Chapter 253 – The Road to the Present.
After the old man sat them down and went into the kitchen to cook, a heavy silence fell over the table. As if the silence was frustrating, Thaddaeo gulped down the water that came out with the soup and put it away.
“So why was the guy downstairs doing what he hadn’t been in touch with? He probably didn’t come back because he missed his hometown.”
“Well, there are so many things I want to say, but I’m not sure where to start.”
Krikaliev muttered bitterly, touching his chin. Then he exhaled his breath as if to calm himself down.
“Whoa, since when has he been here?”
“Not long ago. Two days at most.”
“Two days, two days. Couldn’t you contact us even between those two days?”
“Did I contact you with something to say?”
Even so, Thaddaeo’s voice trembled because he couldn’t hide his excitement.
“Isga, who lived next door, has a daughter.”
“I see.”
Usher, who was watching at the momentum that was about to explode at any moment, was on the verge of trembling, but Krikaliev just calmly watched him and answered.
“Even Deborah, whom I raised on my back, has already become a full-fledged adult.”
“I did.”
His hands were stained pure white from the blood from how much he exerted them.
“Alley Captain Lucas stopped fighting recklessly.”
“It’s fine.”
“Ha, that’s right. That’s good.”
Thaddaeo covered his face with his hand and laughed. It was to the extent that anyone could tell that it was because he was not angry or stupid.
“Okay, after all, they’re all strangers, right? Leaving all of them aside. Couldn’t you at least get in touch with your father?”
“Well, somehow it happened.”
Did his words offend you? Thaddaeo lowered his hand holding my face, revealing a distorted expression.
“What do you mean?! It’s not 5 years, it’s not 10 years, it’s almost 20 years! But what? What happened?!”
The momentum was so ferocious that it was threatening.
“I, we thought you were dead! All the idiots up there were like that! We thought you were too!”
How much was it piled up? The sharpened lumps she had been carrying over the years spilled out in all directions.
“But he was still alive?! Then why didn’t you contact anyone for such a long time? Was it difficult to even send that simple letter? Why the hell?!”
As Usher panicked, the old man came up to the table with the food they ordered and yelled at him.
“Ttsk! Quiet tongue! Is your leisure time in the main room?!”
“But the old man! No matter how much this guy…!”
“He’s good enough. He’s the guy who didn’t know if he was alive or dead. If he’d seen his face for 5 or 10 years, he’d stop.”
Then the old man put a tray in front of them. On it were skewers of about ten small lizards grilled and threaded one by one on small skewers, along with a white goblet and two glasses.
“And it’s a child who carelessly raises his voice while keeping Agge by his side.”
Thaddeo looked at Erica next to him as if he realized what he had forgotten about the old man’s words. She originally intended to sit with Usher, but her seat was tight, so she was forced to sit across from him. As if she was bored, she slipped a bowl of soup on top of a small puddle that had fallen on the table.
“If that’s the case, let them talk to this old man.”
Seeing the old man beckoning to him and Erica, he nodded as he looked at Krikaliev.
“I’d rather do that. It’s probably going to be a long story.”
“Ah, me too!”
As Usher got up and approached the old man, Erica got up as if she had been waiting, and she moved to his side.
“Draw it, Tadaeo. I know you’re sad, but didn’t you eat as much as you would like to age?”
The old man looked at Usher and Erica after they had last spoken.
“Come on, follow me. If you’re in the middle of talking with adults, you’re just eating your eyes.”
Following the old man, he sat them down not far away. The small wooden table facing the kitchen was narrow and uncomfortable, but it felt cozy somewhere. Thanks to that, the old man held out two glasses of yellowish drinks in front of them as they looked at the kitchen from the front in a curious way.
“I had a hard time noticing those guys. What, do you know what you want to eat?”
At the old man’s words, Usher looked at the menu board, but he couldn’t get a feel for it because it was full of things he hadn’t seen before. It’s all the more because it’s similar to the letters he knew, but slightly different. Then he remembered the food the old man had brought to Krikaliev and Thaddaeo.
“T-isn’t there anything similar to food made only of vegetables and what men eat?”
“Hmm? There’s no problem with vegetables, but that was the last thing they ate.”
It was when the old man was drooling as if in trouble, so he had no choice but to ask for something else to be made.
“If that’s the case, wait a minute~”
Erica said that out of nowhere and got down from her chair. As Usher and the old man watched with blinking eyes, she approached Thaddaeo as it was.
“Yap!”
“Eh, Erika? Why is that…”
“Hee hee, but Usher wants to eat?”
With those words, he grabbed the lizard skewer he was about to pick up. The girl plundered the lizard skewer with a bright face, not paying attention to Thaddaeo’s embarrassing words.
“Here it is!”
“Uh, but isn’t this from that guy?”
Usher glanced at Thaddaeo, who was looking this way with a sad face, and asked, but Erica smiled brightly.
“Aha ♪ At least one would be fine, right?”
