The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

"What the hell." Dina stood at the trance after waking in on what looked from behind like Sol kissing Arla while Ikaris stared in shock, but wh nobody turned to meet her gaze she walked over to them and stared over his shoulder, there she found Arla crying like a lost child and Sol trying to calm her as he held her gtly. "What\'s going on?" She repeated her question a second time.

"Love..." Ikaris stared at Sol\'s expression, it was neither caring nor uncaring and yet it did not feel like a passive stare either, it was the first time she found confliction in his heart through just looking in his eyes.

"Arla..." Sol held her a little tighter and looked toward the torch that lit the inside of the tt.

"There was once a time where Ikaris disappeared; in the fifth and sixth years after I was reincarnated, she was gone..." Sol started a story, and without missing a beat Dina took a seat and Ikaris started paying atttion to him again after being too shocked to react to Arla\'s obvious praise and infatuation with him.

"This was the turning tide of the war that would lead to me ultimately winning against the demon god, but it was also the darkest I had ever se any species turn, depravity ravaged the armies on both sides and we tore each other apart in an dless storm of blood and rage... In that same time I met someone; there was a woman who asked me the same thing; if she could love me, her name was Jun."

"Jun..." Ikaris repeated the woman\'s name and a look of guilt overcame her, why was he remembering his first love all of a sudd, was he going to leave her for Arla, would he truly, she was a lot like her in many regards.

"Jun was not much differt than you, despite having a dark past, she grew into a sweet woman; someone who cared for those a her and always tried to help ev at the cost of her own well-being." He looked down at her with a warm smile and ruffled her hair like a child\'s.

"I never answered her question and we just kind of grew closer without it... I never confessed, and she never knew if I truly loved her or not... Ev though we spt so much time together, she died in my arms, and I still never said a word to her."

"Thank you for being honest with me." He looked at Ikaris with that same soft smile while she failed to avert her eyes after he stared at her. "I can\'t answer you either, it\'s not my place to tell you where your heart belongs, I only know where my own heart belongs." He continued looking at Ikaris.

Without a word Arla lowered her gaze and took his hand, hugging it to herself and resting her cheek in his palm, fulfilling her first wish of being held by him while she still could.

"I\'m saying I won\'t accept your love ev if you give it to me, wether you do or don\'t is up to you, it won\'t change how I see or interact with you, my heart, my love, and my adoration only belong to Ikaris, and that can\'t change, it never will." He rested his hand on her head again and smiled. "Sorry."

\'This is so weird, she\'s behaving like a lovesick child, how didn\'t I notice this before?\' Dina raised her brow at how Arla interacted with Sol.

"I understand where my place is, I do not want to cause any trouble betwe you; not that I believe I ever could," Arla finally calmed down while Sol set her to sit on her own again. "Thank you for listing and comforting me, Master Vestic." She smiled at him, and Sol nodded and turned to Ikaris again.

"Love, are you mad at me for leaving wh I did? Had I stayed, Jun might have lived..."

"Everyone dies wh they\'re supposed to, Ikaris, whether she lived a year or two more is not important anymore, it already happed and we have long moved on." He took her hands and pulled her to her feet. "All I have is you, and I wouldn\'t have it any other way."

"To say such a thing after speaking of your first l-"

*Thwip!

They both disappeared while Ikaris was speaking, and after Arla smiled and hugged herself again with a peaceful expression donnig her face, Dina just sat there confused, she was completely ignored the whole time. "What the fuck just happed, Arla, you-"

"I do not harbour romantic feelings toward him, I thought I might have at first, I wish I did, but after he embraced me I felt no such feeling, I just had a deep longing to be held." the half elf replied to Dina before she could finish her question. "I simply wanted someone to hold me without feeling my skin crawl, I wanted to be embraced without feeling the fear of abuse...

And Master Vestic is the only man who gives me that ssation, whether it was my companions, my fellow captains or ev the king wh he still lived, the touch of a man has always caused me terrible hives..."

"Th... Do you think you will be able to interact with other m now-"

"Absolutely not. I fantasize about that man every single night before falling asleep I will never touch or be touched by another." Arla deadpanned. "M still make my skin crawl."

"Th what of wom?" Dina deadpanned right back.

"No way, I don\'t think of wom like that,"

"Ar\'t you setting yourself up to be a lonely ole woman, th?!" Dina shot back with an accusing finger pointed at Arla and her eyes circular with shock.

"I will never be lonely!" Arla picked up her staff and smiled as the ssation of Sol\'s hug physically returned through mimicked memory by her own mana coating a her.

"You fucking weirdo!"

Arla lied.

"Where\'d Sol and Ikaris go?" Usami came back inside of the tt half dressed and grinning from ear to ear with the water dripping off her body. "This is great, a hot spring-"

"Who do you think is responsible for the hot spring in the first place, Usami?" Dina raised her brow looking at her fellow hero with an amused glance, and Usami paused and stared at the empty sleeping quarters of the man and his woman and th looked at Dina again, sobered from realisation.

"It never occured that they\'d have such magic at their disposal, but considering who it is; yeah, I guess it does make a lot of sse that they\'re the ones who did it..." She pouted. "Anyways, Arla-"

"Pass," The half-elf crossed her arms, still holding onto her staff with a warm smile. "I will remain here until everyone else has had their fill of the spring, maybe sometimes later I will ter wh nobody else is there.

"Gosh you\'re such a killjoy, Arla," Usami shook her head and th looked at Dina. "What\'s your excuse?"

"It\'s pretty much the same, Usami."

"Aw come on, we\'ve be frids for years, Dina, we shared the same bathroom for the first two years of college!" Usami shook her hands fatigued at the two of them.

"Yeah, we did, I ev shared baths with you and Ikaris and Eris back in Argom, but I never stated once that I\'d be comfortable in a pool with some guy."

"Bruce isn\'t some guy, Dina, and he\'s still dressed out of consideration," Usami deadpanned. "You\'re being a pride right now, in fact you\'ve be acting holier than a newborn nun ever since you and Ikaris became frids-"

"Is there something wrong with that?" Dina raised her eyes and stared at Usami while her pupils turned pink and her body was highlighted by a very faint glow of her pink mana. "Are you trying to start a fight with me?"

"Oh stop it," Usami scoffed and passed off Dina\'s hostile defsivess with a wave of her hand. "Fine, don\'t join, there\'s no telling of that thing\'s gonna last either way." She spun and left without another word.

Together with her teacher Dina sat and listed as the others seemed to be having fun, but th at the same time that Arla sat forward with a panicked expression, Dina also stood and summoned her staff just before a powerful gust of dust, wind, fire, and debris tore through the tt and uprooted everything sding her and Arla crashing after they failed to erect barriers in time.

"Dina!" Arla managed to right herself first, casting a barrier over herself and taking to the sky after casting several chants on herself.

"Dina!"