She wants to come clean

After a short pause, Amelia looked down at my feet and says, “Darx … I do have something to tell you. But I’m afraid.”

“Afraid how?” I ask.

She takes a deep breath and looks at me, “That once you know, you will never want to see or speak to me again.”

Amelia has become incredibly nervous and her voice almost breaks. Even her eyes are tearing up. But she is opening up to me.

“What if I promise I won’t get angry. Will you be able to tell me then?” I ask.

“Yeah.” Amelia nods. “But let’s do it in a private place.”

“I heard the Pleasant Owl rents out rooms. We could go over there. That way we won’t be distracted by guild matters.” I suggest.

Amelia agrees. We first head over to the part of the arena where the Dark Dragons are. I manage to have one of my guildmates tell Kiara that Amelia and I will be at the Pleasant Owl talking things out. That way Kiara will at least not be worried about me staying away for so long. Then Amelia and I make the long walk all the way to the inn Oliver works at.

When we get there, I ask him if we can hire a room. Oliver looks at the both of us with a raised eyebrow and I say, “We just need some privacy to talk something out. Nothing more.”

Once we get into the room, Amelia takes a seat on the bed. I sit in a chair in front of her.

“Right then. Are you ready?” I ask her.

“Yeah.” Amelia replies. “I just … don’t quite know where to start.”

“How about you start at the beginning.” I suggest.

“The beginning. Right.” Amelia takes a deep breath, and then she starts to talk. “It all started before any of us became adventurers. On the day we faced that troll. Oliver went down first and I tried to heal him as quickly as possible. I wanted for him to get back up and help you. If only I was a better cleric, I would have succeeded and then you would have never gotten hurt. But I only succeeded in wasting all my mana, including all the mana potions I had on me. Then you got badly injured and I no longer had any spells I could cast. I felt I was going to die then. Not only that, but you and Oliver would die as well. All because I was not the healer you needed. I and my two best friends would have died and it would have been all my fault.”

“It was an accident, Amelia.” I correct her. “Nobody planned on it. You weren’t at fault.”

“The life of an adventurer is full of accidents. And in this accident, you couldn’t rely on me. I was inadequate as a healer. I couldn’t support you. The only reason we survived is because of luck. Because Kase just so happened to show up then and there. But we can’t rely on some random stranger showing up every time we get an accident. If we ever got into such a situation again, and I am still as unreliable as I was back then, we would be certain to die. I just didn’t want you to die because I was a failure.”

I guess that troll fight caused Amelia to develop a trauma. I can’t really blame her. I was so wounded that I had to stay in bed for several days and Oliver outright gave up on becoming an adventurer. I don’t think I ever really noticed. Or perhaps I didn’t want to see it affected her.

“Is that when you started going to Mr. Enzo’s mansion?” I ask.

“Not right away.” Amelia continues. “At first, I joined Jax’s group. I didn’t like it there. I could not get along with anybody. I felt so unwelcome. Mia was angry at me because you got hurt and Cal was being a total creep. Kase was different, though. He was the only person there who was friendly to me. So, for him to first save our lives and then also be friendly … it made him feel trustworthy. He was like the only friend I had in Jax’s group. He made it comfortable for me to be with him.”

As she brings up Kase, Amelia pauses a little to get her thoughts straight. Then she straightens herself and continues.

“During my time there, Kase noticed how reliant I was on magic potions to refill my mana. He said his father had many books with information on magic in them. Apparently, Mr. Enzo tried becoming an adventurer when he was younger and was hoping to be a mage. Did you know that? Well, he tried the adventurer’s ceremony but didn’t get a rank. But he kept all the books on magic in his library. Kase said reading those books could help me become a better spellcaster and offered me a chance to read them. But they were very expensive and his father would not permit them out of the mansion. Kase also had to supervise me. So, if I wanted to improve myself, I would have to come to his room and read them there.”

