Never make the mistake of assuming the person of peace is unskilled at war.
.....
"Replacement?
I was confused by that statement.
I didn't understand what the woman meant, but something about her words was stirring emotions, I wasn't used to this kind of feeling.
I had always kept my true thoughts hidden, drifting through life without speaking up.
That's why, in this moment, I could sense something was off.
The ache in my heart was a strange blend of fear and anger.
It felt as though someone was deliberately trying to provoke me, to force me into a state of frustration I couldn't escape.
I glanced at Lynn, searching for some sort of reassurance.
But he just stood there, distant and resigned.
His expression was empty, as if he'd already given up.
I couldn't understand why he looked at me like that.
---
"You're quite calm for your kind"
"Yeah, everyone says that."
"You asked him a lot of questions.
Don't you have anything to ask me?"
"Yeah, I do, but that can wait. I don't have to worry about getting killed by you again."
"You still hold a grudge?
Well, that's fine. I did do that."
The way she spoke sent a chill down my spine. There was something about her that just didn't sit right.
Her lips curled into a thin, almost mocking smile as she spoke.
There was a glint of amusement in her tone.
My gut told me she was not someone to be trusted.
I turned away from her, the unsettling feeling growing as I looked at Lynn.
"Hey, you haven't answered the last one."
He smiled softly and met my gaze.
There was a quiet resolve in his eyes, as though he had already made peace with whatever he was about to say.
"It's simple, actually. I don't think I have the right to go back to my body.
I've lost too many times.
And even if I go back i don't think I can make a difference this time either.
But I wanted to know if it would be possible to change the story,
my story even a little."
He paused, the words hanging in the air for a moment before he continued, almost as if he were speaking to himself
"So, I needed someone stronger, smarter,someone more capable than me to do it in my place."
He turned back to the woman, his gaze steady.
"That's why I asked her to bring someone from another world who could do it.
And she brought me… you."
Honestly, that was unexpected.
It was a move I didn't anticipate from you, Lynn.
But as you can see, that wasn't the right choice, was it?"
She said with a smug smile playing at the corner of her lips.
She almost seemed to take pleasure in the tension, as if savoring her words.
"Since the best version of you I could possibly find was him."
She gestured toward me, her gaze cold.
"Who is just a normal human being, unlike yourself.
Don't you think so, Lynn?"
Lynn's expression darkened, a shadow of disappointment crossing his face.
He looked at the ground for a moment, clearly weighing his words before speaking.
"Yeah, it's my mistake."
His voice was heavy, filled with regret.
"It's sad that it wasn't up to my expectations."
I stood there, silently observing the unfolding scene, trying to make sense of the tension in the air.
Lynn and the horror woman had polar opposites on their faces,expressions that told their own stories without a word.
As far as i could grasp the situation,
Lynn... he was a dead man who only wanted the freedom to live without chains. To be free, just like anyone else.
He got a second chance ,a rare gift, yet it was twisted, tainted by the so called fate he mentioned .
Instead of redemption, he found himself caught in a spiral of wrong decisions.
Lynn's thoughts were understandable,
how could they not be?
Living one life is hard enough, but to live it twice, only to be betrayed by fate halfway through?
That was another level of torment. The crushing weight of it all… it would break anyone.
Any normal person would shatter under the pressure of reliving their worst moments, feeling the same hopes dashed, the same mistakes made over and over again.
It wasn't just painful,it was torturous, like being trapped in a nightmare with no way out.
To go through the same thing all over again, knowing you're doomed to repeat it, seems like a form of psychological torment worse than any physical pain.
It would strip away your will to keep going, leave you hollow.
I could understand why he had given up. I would have, too.
Then, there was her.
The horror woman, Smirking.
It was the sickening pleasure of seeing someone lose faith, of watching them sink into hopelessness.
And here I was, a ghost in the room, an irrelevant bystander.
My presence, more of an afterthought than anything else.
The whole scene felt suffocating.
I understood what Lynn expected.
He hoped for someone, something better,someone who could fight in his stead for the chance at life that he lost.
