Chapter 337: Arc 5, - 31: Don’t Lose Heart
*Trigger Warning: Self-Harm*
"I, don’t know..." her breathy voice had gotten so frail and weak... "I knew adventuring was dangerous, but this is all, I don’t know," she whimpered.
"I, I want to run away," she sniffled and gasped for air, only to cry more as she clutched onto Asobi tighter. "I don’t wanna lose them, I don’t want to see that, I can’t, I can’t...
We’re, we’re in this gorgeous city so far away, let’s explore it... I don’t want to see us in some gory, blood-soaked mess again, I’ve had enough of fighting things so much bigger than us... I can’t..."
Asobi’s hand made circles on the redhead’s back. Hotaru’s tail was shuddering, stuck in place—her body convulsed alongside her shaky breaths.
"Hehehe~"
Hotaru caught the faint giggle; she sniffled and moved her head away, to see the elf with a soft smile. She panted, "W-what?" her thoughts were all unsteady and muddled together in worry.
"Silly Aru," Asobi hugged the wolf-girl. "It’s what adventuring is. We’re always gonna be fighting something much bigger than ourselves.
Each show gets grander as we go; each one with a bigger audience. But that’s what we’ve always done, haven’t we? Your dream; you wanted to change the world."
Hotaru’s nails still clung onto Asobi’s blazer, "I know..."
"You can’t give up on your dream Hotaru," the magician simply toyed with her crimson locks. "The velatos were hard, fighting Moren and the guild was hard, Hartamat was hard, a lot of things in the palace were hard, the Last Stand was hard...
But in the end, we got through it; and we did it together. We’re getting better and better. Every danger will scare us—last night was, even scarier...