Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest
chapter-690

"How have you been feeling, Monica? Alright?"

"Y-Yeah."

Monica nodded timidly as she ate pancakes and drank some milk.

"No anomalies? Magic powers surging out or something?"

"I-I feel… something sometimes, in my chest. I-Is it something dangerous?"

"Hm, let me see."

I gave her a gentle head pat as I placed my hand above her head, connecting my magical powers with hers, and quickly detecting the "anomaly", it was just what I had detected before.

"Looks like your innate magical powers were awakened when you became possessed by that ghost… Dorothea."

"A-Ahh…" Monica sighed, her hands trembling.

That name probably brings her some sort of post-traumatic response.

"Calm down, dear. I'll take care of you until things are better." I smiled, sighing. "That magic power won't go crazy or something, it just what you possess. But if it hurts, I could help you seal it…"

"Seal it?" She wondered. "Would that make it go away?"

"Yes… But it would also take away the opportunity for you to become strong and defend yourself one day." I said. "If one day you're alone and in danger, there won't be anybody else but you to defend your own life."

"Hmm…" Monica sighed.

She looked at the pancakes while sighing, as she seemed to want to open up a bit more.

"I wish she hadn't betrayed me like she did…" Monica sighed. "I thought that… D-Dorothea was my friend, someone that understood me but… She only put bad words into my head, and always tried to m-manipulate me…"

Her hands started trembling as tears started flowing from her eyes.

"I did so many terrible things… I should have died with her, it's what… I deserved…" She started to break down.

"No… How could you ever say that?" I sighed, hugging her. "Calm down now, you were a victim here, Monica, it wasn't your fault."

"But… I also wanted those things, deep down, there was a voice telling me that I wanted to do them, that I wanted to hurt others…" She cried. "I'm a bad person… I'm a monster…!"

"You're not a monster." I sighed. "That's natural. All of us sometimes feel like killing or kicking someone annoying. Geez, even I when I was young was bullied a lot, there wasn't a day I didn't wish I could just kill them all. But that's like a natural thing, sometimes we think in the demise of the people we detest, but it's not like we'll genuinely want to do it. It's more like… a way for our consciousness to cope with reality. A reality we can't really accept so easily."

"Auntie…" Monica sighed, looking at me with her cute eyes.

"Maybe this is more of a personal opinion but… I think you could do good with the powers you possess; I think you could one day save the lives of your friends." I smiled. "Are you really sure you want those powers to disappear?"

"…" Monica looked at her own white hands, as some dark energy began emerging, and then quickly disappeared. "I… I don't know but… I want… to help others if that means… I make up for what I did…"

"Well said." I smiled. "For now, just take it easy and rest, okay?"

"Well, okay…" Monica sighed. "B-But there's something else I need to… tell you about."

"Yes?" I wondered.

"It's about… the bullies, those girls that appeared in the hospital… T-The people that I and Dorothea hurt…" Monica sighed.

"Huh? Wait, so… Ah, I see." I sighed. "They're still alive, but they're having a rather hard time. I have refrained myself from using my powers to heal others in the hospitals and such, because that would disturb the balance of the world, as Rose said or something."

"But could you… help me heal them?" Monica asked. "I feel so guilty… I need to do something."

"Hmm, fine." I nodded. "Let's go right away."

"E-Eh?! Now?" She asked while panicking.

"Yep, and you're getting there and apologizing." I said.

"A-Ah, b-but…" Monica was having a panic attack.

"Monica, if you really want to amend for what you've done, you have to face these things head-on." I said. "You won't be alone, I'll do it for you too, but I need you to apologize to these girls."

Monica stayed silent for a few seconds, lowering her head, and really thinking it hard.

"O-Okay…" Monica nodded. "I-I'll do… it. If it means… I can get off this guilty I feel…"

"Good girl."

Like that, once Monica got some better clothes, we decided to go. Elena ended accompanying us, after we gave her a brief explanation.

