Even when Sherry and the kids left, Dylan found himself at a lost for what to do. Matthias was still clueless about his situation though he was starting to find things strange. Glaring, Dylan took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. "Matthias." He said.
"Yes?" Matthias looked at Dylan and waited for him to continue.
"Where do you think we are right now?"
"Where?" Matthias looked around for the first time since he woke up. He saw the houses, the roads, the playground, all the unfamiliar things that didn't exist in Diva. "…I don't know. I don't know this place. How come I imagined a place like this?"
"Because this is not an imagination and you're on Earth." Dylan bluntly told him.
"Earth? But isn't that Sherry's…"
Dylan nodded. "You're not dead, Matthias. By some miracle, when we died, we were given a second chance at life and here we are, on Earth."
Matthias fell silent. He was quietly taking in all the new information and digesting everything he had just heard. "So, you've been here since you've died? And, now that I'm dead, I'm also here?"
Dylan nodded, Fir slipping from his head at the movement. Coughing dryly, Dylan very handily readjusted Fir so the bird could continue sleeping.
Ignoring Dylan's actions, Matthias continued to digest the information. "Then that light…Was Goddess Sennia responsible for it? Is that why I had that dream? She wanted to tell us about this?"
"Now that you understand everything, I want you to tell me everything." Dylan hissed.
Realising what was going on, Matthias slipped back to his usual state and smiled. "Everything? Haha, I don't know where to start."
"First of all, these." Dylan pointed at Matthias' handcuffs with his sword still in the sheath.
Matthias raised his hand, the chains dangling from his restraints. "I feel a little uncomfortable talking to you like this. Can we change locations first?"
He was still sitting against the tree trunk while Dylan directly under the sun. It was indeed not appropriate for a conversation. Dylan pursed his lips and led Matthias to the park bench. All the while, Matthias looked around curiously, taking in all the different architect styles as well and totally new things like powerlines and playground equipment.
Seated at the bench, Matthias waited a while before speaking, "Should I start from the beginning?"
Dylan hummed in response. "From the very beginning." There was obvious hostility laced in his voice.
"Mm, well, you know that my birth mother is the leader of an underground organisation, correct?"
"Yes. Of course, I'm very familiar with it, after all, they did kill me."
Matthias coughed awkwardly and continued. "I lived with her until I was about five and was later sent to live with my father. It was only when I started going to academy that my mother started to stay in contact with me again. I didn't know what she did back then and was only vaguely aware that it was dangerous work. I didn't actually find out about the organisation until I started working."
"And you didn't do anything about it? It was only a medium sized organisation back then!" Dylan barked and growled.
"She was my mother and I didn't really have the ability to oust her back then. Not only that, the members of that group are really strong, you've personally experienced that yourself."
Matthias' words brought back bad memories and a strong point. Unable to refute his words, Dylan grumbled to himself angrily.
"Anyways, I didn't involve myself with them until Sherry's incident."
Dylan thought back to Sherry's recount of her death. He recalled her telling him that Matthias had put all his efforts into saving her, even at the risk of his own life. It was likely that he had nothing to do with it and didn't even know that his own mother tried to kill his friend.
"I only recognised them after everything was over. By then, it was too late. Sherry was gone and you went nuts. I was…frankly, I was afraid. I was scared that you were going to hate me if you knew that my mother was responsible for the incident." Matthias glumly revealed.
"Well, that went down the drain. I didn't think I could hate someone more than I hated my family. You've successfully sent me into a pot of hate and confusion, congratulations, you assh*le." Dylan swore furiously.
Matthias took one hard look at Dylan and laughed. The knight's eyes only showed anger, there wasn't that intense hatred he was expecting. Perhaps there was a mixture of hurt, confusion and sorrow mixed in with that rage. "You're too kind, Dylan. Really, I don't deserve you." Suddenly, tears started to flow down his smiling face again. They fell like a waterfall and didn't stop even when Matthias tried his best not to cry.
Seeing Matthias cry like that, Dylan felt uncomfortable. He'd rather him keep smiling like the fool he was than cry incessantly. "Stop crying." He ordered.
"Hehe, I'm trying but I can't." Matthias reported with red eyes.
"…Then cry and talk at the same time. You can at least multitask, right?"
Matthias nodded. "Mother got me involved in the family business after the incident…I tried to refuse, I really did, but, you were going around like a madman trying to find the ones responsible for Sherry's death and I knew that Mother wasn't going to let you snoop around like that." Matthias paused. "I joined under the condition that she didn't touch you."
"You bastard-" Dylan impulsively held Matthias by the collar. At his jerky movement, Fir fell from Dylan's head and was forced to wake up.
"Lyn!" Fir whined in annoyance. The whiny voice of the bird snapped Dylan back to reality. He let go of Matthias collar and calmed himself down.
"Sorry about that, Fir. Can you go back to sleep in your home for a bit?" Dylan asked the bird sitting in his hand. Fir puffed his cheeks angrily but complied anyways.
"That's that Sylphice, isn't it? I'm glad it's alright." Matthias chuckled. He was a little distracted by the bird sleeping on Dylan's head, but being with Dylan for over a decade had made him familiar to such scenes. The man had a strange ability that drew animals to him and it was so natural to find one near him that he automatically ignored them most of the time.
Dylan narrowed his eyes. "Don't try to change the subject. I willingly threw myself into that convoluted mess, I DIDN'T need you to protect me!"
