Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Estyshana’s POV
   Esty could never understand all the fuss for this Cultural Festival. Back at the Demon Lord Castle, festival means hunting for humans and devouring every part of their blood, body and soul. This one, however, does not seem to offer a hunting ground.

   “There will be stalls and shops that sell food and drink. I also hear a few classes will be doing plays and comedy acts.” Chifuyu told her.

   Esty couldn’t imagine herself enjoying it. She had seen and been to hundreds of fairs similar to this one back at Ifezan. They were somewhat decent, but nothing exciting. She reckons that this one is probably the same.

   So far, the humans inside her class are busy with their own things. Being part of the service crew, there are no humans to serve yet. As such, she is to help out in other places as much as she can.

   First of all, she was asked to give opinions regarding the design of the uniforms that the service crews will be wearing.

   “How does this one look, Esty-san?”

   “The sleeves look a little too big.”

   “I see. And this?”

   “Overall, it looks nice. However, you should remove the weird thing at the shoulders.”

   Even though Esty had been giving nothing but criticism, the female human who designed the uniforms are not discouraged at all. Rather, she is taking down notes seriously.

   “Thank you for your feedback. I’ll call you again one I draw more designs.” she tells Esty.

   “Um, I’m sorry. All I did was saying bad things about your work.”

   “Oh, please don’t be bothered by it. This is the first time I’ve design real uniforms, so I’m bound to make mistakes.”

   Esty is surprised by the female’s tenacity. That said, she is even more surprised by herself. To think that she’s actually apologizing to a human. If her father was still alive and heard about this, he would definitely spank her for it.

   “Proud demons never apologize! Especially to puny humans!” he would say.

   Esty sighs. There isn’t a single moment when she doesn’t miss him, the Four Demon Marquis, and all the demons she had lost over the years by the Hands of the Hero.

   Speaking of the Hero, as usual he’s barely fitting into the rest of the class. Esty has been a student here for only around a month, and she already feels that she’s mingling with their classmates better than him, even though he had been here for almost two years. Every once in a while, the kitchen crews would come back from the Homes Economy Classroom and bring some desserts or sweets they made so that the other students can try them. The Hero never brought his.

   “Where are the desserts you made, Jin?” she asks him by using telepathy.

   “I don’t have any. What’s the point? Who’s going to care whether I contributed or not?”

   True. Their classmates are busy surrounding the food made by the rest of the kitchen crews and asking them questions about them. None of the former are even looking at the Hero.

   “Why not just try? It was your idea that got us here in the first place.”

   “Yeah but you were the one who suggested it. I doubt they would care if I was the one who said it.”

   While they’re speaking with their mind, the verdicts of the food are out.

   “All of them are delicious, but none of them really stands out.”

   “Yeah. It’s like all of them are just the side characters.”

   “We definitely need something more. Borrowing your analogy, we need at least one main character for this to work.”

   While all of them are being troubled, the Hero is looking on impassively. Sometimes, it just amazes Esty how little he cares about the things that are happening around him.

   “Well, I guess that’s it for today.” Chifuyu dismisses the kitchen crew.

   “Wait, you’re done already?” Esty asks.

   “It can’t be helped. We’re not the only ones that use the Home Economy Classroom, you know?”

   “Unless we spend our night here.” Watanabe adds.

   “We can’t. It’s against the school rules, remember?”

   Chifuyu made sure to whisper the next part.

   “Besides, don’t you remember what happened the last time we came here at night?” she asks Watanabe softly.

   “Of course I remember. I just said it in the spur of a moment.”

   “Even if we could, there’s no way I want to. There’s the Seven Mysteries, for starters.” someone else says.

   “I particularly don’t want to meet the ghost at the Music Room. I don’t want to be cursed!”

   Esty notices the Hero flinched at that.

   “What’s wrong?” she asks him via telepathy.

   “...Nothing.”

   “Maybe we could do this at someone’s house.” Chifuyu suggests all of a sudden.

   “Oh, that sounds good.”

   “Sure does. So, whose house then?”

