Chapter 53 Confession and End [End of Volume 1] Waiting for Ethan to resolve...
After Ethan dealt with the dog monster, he searched high and low but couldn't find his colleagues anywhere.
First, we can rule out the possibility of someone leaving beforehand.
Because the monster hadn't been defeated yet, he arrived and then devoured it with magic, but before that, the dog monster had been causing chaos, and the guardians wouldn't let the dog monster run rampant.
Come out, old coin!
Ethan pulled out his coin, flicked it with his fingertip, and the light coin was tossed into the air. Ethan could catch it with his eyes closed, and then began his journey to find his colleague.
Then, following his divination, Ethan returned to the place where he had just encountered a large group of dogs.
Ethan hesitated for a moment, then tossed a coin again to ask if the person in front of him was a colleague. Only after receiving an affirmative answer did he speak: "...Is it everyone? If so, do a 360-degree spin right here to prove it..."
Other Guardians: How did you do that?! Your abilities have been suppressed!
Ethan found it a bit absurd. He'd been working himself to the bone lately, and the idea that his colleagues had all turned into dogs was just too ridiculous. Haha…
Ethan cast another detection spell, but the result was still disappointing.
Ethan stood silently for a long time, surrounded by dozens of dogs who stared at him intently, occasionally barking and whimpering as if they were exchanging messages.
The golden retriever, suspected to be Turner, placed its paws on his shoes, its eyes filled with complex emotions. It said nothing, yet it seemed to say everything.
Ethan: "..."
Damn it, whatever you're imagining, stop imagining! He can't stand that kind of look from others!
Damn it! How did that dog monster turn the guardians into dogs? I wonder if those healing spells he learned will be useful? Are they from the same system? If not, can he just look them up in the book now?
Ethan, feeling heavy-hearted, squatted down and grabbed one of his lucky colleagues, casting a spell into him. However, the spell did not work after entering the other person's body.
Ethan was not discouraged. He recalled several restoration spells he had learned and tried them one by one, but they all disappeared without a trace.
With no other option, Ethan simply opened a small portal connecting to the Starfall Dimension, teleported his hand to the magic bookshelf, pulled out a book, and started flipping through it on the spot.
Ethan skimmed the pages, the pages rustling as he turned them, quickly and gently, trying not to damage the book.
Quick, flip it over! So many colleagues are around him, and he might even be influenced by some magic, unable to resist showing some dog-like habits.
For example, Ethan glanced over and noticed a dog with its front paws down, its fluffy tail wagging happily behind it, inviting other dogs to play with it.
The dog was stunned by her treatment. It tilted its head and hesitated for a few seconds, its face showing a human-like struggle. In the end, it actually put its front paws down and happily rolled around and played with her.
So cute... wait, no, he meant, this grass, oh no, this gravel ground is really cute. Even if the roadside poles have fallen down, it won't affect this heartwarming scene.
Wake up, Ethan Nix! That's your colleague, not some super cute dog you just saw. You can't say they're cute, and you definitely can't pet them. You just petted one of your colleagues!
But, but... the dogs were all so fluffy, so cute, and had all sorts of expressions.
It grumbled arrogantly on the side, as if such behavior was shameful, but its tail wagged just as fast as the two dogs playing, showing that it really wanted to join in, but was too embarrassed to admit it.
The more outgoing dog joined them with a smile, playing together and even making sweet noises.
The more composed ones, like the beagle with eyes as sharp as Reina's, are watching him with unfriendly eyes as he watches the dogs play.
Ethan was certain that the only person with such terrifying eyes was Reina, who had an incredible number of jobs regardless of her identity. She seemed easily provoked, but she could control her rationality very well. However, her eyes were like knives stabbing into everyone.
Reina bared her teeth at him fiercely, as if to say, "Try slacking off again! Have you forgotten something more important? Like, the people playing together aren't just ordinary dogs, but your colleagues?"
Ethan jolted awake, and Turner nudged him with his nose, signaling him to continue. Now was not the time to slack off, so Ethan, feeling a little guilty, continued flipping through the pages.
After flipping through five or six books, I tried to use each of the spells that I found that I thought could be dispelled on everyone. It took me quite a while to finally find a way to dispel it, and I actually managed to turn one of my colleagues who was having a great time back into a human.
