Chapter 203: Zetto is bad (5)
Immediately after receiving the letter from Lucia and reading its contents, Yuri set out for the location it indicated.
She almost got lost, but thanks to Benno’s instructions from the orb, she wasn’t too late.
Yuri didn’t knock on the door as usual.
Her arrival was announced by an explosion that ripped through the walls of the abandoned house.
-Aaahhh!!!!!
Yuri walked in, her eyes glazed over with smoke and flames.
Her eyes then focused on a bound and gagged Zetto lying on a bed, and Aizel unbuckling his belt.
Three seconds was all it took to realize that it didn’t make sense and her head was spinning.
“Aizel, you crazy bitch…!”
“How…?”
Aizel asked in confusion.
She was annoyed that her alone time with Zetto had been interrupted, but more importantly, how on earth had she gotten here, however the answer seemed elusive.
Aizel was immediately struck by a ball of flame from Yuri.
She deployed a shield in time, but the impact is so great that she is sent flying into the distance, shattering walls with each impact.
“Hah… Ha…”
Yuri breathes harshly, having driven Aizel away for a moment.
She turned her head to look at Zetto.
The sight of him shirtless and tied to the bed was indescribably horrifying, at least in her eyes.
“Zetto… Are you okay…?”
“…Ms. Yuri.”
Yuri’s unexpected appearance was as disconcerting to Zetto as it was to Aizel.
Ever since he and Aizel had locked lips, she had been so excited that she had lost her mind, and it was still good news for him, who had been wondering when and how he could get out of this situation naturally, given Sierra’s presence on the other side.
“Don’t worry. I’m here. I’ll be right back after I take care of that crazy bitch.”
But even as Yuri said it with a smile on her face, it didn’t feel completely normal.
Their relationship had already taken a turn for the worse.
“I’m going to burn her…” she said, and walked off in the direction Aizel had flown.
It wasn’t long before she was face-to-face with Aizel, and a booming sound rang in Zetto’s ears.
Zetto scattered his ki to make sure they were far enough away, then channeled mana into his arms to break the chains binding him.
Thud!
Zetto sat dazedly on the bed, the thick iron cuffs around his wrists and ankles completely gone.
Sierra approached him, crossed her arms, and glared at him.
[…Disciple, I just want an explanation for why you were so still.]
Sierra’s eyebrows wiggled together, and she looked quite uncomfortable.
“…She’s cute.”
Scratching her cheek, Sierra stared at Zetto’s nonchalant reply, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.
“Eh…”
He slid off the bed and stepped onto the floor, immediately reaching for his luggage.
With a flick of his hand, he cleared away the smoke from Yuri’s fire magic and fixed his clothes.
Slinging Sierra around his waist, he picked up his shirt and coat that Aizel had so casually stripped from him.
“Hmm…”
Finding the subspace pocket in his coat, he immediately stuck his hand into it and rummaged around for something.
What he had in his hand was a dried up piece of jerky.
[I guess that’s the kind of thing you can get away with in this crazy situation.]
“I have to eat.”
Sierra looked at Zetto, who was still chewing on the jerky, and shook her head.
“At least I kept my virginity.”
Turning to Sierra, Zetto smirked.
[…Was it more her virginity than yours?]
“At least for this life… I guess, is that such a shock?”
[No, not really, but…]
Sierra hadn’t thought he would be a virgin at all, as Zetto had shown so much skill with women.
“And weren’t you a virgin yourself, Master?”
[A virgin…? I’m…experienced…!]
Sierra, taken aback by the word virgin, said.
[Did you really think that I would have died a miserable death without being able to remove a single virgin scab? Hmph…]
It was Sierra who realized in hindsight that her inexperience would have hurt her more if she had said such a thing.
“…I see.”
Her blatant lie was so obvious that Zetto decided to let it fool him for a moment.
Boom!!!
At that moment, another booming sound came from the other side.
[I wonder how this happened…?]
Sierra, who could clearly see what was going on outside, clicked her tongue.
Deciding that it was urgent to deal with the situation, Zetto stepped outside, barely dressed.
Cautiously opening the rickety old door, he stepped outside and was greeted by a pillar of flame that erupted out of nowhere.
[…What a mess.]
Hot flames engulfed the forest and lightning crackled everywhere.
Aizel and Yuri, whose clothes had burned off in the fight, were only in their underwear.
“Don’t disturb me and Zetto.”
Aizel was wearing white underwear that was radiating life.
“Interfere? You’re definitely crazy…”
Undeterred, Yuri, who was wearing black underwear, shouted in a murderous voice.
[ I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but I can’t help but think how lucky I am that they can’t see me.]
Sierra said at the ridiculous sight that made her sigh.
Zetto could only wonder, “How did they manage to keep their underwear from burning?”
“We’ll have to stop them first.”