   “I want to go to your house, Yoshii-kun!”

   “Sorry, but my parents don’t like having visitors, particularly a large group of them.”

   Esty could feel that her face is going pale. She does not like where this is going.

   “What about your place, Watanabe?” the Hero asks Watanabe all of a sudden.

   Practically everyone has forgotten that he was here, so they looked very surprised when he talked. Watanabe was one of the quicker ones to recover.

   “I guess it would be fine. It can’t be today, though. I need to tell my mum at least one day in advance if we’ll be having visitors.”

   Chifuyu nods understandingly.

   “So she’s still like that, huh?”

   “Yup.”

   “What are you talking about?” Esty asks curiously.

   “Nothing.” the two of them say at the same time.

   And it’s decided. They’ll be heading to Watanabe’s house tomorrow.

   “...What was that all about?” Esty asks the Hero, once again without using her voice.

   “What do you mean?”

   “You know what I’m talking about!”

   “To be completely honest with you, I don’t. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back. I’ve wasted enough time already.”

   And then, he just left like nothing has happened.

   Esty grits her teeth in frustration. For some strange reason, the Hero could always tell what she was thinking even though she never showed it on her face. He knew that she doesn’t want him to go to her house, which was why he asked for Watanabe’s permission to go to her house instead.

   It’s not only just now and the time when they were having the Home Economy Class. Almost every time they were trying to kill each other at Ifezan, he could read each and every one of her movements extremely well. She highly suspects that he knows a high Level spell that could allows its user to read minds. As far as Esty knows, no such thing exists. Even so, who could really tell? He’s the Hero, after all. He’s practically not bound by the usual laws-

   “...Esty. Hey, Esty!”

   That shout made Esty broke out of her thoughts.

   “Huh, what? What is it, Chifuyu?”

   “Like I said, we’re going home now. Go get your bag.” Chifuyu repeats while holding her bag.

   “Sure, just give me a minute.”

   The trip back where they live takes around twenty minutes. Watanabe lives just a few houses away from Esty and Chifuyu, which is why they go to and fro the school together most of the time.

   “I wonder whether we can come up with something special before the festival.” Chifuyu mumbles on their way back.

   “You can do it, Chifuyu!” Watanabe encourages.

   “Why are you acting like this has nothing to do with you?”

   “That’s because I am. I mean, I can’t cook, remember? How am I going to contribute?”

   “Actually, you can find out establishments which serves the same food as we do. We can then visit them and acquire inspiration.” Esty suggests.

   “There you have it.”

   “All right then. I’ll make sure to do research about tons of places that sell desserts and sweets.”

   “That’s the spirit.”

   Esty and Watanabe soon part ways with Watanabe and head inside the Wakaba’s house.

   “We’re home~!” Esty and Chifuyu chant at the same time.

   After a few seconds, Mama Kana arrives at the entrance to greet them with a smile.

   “Welcome home, you two. Did you had a good time at school?” she asks them.

   “Not really. We’re still struggling to come up with ideas for our menu.” Chifuyu answers while taking off her shoes.

   “Oh, my. If you’re out of ideas, you could always come to me.”

   “Thanks, mother. By the way, we’ll be heading to Anri’s house after school tomorrow to make more prototypes.”

   “I don’t mind, but could Anri-chan help? Last I heard from her mother, she can’t cook at all.”

   “She still can’t. We’re just borrowing her place.”

   “In that case, isn’t it better if all of you gather at our house instead?”

   “One of our classmate asked for Anri’s house. Since she had no issues with it, I didn’t say anything.”

   “Hmm. Well, as I said, I’m always around if you want some advise. Our houses are quite close to each other, anyway.”

You are reading story The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life at novel35.com

   The three of them go to the living room. Uncle Shun is, as usual, sitting at the sofa and watching the news. Esty has never seen him go outside and work like most humans she saw. According to Chifuyu, that’s because he’s allowed to “work from home”, whatever that means.

   “I’m back, father.”

   “I’m back, Unche Shun.”

   “Welcome back. You girls came back at the right moment. Chinatsu is being interviewed right now.”

