Chapter 115

I sensed something instinctively and looked deep into Lakis’ eyes. In the same manner, Lakis quietly stared into my eyes.

“…I can’t even take you because it’s dangerous.”

A low voice rang out in my ears again. Somehow, his voice seemed a little conflicted.

At this point, I was forced to admit that my guess was correct. He was thinking of going back to Carnot and slowly getting back his original position.

Then again, I think he also left around this time in the novel.

“Mr. Lakis, you speak like someone who’s going far away.”

Still, I spoke as if I didn’t know anything. Suddenly, I remembered what happened the other day.

The day Lakis disappeared quietly and I thought he might have gone completely.

Like he promised that day, he didn’t disappear without a word. Instead he was telling me beforehand, but I wasn’t sure if I should be thankful for it.

And when Lakis’ following words fell into my ears, I felt my heart which had been thudding somewhat heavily in my chest, become calm once again.

“I have to visit somewhere for a bit.”

He said he was visiting…

Hearing Lakis personally say, ‘I’ll be coming back’ made my heart feel a little, just a tiny bit lighter. [1]

Lakis stared at my face as if he was studying my reaction then he slowly parted his lips again.

“Should I just not go?”

Even if I told him not to go, it was impossible for him not to go forever and it was obvious he wanted to, but Lakis spoke to me as if he was sounding me out.

However, when I heard him speak, he sounded quite sincere, so it made me pause for a moment.

Lakis’ hand which was holding my arm slipped down and he held my hand. As our bare skin touched, I felt my sleeping feelings begin to stir a little.

“Just come back quickly.”

I spoke lightly as if there wasn’t much meaning behind my words. At that, an expression appeared on Lakis’ face but I couldn’t tell if he was smiling or frowning.

Soon, he lowered his head and placed his forehead on my shoulder. After a while, a soft whisper blew into my ear.

“I’ll be back.”

It was a light saying, as if he was just stepping out for a while and that made me feel more at ease.

* * *

That night, a strange thought suddenly popped up in my head and I opened the safe in my room.

To be honest, I called it a safe, but its function wasn’t that grand. The large amounts of money I had were stored in a separate place anyways, so I only put my living expenses in this safe and used it whenever I wanted.

In a way, you could call me insensitive towards safety, but I was also a little wary of Lakis at first but as time passed, I didn’t care if he saw or not and I took out money whenever I needed it. In other words, the existence of the safe wasn’t even a secret.

But today, I suddenly felt like I had to check the contents of the safe.

‘I kept using the money inside, but I didn’t feel it shrinking at all?’

Normally, my living expenses would almost be finished at the beginning or end of the month so I would take more money from the other place and move it to the safe.

But strangely enough, ever since Lakis arrived, I have never had to refill my living expenses. That fact made me feel a little strange just now.

I opened the lock of the safe and pulled out the deposit box deep inside. And when I looked inside…

As expected, it was filled to the brim with money.

‘No, this is more than I initially put here, isn’t it? It was only about half-full at first.’

When I went to shopping mall a while back, I took out some money, but it looked like there was even more money than there was back then. Back then, the money inside was definitely not filled to the brim.

Furthermore, something about it was making me suspicious so I check deeper inside and I realized it was covered with a layer of silver and copper coins like they were there to deceive my eyes. Below that layer was a bunch of gold coins shining brilliantly.

Unless my safe was some kind of endless money pot, there was only one person in this house who would do this.

I guess I was just finding out that Lakis is the type to repay favors? But where did he get this money?

I decided I just wouldn’t ask about the details. Who cares if it was black money or white money, either ways, it was still money, so I didn’t necessarily have to know the source, did I?

And so, I quietly decided to zip my mouth then I closed the door of the safe again.

Maybe helping the novel’s villain was worth it. That kind of thought unconsciously flashed through my mind.

* * *

The explosion late in the evening yesterday made the East noisy again. People were divided on where the explosion was a continuation of what happened at the shopping district or not. The East’s Central Council was yet to make an official announcement.

Due to that, a rumor of unknown source began to spread more and more among the population.

“From what I heard, it’s likely the act of those heretics?”

“Heretics? What is that?”

This rumor flowed naturally as it even reached Yuri’s ears.

