Chapter 94
Aizel sits still for a long moment, face down, before finally pulling herself up.
Zetto follows, picking himself up off the floor and shaking off his coat.
“That was dangerous.”
“…”
Aizel still couldn’t look up. Meanwhile, Sierra was clinging to Zetto’s shoulder, glaring at Aizel.
‘A thoroughly calculated move… Not normal.’
Even if she could fool Zetto, she couldn’t fool herself, Sierra thought.
Zetto wasn’t exactly fooled either.
‘Why didn’t she catch him?’
He had a small suspicion as to why Aizel hadn’t caught the muster.
“I realized at the last minute that I shouldn’t kill him…I’m sorry.”
“…That’s understandable, so why don’t we change things up?”
Zetto says, and they move on.
Meanwhile, Yuri and Lucia, who were secretly watching them from the other side of the forest…
“Yu, Yu, Yuri-san, there’s a fire! There’s a fire! The forest will burn down if we keep this up!”
Lucia’s voice was urgent, and she was flailing her arms around wildly.
Embers crackled and popped around Yuri, who was staring blankly at Zetto and Aizel. It was something subconscious.
Magic is not naturally susceptible to emotions, but Yuri was born with a talent for fire magic and grew up eating fire-related elixirs such as Salamander’s Tail, so her aptitude for it was high.
As a result, Yuri’s fire magic was highly influenced by her emotions. Anger, in particular, made good firewood.
That’s right. Yuri was very angry right now.
It was an emotion she hadn’t felt in quite some time.
The ‘anger’ that she’d naturally forgotten when she’d met Zetto and spent time with him earlier was burning brightly inside her.
She had to hold it in. She couldn’t lose her temper in front of him.
There was no reason for it in the first place.
It had to be a coincidence.
He was just a man who could be called her best friend.
Last night, she got tangled up with Aizel who was reading a book called ‘101 Ways to Capture a Man’ or something…
‘…Is it a coincidence?’
Yuri suddenly remembered something her father, Jeras, had told her.
‘Love is a hard thing to come by when you’re not in the right place at the right time.’
At the time, Yuri didn’t know why Jeras had said that when he was asking about Aizel.
‘You wouldn’t mind if Aizel-chan and Zetto-kun were whispering their love in front of you, would you?’
But now it seemed to make sense.
For some reason, she felt a surge of anger.
When she realized that Zetto and Aizel were on their feet, Yuri took a deep breath.
“…Whoa.”
As if to extinguish her anger, ash-colored smoke escapes her mouth.
Yuri was confused.
Does she really like Zetto?
Was it selfish possessiveness on her part?
She was confused because she could feel that this love was very different from the fairy tale love she had seen since she was a child, that it was very twisted.
So it was really confusing.
***
“Peep!”
The mustard, perched on top of Zetto’s head, let out a cute little cry of excitement.
“I can’t believe you caught him so easily…”
Aizel said, looking up at the muster.
There was a faint hint of disappointment in her voice.
“…I’ve heard that musters like honey a lot.”
Zetto said as he fed the muster above his head a piece of honeycomb that was dripping with honey.
It was something he’d learned while playing the game as a monster tamer.
With a few twists and turns, Aizel and Zetto successfully captured the muster and as an added bonus, Zetto learned how to control the ki waves.
Gathering ki and sending out a wave would spread it farther, but there would be a delay in the information coming back, and it wouldn’t be as detailed.
On the other hand, if he spread the waves narrowly, he could get more information.
The maximum range of the wave was quite wide.
Zetto assumed that if he invested skill points, he would be able to get a wider range and more detailed information.
Next, Zetto’s vision focused on Aizel, who was staring at the muster with an intense gaze and offered her the honeycomb in his hand.
“Would you like to try it, Miss Aizel?”
Seeing that the honeycomb was in her hands, the muster quickly leapt from Zetto’s head into Aizel’s arms.
Aizel kept her mouth slightly open as she focused on muster, who was adorable.
She had a weakness for cute things and her hand trembled slightly as she held out a piece of honeycomb.
Soon enough, the muster lets out a cry and takes the honeycomb.
Zetto smiles at the cuteness of both the excited muster and the cautious Aizel.
As they walk back to Edward with the muster, Aizel grabs Zetto’s arm.
“Class ended early…Would you like to join me for lunch?”
Aizel asks him, tilting her head slightly.
The muster, who was riding on top of her head, was tilting his head as well.
Zetto thought for a moment.
‘I was thinking of going to learn some skills…’
There was plenty of time for a meal.
‘Would she like to try the Herald’s curry?’
He still hadn’t gotten used to the spicy flavors of the Herald’s food, but…He hadn’t spent much time with Aizel lately.
At that moment, he was about to answer her but as he opened his mouth to speak, Zetto suddenly jerked his head to the back.
His senses told him that someone was approaching them at high speed.
