Chapter 36 – Telling the Truth

Vel's mouth dropped agape and her eyes widened as far as they could go. "It took me a year and a half to get to where you are, Eve. How are your skills so high rank when you were only level 1 yesterday?"

I wasn’t at all expecting this to be an even bigger deal than my fast levelling pace, but apparently, it was. That said, after a second or two to think it over, I realised her surprise made sense. After all, if someone came into my place of work and achieved as much as I did over the last year and a half in only a little over a day and a bit, I would have been just as surprised as her if not more so.

Still, though, that just left the question of why this had been the case. Luckily, after a few more moments to think about this matter, I remembered something I had mostly forgotten about. Well, forgotten wasn’t really the right word for it, as I had been aware of it this whole time but didn’t think it was that big of a deal before now. Apparently, I was wrong.

"My skills are probably ranking up fast because of my class. Pervert has a modifier in its class description that doubles the skill growth of all sexual skills but halves the skill growth of all combat ones." I explained, not at all hesitant to share such information with my girlfriend.

Although Damien warned me yesterday not to share my class rarity with others because it could be dangerous for me, and I assumed that would also go for other stuff like this as well, I trusted Vel and her father enough to keep this information between us. Not to mention that they knew way more important things about me than this. Well, at least Damien did, which was something I still needed to rectify. Even though I had been interrupted the last time, right before I was about to tell Vel the truth of my situation, I was still fully set on revealing everything to her. I owed her that much at least.

"Wow, your class is amazing, Eve!" The young elven woman exclaimed, but this time her expression wasn’t filled with surprise and shock, but wonder and amazement. "My uncommon druid class only gives me a 25% boost to the power of my druidic skills. How did you ever get such an amazing class- Oh, right, sorry. I forgot that you don’t have any memories before you woke up in the forest."

"About that…" I paused slightly, seeing no better opportunity to tell her the truth coming any time soon. At least not in comparison to this perfect segue she had inadvertently created for me. "Do you remember how there was something I needed to tell you right before we were interrupted by those men, how there was something I was lying to you about, Vel?"

"Yeah…" She responded with a cautious frown, not quite sure where this was going to go.

"Well, the thing is that I actually do have all of my memories still. I just don’t have any of this world. You see…" I went on to explain everything to her. From my life on Earth to the strange heavenly offices, I left nothing out. I even talked about Bob and how I lost my virginity to him.

As the words left my lips, it felt as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was no longer hiding anything from Vel, and the greatest part is that she wasn’t even the slightest bit mad at me. It was the right decision to tell her the truth after we had just officially become girlfriends. Who knew how mad she would have gotten if I told her I was lying to her about this kind of thing years later?

To Vel’s credit, despite the absurdity of the story I was telling her, she didn’t doubt me for a second. Instead, she just nodded and went along, even going as far as asking a few clarifying questions here and there. In fact, she seemed very interested in Earth, and many of her questions concerned what it was like and how the things I described, such as aeroplanes and cars, worked.

I did my best to answer any questions she had, and before too long, we had forgotten all about what we were talking about moments earlier. By the time we were interrupted from our conversation by the sound of Damien's return, the plate of nibbles in front of Vel and I were completely finished off.

Hearing her father arrive in the clearing outside with great speed reminded Vel of something she wanted to quickly suggest to me before he dealt with whatever business he had left outside and came inside. "Oh, and it’s probably best if you don’t tell Dad about this. I’m not sure how he’d take this news, or if he would even believe you, but you two are just starting to get along now. It would be a shame to ruin that and have him get all distrusting of you again."

"Actually… Your father already knows. In fact, he didn’t want me to tell you the truth after he found out, but I figured you deserve to know."

"What!" Vel exclaimed before calming herself and continuing on with a slight pout. "Why did you tell Dad first?"

"I didn’t really have a choice…" I awkwardly shifted in my seat, trying my best to diplomatically explain myself. As it turned out, she was more upset that her father found out first than the fact that I hid this from her. "Your father realised I knew too much about sex toys for someone with no memories and he kind of forced the information out of me."

Vel’s expression shifted slightly upon hearing this. No longer did she seem upset at me, but more so at her father. "What do you mean he forced the information out of you?"

"Ah… Well…" I stammered, unsure if I should throw the man under the bus like this. But then again, if I didn’t explain myself properly, Vel would have known I was lying to her and I didn’t want to do that. "He kind of picked me up by the throat and used some horrible skill on me. It felt like I was going to die if I didn’t tell him everything he wanted to know. Although that said, the fact that I had no way to resist his skill is the whole reason he even believed me, so it wasn’t all bad. Also, him choking me like that was kind of hot…"

The more I explained, the more enraged Vel got until she could no longer stand hearing it. Once I was done and had trailed off after recalling how aroused being choked by her father made me, the young elven woman wasted no time shooting up off the sofa and storming out of the house. The front door of the log cabin was thrown open with such force that it immediately drew the attention of Damien, who was currently messing around with something in the nearby shed.

I didn’t really get a good look at what the big burly man was doing as I followed Vel out, because I was more worried about what it was she was going to do. However, in the short glance or two that I got before he shut the shed doors, it looked like he had been storing something inside. Whatever it was that he stored in the shed, it wasn’t the only thing the man had taken possession of since we last saw him, as he had a large, completely stuffed full backpack slung over his shoulder.

That said, my interest in the backpack and whatever it was that he had stored in the shed quickly faded away as Damien noticed his enraged and quickly approaching daughter. "Velyna, what’s wrong?"

Vel said nothing until she got within arms reach of her father and began to fervently wail on him with her fists. "YOU ASSHOLE! How could you do that to Eve? She’s only been kind to us and you made her feel like she was going to die. She saved my life and you did that to her! ASSHOLE!"