"Honestly you did it out of self-defense, those girls went too far leaving you half-dead on the floor like you said." Elena crossed her arms. "Those damn…"

"I know how you feel, but it is also wrong to do what she did." I sighed. "Even if Dorothea was mostly manipulating her, still, let's just allow her to redeem herself, even if a bit. Just because someone insults me or hits me, I won't just suddenly try to kill them. It's like a normal thing, right?"

"Right…" Elena sighed, looking up at the hospital building. "We're here."

"Uwah, I'm so nervous… W-What if they hate me, or try to attack me, or they sue me… Well, it should be fine even then, I would be paying for what I did…" Monica sighed.

"It isn't that different from what happened in the school, and as I said, it could be argued that Dorothea did it all, possesing you." I sighed. "Legal problems are complicated, but you should stop blaming you for the things that ghost did. She was utterly malicious and is long gone. You may feel guilty, but you're not a criminal, Monica."

"Hmm…" Monica nodded, still nervous.

Once we managed to arrange a visit using the excuse of being good friends of the girls from school, we managed to enter the room where they were, all three of the girls looked extremely old, as if their life force had been drained off them.

They've been in a comatose state ever since then but were still clinging to life. It was a much more extreme case compared to what happened in the school, where they were only cursed into temporary zombies, or put into eternal dreams by Dorothea.

"Let's see… This should work." I said.

I utilized a special spell I created, named [Life Infusion] and while conjuring it, I feed the girls some of my sap, swiftly healing them from their old-looking states, and giving them back the "youth" that Dorothea stole.

Perhaps this life force is what she used to later provoke the Dungeon Break, as she had drained them almost completely out of it. What a dangerous monster, I'm glad she's gone…

"H-Huh?"

"What…?"

"Eh?"

The three girls quickly woke up, looking around.

"Hello girls, I am… Elena's mother, and also, err, the person taking care of Monica. She had come here to heal you and ask for forgiveness. When she did that to you, she was actually being possessed by a ghost. You can see it in the news that it affected the school and all." I explained.

"Monica?"

The girls looked at Monica, who was lowering her head and crying.

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't had done the things I did…" Monica cried. "It was her, but… I still feel guilty. I am not expecting your forgiveness but…"

"N-No, actually… I… I remember it all. It wasn't you, something darker… a monster. Something possessed you…" One of the girls was trembling.

"At that moment, I thought it was karma, or something, because we did something so awful to you." Sighed the second.

"W-We're sorry… Ugh, what the heck did we do? It was as if we were being possessed by something when we did that, but it was just us…" The third sighed.

"Maybe it was Negative Energy that over accumulated on their psyche." The Great Spirit said. "It happens sometimes, when humans act irrationally, crazy, or berserk, it is because the negative energy is filling their bodies, making them go crazy. If you keep a normal lifestyle, it shouldn't happen at all, but it does happens if they go through a lot of stress."

"Y-You're not angry at me?" Monica was surprised.

"Of course not… we feel terrible."

"Sorry Monica…"

"C-Can we do something to make up for this?"

"E-Eh? But I… your bodies were…" Monica cried.

"It wasn't you; it was that monster; we all saw it anyways. You can't just blame yourself for that."

"Sometimes I forget our world has changed… there's monsters and stuff out there."

"Wait, our school got destroyed? Ugh…"

"A-Ah, well, this is awkward… I'm glad there's no… grudges." Monica sighed in relief. "You don't need to do anything for me. I think it's fine… as it is. Let's… get along, if we ever meet again, okay?"

Monica's innocence and forgiveness really hit hard the girls, they felt even more terrible for treating such a sweet girl so badly, beginning to cry.

"S-Sorryyy…"

"You're so sweet, oh my god…"

"We're the actual monsters…"

"C-Calm down, it's fine." Monica sighed, as she hugged the girls one after another.

At the end, they got along really well, but we swiftly escaped after that, because we didn't wanted to be found out as the ones that healed them, as it might get us too much unwanted attention.

Monica exchanged contact info with her former bullies. Maybe she got herself some new friends. I had checked them with magic multiple times, but they weren't lying either…

It was a surprising development, but it left me with a lighthearted feeling.

I guess people can indeed change for the best.