journal ⚔️ a warning

[discourtesies]

Sender: Barok van Zieks

[The writing is hurried, a cursive that just manages to be legible. In his rush, his usual formalities are cut short. The message is more important than the form it takes.]

There is a demon in the wilderness — a bestial man. Powerful and violent, able to heal itself in an instant. Anyone unable to defend themselves should avoid the woods until [until what? It's killed? If there's any shred of the man still in there, he can't condone that.] further notice.

[Is that a drop of blood on the page? Eh, it's fine.]

It was Kazuma Asogi. I don't understand it, but I wasn't able to reason with him and he became this thing before my eyes.

[After a moment, he adds:]

He cannot be left like this.

Comments

[disdelusioned]

... I see.

[He should have guessed as much, in hindsight. Little wonder, then, that the relationship between Barok and Kazuma is so complicated. Both justified, in their own way, and neither entirely correct in their course of action either.

(There's a lesson here about how the need for vengeance only hurts others and perpetuates the cycle of pain and suffering. It's entirely lost on Diluc.)

There's no need to dig any deeper. Diluc has no issues following Barok to a less emotionally heavy topic of discussion.]

I fought a nightmare creature--noctaere, I believe they're called--in the dream the tapirs set up for us not long after our arrival. However, I wasn't fighting alone and we all came away unscathed.

But I still wasn't prepared for how the dream reacted to my emotional state, and it could have cost us dearly had one of the others not been prepared for it.

[No, he doesn't want to talk about what thought it was that nearly made things worse.]

Nothing nearly so high-stakes as my encounter today.

[discourtesies]

[Really, the most Barok had to deal with in that trial dreamscape was being in the body of a stuffed animal. Perhaps he would have been more prepared had he encountered something dangerous like Diluc had, but there's little point in lamenting that now.]

Fortunate that you were accompanied by such allies, then.

[He won't question what particular feelings caused the danger. He can guess. His own dissatisfaction with himself has made his limbs heavier than they might have been, and he's only recently recognized that it isn't merely the exhaustion from his injury.]

I regret that I was unable to provide the same sort of assistance.

[disdelusioned]

It was.

[That's about all he's willing to say to that effect.

At the next statement, Diluc shakes his head.]

I understand the regret - [If the situation were reversed, he'd say the same.] - but there was no way you could have. You were injured, and I was reckless. That's all there is to it, when it comes to what happened to me. We'll just both have to be more careful.