“Ah, you came to the East this year, so you don’t know. I think it was 4 or 5 years ago, this kind of horrible cases were happening all over because of some bastards.”

The story spreading among people seemed to be that the events that took place in the East recently were all related to heretics.

“I thought they caught all those bastards back then?”

“Ai, even back then, the atmosphere was so serious…”

Even the coffeehouse was filled with such chatter today. The hottest topic on the lips of customers was unsurprisingly the explosion that occurred yesterday.

Yuri’s eyes roamed over the customers who were focused on their serious discussion in the store. Of course, because Yuri’s hearing was so good, she couldn’t help but hear what people were saying even when they were whispering among themselves at other times.

However, today her hearing was bad.

The inside of the coffeehouse was as noisy as a marketplace so even if she heard them, she couldn’t listen. The people injured in this incident were hospitalized in the clinic opposite the coffeehouse so everywhere seemed more rowdy.

Of course, Ferret Street was a bit far from downtown where the explosion occurred yesterday, but all the nearby clinics were saturated, so they had no choice but to transport the patients all the way here.

Yuri recalled what Kalian said at the dinner yesterday. He definitely said that the East’s Central Council concluded that heretics were involved in the incident at the shopping district…

But unlike what Yuri thought, that conclusion wasn’t only released to those inside.

And perhaps that was why the regular people who came to the coffeehouse naturally talked about heretics and wondered if the recent incident was also related to heretics.

“Not only that, there are only causing trouble in places with a lot people. I heard there was a lot of people hurt this time…”

“I know what you mean. I’m so scared now, how can I go outside in peace?”

“Ugh, those disgusting heretic bastards.”

It should be of no surprise since it was an act of terrorism but it was said that the two explosions were quite violent so there were heavy casualties this time as well.

And perhaps because of that, the air around people was somewhat dark and grim.

“Ferret will be okay, right? Right, it should be fine. We’re just a small neighborhood…”

Gilbert was anxious and breaking out in cold sweat since morning while mumbling such things to himself continuously. He seemed afraid that Ferret Street might be chosen as the next crime scene and the store which was his life’s work would be blown away.

Seeing him like that, Yuri spoke to him.

“I think we’ll be fine? This place isn’t that busy compared to other neighborhood…”

“Ri, Right? You think so too, right?”

It was useless to worry about it for now, so Yuri agreed with Gilbert to reassure him.

After hearing her say that, Gilbert finally looked a little relieved.

However, Yuri know that although Gilbert looked like he had calmed down, his anxiety could come back in the next thirty minutes or so. If the first place, anxiety was something that spread easily so it was not like she couldn’t understand.

Most of all, due to the nature of the coffeehouse’s location, it was inevitable for him to meet with a lot of people and he couldn’t help but hear whatever they said. So it was also inevitable for Gilbert to get swept up in the emotions of the crowd.

Yuri decided that she had to stop by the hideout where Leo and Siren stayed today. She knew that Siren occasionally sent out birds in the hideout in order to look outside.

However, just in case they still hadn’t heard about the search for heretics, she figured she had to go to the hideout today and tell them about it. Maybe it would be better for them to leave the East entirely for a while.

If they were a mutants like Yuri who looked no different from ordinary people then the situation would be a little better but…

If they couldn’t hide their physical features like Leo and Siren then they might end up going through something disturbing.

Maybe someone would thoughtlessly brandish a sword at them just like last time at the slave market, who knows?

According to what she’d heard while staying in the coffeehouse all day, when the ‘Heretic Hunt’ was going on a few years ago, the atmosphere in the East was quite serious.

“Oh, Mr. Snow! It’s been a while.”

Right at that moment.

Gilbert greeted someone in a happy manner.

“Hello.”

“You said you were helping your friend last time, so I guess you’ve been quite busy.”

“Haha, yes. Somehow, the things I had to do kept increasing.”

The person who entered the store was Snow.

Yuri’s gaze fell on Genos Sheldon who was wearing a brown wig.

Translator’s Corner:

[1] This is simply just interpretation. The specific phrase he used has an underlying meaning of ‘I’ll be back’. If you’re familiar with anime/mange sayings, it’s similar to ‘ittekimasu’. In other words, ‘I’ll go and I’ll come back’.