CH 186

Chapter 186 – Wait and See

“Kaza, can you hear me?” (Torimoto)

“Milord, what is the matter? There is nothing out of the ordinary on my side.” (Kaza)

“Alright. Stay alert of the surroundings at all times. I’ve decided to stay here for a little bit.” (Torimoto)

“Ho-hoh. It seems that this is going to be interesting.” (Kaza)

“Hey, Kaza! What is interesting about this situation?! Milord is going to be locked up in a basement like this…! This one would have taken care of them right away as long as milord ordered so!” (Shiki)

“There, there, Shiki-dono. If our lord says it’s fine, then it’s fine, isn’t it?” (Kaza)

“But…” (Shiki)

“Our duty is to support our lord’s actions. Besides, this is our lord we are talking about. He surely has something in mind.” (Kaza)

“Mmm…” (Shiki)

Shiki was stiff. Rather, he was too serious. I kind of wished that he could be a little more flexible like Kaza.

“Thanks for your concern, Shiki. But just as Kaza said, I’ve already taken measures. No matter what happens, I won’t die, so it’s fine.” (Torimoto)

Of course, I had told Shiki and the others about the [Respawn Tag]. But they still didn’t want me, their master, to be hurt or killed. I was happy they were being this loyal to me.

“More importantly milord, what are you going to do now?” (Kaza)

“So I’ll wait and see for now. I need to get in contact with that woman called Riwa.” (Torimoto)

I opened the <Shop> to see if there were any newly added skills.

None, huh…? I guess I wouldn’t obtain it just by coming into contact with her. It seemed that I needed to see what kind of skill she had with my own eyes.

“Anyway, Sayuri-san… she sure has changed a lot. I’m sure Akito-san would be happy to know that she’s still alive, but…”

Akito was the eldest son of the Fukuzawa family who had brought me with them to visit the Tanaka family. He had been depressed when he heard the unfortunate news about the Tanaka family.

His best friend, Yaichi, and his children would never come back. I was sure that he would be happy to know that Sayuri was safe, but I wondered what he would think when he found out that she was the founder of the Maiden’s Rebirth cult, a religious group that rejected the existence of men.

…There’s no use thinking about it. Sayuri was living her own life, and I had no right to judge or criticize her. But if I did meet Akito again, I’d just let him know that she’s safe.

“…This data room is pretty big.”

I had some time to kill, so I opened the door and began to check out the books on the shelves.

“Wow, it’s almost like a small library. There’s a pretty good lineup of books here.”

I picked up a book and started to flip through it.

“Which reminds me, my mother liked reading books.”

My father didn’t like to read that much, but my mother was different. I had memories of my mother quietly reading books when she had time. She would also read books to me when I was little.

According to my father, my mother was the daughter of a well-to-do family, and they had eloped and gotten married.

“At the time, I really didn’t think their story would be so romantic though.”

My father was a person who never did anything that didn’t abide by his principles. He was a great man who did what he wanted to do, and he stuck by his principles without blaming others.

My father probably fell in love with my mother and stuck true to his feelings. He chose to be with my mother even if the people around him were against it.

And my mother must have been happy to marry my father. She was always smiling happily.

But when letters came from time to time, she always seemed a bit sad while reading them. They were probably letters from her own family.

“I guess… Everyone has their own past.”

“―What of the past?”

When I turned around, I saw Shakuhara Keika standing there, glaring at me. However, there was a distance of more than five meters between us.

“Oh, you’re…” (Torimoto)

“Hey, don’t come any closer! If you do… I’ll shoot you.” (Shakuhara)

That said, she wasn’t holding a gun. Did they take it away from her?

“Do you have any business with me?” (Torimoto)

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have come here to talk to you.” (Shakuhara)

Well, of course not. I couldn’t imagine why she would come here, but…

“….Riwa.” (Shakuhara)

When Shakuhara spoke her name, the woman that I had saved appeared from the shadows of the bookshelves.

I thought so when she was still unconscious, but she was really tall. Taller than me, at least. She was probably taller than 180 cm.

“U-Um, Kei-chan… I…” (Riwa)

“What is it? You came here because you wanted to thank him, didn’t you? How long are you going to be shy?!” (Shakuhara)

So she came here because of something related to Riwa. From the sound of it, she had come here because she wanted to thank me.

“U-Umm, but… err… haaa.” (Riwa)

For some reason, Riwa turned bright red when she met my gaze and hurriedly averted her eyes.

“Hey, why are you so red?! Are you not feeling well? Do you want to go back to your room?” (Shakuhara)

“Wuuu… I-I’m fine…” (Riwa)

They looked like sisters, although they didn’t resemble each other at all. Could it be that Shakuhara was unexpectedly the older sister type? Perhaps they really were sisters.

“…Are you two sisters by any chance?” (Torimoto)

“Haaah? No! Me and Riwa are childhood friends! She’s been bad at interacting with men since she was little, even more so after my incident… Tch, nevermind me.” (Shakuhara)

I didn’t feel any animosity from Riwa like I did from Shakuhara. I wondered if she had joined because she originally wasn’t great with guys or if it was because her childhood friend, Shakuhara, joined this cult.

… Either way, it seemed like it had to do with whatever incident occurred to Shakuhara Keika in the past.