Chapter 17 - Friendship

By the time Grim had finished playing with his toys, Asta had dealt with the leader of the hooded men.

*Whistle*

"Not bad Asta, not bad at all." Grim smiled and rolled up to him.

Breathing heavily, Asta smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

"Good job guys." Magna walked over with Noelle and the rest of the villagers.

"Hmph, if you could even do this much there'd be no way you could be in the same team as me." Noelle said with her usual tone.

Laughing at her tsundere act, the villagers praised them before getting everything back in order.

"Now then." Magna stretched and looked over at Heath and his unconscious men. "Lets deal with these guys."

[Fire Restraining Magic: Flame Rope Solid Binding Formation]

Opening his grimoire, Magna raised his hand and made flame based rope restraint appear on the bodies of their fallen enemies.

"Well aren't you just full of tricks." Grim muttered.

"Magna!" Asta suddenly shouted and pointed at one of the henchmen.

"Huh?"

Standing next to each other, the squad of black bull members watched as one of the henchmen turned into mist and escaped their bindings before disappearing with the wind.

"...."

"...."

"...."

"....So one got away. Who cares! As long as we got the leader its still a win in my book!"

Sighing at the henchman's escape, Grim turned to look at Magna.

"So what now? Do we call for reinforcements to pick them up or something?"

"Nah, we'll question them first. Help me sit them upright."

Nodding their heads, Asta and Grim gather up the rest of the henchmen.

"Eh?"

"What's wrong Asta?"

Before he could answer, the group saw some shuffling inside his shirt.

"What's that?"

As if to answer their question, an anti-bird flew out of Asta's clothes and disappeared into the air.

"...Are you hiding breadcrumbs or something?"

---

Rousing from their slumber, Heath and his henchmen found themselves bounded by some weird fire binding while Magna and his team stood in front of them.

'I can't use my magic...'

Seeing Asta holding onto his grimoire, Heath frowned.

"Finally awake huh." Magna spoke up. "After I finish resting up, your ȧss is going straight to magic jail."

'Why does that sound so ridiculous when he says it?'

"I see... I failed..."

"Damn right you did! Now you'll pay for everything you did to those villagers."

Lowering his head, Heath looked down at the fire bindings.

'So they sealed my magic.'

"Then you'll explain everything to the magic knights." Magna continued. "Including who you are and why you attac-

"I refuse." Heath interrupted before looking at Grim.

"Its a shame that I couldn't kill you with my own hands, but it looks like this is as far as I go."

"Huh?"

Not understanding what he meant, the group were taken aback when a purple light started shining from his abdomen.

"A magic tool!" Magna spat.

"To think the last thing I'll see before my death is the face of that dispicable brat..."

[A/n: You could always close your eyes... or look at the sky.]

[Ice magic: Ice Burial]

"....He chose death over the fear of dropping the soap... I can respect that."

"What?"

"Dunno." Grim shrugged. "I felt like it was the most approriate thing to say considering the situation. Anyway, lets go home, I'm starving."

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!!" Asta suddenly grabbed his collar and shouted.

"Someone just died in front of us! How can you be in the mood to joke around!"

Having retained some of his core memories, Grim's current personality was quite close to the version of him that returns to the God realm with all the memories of his past reincarnations. He had seen enough death to last several lifetimes, and while the current Grim may not remember seeing those deaths from his other incarnations, the emptiness he felt when he saw death remained ingrained into who he was.

So to answer Asta's question, Grim simply shrugged his shoulders and replied without a hint of emotion in his voice.

"People die everyday, if you let the death of a stranger affect you this much, then you're not suited to be a magic knight much less the Wizard King."

"What did you say!" Asta tightened his grip.

"STOP IT!" Magna suddenly shouted and separated them. "Both of you chill."

---

Sitting on the roof of one of the village buildings, Grim watched the distant sunset and spoke to Magna who had climbed up behind him.

"Where's Asta?"

"With Noelle."

"I see..."

*Sigh* "About what you said before-

"You can't coddle him forever Magna, as a magic knight he has to get use to the possibility that he'll see death on both sides of the fence."

"I know... But its his first mission, he shouldn't have to think about these things so early in his career."

"Its better if he learns earlier."

"Y'know, I'm actually not from Nairn."

"What?" Magna looked at him with some confusion.

"5 years ago I woke up in the middle of a forest that bordered the Clover Kingdom. I had no memory of who I was, how I got there, or if anyone was coming for me. I didn't know if my parents had abandoned me or if I had simply wandered around and had gotten lost. Can you guess what I did? I waited. And waited. And waited some more, and y'know what? No one came to get me. I waited so long that I learnt that if I didn't want to become some animals next meal, I'd have to do what was necessary no matter how messy the situation was."

What Grim was saying was actually the truth from a technical stand point. He didn't actually know if God had transported his soul and memories into someone elses body or if he had just created a new one from scratch. It was also true that he had no memories besides the one he had when he first woke up 5 years ago. For all he knew this body could have actually have had parents waiting for it.

"I didn't know..." Asta's voice rang from behind.

"Huh?" Turning around, Grim was surprised to see Asta standing there.

'Oh yeah... he has no mana so I can't track him.'

"Asta-

"I'm sorry!" Asta suddenly bowed. "I didn't know about the struggles you've had to face nor what you've been forced to do. But even so... I don't want to solve all my problems through bloodshed!"

*Sigh*

'He's a stubborn one...' Grim suddenly smiled. 'But I can't say I hate that about him.'

Getting up to his feet, Grim walked over to Asta while the light of the distant sunset hit his back.

"Y'know that the Wizard King has probably spilt a lot of blood right? Do you honestly think that if you become the next Wizard King that you'll never be put in a position where you'll have take a life in order to save one?"

"No... You're probably right about the Wizard King and what I'll have to do if I ever become one... But even so... I'll only do it if I can't do anything else. If there's other ways to solve disbutes without violence then I'll do everything in my power to achieve it!"

Seeing the resolve in the gray haired boy's eyes, Grim felt a smile creep onto his face.

"You really believe that don't you."

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Heh, then I'll be watching closely Asta." He smiled and held his arm out.

Seeing this, Asta clasped his forearm and return Grim's smile with his own. "Then watch as closely as you can, because I'll be the best Wizard King in history."