The colleague froze, the smile that had just appeared on his face stuck in his throat. After a couple of seconds of silence, he got up from the ground and pretended that he hadn't been affected by the dog's temperament.
Seeing that the magic had worked, Ethan turned all the dogs back to normal. A large group of people surrounded him, and the sight of a large group of dogs surrounding him made him feel even more intimidated! How scary! Ethan wanted to run away again.
The thought that he had been careless and hadn't put on his combat suit the moment he stepped through the portal, and had instead transformed into his original form as a guardian in front of his colleagues who had become dogs, made him realize how careless he had been.
It was so embarrassing. Ethan's toes rubbed against the ground. He didn't dare to look at Turner. He didn't want to look at him... Being exposed was so embarrassing. His social anxiety was acting up again. He wanted to go back... even if it was just to deal with those mountains of official business.
“Ethan, I have something very important to ask you.” Turner was the first to break the silence.
Ethan was so embarrassed that he didn't dare to meet his gaze: "What?"
"Are those discussions on the Starfall City Forum true?" Tenas asked him in a very formal and serious tone.
To be honest, Ethan couldn't think of anything his residents could discuss for a moment. The first thing that came to mind was the Starfall City forum, where all sorts of his fabricated stories poured out. It was as if he had become one of thousands of people there, and anything could be attributed to him.
For example, he got involved with the city's will; he sold things in the early days, and some people even made it sound like they really bought them; he's actually transgender, a vegetarian, and also an animal rights activist; those people even like to surrogate him with babies, but he's still a child himself.
“No matter what you hear about the Starfall City forum…” Ethan’s lips twitched uncontrollably as he tried to hide his distorted expression: “It’s all fake, all rumors. I didn’t talk to anyone, I didn’t have any children, and I’m not transgender.”
"Then, what about streetwalking?" Gasha, who had accidentally stumbled upon the Starfall City forum, asked hesitantly. Although she was quite nervous, she couldn't hide the curiosity rising in her eyes.
"It's fake." Ethan's heart stopped completely when he heard this, and he responded almost coldly: "I've never done it before. The time you met me, Turnas, I was on another mission." And then I messed it up for you, making my teammates work for free for several months.
Ugh—why is he here refuting rumors about himself for his colleagues online?! He really shouldn't be here at all! Let him go back, it's so embarrassing. How could he have asked such a pointed question?
His career is over. He promises that every time he sees his colleagues, he will recall this humiliating day filled with dark history.
Ethan even prayed that a star would fall from the sky and take him away.
Turners paused for a moment, then asked, "So, what's your gender?"
“Male, I wore women's clothes back then to better disguise my identity, not to deliberately hide it from you…” Ethan stammered, his eyes, hidden by the cloak, kept darting away. He didn't even have the courage to take off the cloak's hood and expose his face to his colleague to speak: “Afterwards, um, afterwards… it was too embarrassing…”
Ethan's voice trailed off towards the end, but the Guardians' physiques had all been enhanced to some extent, so even their softest voices could be heard, especially since the surroundings were already quite quiet.
Everyone was staring at him, a man who was short even among them. In a team where the Guardians were generally over 1.75 meters tall, Ethan was really not tall.
Ethan lowered his head and then subtly pinched himself again. The silence from everyone made him feel like he was about to faint.
Turnas did not reply to him immediately.
He recalled all his past interactions with Ethan, and everything became clear.
When they first met, Ethan kept looking in one direction, so he was probably waiting for his mission target, not a real fallen girl, uh, a fallen boy.
At first, he was hesitant and didn't like to talk, which was probably due to social anxiety. Thinking about it, the other person in the Guardian state also didn't like to talk and ignored people, which might also be due to social anxiety.
The reason I frequently skipped classes and disappeared was because I still had to handle the Guardians' work, and I had just gone through a battle with them and left after the meeting.
No wonder his desire to buy things was so low. He was desperately trying to stop me from buying clothes, bags, jewelry, shoes, etc. It turns out he's a man. No wonder he was so resistant to buying. I remember the day we first met, when I bought him new clothes, his expression wasn't very good either.
