Chapter 24: The Neighbor

Chapter 24: The Neighbor

Angelica and I walked quite the distance.

We didn’t really converse, and we didn’t even look at each other.

Unlike lovers nor parent and child. Just like strangers.

Keisuke: “Disappointed?”

Angelica lost her cheerfulness since earlier.

Perhaps after I threatened Gondou, the ideal image of a father or even the image of the hero in her heart has been broken.

But that’s fine.

I wanted her to misjudge me.

Keisuke: “Heroes do these sort of things too. If the demons we face are capable of speech, threatening them once won’t cut it. Someone like me isn’t a hero at all, Ange. You’ve probably heard the saying that the enemy of justice is another side of justice, right? Same thing; the enemy of evil is another side of evil. I just happen to be a bad guy that’s on the side of humanity. I’m just that kind of person.”

Angelica: “What did you do with Rio-san?”

Keisuke: “So you should quickly find another proper man and fall for him.”

Angelica: “Did you lay your hands on Rio-san? That crude person from earlier said something about that, didn’t he?”

Look, I was going on some self-loathing talk trying to look cool you know.

And instead you caught on that?

Angelica: “Hey. Show me that shining board you showed to Gondo-san. It’s called a smartphone or something, isn’t it?”

Keisuke: “Eh?”

Angelica: “I mean I’m curious as well. The moment he saw it, Gondo-san was really excited about it. You showed him something that has to do with Rio-san, didn’t you?”

I feel my mouth drying up.

My tongue is getting sticky and my throat is getting sore.

Angelica: “You can see someone far away with that smartphone thing just like what the TV told me, right? I got curious about what sort of figure Rio-san has.”

She shouldn’t have known how a smartphone works, but this condition…

I became afraid that if she gets more knowledge about modern society, I will eventually be unable to keep any secrets to her.

Angelica: “By the way dad, since yesterday you’ve been bringing your smartphone with you to the toilet so that I won’t be able to see it, right? Are you perhaps doing an exchange that you can’t show anyone? …I hope it’s just my imagination……hey. What’s in that smartphone?”

She’s sharp. Too sharp.

But thinking about it the other way around, this might be a good chance to make her hate me.

Show her Rio’s selfies, say that I already have her and get her to give up.

It’s such an underhanded method, but it should show great results.

I didn’t want to do this because I would hurt her maiden heart.

If she ended up getting so hurt she chose to not want to involve herself in a romantic affairs, that’ll be bad.

Above all, according to the system message I saw last night, I think this method would backfire.

See? Even now.

Angelica: “Be prepared when we get home. I’ll make sure dad understands whose papa you’re supposed to be.”

Angelica bit her lower lip, slightly upset.

And even if you say I’ll make sure you understand, what are you going to do exactly?

A system message appeared on my field of vision.

【Party Member, Sacred Maiden Angelica‘s Desire to Monopolizehas risen to 900】

【Angelica‘s sexual arousalhas reached 70%】

【Requirements for consensual sexual actions met. Do you proceed?】

【If proceeded, there is a constant probability of conceiving】

【The child conceived would gain combined status pattern of both parents; some skills would be inherited, and equipment and item sharing is possible】

【Assignment of child’s class is also possible】

Regrettably, it seems like Angelica is the type of person that gets more fired up the more she’s consumed by jealousy.

If I show her another female figure, it would definitely backfire.

While I fell into confusion, I gave out some excuses to Angelica.

Actually the smartphone had a brainwashing function and I was using it to persuade Gondou.

If a human with no resistance peeks into the smartphone, their eyeballs would explode, so I can’t show you.

You’re a lot cuter than Rio so I didn’t feel worried (???) and lash out.

I started to make less and less sense with every words coming out of my mouth, and to that, Angelica let out a laugh.

Angelica: “It’s fine already. I don’t know what that passport thing you were talking about, but it had the nuance that it’s something that I would need. To prepare that you have no other choice but to use that Rio-san, right?”

She grinned.

Is she actually not mad from the beginning? I thought.

Keisuke: “You’re playing with me aren’t you?”

Angelica: “E~h? I was really upset up till somewhere in the middle, so I wasn’t playing around.”

Keisuke: “You were, weren’t you?”

Angelica moved closer swiftly as if sliding over and linked her arms with mine.

Angelica: “Well then how about you get your revenge on me?”

Keisuke: “How?”

Angelica: “Because I toyed with you, you can toy with me…tonight.”

Take care of your body a bit more, will you? I poked at her.

Don’t you know it’s not good being an old man’s offering?

Your body is yours.

You don’t really act like a Sacred Maiden, do you.

…Angelica’s body belongs to Angelica…

Just for a moment, that phrase flashed in my head and turned into fireworks in my brain.

