Chapter 25 To Trust or Not To Trust

As my consciousness slowly returned, I remembered what had happened and clawed at a boulder in my imagination, but there was no boulder claw at. There was nothing there.

I warily looked around and saw only a familiar darkness around me, I was inside the familiar tattoo.

My breath was still unsteady even though my body was totally rested. Slowly I started to calm down, as there was nothing that would attack me here.

'Is it over' I thought to myself, 'Did it even happen? Or was it all just a terrible nightmare?'

Hesitantly I opened my status and skill screens. When I saw the change to my stats and skills the only thing I could think about was 'Sophie really is a merciless sadist. How should I face her from now on? I don't want to be tortured anymore. What should I do... ? What should I do?' This one sentence continued to echo through my mind.

I laid there not thinking straight for an undefined amount of time before I could think clearly once more. 'OK, I should first analyze the situation. Sophie talked about something with Antonia. Then, she leashed me onto the pole. Ok to this point no sadistic action. Then, she activated the torturing device and watched as hell broke loss while smiling and cheering. Yup Sophie is a sadist.'

I thought as a shiver went down my spine. 'Will things like this happen from now one.

I don't want things like that to happen from now on, so I need to do something to change this. Wait... WAIT A MOMENT couldn't I have returned to the familiar-tattoo at any time. Idiot Pochi. So I will return here,to the familiar-tattoo, every time Sophie tries to torture me. That's a good plan. No Sophie can just call me out again that isn't really a solution. I need to find a way to prevent that.'

While pondering for some time, I wondered what Sophie was doing. So, I operated the Space in front of me to make the TV screen appear with which I could see what Sophie saw. What I saw was that Sophie was in here room, but something was obstructing the screen, it was as if Sophie was underwater.

'What is going on?' I asked myself. I heard the soft voice of Sophie sobbing.

By this turn of events I was pretty confused, and my thought went all over the place again.

'Should I go out and comfort her? Or should I wait here and do nothing? But, Sophie is so small and I want to know what happened. Is she hurt?' Overwhelmed by emotions of discomfort and worry, I couldn't think about the situation anymore and just went outside the tattoo to be by her side.

When I Appeared under her skirt and lifted her up with my huge body, Sophie let out a small scream.

I turned my head to look at Sophie, who was now riding on my back. Sophie stared at me for a few seconds before she returned to crying. She bends forward to hug my head and said something over and over again.

Shocked as I was, I didn't activate my language comprehension til I remembered it after Sophie had calmed down.

Sophie fell asleep on my back and she was getting heavier so I carefully walked over to her bed.

'Ok what now? How should I get her on the bed without waking her up? Should I try to shift to the astral plane with her? But, if it fails she will hit the floor.' while I was thinking about ways to move Sophie from my back to the bed the door opened and Monica came in and said, "Sophie dear, I ...".

But stopped mid sentence when she saw me with the sleeping Sophie on my back looking at the bed and started to lough.

I glared at her, seeing this Monica put her one hand before her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

It took Monica a bit of time before she calmed down enough to approach me and remove Sophie from my back, changing her into her nightgown with a little difficulty and put her into the bed. While doing this, she spoke to me in a whispering voice.

"Pochi, you are great Dog. Sophie should be glad to have a partner like you, sadly she still doesn't quite get what a familiar is so she is treating you like a toy, but that is understandable at her age. Sometimes I forget that Sophie is only eight years old with all she is able to do. Pochi I'm sorry Sophie put you into the test of the Beast Annihilation Research Laboratories, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive her."

A bit shocked at this, I thought 'Does she know that I can understand her?'

Monica used her hand to rub the back of her head. "What am I doing telling this to a young dog," she said as she left the room and silently closed the door behind her.

I sat there looking at Sophie and wondering if I should trust her or not.