Chapter 23 - Back home
...
As Leon was thinking of ways to explain the situation, he suddenly noticed his sister-in-law walking out of one of the tunnels.
At first, he felt instant relief that his sister-in-law was still doing well and wasn't harmed by the freaks roaming around the place.
And that was when he noticed another thing. The way that his sister-in-law was looking at him.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she was glaring daggers at him. Leon couldn't recall having ever seen Malisa being this angry with himself before. Certainly not since he took over the previous Leon's body.
Malisa herself had planned to interrogate Leon to the extent that he would stop keeping secrets from her ever again. in the future.
It also didn't help that she noticed another abnormality. That being Leon apparently newly formed beer belly.
Although Malisa was somewhat puzzled and frustrated by the number of surprises being thrown her way by Leon, she decided that it would be for the best if she continued to control her raging emotions. She silently walked past Leon and went towards the entrance staircase by herself.
Leon was stunned upon being neglected by his sister-in-law like this, but he soon caught her cue and began to follow behind Malisa silently as well.
He was also somewhat relieved that his sister-in-law wasn't angry at him for anything, especially due to his new look.
He had really never been so wrong before though.
...
Once outside, Malisa grabbed Leon's hand and dragged him towards the jungle. They walked silently until they reached the spot where they had left their horse.
The horse was still there, fortunately for the two of them. Malisa helped Leon get up on the horse again before she climbed up on the horse herself behind Leon.
After pulling the reins and instructing the horse to move, the two of them departed from the clearing area and went back straight into the jungle.
Leon was busy trying to hold the child in place, as his body was bouncing up and down a bit along with the horse's movements. The child's body was moving around as well and Leon feared that the child might slip out from within his baggy robes and get lost somewhere in the woods.
The two continued to ride back in silence and that was the way it remained until the two of them left the denser part of the jungle and were about to reach the civilian area again.
Malisa had been trying to hold herself back from questioning Leon till they reached back home. Alas, her patience finally ran thin.
"Leon... would you please tell me what's going on? And don't lie to me this time"
Leon was gloating about having fooled everyone with his superior intellect, however, the truth reared its ugly head as he finally realized that he was in deep deep trouble. Upon hearing his sister-in-law say that, his first instinct was to try and pretend to be an innocent victim, as he replied back to her,
"Me lying to you? What rubbish. I haven't lied to you about anything yet, sister-in-law. And I certainly would never lie to you in the future as well. I mean, what would I gain if I really lied to you?"
Malisa scoffed at Leon's obvious attempt to evade the topic. However, Malisa has had enough of Leon keeping secrets from her and was resolved to get to the truth of the matter.
"Really? Why didn't you tell me that the monster Core was C-ranked then?"
Leon tried to keep a straight face to prevent himself from getting exposed by giving away any facial expressions. Inside though, he was sweating bullets as he tried hard to come up with a viable excuse.
"C-ranked? I didn't know about that at all! I just found it in the backyard of our home after it was dropped by some flying beast. I told you about this before too, right?"
Although Malisa wanted to beat the truth out of the adamant Leon, she herself couldn't understand how Leon got the Monster Core otherwise.
After al, he was too weak to be able to successfully kill a Monster so powerful. He also didn't have any strong connections that could lend or gift him such a precious and rare item. Stealing it was also out of the question as Leon didn't have such capabilities, at least that's what she thought.
However, she just couldn't help but feel suspicious about the whole matter as her instincts told her that there was another story to this whole thing.
'It seems like I haven't been around the house lately. So much that I have begun to be out-of-touch with even my family members.'
'It's too late for regrets now. Leon, don't worry. This sister-in-law of yours would make sure that I find out every mystery regarding you and this matter. If I catch you red-handed next time, I swear to show you what a C-ranked Mage's wrath feels like.'
'And if.. I fail to get the truth out of your mouth, then.. I would become your servant instead! I swear on my dignity to find the truth!'
Malisa made a promise to herself to find out the truth about the mystery. She, however, ended up making a rash pledge, since she was almost doomed to fail.
Getting to unveil the truth about the system and cultivation was much beyond the capabilities of the humans of this world, who had been hard-wired to understand only Mana and Magic.
Malisa shook her head in defeat as she tried to focus back on the route instead and spoke to him,
"We would talk about it later then. What do you have to say about the thing inside your robes? I don't believe that some best dropped a fat belly on your stomach too. Tell me honestly now... did you really steal something from that place?"
Leon couldn't help but feel a little bit hurt upon being called out to be a thief so suddenly. Even if he was a full-blown thief in his previous lifetime, he had yet to have a good robbing session. Being looked down upon like this, especially after doing a selfless act made Leon feel very wronged.
"Sister-in-law, you really think too highly of me, don't you? Well, don't worry about it. I didn't steal any item from that auction place at all!"
Malisa wasn't stupid enough to fall for such a big fat lie as the evidence was being hugged closely by Leon in front of her eyes. Also, she noticed something odd about Leon's words just then. Her eyes flew open as she glared at Leon's back and questioned him,
"Y-You stole something else?! Tell me, what is it? If you don't tell me honestly then expect no mercy from this sister-in-law of yours!"
Leon couldn't help but panic a bit as he realized that he may have teased the lady a bit too much. He absolutely didn't want his relationship with Malisa to become spoiled due to a huge misunderstanding. He made up his mind to come clean in front of Malisa as he quickly replied back to her,
"I didn't really steal anything at all! It's just that.. a woman pushed a child onto me. She was being pursued by lots of armored guards. Apparently, the child was sold to some freaky rich dude and the woman desperately asked me to save the child. I really didn't do anything wrong this time, you see?"
Malisa tried to digest everything that Leon spoke o her, as her eyes turned to focus on the protrusion near his belly.
"A child.. is it? Hah... I am afraid that I cannot make a call on this matter by myself. Let's go home for now. We would later talk about it with my mother-in-law. Surely she would be able to deal with this situation more appropriately than the two of us."
Leon didn't know what else to say, so he only nodded to her suggestion. The two of them rode away from the desolate wilderness and soon approached the City Centre.
...
Leon shifted nervously in his place as he tried to hope for the best.
Across from him, his Mother was studying the black choker around the child's neck, while his Aunt stood right next to him.
His sister-in-law had retired for the night and had gone over to her room to sleep. Meanwhile, both of his cousins were already asleep too, leaving only his Aunt, his Mother, Leon, and the child present in the room.
They were currently in his Aunt's room since this was one of the comfiest rooms out of them all. His mother's room was filled with books and ingredients, while his cousins' room was not big enough to house three girls at once. His sister-in-law was kind of a loner and preferred to be alone more than in others' company. That left only Leon's own room and his Aunt's room to lay the child in.
Since his own room was very gloomy and dark as compared to the others, Malisa chose to let the child rest there before she herself went back to sleep.
The child herself was still unconscious and was sleeping in a very deep sleep. At the same time, Leon's mother was trying to get an idea about the child's current health situation.
"Well... there are some minor scratches here and there on her body, but nothing serious to be worried about. Although, there are some obvious signs of physical abuse on her body. In comparison, these seem to be much older than these scratch wounds. You said that she was handed over to you by some strange woman?"
Leon quickly nodded his head and tried to display his best behavior in front of his mother.
"Yes, Mother. There were weird people hanging around that place and I... just couldn't find it within myself to abandon the child by herself there."
...
A/N: Be safe out there everyone.