Chapter 183 - Day DXIX, Part II

Our sorrow went on for a few solid moments, but slowly died down, and then there was silence. A long period of silence.

Eventually, I put my hand on Aisha's forearm, surrounding my neck. Tam moved shortly after, retracting his wings, and jumping down from my embrace, on the floor.

Aisha stood up and backed down by a single step, then she started wiping her tears off. I did the same.

- So you are not holding up, just like me... - she said, and let out a short sad laugh.

- No...

- Peter... I've been thinking a lot this past few days, and I want to say that I'm sorry. I feel like it's my fault. I'm so sorry...

She was about to start crying again.

- It's not. We all did dumb things thinking those are the right ones. We thought that we own this place, but that's not the truth. We don't own it at all.

She nodded.

- We needed a monster invasion to realize that we shouldn't fight among ourselves, and many paid for it with their lives - I continued.

- Let's not fight again. There are many people out there. New people. We should focus on helping them. We should focus on making this city prepared, so history won't repeat itself.

- I agree - I extended my hand to her.

She grabbed it, and we looked each other straight in the eyes for a solid few seconds.

- I should go now. You are wounded. You should rest.

- Yes... Unfortunately, I didn't have enough points left to heal myself, and there are others who need the crystals left after battle more than I do.

I came closer and kissed her on the cheek while using all the heals I could.

- This should help.

- Thank you.

And I left. Tam was walking right behind me. With a black rooster following me, I grabbed the attention of newcomers in the city center. I went to the device, to buy myself a weapon. Hatta, yet again came to speak with me.

- Peter, please...

- I'm going to clean the city out of those orcs roaming around. We will need to hold the watch on the gates, and also people to go outside, and bring more crystals, to rebuild the city.

- I'm already working on that... - he said with a smile returning to his face. - It's good to have you back.

- Let's talk again when I'm done.

He nodded, and I left.

I roamed the city looking for enemies. It looked like after a war. Many already ruined buildings collapsed and even more burned down. I was not the only person looking for monsters. There were few other groups, but they mainly covered people who were picking up crystals. The further from the city center I went, the fewer people I met. At some point, I crossed my path Will, Blue, and Amit, hunting just like me.

- Holy shit - said Will upon seeing me. - Finally! I heard you got back on your feet, but you left without saying even a word, you asshole!

- William... - said Blue. - Please be more mindful...

- Oh... Yeah... Sorry, Peter.

- And who is the asshole now? - I asked him.

He smiled.

- How are you holding on? - asked Amit.

I shrugged my shoulders. Blue cleared his throat.

- I believe we should focus more on hunting the orcs, than talking - Blue pointed out. - That would be better for all of us.

Amit silently agreed, nodding his head. He also looked strangely at Tam, like he couldn't believe I just brought a chicken with me to an orc hunt. After that, we started looking around together. We split apart but remained in shouting distance, in case of emergency. We spend the whole day sweeping the city.

We got few armored ones, a couple of mages, and one red-skinned orc.

When the night came I was both hungry, and thirsty. Tam also wanted food, so we returned back to the city center.

Hatta, Vesa, and few other people I didn't recognize were giving out food to the people, mostly newcomers though. It was probably cooked in the cafeteria and brought outside in a big, iron cauldron.

There weren't any tables, or stools to sit on. People were just sitting on cobblestone or rubbles.

We grabbed our portions and went to sit together. After we ate I bought some alcohol, and grain for Tam, and shared it with my friends. Martin, Hailwic, and Juan showed up a bit later and joined us. Then we also saw Mihael returning with scavengers of stones, and we also called him in.

He was awkward at the beginning because he wasn't close with many of us, but a few of Will's jokes broke the ice.

- We should soon talk about the future of the city - Blue suddenly pointed out. - It's already been four days. We need some kind of plan moving forward.

This made people go a bit more serious compared to the previous, more goofy mood.

- We should. We don't have any defenses right now. To be honest, we never had. It's time to build some - Juan pointed out.

- We need a gate. Big, and strong - said Martin.

- And guards on the walls - said Mihael. - I already pointed that out to Hatta. He said he is working on it.

- He has too much on his head with all those people around - said Amit. - We need to talk with him and split the duties. I know that we are kinda the only ones who can go and clear the city right now, but we can't leave everything on his head.

- I can plan out the defenses if you all agree to that - proposed Blue.

Will was about to say something, but I was faster.

- Good idea. Let's go with that to Hatta tomorrow morning. Then let's reclaim fully our city, and bring it back to normal.

There was a second or two of awkwardness between me and him, but then he said:

- It's good to have you back Peter. Let's do just that.

We kept drinking for a bit more, and then every one of us went to find a spot to call it a day.

Day came to an end with 5 438 040 points remaining on my account, and 1 class point.