Chapter 89: Chapter 89

Esty’s POV
   STAB!

   There’s no mistaking it. Esty has stabbed Sulgran’s stomach successfully. As further proof, blood is coming out of Sulgran’s mouth. The marquis shows Esty a weak smile.

   “To think that you actually managed to give me a fatal wound. Well done. Very well done.” she congratulates.

   “It wasn’t my idea. I just followed the Hero’s strategy.” Esty confesses rather guiltily.

   That’s right. When the Hero said that he had no plan, it was all a lie. Sulgran was listening to their conversation, so he mentioned the sparring session at Koikana Shrine instead of straight up telling Esty on what to do.

   Sulgran chuckles. “So you deciphered his hidden message. That’s even better. I bet you can’t do this with anyone else.”

   Esty allowed herself to be teased. It’s not going to last long, anyway.

   “Um, I’m going to pull out my hand now, okay?”

   “Sure, go ahead.”

   Esty pulls out her hand as gently as possible. Sulgran flinched a bit, but didn’t cry out in pain or something. Esty’s arm is covered with blood from her elbow all the way to her fingers, but she has more pressing matter to tend to right now. Once that was done, she helped Sulgran to sit down on the floor.

   “I, I’m really sorry, Sulgran. For, well, taking your second life.” Esty apologizes while holding back her tears. “I did something so horrible…”

   “Oh, don’t be. You were thinking that those who’re dead should remain dead, right? You’re right, of course. Besides, my fate was sealed the moment I was defeated.”

   Esty was wondering about the last part of Sulgran’s sentence when she noticed that Sulgran’s body is slowly turning into dust. As she watches, the lower half is starting to disappear.

   “The human who revived me did this. He probably modified my body like this so that I won’t end up helping his enemy.” she explains. “It’s not just me, but the others, too. Roglon, Igmis, Segdroth, even His Majesty.”

   As Esty thought, Sulgran wasn’t the only one who was revived. She wasn’t expecting her father to be one of them, though.

   “I’ll stop them too. And make sure that they rest in peace.” Esty vows.

   Sulgran looks at the Hero.

   “I beg of you, help her out.” she pleads.

   “That was my intention from the very beginning.” he answered without hesitation.

   Esty wanted to object. It was already humiliating that she had to get his help in order to stop Sulgran. Still, there’s no way she can do this all by herself. And so, she ended up not saying a thing.

   Without a single warning, her forehead was flicked. It didn’t hurt that much, but Esty covered her forehead with her hands anyway in case a second one was coming.

   “What was that for?” she demands.

   “Stop trying to shoulder everything by yourself.” Sulgran chides.

   “Even I know when to throw away my pride, okay? It’s just that I can’t forgive myself for teaming up with HIM, of all people!” she says while pointing at the Hero angrily.

   Both of Sulgran’s legs have completely disintegrated, and her waist is next. They don’t have much time.

   Sulgran looks at Esty sadly.

   “Be honest here. This isn’t just about being stubborn over the fact that you’re asking the help of the same human who murdered us, am I right?”

   Esty’s eyes drift to the right before she could stop herself. She decides to clam up since she’s a terrible, terrible liar.

   “Playing the silent game, are we? No matter. I could guess it anyway. You’re thinking that you have no right to be happy since you couldn’t do anything to stop him from taking our lives.”

   Esty feels her lower lip trembling. That’s exactly it. It wasn’t shame that prevented her from wanting to be intimate with the Hero. It was guilt.

   “That’s right.” she admits with a soft voice.

   “I knew it.”

   Esty was forced to look at Sulgran when the latter grabbed her cheeks with her hands and moved her head.

   “Listen. I don’t want you to ruin your life by seeking revenge. I just want you to be happy. We all do.”

   “But-”

   Esty couldn’t continue her sentence as Sulgran’s disintegration has reached all the way to her lower chest. Sulgran merely shrugs.

   “Whoops. I guess this is it for me. Now then-”

   She knocks her forehead lightly against Esty’s and shows a brilliant smile.

   “Be happy on my behalf, you hear?”

