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Hope you enjoy this Chapter!

It focuses on something a bit different!

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Chapter 51: Dilemma

Makoto's party kept to the back of the platoon together with the mages.

It was more than a little intimidating to walk between so many full armored men with fierce expressions on their faces.

In the first hour or so of their Journey everyone kept to their ranks and stayed in formation but after 3 hours, nearly all manner of order had disbanded.

The code of honor to stay in the same position with the same walking speed could only hold so long under the burning sun after all.

Thankfully the higher ranked officers didn't really have a problem with that and allowed everyone to flock to their respective groups for the most part.

Most just chatted during the trek.

Farabello soon enough joined Makoto's party together with a few other Soldiers that held a special kind of interest for the girls, which in turn quickly disappeared after feeling a few frosty glares from Sharon.

"Story time! What is your most embarrassing experience and be honest everyone, I'm going to do the same after all.

Come on, lets hear it!"

Sharon said and both Lilliana and Sanja moaned while Makoto could only show a wry smile.

He had seen these kinds of conversations with other people on school trips.

They would share stories from their youth or even make up a few but he had until now only ever watched them unfold, never actually participated in them.

"Alright, because you are all so very eager to start I shall do the honor of breaking the ice."

Sharon finally said after no one talked for a few seconds.

"My most embarrassing story would probably be the trip that me and my dad had when I was 8.

We went camping in the woods.

You all don't know him but he was never one to actually go out to the park with me or ask me and my mum to go on a drive but this one weekend where my mother was working he decided that we suddenly had to go camping.

Just straight out of the blue he picked me up from school and told me we would drop by at home and go camping.

As you can imagine I was pretty excited, I had never before been on a trip like this as a city child and most things about nature were foreign to me."

Sharon's eyes had started to look at the horizon far in the distance, fixed on a point only she could see.

"We quickly packed everything and then drove out of the city.

My dad had packed food and water for 2 days and we would come back home on Sunday, it was such a sudden decision that my mum wasn't even informed about it so he just left her a message at home.

Just thinking back, it was quite a bizarre trip but I was young and didn't see the signs... anyways.

We went shopping for a tent and afterwards drove straight into the middle of nowhere.

My dad was someone who had never even swung a hammer in his entire life so setting up the tent was a complete disaster, in the end we decided to sleep in the car."

Sharon stopped for a second before she continued, a visible deep color on her cheeks as she talked.

"It must have been 2 in the morning when I woke up because of my bursting bladder.

Unable to wake up my dad and unwilling to just pee myself I unlocked the car-door and went to a nearby bush to do my business.

What I had not considered was to take some toilet paper with me.

My next decision was to just use some leaves to wipe but I was in complete darkness so with my rash decision to trust nature as toilet paper I wiped myself with poison ivy...

You can imagine the scene when an 8 year old girl comes running, screaming her lungs out for her father while her underwear is at her ankles and her privates... well let's just say it wasn't pretty and probably the most embarrassing event in my life..."

Sharon leaned against Makoto's shoulder after seeing Sanja's ruthless smile and Lilliana's grin, only her boyfriend seemed to have actual pity with her for that event.

"Alright, stop grinning like a pervert when you think about an 8 year olds crotch and tell me your story Sanja."

Immediately the happy expression disappeared from the girl's face.

"It's only fair after all."

Makoto said, driving the figurative nail in the coffin.

"Alright, alright.

I will tell you the story but only once and because we are between friends, if you tell anyone else about this I swear that I will find you guys and take my revenge..."

Sanja glanced at everyone once and only Farabello seemed to be confused about what had been so embarrassing about the previous story which was understandable, he was an NPC after all and words like 'car' or 'camping' didn't exist in the game.

"I was in middle school, must have been only 13 back then and believe it or not I had braces.

There was a guy named Dolton that I had a crush on back then, long hair, always in trouble with other students and the school and already had 2 tattoos, the typical bad boy.

