Surviving with Killer Face and Sharper Tongue

Chapter 125: To Home (2)

The boss always cursed the Cartel, especially its master, Don Paulo.

At first, he said, he acted as if he would solve all the poverty in the slums.

So the people of the slums believed him and followed him.

Making ‘products’ as he was told.

But in the end, none of the problems in the slums were solved, and in fact, more problems arose.

They began to get addicted to the ‘products’ they had to make, being worked like slaves.

Nevertheless, Don Paulo, instead of returning the vast wealth he had accumulated by exploiting the slums as promised, used it to hang out with the great nobles.

Without even glancing at the slums he had ruined even further.

And yet, the majority of the betrayed slum dwellers still worshiped him like a god.

Because he supplied them with ‘products’.

That's why the boss said he hated Don Paulo.

He always said, as if it were a habit, that he would make him pay for his betrayal someday.

That if they ever met, he would surely kill him.

He said he started handling ‘products’ not just to make money, but all for the sake of revenge.

To first free the slums from his grasp.

Every time I heard that, I had to swallow these words several times.

Wasn't it something a guy who was working a kid like a slave, saying he was protecting him because they were the same kin, shouldn't say?

Therefore, to me, the Cartel was just something like a storybook existence.

Because I worked as a courier, I rarely had to deal with the Cartel guys.

In the first place, it was my job not to run into them.

But, perhaps because I had gone on a rampage after messing up my first deal (though it wasn't my fault), the gang's business started to take off.

Ironically, because I was too good at my job, I ended up getting involved with the Cartel.

The more the gang's business developed, the more the Cartel's mood soured.

In the end, when I started expanding my territory and making ‘deliveries’ outside the slums, they sent a large number of their men to the slums, which they usually didn't even look at, under the pretext of establishing discipline.

The boss, who always boasted that he was protecting me, abandoned me and hid like a rat.

He didn't just abandon me; he threw me away.

To the Cartel's hitmen who were chasing me.

When I made a delivery as he had ordered, just like usual, the Cartel guys were waiting for me.

He probably thought that if he offered me as a sacrifice, their anger would subside to some extent.

And there, I met Don Paulo for the first time.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

The man I had only heard of through the boss's badmouthing or the notorious rumors on the street.

“──So you’re Evie.”

To me, he just looked like… an ordinary middle-aged man.

I don't know what he liked about me.

Perhaps it was because instead of begging him to spare my life, I had acted calmly, telling him to just kill me quickly instead of wasting time.

Or perhaps because even after saying that, I had immediately slashed the wrist of the guy who had reached out to grab me, with a knife I had hidden.

Or maybe just, because I was me.

The only thing that was certain was that he liked me.

“You have the eyes of a wolf.”

That much, I could tell right away.

So, instead of dealing with me according to the rules for interfering with his business, he took me to his own house.

Saying that from today, this was my new home.

The grand mansion I used to look up at sometimes when I came to the uptown for deliveries.

One room was bigger than the orphanage where dozens of people slept together.

But the size was secondary; above all, there was a soft bed.

So soft that a kid who had slept on the hard bed of the orphanage that had to be shared by two, or the even harder floor, and the much colder street, could forget everything for a moment and fall into a deep sleep.

I had never slept so soundly in my life.

From the next day, Don Paulo started giving me a few tasks.

At first, it was just deliveries and errands like I had been doing, but as I showed outstanding results just like I had in the gang, he gradually started taking me with him on important deals.

Yes, I knew he was a vicious bastard.

I had heard it all the time.

But at that time, I thought, so what?

In my eyes, they were all the same.

Then wouldn't it be better to be on the side of someone who likes me and treats me well?

Unlike before, he gave me rewards every time I handled a task for him.

He trained me, and when I met his expectations, he gave me rewards as well.

And sometimes, he just gave me rewards even when I did nothing.

For the ridiculous reason that I was just being me.

He asked for my birthday, and I said I didn't know.

Then he decided that the day I first came to this house would be my birthday, and for the first time, I was rewarded for just being born into this world.

The more I worked for him, the more I learned that the rumors… no, that he was an even worse bastard than the rumors, and in the end, I did end up betraying him, but.

Unfortunately, I can't deny that the damn old geezer was the closest thing to a ‘father’ I had ever had.

Though I've never had one, so I don't really know what that is.

***

“……!”

Startled, Ibi took a step back from Don Paulo.

She could see his two eyes, which had been stabbed in the neck by Kain's dagger, trembling.

Then, they rolled back.

And so, without even letting out a final scream, Don Paulo collapsed to the floor.

No longer breathing.

Ibi, with a complicated expression, stared down at Don Paulo's death for a while.

“…Damn old geezer.”

Then, she finally squatted down next to him and gently closed his two eyes.

As if to say she still had enough loyalty to spare him from dying like the beasts he so despised.

“…Why?”

“You all started looking for us.”

Wiping the blood from his dagger on the floor, Kain answered calmly.

“Either he told you about us, or he failed to keep a secret he should have kept to the end.”

Either way, Paulo had betrayed their expectations.

“Thanks to him, I was able to meet you, Evie, but a betrayal is a betrayal. He had to pay the price.”

Then, after wiping the rest of the blood, Kain sheathed his dagger and held out his still slightly blood-stained hand to Ibi, who was still squatting.

