Like I said earlier… I don’t really understand what happened between you two. And yes, I won’t tell Leon who you are, but if he figures it out on his own, you need to be prepared for that, okay? And no, I don’t have a special relationship with him. We’re just colleagues, friends… so don’t feel guilty towards me, okay?”
“Thanks… See you, and nice to meet you, Freya…” Charmelyn replied before disappearing.
Freya sighed deeply. “How did she know that I knew her identity?” she said, giggling.
Back when Charmelyn first joined the Ass Guild two years ago, she didn’t wear a mask. However, not many knew about her real identity because she had deliberately kept it hidden. On the other hand, Freya conducted extensive research within the game, especially on the major guilds in Dissidia Kingdom.
She laughed quietly to herself, realizing that something interesting was happening to Broken here in the game.