“Cheolkeol! Then it’s okay. The lady wants to eat it. What will that guy do?”
Even the old man laughed and defended the girl, so he gave up with a sigh. She felt sorry for him, but it was also true that she was curious about what lizard tasted like, so she tried to grab the skewer she held out.
“Eight.”
“…”
“Yes!”
“…Why is that?”
Whenever that happens, Usher has no choice but to ask Erica, who avoids her by pulling out her hand.
“Oh~”
I didn’t know what to say at the sight of the girl making her noise and opening her mouth. Erica doesn’t know why she is so obsessed with feeding herself. Still, she managed to get used to it for two days, so she asked for the lizard skewer she held out.
“Ugh, something is strange.”
It tasted really strange. The skin, which should have been leather, was tough and crispy, and the little lean meat was even tougher and tougher. At first glance, it seemed that there was even a burnt smell, and Usher was making an expression that was hard to say. The old man said as if he knew it.
“Crunchy, that’s the real taste. Now I can’t eat it because my teeth are bad, but I ate it often in the past.”
“Is this delicious?”
“It’s called flavor. Flavor.”
It was so tough that he couldn’t even chew it. But that wasn’t the end. Erica was holding out a skewer with half of it still left to him.
“Aha ♪”
Usher looks at her and shakes her head, but her girlish smile grows rather thick.
“You have to eat what you’ve already eaten until the end♪”
“Ugh.”
He had no choice but to eat the rest. The old man, who was watching the scene, smiled happily and opened his mouth.
“The girls get along really well.”
“…I’m a man.”
“Eh?”
Usher opened her eyes wide and sighed at the sight of him stunned.
“Yeah, yeah, you have to be more angry. I’m the only one who’s pathetic.”
Having taken away the lizard skewer I was holding from Erica, Thaddaeo sighed and asked, holding up a new skewer. He looked at Krikaliev, feeling that his anger had subsided as he chewed on the tough, toasted skin of the lizard. Yes, in fact he knew. He couldn’t believe it, and he covered his eyes for a moment in anger, but the reality in front of him didn’t disappear.
“So what happened to that body?”
He knew from the first time he saw that his old friend’s body was not normal. If you had learned even a little bit about the technique here, you couldn’t have known that the iron mass that covered his body wasn’t anything like armor. The hard but fibrous black body visible between the joints, and even the places where iron armor was added to hide awkward parts. However, what was more decisive than anything else was the one-eyed yellow eye that could not be seen as a human eye, which, although covered by a mask, emitted light by itself.
It was a different color and I couldn’t figure out the detailed design, but it looked like golems guarding a corner for a long time.
“No, are you really the Yakaf I used to know?”
“I didn’t know either.”
The answer to his question was really the worst. He soon saw the lizard skewers on the table. It has always been my go-to food when I come here.
“Can you eat this with a body like that?”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Get your hands off the skewers, man. Where are you going to eat them all?”
“Tsk! At times like this, make some concessions. The guy I haven’t contacted for over 10 years.”
“What does this have to do with that? Because I can’t believe it. Let’s share my share.”
As Krikaliev picked up the five and dragged them in front of him, Thaddeo grabbed his wrist.
“Hey, why do you have 5?”
“The one you took was the little girl you cared for. Then you took yours.”
“What? This bastard? The one who ate the skewers was the kid you brought?!”
“But you took what you were trying to pick up?!”
“Don’t force yourself!”
That’s how they were arguing. A white hand that had intervened between them suddenly grabbed a lizard skewer from the plate and pulled it out. When they turned their heads, Erika, a girl with golden hair like the starlight on a background as black as the night sky, was smiling.
“Aha ♪ Is this fair?”
“”…””
Then, as he bounced off and brought it to Usher, they quietly sat down.
“Hey, stop doing this…!”
“Come on, ah~”
Usher was in trouble, so he had no choice but to listen to the sound of eating and pour them a glass at a time.
“The girl you sponsor? You said you would help the kids downstairs like that?”
“Uh, well, that’s right.”
“Then why didn’t you bring them upstairs as they do now?”
“…I’ve tried it already. I’ve been rejected every time.”
Thaddeo looked at Usher, who was eating a lizard skewer from Erica, with a complicated face, then relaxed her expression when he noticed that Krikaliev was watching.
“Then why did you come here now?
“That’s right. Well, nothing else. Just because that little girl sold you something I’ve been thinking about.”
“Ah, that was the name… Do you want all of that back?”
“You don’t need all of them. You just need one.”
Thaddeo’s face hardened even more at his words that followed.
“Independent power generator. What is it?”
He washed his face dry with both hands. After all, Tadao was one of the people who knew best why the self-supporting power generator was created.
“Are you really crazy?”
He knew what it was for, so he couldn’t help but say it all the more.
“You’re going up again? Even if it’s like that? Again?”
It was created by Krikaliev while looking for a way to rise.