“Now, let's go home.”

Ibi, who had been looking up at that hand for a moment, stood up on her own instead of taking it.

The sea was calm today.

The sunlight was moderately warm, and the breeze was moderately cool.

It was a perfect day to set sail.

“Uuurp──”

For those who don't get seasick.

Whether it was because of my weakened body, or because it was very different from the ships I had been on, a strong wave of seasickness, which I had never had before, washed over me.

“A-Are you alright, Lord Yubin?”

Because of that, as I was struggling, holding onto the deck railing, Lily came up to me and asked with a worried voice.

“N-No… I feel like I'm going to throw up… urp.”

It was not a situation where I could pretend to be fine and tell her not to worry.

“By any chance… is there a spell, that could help…?”

“A-A spell is…”

It could 「Heal」 wounds, 「Revive」 someone on the verge of death, and even 「Resurrect」 a dead person, but why on earth was there no spell that could solve a simple case of seasickness?

I wanted to have a word with the creators of holy magic, but if I did, Lily would surely feel guilty, so I couldn't.

She was already fidgeting as if it were her own fault.

“Ah, maybe you'll feel better if you sleep? I can put you to sleep.”

Lily, who had been pondering a solution, quickly came up with an alternative, but unfortunately, it was an alternative that couldn't be used on me.

“It doesn't, work on me….”

The 「Sleep」 skill that she had as a succubus, not a cleric, was a Charisma-based check, just like charm, so it was unlikely that I would be affected.

Thanks to that, I had been able to give Lily my blood without any problems until now, but conversely, it was of no help in a situation like this.

“Ah, that's right….”

Of course, it wasn't entirely impossible if I could beat the extremely low odds.

That is, if I rolled three dice (including the one I recently got) at the same time and all three came up as 1, not once, but twice in a row.

But at that point, wouldn't it be faster to just lie down and listen to a lullaby?

“Hmm, then…”

However, Lily, who had been thinking for a moment, seemed to have reached the same conclusion as me.

Perhaps for that reason, she slowly knelt down and then gently patted her own legs.

“Would you like to lie down for now?”

She said, as if I could rest my head here.

“Uh… is that okay?”

The first thought that came to me when I saw that was ‘Is this okay…?’, but in hindsight, it might be a case of ‘now of all times?’.

After all, to be quibbling about whether a lap pillow is okay or not, we might have already… done a lot of things much more embarrassing than that.

Perhaps reaching the same conclusion as me this time as well, Lily lowered her gaze slightly as if to hide her flushed face.

“W-With you, Lord Yubin, I've already… shared my body many times….”

“Uh… I think it would be better to be clear that you're talking about the meaning of contact….”

I had felt this since last time, but perhaps because she had almost no knowledge, Lily seemed to have no idea how her words could be interpreted in other ways.

But I couldn't teach her the meaning either, so what to do….

It was a relief that Rine and Miki, who were also on deck, were both engrossed in watching the sea, as if they were seeing the sea for the first time in their lives after getting on a ship.

…Or was it?

Perhaps it was more likely that those two wouldn't misunderstand and would just take it literally.

Ibi would surely have shown the reaction I was worried about.

…Well, I don't think the current Ibi would say anything like she usually would, even if she saw this.

Anyway, so, to not make Lily, who had offered first, feel awkward, I carefully laid my head on her lap, or more accurately, her thigh.

Lily's lap pillow was very… comfortable.

More than any pillow I had ever rested my head on in my life.

“How is it? Do you feel a little better?”

To top it off, Lily began to stroke my head with a gentle touch.

So it felt like I could really fall asleep right away if I stayed like this…

“…….”

But in the end, when I silently sat up again, Lily asked with a slightly flustered look.

“Ah… w-was it uncomfortable?”

“No, I was very comfortable… but I thought it would be too uncomfortable for you. Your legs would get numb too.”

“I’m fine…”

“Thanks, Lily. But I'm really fine.”

Come to think of it, I think I heard that for seasickness, it's helpful to fix your gaze, like looking at the horizon.

So I stood next to the two who were still staring at the sea as if hypnotized, and stared intently at the smoothly stretching horizon along with them.

This was definitely more comfortable.

***

Thanks to setting sail at the crack of dawn, we were able to arrive at our destination before the sun set.

Of course, it wasn't Krom.

It was a small, nameless island closer to Tiaria than Krom.

Though the fierce storm clouds surrounding Krom were visible in the distance.

“…What's the trick this time?”

Ibi, who had been cooped up inside alone all along, came out, looked around the island where the ship had docked, and said in a wary voice.

“Are you going to tell me this is Krom?”

“Of course not.”

At that, Kain let out a small laugh as if to say there was no need to be so wary.

“You'll see.”

There was one reason he had brought us here.

The secret to how he and his subordinates could come and go between Krom and Tiaria relatively freely, even on days when the storm was not at its calmest, was hidden on this very island.

Literally, hidden.

And before long, the moment that secret finally revealed itself before us──

“──!”

The companions, who had gasped in unison, their eyes widened.

“It wasn't just the miasma, that we overcame.”

Watching the ‘submarine’ that had risen to the surface of the sea, which had begun to churn with waves.