But instead, he got me. A useless, unwanted presence, a far cry from the hope he was desperately clinging to.
It was... sickening.
"So, Lynn… what's next?"
Vahel asked, her voice carrying a sense of finality.
"Nothing much to do anymore"
Lynn replied, his gaze drifting away from him, settling on nothing in particular.
He glanced at me briefly before continuing, his voice softer, regretful.
"I'm sorry… that I cost you your life, all for my own selfishness."
He sighed, his shoulders sagging.
"I guess I have to go."
"And what about me?"
I shot back, my voice sharper than I intended.
"You brought me here ,then you just leave… like that?"
There was a bitter edge to my words now.
"At least tell me how to go back."
The horror woman's voice cut through the tension, dripping with mockery.
"You don't have anywhere to go back to since you accidentally died"
she said, her smirk evident even in her words.
"Truly unfortunate but your life is sadly over and think again was it a good one ?
Your life was hell of a lot more boring than his."
That last jab hit me like a slap in the face.
Boring? Boring?
I snapped, the anger bubbling over. "Boring huh?"
"Stop it."
Lynn's voice cut through the tension, soft but firm.
"He has been through enough , don't push him further since it was my fault he got ended up here to begin with."
I shifted my gaze to him.
This guy… he is.....kind.
The fact that he was covering for me a completely irrelevant, inferior presence spoke volumes.
May be he felt pity for me.
Someone who was dragged here unfairly and was getting discarded even more harshly.
It was proof enough that he was a good soul.
He didn't get what he wanted.
Yet, he accepted it with a kind of grace, even though it hurt.
But unlike me, Lynn didn't just accept,he wanted to change it.
He at least tried to know the exact cause of his misfortunes.
Compared to me,I feel he is much more of a better version.
After all, all I ever did in my life was accept things as they were.
I never cared about whether it was fair or whether it hurt.
Lynn decided to leave me behind and walk toward the woman.
I didn't understand what he meant by, He has to go
but I could feel his presence fading, as if he were being erased right before my eyes.
It was clear now,Lynn must have found me unnecessary. He told me everything he needed to, and now he was walking away, disappointed, as if I was nothing more than an obstacle he had to move past.
What stung the most was that both of them,Lynn and the woman had brought me here, to this point, only to leave me with nothing but a shattered story and the bitter taste of being treated like disposable trash.
It made my blood boil.
I had spent my life trying to heal and save others, showing nothing but kindness.
I sacrificed my pride, my dignity, even my honor, only to have them judge me when I failed to cure their diseases.
I never once made it worse for them, even though it suffocated me to hold it in.
My job demanded time to see results so i suppressed my feelings to make a good living but now, after all that patience, all that work, this was the thanks I got.
And yet, here I was again, being discarded by people who had no right to treat me this way.
They had even gotten me killed, mocking my very dignity as if it meant nothing.
I had endured this my entire life, holding my tongue to protect my career. But even after death? ......No more.
Just as Lynn was about to reach the woman, I spoke, my voice rising, raw with frustration.
"So you just brought me here to ramble, and now you're leaving me to perish, just like you do with everyone else.
Do you find me unnecessary, Lynn?"
The bitterness in my voice was palpable, each word sharper than the last.
"I've never insulted anyone, not voluntarily, but right now, this is necessary."
I didn't wait for him to answer. Instead, I pressed on.
"Hypocrite.
Haven't you heard the word?
Surely someone's said it to you by now, right?
If you have, then that's the word now suits you the most."
Lynn blinked, as if the accusation had never occurred to him.
His confusion, his inability to comprehend, only stoked the fire inside me.
"You don't understand it, do you?"
I shook my head, disappointment filling the spaces between my words.
"What else should I call you? You make every decision on your own, without regard for anyone else, leaving others to deal with the aftermath of your actions."
His face shifted to surprise, then a flash of something unreadable.
He must have never expected such a reaction from me, But it didn't matter.
It had to be said.
The woman, the one who'd been watching from the shadows, found it amusing.
Her eyes gleamed, a twisted sense of enjoyment in the chaos unfolding before her.
"Oh boy "
she muttered, more to herself than anyone else.