   With that final farewell, Sulgran turns into dust.

   A few seconds later, Esty heard some weird noises. She also realized that she has trouble seeing what’s in front of her. It took her a few more seconds to realize that the weird noise was from her crying, and the reason she can barely see is because tears are flowing uncontrollably from her eyes.

   She cried and cried and cried. She might have woken up the local populace of the entire place with her bawling, but she doesn’t care. She’s also ignoring the vow she made that she’s never going to cry.

   Eventually, the tears have stopped flowing, and she feels much calmer. As a result of all the howling, her throat has become a bit sore. The Hero, who’s for some reason still here, passes her a bottle of melon soda without saying a word. Esty takes it while ignoring the blood on her hand.

   Pssh!

   The cap opened noisily as the caps of all soda bottles do. Esty takes a few quick sips before draining the entire content in one go. With the bottle empty, her throat feels a bit better. Just a little bit, though.

   “You might want to get a cough drop for that throat of yours.” the Hero suggests.

   Esty grunts at that.

   “You don’t look completely fine. Do you want me to say something irresponsible so that you’ll have an excuse to snap at me?”

   She shakes her head.

   “I want to take better care of my throat.” she says.

   “If you say so. Now then, I have some business to take care of. Go back to the Wakaba’s, stay here a bit longer, your choice.”

   “Where are you going?”

   Now why did she ask that? She even sounded meek and attention-seeking.

   “I want to investigate why Sulgran is here, of all places.” he explains.

   That got Esty’s attention.

   “Are you saying that the human who revived her told her to guard this place?”

   “There’s a possibility. I mean, I tried testing out that theory before you came over. She threw things after things at me, but always restrained herself whenever those things were about to hit those crates over there.”

   He nods towards his right. Esty looks towards there and sees lots of large rectangular boxes and random objects scattered around an area several hundred feet away from them.

   “I’m going with you.” Esty says.

   “Sure.”

   Her mask has become wet from her tears, so she took it off and wiped it dry before putting it back on again.

   The two of them went to the nearest container, and the Hero sliced the doors into half with his sword. The doors fell apart before crashing to the ground loudly. Esty has excellent night vision, so she could see the contents inside the container clearly. However, none of them make any sense to her. There are lots of machinery, a few boxes, and lots of files.

   “What are all these supposed to be?” she asks.

   “Hold on.”

   The Hero brings out his phone and switches on the torchlight function. He then rummages through the pile of items by starting with the files.

   “Well?” Esty asks after he reads through one of them.

   Instead of answering, the Hero proceeds to open one of the boxes. Inside it are test tubes. All of them contain some kind of invisible liquid.

   “So this is where they all went…” he mumbles.

   “Would you cut the mystery and tell me what the heck are all these things?”

   “Remember when I said that Sulgran was teleporting evidences from six countries?”

   “Yeah?”

   “These are the evidence I mentioned. The other containers probably have similar things stored in them.”

   “But, why here? Why not some secretive warehouse or something?”

   “Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, I’m calling Sergeant Wakaba to report on this.”

   The Hero takes out his phone and calls Chinatsu. Esty had to wait patiently until he’s done with his report. While waiting, she decides to wash off the blood on her hand. She materializes a sphere of water and soaks her hand in it. Within a few seconds, her hand is clean once more.

   “...And I think that most, if not all of those disappeared pieces of evidence are stored here. Please send a team to have them collected. A really large team since they’re quite a lot of them. The address, you ask? Please wait for a moment.”

   The Hero ascends towards the sky by using wind magic. It took him less than a minute to descend one more.

   “...Yes, that’s all.” she hears him say as he’s landing. “As for Von Mantus-”

   He looks at her.

   “She’s a bit more stable after she’s done crying.”

   “Hey, you didn’t have to tell her that I’ve cried!”

   “Did you hear that? She’s definitely fine now.”

   “Hey, don’t ignore me! Oh, give me that!”

   She snatches away his phone and puts it near her right ear.

   “I did not cry, okay? I did not!” she says to the phone.

