Chapter 131 Long time no see, father (6K)
"Why not tell her?" After Ina left, Bai Wei's voice rang in Gerald's mind, "Since everything has been said, why not tell her about her brother as well?"
Jellal watched Ina's back disappear at the entrance of the alley without looking away, but just whispered, "Did you hear everything?"
"Aren't you just talking nonsense?" Bai Wei said lazily, "I'm in your body, is there anything I can't hear?"
He paused.
"But next time when you discuss with your daughter how to kill me, should I think of a way to carry you on my back?"
"Can you still carry it?"
"Hmm... it doesn't seem to work." Bai Wei said calmly, "It's like a pig trapped in a pen during the Chinese New Year, watching humans sharpen knives while discussing how to cook better. It can neither cover its eyes nor block its ears."
"What is Chinese New Year?"
“Is this the point?”
"What is a pig?"
"...Heh." Bai Wei raised Gerard's eyebrows, "It seems that you are in a good mood. After talking with your daughter, you can start to tell some jokes?"
"There's nothing funnier than the legendary Visas describing himself as a pig, right?" Gerard said softly, "If you are a pig waiting to be slaughtered, then what are we? Meat that's already on the chopping block?"
"It seems that you are still very pessimistic about the current situation." Bai Wei said, "Don't worry, as long as you follow my plan, you will at least not die. You may even be able to retire peacefully and watch your daughter bring a yellow-haired boy to call you father-in-law. Hmm... For you, is this situation more terrifying than the destruction of the world?"
"Hmm... I don't understand what you're saying anymore." Jellal said, "But can I understand that I won't die like the previous host?"
"You can understand it that way."
"Why is that?"
"What why?"
"Why did the previous host need to die, but I don't?"
"Tsk, your concerns are really weird. Isn't it a good thing not to die?" Bai Wei said, "But this seems like something you would think about. You Lyrans are a little too rigorous. You want to know the answers to every question."
Bai Wei paused and continued.
"To put it simply, the situations you face are different. You are much stronger than that guy, and..."
"and?"
"I have to leave a case of immortality." Bai Wei said calmly, "Otherwise, when I find the next host, I can just tell him that the previous two hosts have died. Then there is a high possibility that there will be no chance for negotiation."
“Oh…I see.”
Listening to Bai Wei's half-true, half-false joke, Gerard smiled silently, not knowing what he was thinking.
"So you haven't answered me yet." Bai Wei said, "Why don't you just tell her about her brother? If you don't tell her now, it will be more troublesome to tell her later."
Jellal slowly closed his eyes.
Ian's nervous yet serious face reappeared in his mind.
…
"Father, I want to join Vesperia."
…
"I've been wondering why I agreed to let Ian enter Eve Star at that time."
Gerard's eyes slowly opened again, and he was still looking at the entrance of the alley. Even though Ina had left for a long time, his gaze had never left, like those old fathers in his previous life who sent their children who had just started college to the train station or airport.
"It may be because I don't want to stop him from becoming the person he wants to be, or it may be because I also want to see my beloved son standing shoulder to shoulder with me in that boundless polluted land." Gerald spoke slowly, as if he was talking to himself or Bai Wei, "But no matter what I thought, I agreed to let him become the same person as me, and then let him experience the same things as me."
Bai Wei understood what Gerald meant: "So you regret it? Are you thinking, if you hadn't agreed at the beginning, would he still be fine now?"
"Yes." Gerald said softly, "Although Holman told me that he came back, I don't know what happened to him, nor do I know what he has become now. I only know that if I had rejected him at the beginning, he would not be like this now. At least... he can still live well with Ina."
"Even if he will hate you for it?"
"Even if he will hate me for it."
Bai Wei smiled: "I see, your daughter wants you to treat her like her brother, but you are the opposite, you don't want her to follow the same path as you and her brother... Well, I feel like an autocratic old father. By the way, have you ever cheated on her before?"
"No."
"So this is the first time?"
"...Yes." Jellal gently rubbed the pass belonging to the Devil Army in his hand, "This is the first time, and... the last time."
…
In front of the iron bridge connecting District 4 and District 5, Ina suddenly turned her head and looked behind her.
It was empty, there was nothing.
"Is there any problem, deputy captain?" asked a member of the devil's army guarding the iron bridge.
Ina shook her head: "No problem."
Then, she looked at the guard at the bridge and frowned slightly.
