Chapter 142 - Acceptance
"Lastly, leave the civilians alone and get out of here. Don't worry about your other squadron leader buddies, I only killed one of them, the rest are still alive and they're headed back to your hideout or whatever you call the place you meet with each other," said Yuki as he arrogantly shooed Mr. Y and the other 2 numbers.
Hearing Yuki's words, both VII(7) as well as VIII(8) raised their guns at Yuki once again. However, they were stopped by Mr. Y who raised both his hands to lower their guns.
"There's no point in negotiating with him. We've lost. Let's just leave now. Call back all of your henchmen," Mr. Y told the two squadron leaders. While they wanted to ask why he had given up on recruiting Yuki, they knew that it would be in their best interest since he didn't like being questioned. To add on to that, there was a high likelihood that he would just tell them when he felt like it.
Once they both gathered their henchmen together, they began to head back using the caravans. As for VII(7), VIII(8) and Mr. Y, they each rode on separate horseback as they led the caravans back to the hideout.
"You're probably wondering why I didn't bother arguing with him," said Mr. Y. Just as the two thought, he was going to tell them his reasoning anyway.
"The reason I didn't bother with the hassle was because he never planned to join us. He must've realized that while we might not be able to offer them a lot of silver right now but that's only because we're just starting and we would eventually have enough silver that a person couldn't spend no matter how hard they tried. For someone who's of his caliber should understand at least that. For him to reject my offer that quickly, he just wanted a reaction out of us. He's not some ordinary kid, he's really a monster that's only after killing and tormenting others just for entertaining himself," Mr. Y explained as they journeyed back to their hideout.
As for Yuki, once the people who were kidnapping the civilians of the kingdoms left, he realized that he still had the condensed "Heaven's Sun" in his pocket. He had forgotten about it after his encounter with IV(4) since he had placed it in the pocket of his sweatpants due to him not needing it. Since Yuki was able to change the temperature of his flames, the condensed ball didn't cause any damage to Yuki's pants. However even if it had somehow managed to burn through the fabric, it wouldn't have harmed Yuki since it was part of his own ability.
"What should get rid of this but how? Wait... I've got the perfect idea," said Yuki as he began to increase the temperature of the condensed ball. Once it was ready, Yuki threw the ball in the air and allowed it to burst into fireworks. However, Yuki's fireworks weren't ordinary fireworks. The one he had made was engraved with a message. Due to the sky getting darker after the long day, the message was clear to the naked eye.
"Yuki saved you. Cry about it!" although a rude message, it got his message across so he didn't care. After getting his message across, Yuki used his ability to fly on top of the thick kingdom walls as he looked down at all the people who were either just glad to be alive or complaining about how they were saved by their enemy.
Yuki, exhausted after a long day of travelling, fell over and laid down on the top of the kingdom walls. All he could think about was the new family he had made in the new kingdom. He never thought he would get so attached to them that quickly.
"Why do I keep thinking about them? I'm just using them to relax for a bit, I don't actually care about them... right?" Yuki asked himself. Although he was conflicted, deep down, he knew why he missed them so much. The majority of his life, he didn't have anyone who treated him as well as Marcell and Elpis. It wasn't his fault either, it was just pure luck. No one chooses to which family they are born into. Yuki just happens to be one of the unlucky ones who had a deadbeat father and an abusive mother.
"I can't stop ignoring it any longer. It shouldn't be wrong for me to feel emotions. I never had the chance to experience something like this, I'll just have to treasure the time I have with them forever," Yuki told himself.
"Zero. Teleport me back to the front door of Elpis and Marcell's house," Yuki called out.
"At once," Zero replied before granting Yuki's request then going silent.
"Here we go. I hope I'm not bothering them," Yuki said before lightly knocking at the door.
"Who could it be at this hour? I'll get the door," Elpis said as he walked to open the door.
Once she opened the door, Elpis froze where she stood as if she saw a ghost. It had been a long day for her and seeing Yuki was a nice surprise for her.
"Hello?" Yuki said as he lightly waved his hand as a greeting.
Right as Yuki did that, Elpis was brought back into reality as he quickly embraced Yuki. She had held on to him so hard that it became hard for him to breath as if she was suffocating him. However, Yuki didn't stop her. For the first time in a while, Yuki was glad to see someone. Yuki laid his arms down as he allowed himself to be suffocated, although he made a slight change. Instead of being on just the receiving end, Yuki decided to hold Elpis as well as he was glad to be back home.
Once he entered the house, he received the same treatment from Marcell. Just like the previous times however, their daughter was stone cold towards him. After greetings had taken place, Yuki joined his family for dinner as they began to catch up with him. Although he had only left for about a day, it had felt like an eternity to all of them.