   All of them turn their attention to the television. He’s right. It really is Chinatsu. She’s standing in front of the camera with another human, presumably one with a job called reporter. There’s a line at the bottom of the screen which writes, “The Mysterious Man in Shining Dented Armor. Friend of Foe?”. Esty assumes that they’re talking about the Hero.

   “...And as such, he’s not a threat.” Chinatsu is saying to the female reporter.

   “Can you really guarantee that, sergeant?” the reporter asks.

   “I can. I have talked to him in real life before. He’s definitely not a psychopathic murderer.” Chinatsu assures.

   And this is precisely the reason Esty did not want the Hero to come to this house. If he did, both he and Chinatsu will meet. And then, the Hero will tell her about Esty’s true identity. She wants to avoid that for as long as possible.

   “Even if you say that, the citizens are none the more relieved with someone like him around. According to a survey we did, a whooping 85% of people who took it have no faith in the man. Do you still think that he should be the one who is going to help us from the monstrosities that have keep on appearing lately?”

   “First of all, he’s not alone. Us the police are doing everything we can to assist him and through that protecting the citizens. Secondly, I do. He’s the best bet that we have. I don’t mind wagering my career on him.”

   “Even if he’s someone acknowledged by the Iron Flower of the Tokyo Police Department herself, I still doubt the general public will trust him.”

   Chinatsu flinches at the nickname. Her face has gone all red.

   “Can you not bring up that nickname?” she pleads.

   Esty couldn’t hold it in and started to laugh hysterically.

   “What kind of nickname is that?” she demands while chortling.

   “Well, there’s an interesting story behind that.” Mama Kana tells her.

   “Oh, do tell! I’m really curious!”

   “I rather not. Chinatsu really hates to be reminded of it. If you really want to know, you would have to ask her.”

   “Okay, I’ll do that.”

   “No, we are not. We formed a monetary contract with him and that’s it.” Chinatsu in continuing at the interview.

   “Then what makes you so sure that his loyalty won’t change the moment someone offers him a better price.”

   “He is not that kind of person.”

   “Can you really guarantee that? How long have you known him?”

   “Less than two weeks.”

   “And you claim that the duration is enough for you to analyze him? Aren’t you being a little irresponsible?”

   “Um, that is, uh…”

   “Isn’t that reporter going a bit overboard? Poor Chinatsu is getting all tongue-tied.” Esty grumbles.

   “To be fair, that’s not that good a reason to trust the person. After all, we don’t even know what he looks like. People are scared.” Uncle Shun tells her.

   “But that’s not Chinatsu’s fault, is it? Why doesn’t that reporter go vent out her frustration at his real employer? Who was it again? The Prime Minister?”

   “I’m sure that the reporter would be delighted to do that. If she has the courage, that is.” Uncles Shun says drily.

   “What’s that supposed to mean, Uncle Shun?”

   “The thing is, she’s rather infamous for only interviewing those whom she’s sure won’t snap, or aren’t in a position to snap.”

   “She’s a coward, then.” Esty concludes.

   “I wouldn’t go that far, but she’s close to being one.”

   “Back to the interview. I definitely trust Chinatsu’s judgment, but I still think that the person in the armor is dangerous.” Mama Kana voices out her opinion.

   “I think so too, especially after hearing about his story from onee-chan.” Chifuyu agrees. “Assuming that what he said was true. What do you think, Esty?”

   “Huh, me? Well, it’s too early to tell either way, right?”

   “I guess so.”

   Esty has zero intention of telling the Wakaba family about the Hero. It’s a kind of trade-off to sort of thank him for not spilling the beans on her.

   “And even if a lot of people don’t trust him, Anri-chan’s mother is one of the very few people who actually trusts him.” Uncle Shun says.

   Esty remembers seeing her on the television for the first time. That human bores a similar facial resemblance to Watanabe. Esty cold tell that the two of them are related in an instant.

   “By the way, what do you think of the person, Uncle Shun?” Esty asks him.