That's understandable. It must have felt really awkward. Ethan is male, but because his face and the fact that he was dressed as a woman were so misleading, he suspected that the other person was the guardian of Starfall City. He also thought he was crazy to be so suspicious.
They spent several months together, and she treated him like a girl, only to find out that Ethan was actually a boy.
Turner felt overwhelmed by an indescribable emotion. Shame, frustration, embarrassment, and a mix of other feelings were swirling together because of his one-sided misunderstanding.
Turner couldn't even look the other person in the eye anymore. This completely unfounded misunderstanding turned out to be his own wishful thinking. How embarrassing.
I was worried that the other party wouldn't spend my money. As their guardian, they certainly wouldn't be short of money. Although I meant well, it was really embarrassing to think about it now.
"One last question for you," Reina said, her sharp gaze sweeping over him. "How old are you?"
Ethan said hesitantly, "Maybe, um, fourteen?"
He won't grow up anymore after he dies, so should his age be counted? Should it be counted before or after his death? If it's after his death, is he considered one year old?
“Maybe?” Reina seemed somewhat displeased with his uncertainty.
"Um, so... do you need to include the age after death?" Ethan finally mustered up the courage to ask.
The atmosphere froze instantly, even Reina's expression changed: "After death?"
Is Ethan joking? After death? Does he mean he's dead?
“Well, I’m a little different from everyone else. I was only discovered by Lord Starfall after I died, and that’s how I was brought back to life as a Guardian…” Ethan stammered. “I was fourteen when I died, and I’ve been a Guardian for over a year now. If you count it all, then I should be fifteen?”
Reina's eyebrows furrowed, as if she were thinking about something, and the furrow deepened. Many different emotions flashed in her eyes, before finally relaxing and calming down.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Reina asked in her usual indifferent tone.
"What...said?" Ethan asked cautiously.
“Your age, your experience.” Reina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “If you don’t let everyone know about you, based on your previous behavior, we will all have a bad impression of you. You should at least tell us your age. I haven’t heard of any guardian being a minor in the last few hundred years. Your situation is very special, and you should tell us first.”
Ethan felt guilty and didn't dare to look at her. How could he know? He was too socially awkward at first, but by the time he was less socially awkward due to the influence of his magician colleagues, everyone's relationships had already settled. No one told him that he had to tell his colleagues about these things. He only told Cassie and the others when he found a good opportunity.
Lord Xingyun didn't say anything. He told him to read those books about workplace social skills, but he didn't say that this was a special case. He's just a dead person, not some vulnerable group. Apart from not being able to eat, he has no problems.
Reina, however, was not as calm as she appeared.
Although she insisted on giving everyone some privacy and that it was okay not to reveal her other identity, she didn't force anyone to fill in any information. However, people who interacted with her generally knew some of the details.
But what's up with Ethan? He just doesn't interact with everyone much. Nobody knows he's a minor, a socially awkward kid, a physical version of that.
It's a real headache, but it was definitely her oversight. In the future, at least members should register their ages to prevent this from happening again. Vulnerable groups and the like should all be registered.
What are vulnerable groups? Underage children, people like Ethan who have died, people with disabilities or certain illnesses. If these don't affect their lives, they don't need to register. If they do register, people will take care of them.
So, has she been this harsh with a child so much younger than her for the past year? I feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
Rena is already 28 years old; any older and she could have given birth to Ethan. At first, she thought it was just a difficult colleague whose attitude was indeed too strange, which made her approach to the situation a bit harsh. So why would she say that Rena was so rude to a child for so long? It really makes her uncomfortable.
Reina wasn't the only one feeling uncomfortable; thinking back to how she had subtly ostracized and disliked Ethan in the past, her conscience started to ache.
It's outrageous how they treated this junior colleague so badly over the past year. Regret and shame can't erase the attitude they once displayed.
Although they are all guardians and should be treated as equals of similar age, the age difference is quite large.
The oldest are already in their forties or fifties, and the youngest, the youngest in the past, was only twenty-five-year-old Turnas. There is no situation where the younger one gives way to the older one or the older one shows respect to the younger one.