“Why are there so few people on duty?”
"Because there was some problem in the contaminated land." The Devil Knight said, "The Abyss is in urgent need of manpower, so most of the people were transferred there."
Something happened in the abyss?
Ina's pupils narrowed slightly, and then she immediately asked what was going on.
As one of the deputy captains of the Devil Corps, Ina naturally had the authority to know these things, so the Devil Knight immediately told Ina about the situation in the polluted land.
After listening to this, Ina immediately frowned and subconsciously looked in the direction of the polluted area.
I didn't expect that the abyss would undergo such big changes just a few days after I came back.
If there wasn't something more important, Ina would have wanted to return to the contaminated area and begin exploring the abyss. After all... that was something she had been looking forward to for ten years.
But because there were more important things to do, Ina had to suppress the impulse and said calmly: "Is that so? Then you guys should go and provide support as soon as possible, and I will be on duty here."
The devil knight was a little surprised: "You are here to guard?"
"Yes, since Deni hasn't come back yet, I'll just wait for him here." Ina turned and looked at the Devil Knight in front of her, "Why, do you think I can't do it?"
"Of course not." The Devil Knight said, "With you here, we can indeed transfer more people to the Abyss for support. So when do you plan to start?"
"Tonight." Ina waved her hand and walked away. "Wait until you finish this shift, and then replace me."
The devil knight saluted Ina.
Everything went smoothly.
In fact, because of the situation in the abyss, the security force in the entire Fifth District is now seriously insufficient, which is obviously a good thing for Ina.
This meant that she and Jellal would face fewer obstacles in their actions tonight.
But...will it really be so smooth?
Ina felt inexplicably uneasy.
Behind her, the knight who had just saluted her had a faint glow in his eyes under the mask.
…
"I see."
Looking at the Devil Knight who saluted him, Yong Xin said softly.
"Knowing that areas one to three are difficult to attack, he directly set his sights on the fifth area, which seems even more difficult to attack? He even dragged Ina into it... As expected, he has begun to use any means necessary."
The devil knight asked: "Lord Yongxin, do you need our cooperation?"
"Haha, that's not necessary." Yong Xin said calmly, "If you stay there, it might make them suspicious, so you just need to leave as she asked. It just so happens that the Abyss is short of people too."
"Yes." The Devil Knight quickly took his leave.
Then Yongxin called his subordinates.
"Did you hear what I said just now?" Yong Xin asked.
The subordinate nodded: "I heard it."
"Then you should know what to do." Yong Xin looked at his subordinates and said slowly, "Order the first to fifth teams of the Skeleton to secretly enter the fifth area. The rest of the teams continue to search for Jellal and do not arouse his suspicion. The first to fifth teams can carry any number of heavy weapons. Once they see Jellal show up, kill him on the spot without hesitation."
While saying this, Yongxin saw his right hand trembling slightly.
"You don't want to capture her alive?" the subordinate asked, "What about Lady Ina?"
His right hand was shaking more and more violently, but Yongxin's expression did not change at all, and he always had a faint smile on his face.
"Same, kill on the spot."
The subordinates took the order and retreated.
Yongxin turned his gaze to his right hand, the smile on his face growing wider.
"The reason why you have persisted until now and still refuse to die is because of these two, right?" Yong Xin chuckled and turned to look out the window. Under the clear sky, there were already a few dark clouds, and thunder could be heard faintly. "Then after tonight..."
"You can die in peace now."
"Ian."
…
After noon, the weather took a sharp turn for the worse.
There were originally only a few dark clouds, but suddenly they covered half of the Lyra City.
Although it hadn't rained yet, the whole of Tianqin gave people an unbearable feeling of stuffiness and dryness.
Just like the overall atmosphere of Tianqin.
Ju walked out of the school alone, watching the adults coming and going as they nervously picked up their children. It was as if he was looking at another world and everything had nothing to do with him.
Such a big thing happened this morning. The entire Tianqin is about to be lifted from martial law. Naturally, the school does not dare to let the students continue to go to school, and immediately notifies the parents to pick up their children.
But Ju had no parents, so she could only leave the school alone and watch the parents taking their children away quickly. Even the gangsters who had bullied her before were no exception. They used to look so proud and confident, but now they were held in the arms of their parents like quails.
But even so, when they walked past Ju Lu, they would give her a mocking look, as if they were laughing at her for not having parents.