   “I’m sure you didn’t. And I’m pretty sure that the sniffling sound I keep hearing is just part of my imagination.” comes Chinatsu’s dry voice.

   “It is, and forget that you ever heard them!”

   “In any case, I’m just glad that you’re fine.” Chinatsu says in a more serious tone.

   “...Yeah, thanks.”

   “Come back soon. The apple pie is still waiting for you.”

   Hearing about the apple pie made Esty drool. It also made her realize that she’s hungry. It’s no wonder. She didn’t eat her dinner before she left, after all.

   “I’ll come back right now. It’s not like I have any other business here to take care of.”

   “All right. I’ll ask mother to heat up your share of the dinner.”

   Esty hands the phone she was holding back to the Hero.

   “I’m leaving.” she tells him.

   “Sure.”

   Esty mutters some words and opens up a portal which leads to the dining room of the Wakaba household. She didn’t step through it immediately, though.

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   “Say, Jin.” she begins without looking back.

   “Yeah?”

   “Thanks. For helping me to defeat Sulgran. I couldn’t have done it without your help.” she tells him extremely reluctantly.

   “Anytime.”

   With that out of the way, Esty steps through the portal. On the other side of it is her destination.

   The entire Wakaba family (minus Mama Kana) were seated in front of the dining table. Their look of relief when they saw her turned to one of surprise in the matter of seconds. The weirdest part is, all of them are looking towards the left side of Esty.

   “Why do all of you look so surprised?” she couldn’t help but ask.

   “Did you make up with Minase-kun, Esty?” Chifuyu asks back with a hopeful look on her face.

   “What are you talking-”

   It was then that Esty noticed that her hands were grabbing hold of something. An arm wrapped in a gauntlet. More specifically, the Hero’s arm.

   “What are you doing here?” Esty demands.

   “Um, you were the one who dragged me here.”

   Esty doesn’t even remember that she grabbed his arm. In other words, she did it unconsciously.

   “I didn’t, okay?”

   “Yeah, your denial is pretty weak when you’re still holding on to my arm.”

   She let go of it immediately. Mama Kana chose this moment to enter the dining room with a tray full of food. Like the rest of the family, she’s also surprised that the Hero is here.

   “Why, welcome Minase-kun.” she tells the Hero once she got over her surprise. “Are you here to have dinner with us?”

   “Actually, I was dragged here by Von Mantus. I was just about to leave.”

   “I see. That’s a shame.”

   He bows at them.

   “My apologies for my sudden intrusion. I shall take my leave now.” he says politely.

   Esty’s hands reach out instinctively to grab hold of his arm once more. A few seconds of silence follows.

   Esty feels her face burning.

   “So, do you want me to stay?” he asks her.

   She let goes of his arm.

   “No! Leave, right now!”

   He merely shrugs at that.

   “Sure. I’ll just see myself out.”

   “Now, now.” Mama Kana says to them. “Why don’t you stay anyway, Minase-kun? For a while, at least.”

   “Well, if you insist.”

   Esty really wants him gone, but she can’t talk back against Mama Kana, of all people. She had been too nice to Esty for her to be rude. She just keeps quiet and takes off her mask before storing it in the Vault. The Hero also stores away his armor.

   Mama Kana puts down the tray of food at the usual spot where Esty sits. She tries to ignore the fact that Chifuyu, who always sits next to her, is scooting over so that a chair meant for the Hero can be placed right next to Esty’s.

   “Well, now that Esty is back, let us all enjoy our dinner.” Uncle Shun announces.

   “Ittadakimasu!” everyone minus the Hero chant.

   “I’m so sorry that you have to watch us eat, Minase-kun.” Mama Kana says to the Hero apologetically.

   “It’s fine, really. I’ll just eat once I get back.”

   Despite the fact that Esty has gone through a traumatizing event, she still tries her best to eat her meal like nothing is wrong. After all, it would be bad to worry her host family.

   After the main course is done, it’s finally time for dessert. Esty was told that apple pie will be served tonight. However, she was not expecting to see two whole apple pies.