If you really can't stand something, you can go out and have a fight. That way, you can resolve the conflict and reduce internal strife.
But everything is different now. The youngest guardian is fourteen years old, or even the age of some people's grandchildren. Once people know his age and experience, they can no longer treat him as an equal as before, and they can't help but be more biased towards him.
Ethan is only fourteen years old. They can't just resolve things like not liking a child like they used to. They shouldn't be so petty with a child. It's normal for kids to have quirky personalities during puberty.
A powerful and magical underage guardian sounds wonderful... But why does my heart still ache?
"Hahaha, that's hilarious." More than a hundred kilometers away from the still silent and strange Truth Bureau, a blond man laughed and wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes: "Did you see little Tenas's expression? This is the first time I've seen him so expressive. It's truly amazing. Your guardian seems quite surprised as well."
The blond man, Yang Yan, watched the events unfold from afar and couldn't stop laughing.
Novigrad rolled her eyes silently and didn't reply. She didn't quite agree with Yangyan tolerating the destruction of her city and turning all the guardians into dogs just to watch this show, but her Reina was indeed shocked.
Although the exact end of that day is somewhat unclear, Ethan was eventually rescued and ran away.
After learning his age and experience, his colleagues' attitudes changed drastically. They became shockingly gentle and kind compared to before, and some even looked at him with the same eyes Mary had given him, making him feel uneasy.
Because he wasn't used to this change in attitude, Ethan felt like he was walking on thin ice for a while. He really couldn't adapt to everyone's enthusiasm, since his previous impression of them was just so-so. It took him quite a while to readjust.
Everyone was so...so incredibly enthusiastic...
real.
"I'm really getting off work late tonight," Selene thought.
Today I had to work overtime, and by the time I finished everything I needed to do, it was already 9:30 p.m. The road I had to take home was completely dark.
Selene was always worried that someone would jump out and rob her as she walked down this road.
The government is planning to build a lamp, but it hasn't reached her usual route yet, so Selene still feels it's quite dangerous, even though she's walked it countless times.
For example, she might appear to be putting her hands in her bag to warm them, but in reality, one hand is holding a knife and the other is pepper spray, ready to deal with any sudden danger.
"Robbery!" A figure suddenly emerged from the darkness.
See, here comes the sudden danger.
Selene pretended to pull her hand out of her bag, actually preparing to quickly take out pepper spray to spray the other person, but before she could act, the other person was kicked away by a figure and embedded directly in the wall.
A dark cloak with mysterious blue patterns flew past her eyes, and the cloak landed lightly not far from Selene, close to the criminals who had robbed her.
As soon as the other party reached out, a faint light appeared on the criminal's body, and he was indeed pulled off the wall by that light. He then lightly jumped onto a rooftop not far away and left with the criminal.
Selene recognized him; he was the guardian of their Starfall City. Since taking office, he had dealt with many troublesome matters with swift and decisive measures, making Starfall City more and more like the outside world. The crime rate had even dropped significantly, and it seemed that even the installation of streetlights was his idea.
Ethan, Ethan.
Selene murmured the guardian's name in her heart, a strange pang of sadness rising within her. How strange, where did this inexplicable emotion come from? It even gave her an urge to cry, and she felt a sense of familiarity as she murmured the name.
Selene stood there for a while before she recovered.
Although she didn't know why she had these inexplicable emotions, she didn't want to think about it anymore. She should be grateful that Starfall City had such a normal guardian, which made her feel much safer going to and from get off work.
But why does it still feel so unsettling? Selene has chosen not to pursue the matter further, and simply looks in the direction Ethan left, pondering to herself.
Thank you, our guardian.
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Author's Note: After writing the last chapter, I kept seeing pictures of dogs on my phone. They're so cute! [Sprinkling flowers]
Volume Two, here I come! [kiss][kiss]
Reina is an evil beagle [sprinkling flowers] Ethan is getting more and more overwhelmed by work and thinks less and less about his mother [and Starfall], but that doesn't mean he's lost love.
I have an exam coming up, I'll post the next one after the exam this weekend. I've already posted the green and white ones as a quick sketch. I re-drew the three characters, Cassie, and Mary, but I need to think about how to draw her some more; I can only draw young girls.
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