Let's just say my taste in men was not that great back then."

"Only back then?"

Lilliana intervened and Sanja immediately smacked her over the head with her staff.

"Anyways.

Dolton was good looking guy, a bad boy and he never made fun of me for my braces like the other kids did so he was my prince in shining armor.

After getting the courage to talk with him a few times he dragged me into an empty classroom and we started to kiss.

It went pretty good for a while but his long hair somehow managed to got stuck in my braces and soon enough he started to pull back and noticed the tangled hair.

It was not pretty at all and Dolton was not happy.

He practically dragged me out of the classroom by my braces while trying to undo his hair and everyone in school was able to watch the whole thing...

It was pretty tough, especially the nicknames that followed shortly after..."

Makoto was about to comfort Sanja with her flushed cheeks when Lilliana started to snicker.

Apparently her best friend knew about the event as there was a visible evil joy on Lilly's face as she whispered something to Sanja.

The blond girl immediatly went silent while her cheeks took on an even deeper red.

She glared at Lilly with visible killing intent.

"Don't you dare say it or I swear that I will tell them about Marten..."

Right away the little Summoner with the evil grin went silent, only a shocked expression visible on her face.

"So who is this Marten?"

Sharon inquired while watching naked fear crawl into Lilliana's eyes.

Once again Makoto felt a shiver down his spine.

Just how cruel could 'friends' be to each other...

Telling himself mentally over and over to never ever cross Sharon under any circumstances, he nearly didn't hear the smaller girl's response.

"N-Nobody. Don't listen to Sanja, she is just being mean for no reason.

Anyways we should probably hurry and catch up to the front of the platoon what do you say?"

Immediately two strong hands from Sharon and Sanja pulled back the fleeing Lilliana while she clearly struggled to break and run free.

"Yeah, tell them about Marten Lilly, I am sure Makoto would be thrilled to hear about him."

Just seeing the pure evil in his girlfriend's eyes was enough to even make the beast inside of him take a step back in fear.

With a face full of despair, Lilliana was kept in place by both girls and even Makoto's numerous attempts to convince them to let her go failed.

After nearly 5 minutes of talking the small Summoner in a corner she finally broke down, all resistance disappeared and with a sigh she began her story.

"Alright, you will both pay for this but I guess I have no choice in the matter.

It wasn't really embarrassing at the time but looking back at it now and how much trouble Marten got into because of me... let's start from the beginning...

I was always a good bit smaller than others and I have learned to deal with this after many years but when I was in kindergarten I had this crazy idea that drinking a lot of milk together with hanging upside down from things would make me grow taller.

Marten was one of the people that took care and played with us, I don't remember if I had a crush on him as I was pretty young but I remember many girls from all ages being in love with the guy, even my own mum always unbuttoned her shirt when he was close.

Marten was very good looking and popular, lets put it that way.

One day, young me had the great idea to drink a glass of milk while hanging upside down.

The end result was catastrophic, I fell from a low hanging tree branch, Milk splashed in my face and all over my clothes and I also hurt my tailbone in the fall.

Marten was close by to see me fall so he quickly ran to me and checked me for any other injuries.

He pulled off my clothes to make sure I had not hurt myself any further and because they were soaking wet with milk..."

Lilliana suddenly stopped talking and hid her face in her hands, apparently too embarrassed to continue but thankfully Sanja already knew what happened next and continued talking.

"Now imagine this, Lilly's mother walks in on the whole thing, her little girl undressed to her underwear with white stuff spilled all over her red face and Marten kneeling over her... I would have paid money to see her expression at that moment I tell you."

Freely laughing her head off, Sharon soon enough followed suit and even Makoto couldn't help a smile after imagining the entire unfortunate chain of events.

"In the end the guy was able to walk away without any bad rumors following him around but he could have easily gone to jail if the situation had turned out badly.

Lilly's mum still made her attend a different kindergarden even though the guy was innocent, pretty funny if you ask me."

