NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 51 - Peace
Alexia
The Present
I pop my neck from my place atop a tree next to Astrid.
As it turns out, the crown prince – who that guy was apparently, since we’ve never actually seen each other and he had never heard of me before now – ‘didn’t know he was attacking my esteemed sister,’ in his own words. Which is true, since he’d have no reason to know of me. The only person I know who is connected to the crown prince in any ways was that noble guy I blasted right off the bat after leaving the dungeon. And the crown prince apparently didn’t like him much, so the only thing he knew about me and Astrid was that Rodrick was pursuing Astrid. Nothing more.
And the prince didn’t care about finding out any more about it since he himself disliked the spoiled noble, for obvious reasons. In fact, the only reason he even knew about Rodrick’s annoying pursuing of Astrid was because of one of his other subordinates mentioning it to him.
Then there’s the fact that Knight isn’t exactly a very uncommon name. It’s actually very common amongst noble households all around the world before the Reset. So he stated that he couldn’t have linked me and Astrid together by that alone.
All in all, he never apologized to Astrid. Not even once.
Just to me.
“I still want to punch him,” I decide out loud, making Astrid snort in amusement from her place shoulder to shoulder with me on the same rather large branch of this equally large tree.
After a few seconds of silence, Astrid leans her head onto my shoulder. Meanwhile I just turn my own head to look down at the base below where everyone is working on stripping the armor and equipment from the dead before tossing them off the side of the island. A rather convenient way to get rid of corpses.
I glance at the tied up William who is just sitting there being scolded by his sister, who I can understand a little why didn’t want me killing him. He is her brother after all, and I’ve heard this crown princess is actually rather caring towards others. Unlike the other royals of the kingdom from before the Reset.
Well, the princess aside, it’s good to see the others from our team still alive. And it looks like Alara is still in charge here.
Although I get the feeling she’s currently deferring to me thanks to my power, which I should nip in the bud. Since I really do not like being in charge of things. I’ll probably end up rushing off to go do things myself while leaving everyone behind.
Wouldn’t be surprised if I’m gone by tomorrow morning to go search for monsters to kill in the woods just to reach level 100.
It doesn’t look like there’s anyone that is strong enough to be a match for me in terms of users who aren’t Legendary Feat holders from other dungeons, so I doubt I’ll have to deal with that for a bit at least. Not until others start clearing their dungeons.
“Hey, sis?” I hear Astrid ask, making me turn my head to look at her, finding the girl’s eyes half closed seemingly from exhaustion. “Are you still human?”
I blink in surprise at that before smiling and wrapping my arm around her as I answer, “Not anymore.”
“Hmm,” she hums, sounding deep in thought while also being tired. Then she yawns once and quietly mutters, “Maybe I can get something from the Tutorial to change my species with my points…”
That has me raising a brow as I ask, “Are you sure about that?”
She nods her head sluggishly and says, “Yeah. It would help my shadow affinity, and let me… follow… your…”
Astrid falls asleep mid-sentence, leaving me just smiling and shaking my head at her.
Of the two of us, I’m the older sister strictly because I came out first. But she usually acts a lot more stoic despite that. Especially when we’re around others.
When we’re alone though, she tends to get a lot more emotional like this. Especially when sleepy.
Rather cute.
I turn my head to look down at the others again, finding them to have mostly finished with the task of stripping the people before they start to haul the last ones off to the edge of the island. And I can’t help but notice quite a few of them shooting glances at me and Astrid. Or rather, probably just at me.
Out of the users on the planet, humans are the most common for some reason. No one seems to know the main reason for this, but it’s just how it is. And equally unknown is why at least half of the very top strongest users before the Reset were humans as well, despite the fact that there are stronger species out there. In fact, the strongest Ascendants who aren’t in the top twenty or so users in terms of level were not humans. They were all Class S species. But of the top twenty users, nearly half of them were humans.
The only explanation most people end up giving is that humans are the most populous species and have the best breeding capability. Since the higher the Class of species, the harder it is for them to conceive a child.
Probably some sort of natural balance to how powerful they are.
Although there are some who blame it on the human’s adaptation racial skill that they get at Tier 1. A skill that lets them adapt to things better and learn new magics that they have an affinity for easier.
But while about half of the Class B species consist of just humans, there were plenty of elves, dwarves, halflings, beastfolk, and the like who we would see before the Reset going around the cities, people don’t often come across a Class A species. Generally only a few live in each city populated mostly by Class B species.
And of the Class S species? They live amongst themselves, very rarely leaving their own territories to visit other species.
So I probably stand out here, since it’s pretty obvious I’m a Class S species, what with my identification showing as a Class S identification. Without specifying my class or species and instead just listing them both in one without a label for what it is, since all Class S species have their class as their species name.
Astrid probably only asked because she was exhausted, and she wanted to hear it from my own mouth.
I lean my head back against the tree again before glancing at my sleeping twin.
She looks peaceful.
I look up at the sky through the trees.
I’m glad she’s alright.