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Once upon a time he had considered himself better-looking than the average man, but everything slowly broke down after the Demon King catastrophe. The first three days of purposelessly wandering about the monastery, his reflection peered back with a smile even though harsh whispers clung to his back. When wandering aimlessly transitioned into a single day of training in the yard, only breaking for food and water, his expression subtly drooped, though he only noticed when he spent another three days training, then another week. By the time he fought Ver Dilen, a month and a half later, he could hardly stand to look at himself. He only thanked the fact that no one else noticed…hadn\'t noticed until then as Ver Dilen\'s face, mirroring his exact expression, appeared next to his reflection.

Wilhelm flinched away with his heart in his throat, instinctually kicking at his reflection before falling onto his back. He hadn\'t bothered to check if Ver Dilen was still around, figuring that the fight was over.

Ver Dilen upturned his nose as disgusted by the reek of shame, then descended upon him.

Wilhelm\'s soft stomach instinctively tensed under the weight of Ver Dilen\'s knee, and he let out a pained groan.

Ver Dilen slowly applied weight to force the air out of Wilhelm\'s lungs like wringing water out of a towel. He only applied a portion of the weight however, straddling the line between keeping Wilhelm pinned down or crushing him.

Although Wilhelm pushed against the knee with all his strength, much like a bug struggling against a boot, it didn\'t change anything. He took in shallow, labored breaths. He almost wished to let the knee squash his organs flat and put an end to the fight, but his friends had followed his selfish whims and the least he could do was see it through all the way. \'Don\'t you dare give up, you pathetic piece of shit,\' Wilhelm thought to himself. His gaze met Ver Dilen\'s. His expression had contorted within the man\'s coal-black eyes, giving rise to a strange, boiling rage.

Ver Dilen\'s face relaxed as he shook his head and broke the silence: "How long have you been looking at yourself like you\'re the worst person you know?"

Wilhelm spat out a reply by flexing his abs and speaking in short bursts, though air became a struggle for a few moments afterwards: "How do you know I\'m grimacing at your ugly mug?"

Ver Dilen responded by leaning more weight onto Wilhelm\'s stomach.

Wilhelm let out a pained groan and the truth unconsciously squeezed out of his tightened lips. "Fine! Fine. It\'s been a while…I don\'t know…You\'re so damned heavy," he said. He didn\'t know what Ver Dilen was looking for but he didn\'t have the energy to resist anymore.

Ver Dilen nodded. He slowly released a portion of his weight and let Wilhelm catch some of his breath. "See? This is a proper conversation. Now the lesson can begin," he said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Wilhelm wheezed. He racked his mind for what the point of this so-called "lesson", but a splitting headache wrestled against complex thinking.

"The purpose of this "hunt" wasn\'t to test your ability," Ver Dilen explained. "I know you\'re competent…or you were competent. I swear by the goddess, Isaac could prattle on about you for hours."

The name of Wilhelm\'s old mentor shot through his heart like a crossbow bolt. He glanced away and let out a silent sob, but the action caused his chest to involuntarily tense, practically broadcasting his thoughts as if Ver Dilen had beaten him to the point of physically tearing into his mind. "Isaac would not say the same things about me anymore," Wilhelm huffed. He expected Ver Dilen to nod or yell out another insult, yet worse emerged: the truth.

Ver Dilen shook his head. "He only blames himself for this."

"There\'s no one who could have done a better job than him," Wilhelm said. He had said as much in response to the last letter he\'d gotten from Isaac a month back, but he had yet to get a reply. Weeks of uncrumpling the letter, rereading, then crumpling it back up only added to the mountain of guilt.

"What do you have against me?" Wilhelm snapped. "Why are you roping everything I care about into my own failures? All they did was trust me to do what a hero does." His outburst brought him to the brink of passing out as Ver Dilen\'s knee neared his spine.

"That is why they failed," Ver Dilen said, finally lifting his knee away from Wilhelm\'s stomach. He paused for a moment then added, "At least, why Merlin, Sindre, and Isaac failed you."

Wilhelm took in a lungful of air, then sat up. "What do you mean?" he asked, surprisingly curious now that Ver Dilen finally seemed like a rational human being for once.

Ver Dilen then ripped off his armor like it was paper, and casually tossed it over the edge of the platform. A few moments later, an ear-splitting metallic screech echoed, a reminder that, while Ver Dilen had a rational side, he could also rip Wilhelm to shreds at a moment\'s notice.

Wilhelm sat up.

Ver Dilen then explained: "I assume you were the idiot who decided to use yourself as a meatshield and to split Sindre off from the group. I also assume that I don\'t have to tell you how stupid that was."

Although Wilhelm immediately regretted listening to Ver Dilen, at least the verbal abuse was reasonable. He lowered his head.

"But," Ver Dilen added. "Your friends nonetheless consented to your plan, didn\'t they?"

Wilhelm swallowed his saliva. He remained silent.

Ver Dilen seemed to realize he\'d hit the nail on the head and continued. "They let themselves fight separately instead of as one because they held blind faith in you. What\'s worse is that you didn\'t trust Sindre to finish the fight, so you abandoned Merlin and Dag to rush after me. Otherwise you wouldn\'t have been begging me to save your friends in the middle of a fight."