"Well it would be to a sadistic bitch like you"

Lilliana mumbled and both Sanja and her immediately started to fight it out with nails and screaming.

After a few intense minutes were Makoto and Sharon had tried to make peace and Farabello hid behind a few surrounding Soldiers, the fighting stopped and they continued their Journey in complete silence.

Finally, Sharon turned expectantly towards Makoto.

"Your turn, tell us your most embarrassing story."

Right away visible interest could be seen on everyone's face as they all waited for a detailed explanation.

"Uhm..."

Unsure what to say he struggled for a few seconds, trying his very best to remember any noteworthy stories from his past.

"Come on, we all told our fair share of secrets, it's your turn now Makoto."

Sanja encouraged him and he felt even more helpless.

No matter how hard he tried to think back, there never seemed to be any events like the girls had told him about.

"Don't you trust us by now?"

Sharon finally asked.

"No...that's not it.

It's just that there... there is no events or experiences like that in my past..."

"Come on, stop bullshitting and spill it!"

Lilliana said, her face still showing a visible red from before.

Keeping his eyes to the ground and wracking his brain for anything at all he opened his mouth.

"I am not bullshitting you...

Well I guess you won't believe me with just this so let me explain as some kind of compensation.

I never had embarrassing stories with my dad because he left me and my mum when I was pretty young.

Never anything to explain to my mum because the moment I could walk she left me to my own devices and rather spent her time with a few friends than with me.

I also had no crazy weird situations at school or with friends simply because... I never had anyone willing to share them with me.

Believe it or not but you guys are pretty much the first friends I ever had... I guess that could count as an embarrassing story..."

Showing a wry smile he finally looked up, only to see the same shocked expression on everyone's face, even Sharon seemed to be visibly stunned.

"What do you mean you never... how could you never have had any friends?"

Lilliana finally asked, unwilling to believe that something like that was possible.

Taking a deep breath he looked at each and every one of them, Farabello also seemed to be concerned which was more than enough reason to include him in the talk.

"To put it simple... I was diagnosed with a mental illness when I was younger... it's pretty bad, my dad couldn't take it and left because of it and everyone in my life tried to keep their distance, my mother included.

The school naturally had to be informed should there ever be an incident when I was still a minor and word got around to stay away from the crazy dude...

Only after turning 18 they stopped warning each and every one to stay clear, should something happen now it is on my head and I could go to jail for it.

That is why I never had any friends Lilly."

He tried to show them an uncaring smile but it was forced and they would have to be blind not to see that.

"Why did you never tell me... you never..."

Sharon looked at him, clearly in shock about this sudden revelation and he couldn't blame her, it was a lot to take in suddenly but he tried his best to answer her question as truthfully as possible.

If he didn't do it now he might never again have the courage to do so.

"There was two reasons, the first one is simple.

I didn't want to be treated like a freak just because you knew the truth about my situation.

The second reason... well after all that happened I just couldn't bear the thought of you being scared of me or leaving me because you found out..."

Unable to look into her eyes after admitting his own weakness, Makoto stared at the ground and a hand on his right cheek made him look up again in surprise.

Their eyes met and the he could see the same warm and gentle expression on her face that he had fallen in love with.

"I would never see you any different because of something like this you big dummy."

Unable to hide a smile after that last part he stared into her eyes for a long time, their fingers interlocked in loving embrace.

"Talk about awkward..."

Sanja blurted out and he turned his attention back to her and Lilly.

Both still looked at him the same way, not judging or fearing him at all which he was incredibly thankful for, it was not an understatement to say that he had seen far to much of that in the past.

A part of him was still scared now that the truth was finally out.

But for the most part he was simply glad and thankful for a girlfriend like Sharon and friends like Lilliana and Sanja.

People that he could actually trust and lean on after standing alone for such a long time....

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Talk about change of topic right there :P

Hope you all stay tuned and see you in two days!