I Became the Moon Goddess' Apostle in a Dark Fantasy-Chapter 50: A Simple Apology

Raven somewhat understood what Zuri said.

And he knew he had to make things right.

"What should I do to make things right?" He asked, his voice downhearted.

"I think you know what you should do." She said, speeding up her horse. "Just don’t overthink this."

She went ahead and joined Carroll, leaving Raven alone with his thoughts.

Pevon and Janet looked at him, though their gazes were quite different.

Janet’s gaze was a curious one, wondering why he was all the way in the back.

While Pevon’s gaze was more understanding.

Hmm...

’I see.’

...

The sun was setting on the first day of their journey, and they had just finished setting up everything for the night.

A campfire to keep them warm, elevated bedding to avoid insects on the ground, and some food and water they had found.

As the deer carcass was cooking over the campfire, Raven made sure the meat didn’t undercook or burn.

He was in charge of cooking for tonight, since none of the other team members could cook properly.

Only Raven volunteered, and hence, here they were.

All four of them doubted the result, but it was kind of their fault for never touching a kitchen in their whole life.

The original Raven was in the same boat, but he wasn’t.

"Around an hour more," Raven said, making a cut into its belly.

The juices still had a pinkish color, but it was definitely a bit lighter than before.

"Great," They said in unison.

Suddenly, Zuri spoke out, "Carroll said she found some berries over to the other side. We are going to check it out for a second."

She gave Raven a knowing look and dragged Carroll away before she could say anything.

"I should follow them as well," Janet said, turning around.

Pevon, seeing the mood, tried to stop her, "Janet-"

But Raven’s voice cut him off, "Janet, wait for a moment."

Janet’s footsteps halted as she turned around.

Raven’s voice seemed serious.

And she wondered what this was about?

She looked at Pevon, who was silently signaling her to sit down.

To which she complied.

"What happened?" She whispered to Pevon, but she immediately shut her mouth.

Signalling her to stay silent for a moment.

Raven turned around, maintaining proper eye contact with them.

"I’m sorry, both of you," He apologized.

"For?" Janet, being the forgiving person she was, asked.

This wasn’t the first time she was upset with him, and she forgot in a few hours.

"For doing stuff for you without asking," He answered honestly, "And for spending unnecessary money on you without consulting with both of you."

She went silent.

Pevon was nodding from behind, signaling he was doing well.

Well, he wasn’t.

But both of them could feel the sincerity in his voice.

"I genuinely didn’t realize that it can make anyone uncomfortable, because of my upbringing."

His words held a weight that hung in the atmosphere.

"I won’t use that as an excuse for my behavior, but I hope you can forgive me for it."

"I clearly still have a lot more I can work on myself, and I wouldn’t dare say I understand 100 percent of what I did wrong." His eyes never once wavered or broke off the contact, "But I am trying my best to work on it."

Raven gave them a small bow and said, "So, I hope you can forgive me for what I have done."

Thud!

Pevon dashed towards him and hit his back hard.

With enough force that it could probably leave someone like Janet gasping for air.

But for Raven, it was only slightly painful.

"Good job," He gave him a thumbs up, "It was so good that I want to forgive you on behalf of Janet."

Hahah!

He laughed out loud and just sat opposite him, facing the deer cooking.

And then, it was silent.

Raven and Janet were left facing each other in an awkward spot.

"Ah!" She spoke out and asked, "Was this why you were silent today?"

Raven didn’t reply, but his eyes answered in his stead.

"Well..." She fiddled, unsure of how to reply, "I can’t be mad since you didn’t mean it."

"You can, if you want to," He answered.

"But I won’t." She stood up and turned around towards the direction where Carroll and Zuri had left.

"I forgive you," She said as she started walking towards them, "Don’t let it weigh on you."

Raven sat down silently on the spot, thinking back to his apology.

It was surprisingly easy, contrary to what he thought.

He just needed to take the initiative.

He remembered people advising him to just start something.

Most of the hurdles are often mental, and one needs to start.

"How’s the deer looking, Pevon?" He asked in a low tone.

"It’s been barely 5 minutes since you said it would take an hour," he replied, "What do you think?"

"I think I wanna practice my magic a bit."

Pevon nodded, "Go ahead, I will watch over this."

"Thanks," He said, as he closed his eyes, focusing a bit.

...

For a while, Raven had been working on another technique he wanted to assimilate into his overall prowess.

He had realized what kind of huge problem it was when he ran out of pre-fired spells.

He needed to increase his casting speed in general.

But there was one tiny problem with this.

He didn’t really have a massive pool of mana.

It was above average, but nothing impressive.

Hence, training would not only be extremely draining, but he would also run out of mana very quickly.

So, he had thought over it, and just a day before, he thought of something.

Firstly, had he used that time to actually train the casting speed, rather than thinking and training things he was good at, he would have improved a bit.

But that wasn’t relevant anymore.

What was important was his new idea.

Thinking back to his usual fighting style, he realized something.

He didn’t need to train the entire spell by itself.

He can simply train to conjure the matrix, a stage right before releasing the spell, and stop.

Essentially, this was all he needed to speed up his casting.

Since the stage after conjuring a matrix was just injecting mana.

He could cut off the most mana-intensive part and still progress.

He just had to try this now.