Dylan's knees shook violently. It took all his might to stop himself from punching Matthias' annoyingly happy face. The prick even had the nerve to chuckle!
"I know, all my efforts, just thrown into the wind. For an entire year, I've been giving you misleading information but you still somehow managed to continuously getting involved and screwing up the business." Matthias sighed dramatically and raised his arms in defeat. "Eventually, you were close to finding out the truth and dissatisfaction towards you was at its all time high. Everyone at the organisation were screaming at me to kill you, even when I became leader I couldn't suppress that sentiment. So, when Mother ordered me to kill you, I agreed. I thought that if you were going to die anyways, I should at least be there to see it, even if I couldn't bring myself to actually do it."
Dylan grit his teeth. He knew that idiot was going say something along those lines. He was smart yet dumb at the same time. Always believed in taking matters in his own hands and if they didn't work, he just gave up all together. He never relied on others on matters that really mattered. "If you gave me some hints, told me something, I could've helped you. We could have worked something out together but no, you decided that you were going to take this up all by yourself. You splendidly made a major fool out of yourself."
Matthias chuckled to himself. "People keep telling me that these days."
"Maybe because it's true! You always keep things to yourself and you never consult the people around you. You hide behind that smile and tell yourself that you can handle it when you never can!" Dylan huffed and puffed from the anger building up inside his chest. "If I died for real, I would have died hating you. My last thoughts on you would've been that you were a lying, scheming f*cktard that will never get a happy ending."
"That's what I was going for. I wanted you to hate me, because in your hate, you'll never think too hard about it. The 'betrayal' will never truly sink in when you're too busy being angry."
"Well, f*ck you for that." Dylan cursed. He didn't know what was wrong with him today but the filter just straight up disappeared and he swore more in this conversation than he did the whole year. Dylan usually preferred a more 'sophisticated' and round about method of insulting people. It was engraved in his mind by his noble education.
There wasn't really anything Matthias could respond with other than a dry chuckle.
"Continue with the story. What happened after I died."
"Nothing too interesting, really. Everyone was really sad that you died and got really angry. I quit as royal mage and fully embraced my role as the 'leader'. The organisation did more illegal things and grew to a bigger size. I spent my time doing nothing but practice my magic but, on a whim, I decided to save a slave one day and somehow ended up betraying the group. They sealed my magic and sent me to the king and then I got fed poison. Hehe, that was really painful. I don't even know how long it took for me to die." Matthias narrated in a dull tone.
Dylan ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "So, what you basically just told me is that you didn't really betray me and that everything was a misunderstanding and we're still friends."
"Uh, I guess?"
"Stand up."
"Why?" Matthias felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Stand. Up." Dylan ordered. His mouth curled up to reveal a fox's smile. It was Instructor Dylan's smile. "Don't make me repeat myself again."
"Sir yes sir!" Matthias stood up on pure instincts.
"Let me punch you once." Dylan said, folding his hand into a fist.
Matthias finally lost that smile. "What? No, no, no, I'll die! I'll die if you hit me!"
At Sherry's house, the kids were peeking through the curtains to see the two talk in fear of Dylan actually murdering the guy. They watched as Dylan's switch flipped and Matthias jumped up from the bench into the most perfect salute pose ever, minus the actual salute part. His back was as straight as a rod and posture steady. It was clear to the observant eye that he was accustomed to such action. All of a sudden, Matthias' face showed panic and bam! A fist came flying at his face!
It was beautiful. Without wasted movement, the fist squarely met Matthias' cheek and sent him tumbling on the concrete floor below. The scene was so splendid that rather than finding it violent and vulgar, the kids saw it as artistic and something straight out of an action movie. It was that good.
"You actually hit me!" Matthias held his cheek in horror, unable to heal himself because his magic was sealed.
Dylan cracked his knuckles, the switch still not switched back. With that fear inducing smile, he instructed Matthias, "Stand back up, let's do one more."
"No! I refuse!" Matthias screamed. Dylan didn't care for his objections, he walked towards Matthias, looking menacing and leaking killing intent. His every step induced terror in Matthias' heart. Without thinking, he crawled back up and sprinted for his life!
Instantly, the scene transformed into a wild goose chase. But unfortunately for Matthias, he had a magician's athletic ability and no magic to assist him. He very quickly was caught by the more athletically superior Dylan and was met by more violence. What was worst was that the knight very courteously healed him every time he landed a punch on his face. It was just pain and pain and pain.
"I'm done now." Dylan graciously let go of Matthias with a refreshed expression on his face.
Matthias cast an aggrieved face at Dylan but didn't dare talk back. Rubbing his cheeks from the lingering pain, Matthias grumpily waited for Dylan to say something.
"First of all, I'm still upset at you. Everything you did was stupid and plain dumb. There were way better options and if we didn't have this second chance, you would have never realised that." Dylan paused and grabbed his sword.
"You, I thought you were satisfied!" Matthias backed away in a panic, almost stumbling on his own feet.
Dylan unsheathed the blade. "I'm very dissatisfied with your decisions. Not matter the intent, it still resulted in death."
The kids held their breaths as they watched Dylan inch closer to Matthias, sword in hand. Suddenly, without warning, he swung the sword at Matthias. His skills in swordsmanship made apparent through this action. All the children could see was a blur and next thing they knew, Matthias was down on the ground.