   “Why are there this many apple pies, Mama Kana?” she asks once she got over her surprise.

   “I was planning to serve you an entire pie just to cheer you up, since you were feeling down and all.”

   Esty was very close to tearing up again.

   “Thank you.” she said instead.

   “You’re welcome. Now dig in before it gets cold.”

   “Okay.”

   Mama Kana cuts up one of the pies into eight portions, while Esty does the same for the remaining one. She was about to eat them all when her eyes drift towards the Hero. Right, she owes him one after tonight’s event. Can’t let that happen now, can she? She puts seven pieces of pie on her own plate and pushes the remaining slice towards him.

   He looks at the apple pie, then at her.

   “What are you doing?”

   “I don’t want to owe you one, so just shut up and eat that.”

   He shrugs and takes the piece of pie. Esty was about to start eating her portion when she notices that the entire Wakaba family is staring at her while looking really surprised.

   “Um, may I help you?”

   “Esty, you were willing to share your portion of the apple pie.” Chifuyu says.

   “Yes, I was. And?”

   “You were never willing to share it. Not ever.”

   “You’re exaggerating, Chifuyu. I’m not that stingy.”

   “Remember the family who lives a few houses away from ours?”

   “You mean the one that came over for dinner a few weeks ago? What about them?”

   “Mother baked an extra apple pie just for them, but you spent the entire meal time glaring at them like they killed your whole family-”

   Chifuyu covers her mouth with her hand like she said something wrong. She clears her throat.

   “The inappropriate simile aside, you were glaring so hard they ended up not eating it.”

   “And mother had to go visit them the next day and apologize to them.” Chinatsu ends drily.

   Esty averts her eyes.

   “I’m sorry for that, okay? I was wrong.”

   As they’re having the conversation, the Hero ate the apple pie silently. Esty glares at him.

   “You didn’t have to eat it for real, you know?”

   “What else was I supposed to do?”

   “I don’t know, refuse it?”

   “And not eating such a delicious apple pie? No way.”

   He looks at Mama Kana.

   “The pie was very delicious, ma’am.” he compliments.

   Mama Kana smiles at him.

   “I’m glad that you love it. You can come over and eat them anytime you want.”

   “I would love to, but I’m afraid I can’t get carried away.” he says while glancing at Esty.

   “You bet you can’t. You should be grateful that I let you ate one.”

   “I am eternally grateful for the chance.”

   “Gah, there you go again-”

   Esty gasps. Why is she having a relaxed conversation with the murderer? She grits her teeth and looks away.

   “Just, leave. You’re done eating, so you don’t have a reason to stay anymore.” she tells him coldly.

   “Sure. I’ll be seeing myself out.”

   Esty hears the sound of a chair being moved.

   “Thank you all for your hospitality. I shall take my leave for real.” she hears the Hero says.

   “It was nice to have you here, Minase-kun. You can visit again anytime.” Uncle Shun tells him.

   “Thank you for your offer, but I doubt that I’m completely welcome. Sergeant Wakaba, please update me on the Nagoya case as soon as possible.”

   “Will do.” Chinatsu assures.

   Esty senses the Hero leaving. She toughened up and kept her gaze away from him the entire time. Once she heard the front door being opened and closed, she slammed her head on the table.

   “I’m such a pain…” she mumbles.

   “Don’t brood about it too much. A lot of human girls Chifuyu’s age act like you.” Chinatsu shares her wisdom.

   “That’s not comforting-”

   She pauses before raising her head and glares at Chinatsu.

   “Are you saying that I’m old?” she demands.

   “Not to be rude, but you are, right? At least, I figured it out from what Minase-kun said last time.”

   “Why, you-”

   “So, how are you going to act around Minase-kun from now on?” Chifuyu interrupts.

   Esty lets out a sigh and gets up from her seat.

   “To be honest, I don’t know anymore. I’m just going to sleep now and think about it tomorrow.”

   “You can’t just sleep away your problem, you know?” Chinatsu tells her.

   “I know, I know. Still, I’m tired, like really tired. I really need a good night’s sleep.”

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