At that moment, Ayeka remembered that night as she ran into Ayeka five years ago. It finally stopped raining after two days, and Natalia tracked down a limping Ayeka as she was at the old carnival that was destroyed by the riot. Ayeka sensed somebody coming behind her as she braced herself to fight, only to see Natalia wearing an overcoat.

Ayeka was happy to see her friend, but was worried about her health, “Natalia-chan, you shouldn’t be here. You should be in bed, resting.”

As well as Natalia should have been resting. She had dark circles around her eyes and both bloodshot. But Ayeka was the one to talk, having a concussion, three broken ribs, a broken arm, one of her hips were out of joint in which noticeably made her limp, and she suffered a sprained ankle.

“I had to come here,” Natalia already out of breath by walking five feet. “I had to find you…”

“Okay, you found me. But you still have to take care of yourself, Natalia-chan,” Ayeka admonished.

Natalia scoffed at that comment, “I guess I do.”

Ayeka wasn’t doing a good job hiding the fact that Gideon called her first and warned her about Natalia’s plans. Yet, Natalia knew that she did. However, she needed to say this out loud.

Natalia needed to get this off her chest once and for all, “I’ve always said you would have been the better leader out of all of us. I’ve always felt they needed me to be the leader because I was weak. There were many times you saved me. I’ve always asked for your guidance. Things could have been so much different if I didn’t have you in my life. For that, I want to say I am glad that I had you as a friend. You never judged me or berated me.”

Ayeka wanted to tell her so badly what she was doing was wrong. But after considering her eyes and hearing her words, there’s no stopping her. All she had to do was be there for her and give her words of comfort herself.

So, whatever kind of decision she would make, at least she would have the most outpouring of support that anyone could ever give her, “life takes us from place to place without any kind of warning. We just have to be ready for it. When I came back to Oleander, I could have easily turned a blind eye to a lot of things I was happening. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t be the leader. I felt unworthy to be your leader. That is why I wanted to help you become a better leader than I was. And you were.

“Regardless of what you think about yourself, you’re always a better leader than I was. At least you cared about humanity. At least you cared about nephalems and nether users being treated fairly. At least you had the common sense to contemplate what was going on between them and us. You’re looking at somebody who fought on both sides, and even now, I still don’t have an answer on why you’re still doing something like this after all of these years with no end in sight. But you, Natalia-chan, you were the only one that questioned our fate. Of saying that it could be a better way. We just didn’t listen. But not out of ignorance but out of complacency.”

Hearing her best friend’s words, Natalia teared up, “yes. There are times where I just shrug my shoulders and told myself this was it. This is my life. But deep down. I wanted something more. I wanted something different. And in the eyes of many, it was wrong.”

“And look where that got us?” Ayeka reflected. “It’s okay having these feelings, Natalia-chan. I just hoped we all could have done the same thing sooner rather than later.”

“Thank you, Ayeka. Thank you for being a friend, and goodbye,” Natalia concluded as she walked over to her best friend and gave her a great big hug. Noticeably, Ayeka felt her belly was bigger seven days ago. To Ayeka, this was the end of an era of the Oleander Syndicate.