We all stayed quiet for a while after hearing Diane. The good news was that she allowed the two girls to join our group, but on the other hand she made it clear that she still saw them as enemies. I thought I should say sothing to ease the tension between us.
"Girls, I’m sorry for what Diane said. She probably doesn’t want to trust easily after everything that happened," I told them.
"We totally get it. It makes sense to doubt soone from the sa group that tried to kill her," Erina said, forcing a smile.
"But Diane shouldn’t be so harsh on you guys," Sarah said in a sad tone.
"But that’s for Diane to decide to trust us or not," Justine said.
I thought about Diane’s point of view for a bit. After being attacked by bandits sent by the leader of the Silver Fang, it must have been difficult for her to treat as an ally soone who had once been under that man’s command. But sothing about the way she was acting seed strange to .
Alicia tried to comfort them. "Diane doesn’t hate you two, I hope. She is very diligent, but she can be a bit..."
"Hard-headed," I said bluntly.
"I would say stubborn, but yes," Alicia said with a faint smile, "Diane doesn’t trust other people, but I’m sure that with ti she would be accustod to you."
"Is she so kind of animal?" Erina asked.
"I don’t think you’re the best person to say that." Justine replied to her.
Diane was loyal and trustworthy, which was why she trusted my judgnt even if she didn’t agree with it. But the beautiful woman was also extrely stubborn. She was willing to follow , but that didn’t an she would trust the people I trusted. And when you put the Silver Fang into the equation, things beca even worse.
"I think I should talk to her," I said to them. "We need her if we’re going to plan the exploration."
"Then I should go too," Alicia said with determination in her eyes, "I’ve been her friend for a long ti so it would be better if I ca along."
"Actually, Alicia, I’d like to talk to Diane privately."
"Why though?" Alicia asked .
"Well, bringing Erina and Justine with us was my decision. If soone on the team has a problem with it, it’s my responsibility to deal with it."
Alicia looked down at the floor with a sad face. "If you say so."
"Don’t worry, Alicia. I’ll bring Diane back in the blink of an eye," I said to her with a playful smile, "Well, she didn’t run too far away."
...
"So there you are," I said to the white-haired woman as soon as I laid eyes on her.
I found Diane in an alley between the inn and another establishnt nearby. Her arms were crossed, and she was looking up. If I had paid more attention, I would have let Diane stay like that a little longer. She looked so peaceful and beautiful with her eyes fixed on the bright blue sky, but when I called out to her, she looked at with a much tenser expression.
"I’d like to talk to you, Diane."
"About what?"
"Why did you act like that? You don’t seem like the kind of person who would show her doubts about soone so bluntly," I said to her.
"Why do you ask?"
"You’re a mber of my party, so of course I care about you," I said sincerely.
A faint smile crossed the young woman’s lips. "Who knows. It’s true that I don’t trust those two, but maybe I’m losing my edge. Perhaps so recent events have made lose my patience."
I looked at her. Diane didn’t look ready to fight like she did in the room, so it felt right to ask her this, "Alicia said you have difficulty trusting others. Why though?"
"You could say it’s because of the way I was raised," Diane looked away from , avoiding my gaze. "Back there in Valleria’s forest you told your family story. I think it’s fair that I do the sa."
’Are you going to tell you have daddy or mommy issues?’ I thought inwardly, but judging by Diane’s expression, it wasn’t as simple as the problems in my forr world usually were.
"I was born into a family of assassins. The mont I was born and my class was confird, my fate was sealed. I was trained to be an assassin from a very young age, until I was five, when I started living in the royal palace."
"W-Wait a second, Diane. Are you saying you were trained as an assassin while you were still wearing diapers?"
"Of course not. I was trained so I wouldn’t need to use diapers," she said. Judging by her tone, she wasn’t joking. "I had strict training, and my mother and father made sure to carve this into my mind: ’Don’t trust others,’ ’Your job as an assassin is to gain trust, never to give it,’ ’People outside our clan are either our clients or our targets, so don’t get attached.’"
"They sound lovely," I said sarcastically.
"They were terrible. They never punished physically, but living in an assassin clan was a living nightmare. It’s a rule to never harm soone from your own family, but because everyone was always trying to climb the clan’s hierarchy, you could never trust anybody. So I was alone most of the ti—just and that blue sky over there. Even on the darkest and bloodiest nights, I could feel a bit calr just by looking at the imnsity of the sky."
"But how did you get out?" I asked Diane. I didn’t rember her surna, Stollen, from SCRL, so I beca curious about the rest of her story.
"One day our hideout was discovered and attacked by the royal forces. So of my family mbers were killed, others ran away, but I was captured. The soldiers didn’t want to kill a child, so they brought to the man who commanded the troops. Ludwig Augustus von Astrea, Alicia’s father and King of Ashia."
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