Aizel followed suit and turned her head and it wasn’t long before she sensed them too.
One of them, a bluish-haired girl, gasps for breath and opens her mouth.
“Hey… Yu, Yuri… Slow down… Please…”
It was Yuri and Lucia.
“Hmph… Uh…Zetto, Aizel!”
Lucia’s eyes widened as she spotted Zetto and Aizel.
She smiled and waved as if she hadn’t had a hard time.
Unlike Lucia, Yuri next to her had a nonchalant expression on her face.
‘Finally.’
Lucia was happy to see Zetto and Aizel, but Yuri’s approach was intentional.
“…What a coincidence, running into each other in a place like this. We were just on our way back.”
As Yuri said this, she held a muster in her hand.
After realizing that Zetto and Aizel had caught a muster, Yuri desperately grabbed one too and ran after them.
“Piii…”
The muster let out a melancholy cry as Yuri grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
“Kyaak!”
In response, the muster on top of Aizel’s head snarled, as if sensing its kin’s plight.
“…I see. What a coincidence.”
Aizel, who had grown impatient in response, said.
‘Why interrupt?’
Aizel barely resisted clicking her tongue but Yuri ignored Aizel’s response and went straight to Zetto.
She threw her arms around Zetto’s neck. This time, she wasn’t going to let go.
Yuri’s mind had gotten the better of her, and she found herself pressing her chest into Zetto’s arms.
“Hey, Zetto, come eat with me after class.”
When Yuri asked Zetto, she wasn’t really looking at Zetto, but at Aizel, who was sitting next to her.
Soon after, Aizel wrapped her arms around Zetto’s remaining arm.
“Um…Zetto was supposed to eat with me.”
Aizel glared at Yuri.
‘Get out of my way.’
Aizel was saying that.
“That was when you were alone…Now that I’m here…Maybe you should ask Zetto again.”
Realizing this, Yuri turned to Zetto and asked.
“…”
Zetto was speechless.
[Why are these bitches doing this as a group…? Forget it, disciple, you ate the elixir yesterday, so I’ll cook for you today.]
In the midst of all the chaos, Zetto heard the voice in the distance muttering, ”I… I’m hungry too……” It was Lucia’s creeping voice.
“Haha… then why don’t the ‘four of us’ eat together…?”
Zetto smiled as brightly as he could at them. It was the best option for him.
“Okay…!”
Lucia’s face suddenly brightened.
***
A woman in an immaculate white dress stepped into a room that reeked of acrid odors.
Waiting for her was Ecline, the deputy leader of the Silver Winged Knights.
“…Saint.”
Bernice gives her a faint smile.
“Ecline, I hope I’m not late?”
“As you commanded, I left them breathing.”
As she says this, Ecline’s silver armor is spattered with the black blood of a demon.
“…You had a hard time.”
At Bernice’s words, Ecline bows her head.
The Order received information that there was a warlock who would curse certain people for a price, and when they investigated, they found that it was a demon.
Demons who cast curses were not very common.
Most of them specialized in close combat, either through magic or physical enhancement.
Bernice had ordered the demon to be kept alive for a while so she could personally question him.
Following Ecline’s lead, Bernice entered the room.
“Hmph… Hmph… Kuluk…!”
A demon with both of its arms severed on one of the walls was gasping for air as a nasty black liquid spewing from its mouth.
“…I’d like to speak with him alone for a moment.”
Bernice said as she turned to look at the demon.
At Bernice’s words, Ecline and the others immediately leave the room.
Bernice approaches the demon and bends down to meet him eye-to-eye.
The demon knows very well who the pure white woman before him is, and what a “Saint” means to him. Then, as it stares into Bernice’s burning left pupil, an overwhelming sense of dread washes over it.
As the flashes of light flickered through the demon’s mind, she tilted her head and asked him a question.
“I heard you deal with curses.”
“……”
The demon barely nodded.
He didn’t want to answer, but the holy power that was slowly emanating from her was coloring his skin with a pain that threatened to burn.
“Then… Do you know about a curse inscribed on the heart?”
“…”
When the demon once again failed to answer, Bernice increased the intensity of her holy power.
Demons were easier to interrogate when they were still in their human form.
The demon screamed in pain.
“Answer.”
The demon’s body trembles violently, and its mouth finally opens.
A few moments pass and Bernice walks out of the room.
“…Will you retrieve the horns?”
At the sound of her calm voice, a young knight, new to the Order, enters the room.
The demon was burned beyond recognition and the knight held his nose against the foul odor as he retrieved the horns.
Ecline, leaning against the wall, turns to Bernice, who walks out with a nonchalant expression.
“What happened?”
“Well…at least I got something.”
Bernice says with a beaming smile. She got the answer she wanted but it didn’t solve the question.
Outside, Bernice taps her lips and ponders.
‘He said that there is only one curse that can be carved into the heart…I wonder if that’s true?’