“At first it really was just studying. But then … Kase started complaining about me keeping him stuck inside all day. It kinda made me feel bad since he was doing this all for me. So he started … asking for compensation.” Amelia turns her head away from me when she says this. I am getting a bad feeling.

“What kind of compensation?” I ask.

There is an uncomfortable silence between us until Amelia finally answers, “He wanted me to kiss him.” There is another uncomfortable silence after that. I am waiting for her to continue. She probably waits for me to say something. Then she continues her story.

“I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to save all my kisses for you. You were the guy I loved, not him. But if I said no, my education would stop and I would remain an unreliable healer. And the book he was suggesting me to read at that time was a Zrephian book. You know how rare those books are and how much magical information is rumored to be learned from them. So … in order to become a useful adventurer for you to rely on … I gave in.”

There is another uncomfortable silence between us. This time it is me who breaks it by saying, “Well, it was just a kiss. Also, we were best friends, but not a couple. You could kiss him.”

“It’s not quite that simple.” Amelia says awkwardly as she starts blushing, “At first, I thought he meant just a peck on the cheek. Goddess, I can’t believe how naïve I was back then. But he wanted a kiss on the lips. So yeah, I did as he wanted. He even **** his tongue into my mouth. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want it. But I feared that if I pushed him off, he would kick me out. And then he brought his hands to my butt and even tried to get into my blouse. He was going much further than he asked. Much further than I consented to.”

So Kase molested her. She didn’t want his touch, but he did it anyways. That makes all the difference.

“Amelia, you should have told me.” I tell her.

“And what would that accomplish?” Amelia quickly replies. “You getting angry at the son of the richest and most powerful man in our village?”

“I could have told my mom.” I reply.

“So, then Ilene would have acted negatively towards the guy who saved her son’s life.”

“Mom and I would have told the town.”

“Tell them what?!” Amelia replies almost angry. “That Kase felt my boobs? Kase would have denied it. Enzo would have supported his son. Both of them would have accused me of making false accusations and I would have been seen as the town slut.”

I want to tell Amelia that none of that would have happened, but even I can’t believe that. Kase and his father really would have done exactly what Amelia suggested, and possibly even worse. They would have turned the entire village against us. Then again, the Enzo’s were on trial for Noah’s ****. They got a hit to their popularity then. If Amelia had come out about Kase then, maybe Kase could have had a worse punishment? But I also remember that Kase left the day after. She would have merely informed the village that Kase abused her, while Kase would have gotten away. And just a month later, when Kase got his S-rank, everybody was praising him again.

After another uncomfortable silence, Amelia continues explaining in a calm manner. “There’s more. Since the book was so good at helping me learn, I needed to go back for more. And every time Kase wanted to do more kissing … and groping. He did it so often that eventually I came to expect it. It became normal and … I stopped fighting it.”

Another uncomfortable silence. This one filled my thoughts with images of Kase kissing and groping Amelia. It is not easy to imagine Amelia being taken advantage of. She was my best friend. She was being abused. And I was not there to help her like a friend should.

“To be fair. The book was really good at helping me improve. My paralysis spell got so much better and I greatly extended the maximum amount of mana I could hold. Perhaps it would have been better if the book wasn’t so helpful. Then it would have seemed that the payment Kase asked wasn’t worth it. But it did help me improve, which made me want to push through it. Just until I was done.”

Tears now start to well up in Amelia’s eyes.

“He made me do so many things I didn’t want to do. But I did it all so I would have the power to keep you safe. So that you and I could go on adventure together and come back from it.” She says as she wipes her eyes dry. “Then came the day he and the adventurers cleared the mine of the trolls. He wanted to take it even further that evening. Kase, he … took his dick out of his pants … and he wanted me to touch it. That was when he went too far. There is no way I would do that for him. But he took my hand and **** it on his member. I was so afraid. I didn’t dare to stop. And then … then he pushed me down. He **** me onto my knees and told me to put it in my mouth.”