   “In my opinion, I think we can trust him. Even with all the power that he has, he still chose to live a life as a mercenary instead of trying to take over a country. That’s the sign of someone who just wants a simple life. Then again, it’s just me.”

   While all of them are exchanging opinions, the interviewer and the interviewee are carrying on with the interview.

   “...How should we call this mysterious person?” the reporter is asking Chinatsu.

   Chinatsu got all tongue-tied again.

   “The thing is, he never talked about how we should address him. Even when I’m speaking to him in public, the only thing I cared was not saying out his real name by accident.” she confesses.

   “Well, the netizens has all kinds of names prepared for him. Darth Tin Can, The Walking Metal, Silver Wolf and many, many more.”

   Esty tries her best not to laugh out loud. Imagine a Hero with a nickname as ridiculous as The Walking Metal. He would be the laughing stock of the entire world. She’s secretly enjoying herself with the image of him sitting in front of his television and cursing whoever it was that came up with the nickname.

   The reporter takes out a piece of paper from her pocket and hands it to Chinatsu. The latter takes the paper and reads it.

   “...I’ll hand this over to him when I have the chance.”

   The interview lasted for almost an hour. The reporter is relentlessly asking Chinatsu all kinds of questions, some on the borderline of being offensive. Esty could tell Chinatsu is doing her best to control her temper from being asked all these idiotic questions.

   “Being a police is tough, huh?” Esty asks softly.

   “It sure is. It’s not just protecting the citizens that they need to do. They also have to deal with this kind of people every once in a while.”

   Chinatsu came back home a hour before dinner looking all exhausted. Esty gets up from the sofa at once.

   “Welcome home, o Iron Flower of the Tokyo Police Department.” she greets her.

   Chinatsu groans loudly.

   “Great, you were the last person that I didn’t want to find out that embarrassing nickname of mine.” she grumbles.

   “Hey hey, can you tell me about how you got that nickname?”

   “No. I’m tired, and I have no mood of reminiscing the past. Particularly that one.”

   “I’ll get you some milk pudding from the fridge, onee-chan.” Chifuyu says to her.

   “I made you your favourite breaded shrimps for dinner tonight.” Mama Kana adds.

   “Thanks, Chifuyu. Mother. At least the two of you care.”

   “I’ll massage your shoulders for you.” Esty offers.

   Chinatsu gives her a look.

   “...I’m not going to lend you any more money.”

   Esty does her best to get some tears from her eyes.

   “How could you think that I’m doing it to get money from you? You’re so mean!” she cries.

   “Because it’s the only time you’re nice to me?”

   “Well I can’t help it. The Last Dream 16 will be out next month, you know? I want to pre-order a copy.”

   “Oh, right. I was so busy I’ve forgotten about it. Don’t worry, I already ordered one.”

   “Really? Nice!”

   “I’m not going to let you play it, though. At least, not until I’m done with it.”

   “What? Why?”

   “You’re actually asking me that after you gave me spoilers for five games that I have yet to play?”

   “You’re still mad at that? I already said that I was sorry.”

   “All right, that’s enough girls. We’ll be having dinner soon, so go and take a bath, Chinatsu.” Mama Kana intervenes.

   “Got it, mother.”

   “Now then, I should get things prepared for dinner.”

   “I’ll help you, Mama Kana.” Esty offers.

   Mama Kana smiles gratefully at her. “Thank you. You’re such a dear, Esty-chan. However, don’t even think that I’ll increase your allowance for this.”

   Esty averts her eyes.

   “I have no idea on what you’re talking about, Mama Kana.” she asks in a monotone.

   “Chifuyu was right. You really are bad at lying.”

   Of course, this didn’t stop Esty from helping out anyway. She’s rather enjoying this kind of mundane life. She knows that it’ll end one day, and the whole family will hate her for lying and brainwashed them. Before that happens, Esty wishes to make as many memories as possible.

You can find story with these keywords: The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life, Read The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life, The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life novel, The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life book, The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life story, The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life full, The Hero who returned from Another World Hates His Current Life Latest Chapter