Fortunately, Ju was already used to it. She just slowly kicked a rusty screw on the ground into the artificial lake nearby, listened to the splash sound, and then watched the ripples disappear little by little.
Hmm...it really doesn't make any sense.
Orange thought.
Should I do what I did in the past and throw a ball into some annoying guy's shoes that explodes and splashes shit?
But now with so many parents here, it doesn’t seem easy to succeed.
Orange is thinking about this problem.
Then, she heard the parents passing by discussing nervously.
"What happened this morning?"
"Haven't you heard? It's that guy named Gerard again..."
When hearing this name, Ju's eyes, which were originally as calm as the surface of a lake, suddenly began to ripple as if a stone was thrown into it.
Hmm...it seems a bit interesting.
Ju's steps suddenly became brisk.
She originally thought that everything now had nothing to do with her, but now, it seemed to have something to do with her.
Because Jellal's body... was repaired by her.
Does that mean that everything that happened today has something to do with her?
When he thought of this, Ju felt that throwing shit into other people's shoes became boring.
So she pretended to be casual and followed the two parents, listening to their conversation.
"It seems like a lot of people died..."
“The whole station was under lockdown.”
"The Skeleton Army is full of corpses..."
The light in Ju's eyes became brighter and brighter, and even his breathing quickened unconsciously.
Then, she bumped into the parent in front of her with a "puff".
"Huh? Who are you? Why are you following us?"
The parent looked at her sternly.
Before Ju could say anything, the child in the parent's arms shouted, "She is Ju! She is the prisoner's child!"
"That rebel kid?! Why is he following us?!"
"Damn it, she must be in cahoots with that Gerard, catch her now!"
The parents were about to take action, but Ju already had rich experience in dealing with this kind of situation, and she ran away the moment the children shouted.
The parents couldn't catch up with her, so they could only shout at her back.
"Asshole! Sooner or later, you will be sent to see your damn father!"
"You will be hanged on the mast with that fellow named Gerard!"
These words had no effect on Ju, but only made her steps lighter and lighter.
She even made a special trip to the Skeleton Corps' headquarters. Looking at the skeleton knights with broken arms and legs, she could no longer hold back and laughed out loud.
Ju was almost forgetting when was the last time she laughed.
Sure enough, it was right to give that Gerard "treatment" and "transformation".
She thought to herself.
Isn't this much more interesting than those exploding ball things she made?
I don't know where Gerald is now.
Wait, he wasn't caught, is it possible...
Ju thought of something, and then immediately turned around and returned to his home with sparks and lightning.
When he opened the door and saw the familiar figure cleaning the blood-stained parts with a frown, Ju stopped.
"Um?"
Jellal seemed a little surprised that Tachibana would come back at this time. Looking at her sweaty face, he thought she was being chased by the gangsters again. When he was about to ask, Tachibana spoke first.
"What are you doing?" Orange asked.
"Uh..." Jellal was a little embarrassed, "The part you replaced for me is damaged again, so I wanted to see if I can replace it myself."
He was really embarrassed to trouble Ju.
After all, with the series of things he did this morning, even he himself didn't know how to tell Ju that he was actually a good person.
I can't put the blame on Bai Wei, nor can I tell Ju all the truth.
That's why Jellal planned to be self-reliant, leave as soon as possible after completing the task, and not meet with Tachibana afterwards, because no matter what the action today was, Tianqin would further intensify the search for him, and at that time it would be really difficult for him to hide in such a small warehouse.
But Jellal didn't expect that Tachibana would come back so early.
This made him a little hesitant, and he didn't know how to explain it to Ju.
Then, he heard Ju suddenly say, "I'll help you."
Gerard was slightly stunned, thinking he had heard it wrongly: "What?"
"I said, I'll help you." Ju repeated, "I'll help you fix it."
Then, she remembered something and added.
“No money needed.”
...Why is this?
Jellal was a little confused. He stared at Tachibana in a daze, trying to read some joking meaning in Tachibana's eyes.
But Ju was obviously not joking, her burning eyes were full of seriousness.
So after a moment of silence, Gerard nodded and said, "Thank you for your help."
He paused, then spoke softly.
"I have something important to do tonight."
Hearing this, a gleam of light flashed in Ju's eyes again.
Although she really wanted to know what Jellal was going to do, she was sensible enough not to ask. She just nodded and tried hard to suppress her inner excitement.