Well, technically I saved your life after he already did that to me. I noted it to myself but didn’t voice my opinion because it didn’t seem like a very smart thing to do. After all, Vel was quite worked up and even crying as she wailed at her father. As much as the fight was about me, I didn’t really think it was my place to interfere in their family spat.

That said, all of the young elven woman’s strikes didn’t amount to much. Given her father’s high level. It didn’t even look like her punches were fazing him. If anything, she was probably hurting her hands more than she was hurting him.

"Ah, so Evelyn told you about that." Damien let out a sigh as he gave me a quick disapproving glance, after which he returned his attention fully to his daughter.

"Is that really all you’re going to say? How could you do that?" Vel cried, and although her flurry of blows continued to strike at her father, the speed of her punches was slowly petering out.

"I’m sorry that it had to happen, but I stand by my actions. I thought that Evelyn might have been lying for a more dangerous reason, and I did what I did to protect you." Damien tried to explain himself, but his words were only infuriating his daughter more.

That said, Vel soon ran out of steam and stopped punching her father. Although, even though she wasn’t punching him anymore, it didn’t mean she was any less angry. "Oh, I know, everything you do is to protect me. That’s why you have kept me hidden away in this forest for my entire life and assaulted one of the only friends I have ever made, just to keep me safe and protected."

"You don’t trust me and tell me anything. Gods above, you even wanted Eve to lie about where she came from to me. Why! Why did you want her to lie?"

"I…" Damien hung his head in shame. His daughter’s words were clearly striking at the guilty he was already feeling. "I didn’t want you to get your hopes up for your mother."

"Mum…" Vel’s rage turned to confusion as she looked at her father, bewildered as to the reason behind his actions. "What does Mum have anything to do with this?

"I thought that if you heard that Eve came back from the dead, you would get your hopes up for resurrection magic to bring your mother back too. But that’s not possible and many people have gone down dark paths trying to pursue it. Truthfully, Such magic can only be done at incredibly high levels and even then it can only be done to those who have been dead for less than an hour."

"That… That thought never even occurred to me, but it's just more proof that you don’t trust me, not really. You keep things from me just because they might potentially hurt me be it physically or emotionally. You don’t trust me to make my own decisions and deal with the repercussions of my own mistakes."

"The world is a dangerous place, Velyna." Damien tried to argue back as I just silently watched the two go at it from the sidelines but it was clear his resolve was already starting to break. "Why, just a few hours ago you could have been killed by those men…“

“...And if you had, it would have been all my fault."

There was something strange in the man’s last words. There was a somberness and regret to them that his daughter didn’t seem to pick up on as she went on to argue. "As much as you want to, you can’t keep me protected all the time. You can’t be everywhere Dad."

"You’re right, Velyna. Gods, you’re right…" Damien sighed, taking his daughter by surprise with his sudden shift. "However, if those men had killed you, it still would have been my fault. Not because I wasn’t there to protect you, but because I neglected your training and you weren’t able to protect yourself. As much as I hate to admit it, you are right. I can’t always be there for you, I can’t always protect you."

"I… What?" Vel’s jaw almost hit the floor upon hearing her father admit this.

"So from now on, I’m going to train you properly." Damien continued. "It won't be easy, and the training might even make you hate me even more, but by the end of it, you will be more capable of protecting yourself. I’ll even help train Evelyn and your slime friend if they want."

"Slime friend? Wait, you know about Saph? Since when?" Vel gasped at what was yet another surprising revelation.

"Since the start, before you even meet them." Damien had a little chuckle. "Do you really think that I would have missed a tier 0 slime trying pitifully to hide in the forest? They’re not the smartest or strongest monsters out there, but this one seemed harmless enough to let it interact with you. Well, that said, I did keep watch of you two for the first few months just to see if that would be the case."

"I… I didn’t know…" Vel hung her head, not quite sure how she felt about this latest revelation. It clearly wasn’t in line with what she thought her father was doing all this time.

"There’s more I need to tell you too. If I am to be completely honest with you and trust that you can protect yourself, there is more you need to know, more I need to shed light on."

"...” Vel didn’t say anything, she was too taken about to but she just looked at her father with a great deal of curiosity.

"But that can wait for a moment." Damien slung the backpack off his shoulder and let it fall to the ground as he spoke. "There were more of those people out there. From what I could tell, they were low-level mercenaries pretending to be bandits. This backpack is from their leader, a woman with a similar stature to you, Evelyn. Well, similar in height and hips, not so much in the chest area…"

It took me a couple of seconds to realise that he was talking to me, as I had gotten complacent just watching and listening in on a conversation that really didn’t have much to do with me. However, the prospect of getting actual clothes to wear excited me greatly, and as such, I hurried over to the backpack.

As I got there and strained to pick up the overly heavy thing, Damien continued to speak. "Honey, why don’t you and Evelyn go take the backpack to your room? You two can look over the clothes inside for anything good for Evelyn to wear, while I get my thoughts straight on what to explain first. When you're done, I’ll be waiting at the dining table for you to join me for this long overdue talk."

"Ah, both of you, that is. Unless of course, you don’t want Evelyn to be let in on our family secrets, which I assume you do." He sighed, clearly not enthusiastic about the idea of letting me in on their secrets, but considering how attached Vel was to me, he knew I was going to find out one way or the other.

"No, I do. Eve deserves to know as well." She responded just as her father had predicted.

After that, nothing else needed to be said as Vel and I made our way back into the house, heading straight for her bedroom. Thankfully, though, the young elven woman helped me with the backpack as it was quite heavy and almost as big as I was.