Chapter 170: A holiday to remember (four)

"Tch! Get outta here!"

The moment we went in, the old man was already intent on kicking us out. 

He wasn't working and he wasn't in the best of moods either. He was just sitting on a stool in front of a large table, drinking beer. It wasn't illegal to drink during work hours, but I never thought I'd see him do that. I kind of took him to be the workaholic type, not the alcoholic one. 

Yeah, this was my fault. 

"I'm sorry about what happened with your kid. I thought you guys knew. But- I'm terribly sorry and it's my fault." I tried to be honest and sincere. But at the same time, I wasn't making sense and I knew that. 

All this time, he didn't actually look at me, but now he did. "That kid's like his mother, switching all the time. Ya should have known." He looked down again. "I know it wasn't your fault," He mumbled. "But ya should have known." He drank the whole can and crushed it. "They just weren't made to be loyal."

Yup, he was in a bad mood. 

He was right, I should have researched about him before making a decision. But- "They said they were in love and-" And though they used me, at the end of the day, it was my decision. My fault. After all, I knew how hard it was to love someone and be denied. 

"We were in love too." He gave me a rude stare. "But now look at us. Kid, love never lasts. Once you fall in love it's the best feeling but when one of you gets selfish and the relationship gets destroyed, that's when hell begins and then you find a new one, and then the cycle just repeats." He snorted. "You'll understand soon enough." He gave a stare at the girl next to me and chuckled at his own fate. 

I didn't know if he was right or wrong but I didn't have time to worry about that. And-

"I won't say you're right, and I won't say you're wrong either. After all, it's different for everyone. But- I believe my love isn't that flimsy," Marg said, a hand on her chest. 

Well said. 

The man snorted. "Such pretty words. In two years, ten years, thirty years, let's hear you say it again."

'Well, that's assuming you'll live thirty more years.'

This dude already had white hair all over his face. He was at least in the late fifties. I had a hard time believing he'd live for thirty more years, at least with his level of stress.

"Yes, we indeed shall see." Marg grinned victoriously. She clearly stated that even if I cheated, she would only kill the girls, but not me. Which meant, she wasn't going to let go of me, no sir!

And now she was being formal? Was it me or did these two bonded over something like this?

Sigh. But I was glad to know my future wife only had eyes for me and me alone.

The old man also smiled faintly. "Anyway, why are you here? Just givin' me a faulty core and making two lives miserable wasn't enough?" He now stared at me rather intently. 

"First of all, I gave you a good core. Second, only one life's miserable as your son already found a new lover and third, you gave me a faulty saber!"

"What was that!"

He stood up. His face was red and he was shaking. This dude was already drunk, huh?

"Look!" I turned on the saber and it still flickered. 

"Give me!"

He walked fast my way and snatched the thing from my hand. "The hell is this?" He scratched his chin. If this guy didn't know, who the hell would have?

He took out the core and not only was the core bigger but it was also flickering too. Wait, since when did this thing even glowed? 

"Is that supposed to be glowing?" Marg said.

The guy scratched his head and laid everything on the table. He went back to the corner and brought out a small box. Inside the box, was the third fragment, and it was both small and paler in color. 

It was almost as though the guy sobered up just seeing the saber. 

The moment he brought the fragment near the core, the smaller one got sucked into the glowing one and the intensity of the flickering slowed. But it didn't stop. 

I had a feeling this meant bad.

"You said there were three fragments, right?" The guy asked. 

"Uh-huh. The rest were destroyed."

"You better get the third one, son, or maybe something of equal or greater strength. Until this thing gathers everything, it won't be good."

Well, that was impossible. The other one was with Clyde and according to him he already made medicine out of it. 

Actually, I had a thought once that the geezer and Clyde might have ended up with a dragon-snake girl for themselves too.

I guess that was a no. 

"Though, since it's absorbing the shards remotely, this should be ready for use in a month even if you don't do anything." The guy sure took his time giggling. 

Remotely? So, all the evaporated shards too? Wait, wait, did he just say- a month? 

Sweat formed and suddenly my body got a bit hot. This place wasn't hot since the furnace wasn't going, but now, now it really was hot!

The realization hit hard.

"A M-MONTH! I have a match tomorrow and then there's the thing with the Battlesuins!"

Wait, didn't the headmaster say something about my opponent having a dragon core? 'Do I really have to resort to that?'

Or I could have gone to Antarctica, I guess. But seriously, a month?

"Not my problem." The guy grinned. "And now you owe me five gold." His grin grew wider. "Pay up." His attitude took a sharp u-turn. 

Fuck. 

I cleared my throat. "Well, let's wait till the tournament ends maybe after-"

If I actually won the whole thing won't I just get 100 gold? It wasn't enough. 

"Screw you kid. Your old man used to say the same stuff but he never paid me."

"He was my grandfather you moron," I cursed under my breath.

"I heard that moron." He mumbled and sighed. "So, how're you taking responsibility? As you said, my brat's gotta new lover. But what about the girl?" He threw my saber at me. 

I actually didn't know. What could I do at this point? "I-"

Marg sighed. "We're going to the top floor now. Would you like to come join us?"

"Fine." The guy did grumble but he wanted to come too. 

***

I didn't know why but walking up these stairs felt nerve-wracking. According to the guy in glasses, the girl up there wasn't in the best of shapes.

Knock! Knock!

"Who is it?"

A voice came through the intercom of the door. 

I pressed a button. "HELIO Romswell Jintel"

"You?" The voice paused. "Enter."

The guy below already told me something. It kind of shook me. The grandparents who made that escape possible that day, both passed away. They had some incurable disease and they wanted to see their grandkid happy before they died but unfortunately, maybe it would have been better if I just didn't happen to do what I did. After all, their grandkid was anything but happy now. And when the grandparents learned it, they passed away from the shock. Seemed a bit farfetched to me and I had this suspicion that someone killed them. 

Of course, I didn't have any proof. 

But that wasn't all that guy told me. 

Once the door opened, my nose was clogged with two kinds of smell. 

One, the smell of rotten sweat, and two, the smell of ammonia. 

The boss bunny was seated on her chair while her daughter was hanging from the ceiling with a rope tied to her hands, chest, and waist. She was still conscious, barely. 

She wasn't beaten but by the looks, but she wasn't fed either. 

Though she had underwear, they were soiled. And there was a round cork of sorts in her mouth. She didn't have anything else on. 

Just what sort of torture was this? Was this boss woman, a hardcore sadist or something? And wasn't she bothered by the smell?

The old man grimaced while Marg covered her mouth: both were fighting their urge to throw up. Meanwhile, I just tried my best to control my rage. 

'Remember this was your fault.' And yeah, the shadow really had the worst timings when it came to his words of wisdom. 

I was pissed was an understatement. And that remark just made me even more pissed. 

"Are you really her mother? What sort of mother does this to their kids?" I asked, clearly glaring. 

"Even my stepmothers weren't this horrible," Marg mumbled, a bit pale. 

"Wait, they didn't do anything like this to you, right?" I turned to her, everything else was a second priority. 

She didn't answer me. Yeah, I needed a talk with her stepmoms. 

Anyway, I glared at the boss bunny. "Well, say something."

She was awfully quiet for some reason, carefully calculating us. 

She sighed. "I have a company to run. And I can't afford screw-ups like this. She was supposed to be married to the son of a certain business tycoon. It would have benefitted all of us. And then, you showed up." She glared, her tone changed a bit. "Do you have any idea how much damage you've caused? And now with mom and dad gone, I have to deal with this thing."

Her daughter was a thing to her? I really wanted to throw up at her face but I still had to control my rage.