I have difficulty processing all of this. Amelia is not stuttering, so she isn’t lying. As she is talking, she is getting more agitated too. These things Kase made her do, while she was still dealing with the trauma of the troll encounter. She was in a **** state and he made use of that to get her to pleasure him. How can a person do something like that to another?

“That was the last straw. I pushed him away, I told him we were done and then I left. I didn’t care if he had books I needed. I was done. That was then also the night that you found me on my way back home in the dark. The first time you asked me what was going on and then gave me a piggy back ride. I told you there was nothing going on between me and Kase because I thought that if you knew what I had done, you would see me differently. That you would see me as a slut. That you would no longer want to be friends with me anymore. I thought that if I told you, you would hate me. Or even worse, pick a fight with Kase over me. Because if you did, he could have seriously hurt you. And you getting hurt is exactly what I was trying to prevent.”

I move over to join Amelia on the bed and sit next to her. I give her a hug and say, “You were being targeted by a predator who cared more about his own satisfaction than your wellbeing. I wish that you had told me so I could help you. I’m just happy that you managed to get out of it.”

Strangely, Amelia did not return the hug. Then she said, “Not exactly.”

I release her from the hug and allow her to continue.

“I started avoiding Kase around that time, and then there was that time when the bandits attacked. And finally, the day we were supposed to go to the mine. I personally would have preferred not to go, but I knew how much you wanted to explore. So, I agreed to it for you. But before we got there, you wanted to know about the things going on between me and Kase. I just wanted things to go back before Kase. I wanted to pretend like I never made any mistakes. Like everything with Kase was just a bad dream, erase it from my memory and go on. For me to tell you would make it so I couldn’t treat it as a bad dream any more. And the thing I feared most of all was for you to be so disappointed in me that you would end our friendship.”

Amelia then looked at me, her eyes all watery again.

“The only thing I could do to stop you from hating me, was to not tell you anything. But not telling you was also what made you turn away from me.”

I can’t believe it. Amelia was actually done with Kase. She had turned her back on him. But I felt so paranoid and perceived so much distrust from her that I then turned my back on her. Now I can’t help but imagine what would have happened if I had just let it go. Could things have gone different between us?

Probably not. At that time, I had already had sex with Mia. Twice even. I went way further with Mia than Amelia ever did with Kase. And just like Amelia didn’t tell me about Kase, I too didn’t tell her about Mia. It just all happened so fast. Dear goddess. Did I just realize I’m a hypocrite?

“Do you hate hearing about it that much?” Amelia asks.

“Oh no. It’s not that.” I say, realizing Amelia must have been reading my facial expression thinking it was about her. “Amelia, I need to tell you something too.”

That is when I tell Amelia everything about that evening with Mia in the cave. That the bandits had used our old hiding spot to store their loot and that Mia seduced me there. And also, that time in the forest clearing after that.

"Well, Mia always had a crush on you. It was quite obvious, in fact.” Amelia says. “She must have made her move while I was alone feeling sorry for myself. At least she seduced you because she really liked you, so it’s different in your case. Kase never had any honest feelings for me at all. Yet, I still let him use my body to get the information I needed. I … pretty much whored myself out.”

Amelia placed her hands on her face and started crying. I immediately pulled her into a hug and say, “It’s in the past now. Thank you for finally telling me about it. We can finally put all of this behind us now.”

Amelia then stops crying, but has an ominous message for me.

“I’m sorry, Darx. But there is one more thing you need to know.”

She pulls herself out of my hug and dries her tears.

“When you told me you had coupled with Mia, I was so distraught. It felt like any chance I could have had of being with you had disappeared forever. I felt so much pain then … I just had to run away. When I did, I ran straight to the mine, where Kase was waiting. I don’t know why. I guess my mind simply picked the one location that just happened to have on my mind. And that is where I made the worst mistake of my life.”