"Leave it to me."
…
After nightfall, the rain that had been held back for the entire day finally fell.
Ina lowered the brim of her hood, then walked to the end of the bridge and said to the Devil Knights who were still on duty, "Change shifts. You should rest early and keep your energy so that you can rush to the abyss tomorrow."
"Yes!" The devil knights saluted Ina and were about to retreat.
"Wait." Ina's peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a gear train parked on the track not far away, and her brows slightly frowned, "What's going on with that train?"
"Oh, that's the support sent by the Tower of Babel." The Devil Knight replied, "Captain Yuri will send someone to receive it tomorrow morning."
"I see." Ina nodded, "I understand."
This is normal because the gear train track only goes up to here, and all supplies can only be delivered here, and then transported to the polluted land by the Devil Knights.
The devil knights saluted Ina again and then left at the same time.
Ina sat alone in the checkpoint at the bridge head, looking at the other side of the bridge.
But what she didn't know was that in the gear train not far away, the fully armed skeleton knights were also watching her silently.
…
"Perfect." Jellal said softly as he felt his new body, "You are really... amazing."
While wiping his sweat, Tachibana pointed at the chainsaw sword placed beside him expressionlessly: "That, I also fixed it."
Gerald was even more surprised.
"Can you tell me what you are going to do tonight?" asked Ju.
Gerald immediately fell silent, and then shook his head gently: "Sorry, I can't say."
Ju said "Oh", seemingly not surprised, but then asked: "Will you come back?"
Jellal looked at Tachibana in surprise.
He clearly felt that Tachibana was different today. Although Tachibana had never been afraid of him, she had never been like this today. She actually showed a hint of...expectation towards Jellal?
Although he didn't know what exactly happened, Tachibana still made Jellal feel dazed at the moment.
It was just like the little girl who asked herself when she would go home many years ago.
"I'll be back." Gerard replied.
…
It was getting darker and darker.
The rain was getting heavier.
Ina looked at the time passing by on the pocket watch and suddenly felt a little dazed.
It was as if she had returned to many years ago when she was waiting for Gerard to return home.
Such restlessness and...uneasiness.
She didn't know how many times she had stuck her head out of the checkpoint and looked towards the other side of the bridge.
But there was still nothing there, only darkness.
"It will take a while."
She murmured, and when she was about to retract her head, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye and her whole body froze.
She saw a figure in a familiar uniform walking towards her from the direction of the contaminated land.
This...how is it possible?
Ina was stunned.
She blinked subconsciously.
The figure disappeared.
But Ina still felt her hair stand on end.
Because she was sure that the figure she had just seen... was Jellal.
But it was…Jellard from ten years ago.
She immediately came out of the checkpoint and looked around.
But there was nothing, only the rain falling.
…
Inside the Tower of Babel.
Yongxin was standing in the lobby, looking at Tianqin in the rainy night and silently calculating the time in his heart.
"Is there any news over there?"
Yongxin asked.
Then a figure appeared in the darkness: "Not yet, Master Yongxin."
"Really?" Yong Xin nodded slightly. "It seems that I was too impatient. You can leave now. Tell me when you have any news."
The figure retreated.
Yongxin continued to stand by the window, looking in the direction of the fifth district.
Logically speaking, tonight is the last time.
The only hidden danger will be eliminated.
Yongxin is very sure of this.
Because he didn't believe that Jellal would leave Ina there alone, for the same reason that the guy in his body had been alive until now and refused to die.
But even so, Yongxin still felt a little uneasy.
Is it too impatient?
As he thought this, he heard footsteps again. It was his subordinate from before: "Lord Yongxin."
"Is there any news over there?"
"No." The subordinate handed over a letter, "The people you sent to Somme have news. This has just been delivered."
Yongxin's pupils narrowed slightly.
He almost forgot about it.
Although it is not important anymore, for some reason, Yongxin felt more and more uneasy when looking at the unopened letter.
So he picked up the letter and waved his hand to let his subordinates leave.
He opened the envelope only after his subordinates left.
After quickly reading it, Yongxin's expression changed from pretending to be calm to being shocked.
"The lost eye... How could it be an eye... So, it was an eye..."
At this moment, he seemed to understand everything.
Then, the footsteps sounded again.
Yongxin sighed heavily, then turned around and looked at the person who came.
"Long time no see."
He said softly.
"Father."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