[Yeah, unless we want people to find out that the cause of the forest fire was two cadets fighting over you…we’ll have to stop them.]
Zetto, who had just finished swallowing the jerky in his mouth and unsheathed his sword, stepped in front of them.
***
Huddled around a crackling campfire, Yuri, Aizel, and I breathed in the cold dawn air and watched the sunrise over the ruined forest.
“…Etch!”
Yuri, who was bundled up in a fur coat, coughed and rubbed her nose. She’d been out in her underwear since the crack of dawn, so it was no wonder she’d caught a cold.
“”……””
Then there was silence again.
After much effort and time, I managed to hold them at bay but it felt more like I had worn them down and made them give up.
I can’t even remember how many spells I saw.
After trading attacks nonstop, they eventually ran out of mana, and this was after I had put out a fire that had threatened to spread across the forest.
It was a good thing I had a blanket in my subspace pocket. Otherwise, they would have been walking back to the academy in their underwear.
As they sat there, staring at the campfire, Yuri spoke first.
“Zetto’s not hurt…?”
“Ha, why is someone who didn’t care about Zetto and was throwing magic at him asking that?”
“Isn’t that the same with you?”
“…Let’s not fight, I’m tired of it too.”
Sparks were about to fly between them again, but my voice instantly extinguished them.
“I’m sorry, Zetto. I just…I guess I got carried away with the idea of protecting you…”
“I guess I crossed the line this time too…”
The two women’s voices dropped rapidly, as if they were finally feeling guilty.
I, who was sitting between them, smiled and opened my mouth.
“I’m fine, so why don’t you two make up…”
Their eyes meet across the campfire at my suggestion.
“I’m sorry, Aizel, if I were stronger, I would have burned your bones, not your clothes.”
“No, I’m sorrier because if I’d gotten rid of you beforehand, you wouldn’t have had to come all the way here.”
Harsh words are exchanged with smiles on their faces.
‘I don’t think they can reconcile…’
Considering my goals, I can’t say that the current situation is good by any means.
‘By the way, I didn’t take Aizel’s kidnapping lightly…’
I actually found her endearing.
The way she asked me if I wanted to break the handcuffs was quite cute but in the grand scheme of things, it was quite bizarre.
‘I’ve had similar feelings for Kaen in the recent past…I wonder if it’s because my feelings for her have faded, and I don’t feel them unless I’m in a stimulating situation.’
At this point, I wonder if it might be the effect of the crown (blindfold).
Fixing the blindfold around my eyes, I rolled my pupils and looked at the fur-covered Yuri and Aizel, then turned my head to take in the burnt forest.
Well, on the one hand, kidnapping and imprisonment were all well and good, but I wished they’d at least put up with the fighting.
“But you, how did you get here?”
Aizel asked Yuri, still with unanswered questions.
“Huh? Well… I got a letter saying that Zetto was in danger, but he was in more danger than I thought! You tied him up and…what…What were you going to do…?!”
“Zetto couldn’t have written the letter… then who…?”
Aizel, who had lightly ignored Yuri’s blushing outcry, frowned in annoyance.
“…I don’t know.”
I said, and my eyes settled on a pair of large eyes on the other side of the forest.
The eyes that flapped their wings against their smooth black skin seemed to be invisible to the others.
‘It was probably Keraph who wrote the letter.’
It could only be Keraph, who would have happened to be watching my kidnapping. Those strange eyes must be his dark spirits.
Keraph was competent.
It would have been better to call Lucia instead of Yuri, but I suppose it wasn’t a bad call to call Yuri.
I wonder what he’s thinking, though, as he watches this spectacle of a topless man and two women in their underwear sitting around a campfire having a nervous breakdown.
[Ha…]
I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of Sierra, who’s sighing.
“…Shall we head back now?”
“Sure. What’s Zetto doing today anyway?”
“I have a meeting with someone.”
“Who is it?”
“Um…”
I couldn’t answer Yuri’s question since it would sound strange to say that I was going to meet a god.
I couldn’t help but feel that I had become strange as a result of this, so I decided to meet the man who made the crown, the Earth God.
Heneryes said I had met him before so it seemed like a good idea to meet him before I go to the East.
I didn’t know exactly who he was, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know anyone.
This wasn’t a game, after all, and with that premise, there was only one thing that shouldn’t be in this world.
***
Aaaah…
“Hmmmmmm~ hmmmmmmmm~”
A bluish-haired girl was humming in the shower.
“Alas, something funny should be happening by now…”
She stopped humming and looked wistfully at the tiny tattoo on her body.
It was inked in a place where you wouldn’t expect to see it.
“It’s a shame I didn’t get to see it…! It must have been beautiful…”
The flower that grew on her back was a flower that bloomed in chaos, a symbol of Syncretism.