The invisible fuse ignites and caused a brain blast.

The torrent of heat that seeks answers circulated in my synapses.

Keisuke: “…Ah?”

So…that’s it?

I stopped my feet and think.

I grasped that moment of insight and turned it into a clear speculation.

—A female ghost dressed in white.

An out-of-season ghost story witnessed around the apartment a week before Angelica came to this world.

That and Gondou who was suddenly out of it for the in the second day after he goes in and out of Rio’s house at roughly the same time.

The neighbor that showed no responses no matter how loud we were. Ayako-chan who insisted that Angelica had visited before.

Angelica who had a nice smell from the beginning.

The countless threads of events are tangled in my brain, and it weaved a single answer.

Keisuke: “Ange, I’m sorry but I will be doing something awful to you.”

Angelica: “…that’s alright.”

Angelica let out a feverish sigh and looked at me with eyes full of expectations.

She s misunderstanding my intentions completely, but I would need every second I can have.

I carried Angelica and cast a concealment magic and fly towards my house.

I stepped on the roof of the houses on the way and jumped over overhead railways to get the shortest distance to the house.

My apartment with the familiar black roof and the sooty white walls is getting closer. The room where me and Angelica lives.

The place we would return to is just over there.

Keisuke: “No matter what happens, please bear with it.”

Angelica: “……I am prepared.”

Keisuke: “Don’t cry, okay? If your mind breaks first, then you lose.”

Angelica: “B-Bring it on!”

I put down Angelica, whose face is red as a boiled octopus.

If I don’t choose how I put her down, I’ll have arrived in no time.

We’re home.

We returned to our apartment.

The sun had begun to go down.

The evening glow stretches our shadows all the way to the building.

My shadow is on my room. Angelica’s shadow is on the next room.

It’s almost metaphorical.

Keisuke: “Come.”

I grabbed Ange’s wrist and quickly climbed the stairs.

Just like this morning, we saw a door with countless newspapers jammed into it.

The unspoken neighbor’s mail slot.

We’re finally here. The answer has been this close to us.

I stopped walking and Ange said “daddy, you’re too forceful” while she was blushing up to her ears.

Keisuke: “Alright, I’m going in.”

Angelica: “Please……!”

After that, I…

entered the room and headed straight to the veranda.

Angelica: “Dad? Where are you going? Eh, it’s going to be bad if you open the windows you know!? Are you planning to show us off!?”

It’s a usual thing for cramped apartments where the veranda of the next room is very close. I can easily vault over there.

Angelica followed suit in total confusion saying “That’s not our room!”, bewildered.

Keisuke: “No, come here. There’s someone we have to see.”

They might have already been dead though.

I put my hand on the window and it slides open easily.

As I thought, it wasn’t locked.

Creeping in, my feet pushed aside the pile of garbage bags aside.

Apartments are rather strange.

Even if someone lives in a space with an exactly similar layout with yours, the inhabitant’s lifestyle can render its impression completely different.

This is where my neighbor lives.

This place is filled with rotten odors and a strange hint of death.

The futon sprawled on the floor is stained yellow and full of food spills.

This is the embodiment of poverty and lack of hygiene.

On top of a small table was a white vinyl bag. Its contents are pills. Perhaps the owner had a chronic disease?

The neighbor is dead, covered with a lot of articles of what used to be his belongings.

He is a white-haired male, and he had withered away like a tree.

The coldness of mid-winter weather had managed to delay the decomposition of his body.

But the pungent stench had been filling the room. It’s about time it reached its limits and leak out.

I came closer to the corpse and quickly scanned it.

There are no bleeding nor any sign of external trauma.

It’s either a sudden cardiac death or death from illness. A lonely death.

No matter what words I use to describe the situation, every single one of them are forlorn.

Angelica: “This is the neighbor’s room, isn’t it? Is it okay to just barge in?”

Angelica was late because she was gingerly taking her steps and came over.

As I expected, for girls of age like Angelica, this sort of mess would be unbearable.

Carefully picking the place she could put her foot on, she very slowly proceeded.

Angelica: “Is this a corpse!? EEH—!?”

Angelica’s facial expression stiffen as she stands next to me.

Angelica: “Is this a normal occurrence in this world?”

Keisuke: “It’s not, but there are a lot of cases like these recently.”

Angelica asked while her eyes looked scared.

Angelica: “Are you going to bury him? Or are you going to call someone?”

That’s for later.

Besides, the police or something will take care of it later.

Though I’m not sure how far do Gondou’s boys can work.

As I finished checking the corpse, I turned my eyes to the corner of the room.

Considering the age of the resident, it’s unnatural for that thing to be stacked in front of the TV stand.

Keisuke: “There it is, as I thought.”