I didn't look at her. I couldn't.
My focus was entirely on Lynn now, the man who had become nothing more than a ghost in my life.
I walked toward him, closing the distance, needing him to feel every word I was about to say.
"Everyone's in such a rush to fix their problems, to unload their burdens onto others, but they never stay long enough to care about the consequences.
They think they can spill their pain and run, leaving the mess behind them like it's nothing."
I took another step closer, my voice steady but full of weight.
"They want to pour out all their misfortunes, but when it's time to listen ,to actually hear the solution they're already gone, never sticking around long enough to even try to understand."
The silence that followed hung like a thick fog, suffocating the space between us.
Lynn didn't respond. Maybe he couldn't. But the truth was, it didn't matter anymore.
Lynn's laugh rang out, cold and unbothered, like he found something deeply amusing in my words.
His eyes twinkled with a mix of sarcasm and self-assurance.
"Okay, if you want me to say it, I will not hold back either."
I could feel my blood simmering, but I didn't flinch. I steadied myself for whatever came next.
"You are not capable of fulfilling my wish,"
he continued, his voice dripping with superiority.
"I come from a world where magic rules the nature, where respect is earned through strength, not love, kindness, or even behavior.
And weakness means death.
In my world, the Gods and myths make the rules, and miserable people like me,like you are forced to follow them without a single question."
His words hit like a stone sinking into water, sending ripples of bitterness through the air. But he wasn't done. He had more venom to spill.
"In such a beautiful, shitty world, you expect me to send you in my place and find a result? That's a fool's dream."
The words stung, but they also made me pause.
There was a cold truth in them, a truth I hadn't wanted to face. But Lynn wasn't finished yet.
"Your soul doesn't even have a proper presence, let alone magic. If you really think about it, you can't blame me for losing my expectations."
He leaned back, his smug grin widening as he watched me. There it was,the final blow.
His words weren't just insults. They were a reflection of the hopelessness he had built around himself.
I stood there, the weight of what he said pressing down on me, the anger I had been carrying suddenly feeling… insignificant in the face of his bitter reality.
He was right about one thing: his world didn't care for anything but power, and
I had nothing to give it.
But I wasn't ready to surrender just yet.
"Whether I can or not, is something I decide, Lynn."
I locked eyes with him, my voice steady but sharp.
"You talk like you know me inside and out, like I'm nothing more than black and white. But you don't know a damn thing, pal."
"I can take insults about not being good enough, but only after I've failed at doing it. You've never even given me the chance."
My words hung in the air like a challenge. There was a raw edge to them, something unrelenting in my voice.
"Assessing someone's worth before even giving them the task .
Well, that's just a misjudgment of character, isn't it?"
I let the silence stretch, letting the weight of my frustration settle between us.
"And you know what? I hate that more than anything."
There it was ,the truth.
The way people like Lynn assumed they already knew everything, the way they judged others before letting them try, before giving them the space to fail or succeed on their own terms.
That kind of arrogance, that presumption of superiority.
it was a fire in me, a fire that burned hotter than any insult he could throw.
The horror woman suddenly cut into the tension, her voice sharp and dripping with mockery.
"Even if you were to go to Lynn's lying dead body, back in his world... What do you even expect to do, Mr. Alter Ego?"
Her tone sliced through the air, a thinly veiled attack on my very existence.
"You seem like you've already figured everything out."
I didn't let her words shake me. I kept my focus on Lynn, my eyes locked onto his, daring him to make the next move.
Lynn took a step closer, closing the distance between us until we were standing face to face.
His gaze was intense, searching, probing.
"What are you suggesting?"
he asked, his voice low and tinged with curiosity.
I smirked, my lips curling slightly in defiance.
Without breaking eye contact, I shifted my gaze toward the horror woman, who was still standing off to the side.
I could feel her amusement starting to slip away, like the fading remnants of a mask she had carefully constructed.
The mocking expression she wore earlier was dissolving, replaced by something else,uncertainty, perhaps.
And in that moment, I knew.
That subtle change in her demeanor was the confirmation I needed.