Vishukel pushed the sweet potato croquettes aside, hands trembling.
'Oh, I'd love to kill him! I very much. Would love. To kill. This annoying bastard!'
If he didn't scream his heart out, Vishukel would explode.
"Bouvard."
"Yes?"
"Please go outside for ten minutes."
"Why?"
"Just… Please. I beg you."
"Uh-huh… Alright, I will. Oh, because there's no milk!"
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
Crash!
Vishukel destroyed the wooden table and screamed. Bouvard frantically scrambled outside. Even then, he tried to pick up and spare some of the croquettes that fell on the floor.
'Wow, Bouvard Gaston. Considering that he's a human made of chaos, he's definitely a special hunk of meat… Hehe.'
Even Yona had to sigh in disbelief as she watched the series of events from the window.
Vishukel went down to the basement and screamed as if he were in an asylum.
"AAAAAAH! ARGH! PLEASE! DIE!"
As the roars continued to echo in the basement, Yona watched and smiled.
"Phew."
Vishukel returned to the first floor after calming down, then rearranged his hair.
Bouvard reentered with only one croquette left in his hand. He awkwardly glanced at Vishukel before cramming the snack into his mouth.
Chew, chew.
Even watching this pitiful sight, Vishukel didn't react.
"Are you alright?"
"...Let us continue our previous conversation, Bouvard."
The conversation that had been interrupted by Jin's unexpected arrival.
"Oh, yes."
"The leader officially wants to end all alliances with the Zipfel Clan."
Vishukel started with important information.
Yona put her ear closer to the window. Normally, she would keep a distance. Approaching an 8-star knight was hard even for her. Despite this, Vishukel's senses were weakened due to him enhancing his patience beyond the boundaries of human capability just to tolerate Bouvard's bullshit.
"Ahhh, please tell them that was a great decision. The Zipfels are much worse and more evil than Jin Runcandel. Using the Demon God's Orb and breaking it… We should've ended it from the start!"
"...It's not the best situation. In order to execute our big plans, we needed their support. Whenever you craft artifacts, the quality of your ingredients won't be as luxurious."
"Wait! There was that problem! But Sir Vishukel, it's fragmenting, not crafting. They are two completely different disciplines. And they aren't 'artifacts', but 'pieces'. Pieces of art. How many times do I have to explain this?"
"Yeah, fragmen… Piece…"
Vishukel barely contained his contempt and hatred.
"How big is the difference in quality for the ingredients?"
"We will never get any remains of deceased gods. As for the remains of old civilizations, we won't get half of what we used to get."
"Ha?!"
"Instead, according to the deal, we will retrieve all of the pieces that we gave to the Zipfels."
"The Compass!"
Bouvard's eyes glimmered.
"We must retrieve the Compass! With that, we will easily find gods and get more ingredients."
"The Compass will definitely be one of them."
"Honestly, if we just get that back, we can let them have the rest. My best piece after the Demon God's Orb. Compass. Hehehe. My baby, you're coming back to daddy…"
"Bouvard. Even then, you shouldn't be too happy."
"Why?"
"When they first received the Demon God's Orb and Compass, how did they behave?"
"Just like I did. They were about to lick the leader's toes."
"And with the terms of cutting alliances, they are willingly giving it back. Do you really not have a single clue what this means?"
"They're done using it…?"
"No. It means that they are able to make tools like the Compass by themselves."
"No way. There's no way. It's impossible without my talent."
"Their magic is beyond your comprehension. It wouldn't be weird at all if they can replicate it, let alone fix the Orb. On top of that, we will retrieve such items on the first day of June next year, which gives them more time to experiment."
"Uh, why so late? The leader gave them that much time?"
"It's because of the revocation clause. Since we initiated the revocation, I couldn't refuse."
Vishukel bit and lit a cigarette in frustration. Bouvard nodded.
"First of June next year… Uh, would there be any way to shorten that time?"
"The leader said that he will go all out if the Zipfels don't keep the promise this time, so it's basically impossible. As long as the Runcandels stand, they can't fight us."
"That's a relief. First of June next year… Where will the rendezvous point be?"
"The Bellard Empire's southern island, the Land of the Pirates."
"Thankfully, it isn't anywhere with annoying monsters. Please take me too."
"Why?"
"I must be there so that the returning pieces won't get tampered. We can't have any issues afterwards."
Vishukel's eyes widened. He couldn't believe Bouvard could speak sensibly.
"That's… right. I will tell the leader."
"Oh, and Sir Vishukel, did we ever find him? The one that I transformed into a Zipfel magician."
"Mato Baker?"
"Something like that."
"Because of that case, the headquarters are having a hard time…"
Vishukel cut off mid-sentence and stopped moving.
After slowly examining the room, he checked every single window.
'Heh. Man, I got too close.'
Ssss, shuffle, shuffle…
Yona backed off from the window and hid. As she ran across the yard, not a single blade of grass bent or deformed.
'I sensed a faint footstep… Was it just me?'
Vishukel went out to the yard and shuffled through the lawn. The only thing he saw was Jin's footprints.
"What's the matter, Sir Vishukel?"
Bouvard waddled out and shrugged.
"Nothing."
"When I look at you, I think you're such a snowflake. Compared to you, Lady Margiela's optimism makes me happy. How are you siblings so different? Hehehe."
"..."
Vishukel remained still for a second.
"Starting tomorrow, we will move your hideout. Somewhere the Zipfels don't know."
"Ugh! That's annoying!"
Vishukel stared at the spot where Yona had been. He didn't know, however, that she was ever there.
And Yona ran into the forest, giggling.
'I don't know what that chaotic hunk of meat and poor snowflake talked about, but I'm sure Jin would love it!'
* * *
"Whoa… My goodness."
Listening to what Yona heard, Jin had his jaw dropped the entire time. Yona repeatedly grabbed her stomach as she laughed while narrating.
"They're that interesting? That face is hilarious. So you can look stupid like that too."
"This is packed with facts. I can't believe I got all of this in one day—in a few hours. This is more surprising than digging through the Runcandel Clan's archived documents."
"That much? Tell me about it too."
"Hm, so what you told me was—Oh, before that, you can't tell Owal any of this."
"Promise!"
Jin explained his experience with the Kinzelo Group as well as the information brought today. However, Yona couldn't understand any of it. She tilted her head to the side.
In reality, she just thought that her little brother was cute, so she wasn't listening at all.
"...So now you know why I'm so shocked."
"Yeah, sounds super fun."
Either way, it wasn't very important to her. She only remembered that Bouvard was an entity of 'chaos'.
"But Yona, what did you mean when you said Bouvard was like you?"
That seemingly small detail was stuck in his mind. How could that fat pig be similar to his sister?
"Oh that… I can't tell you yet."
"You're gonna play like that between us?"
"You have your secrets too…"
Jin conjured up spiritual energy and showed it to her.
It was his way of saying that there were no more secrets between them.
"Ack!"
Yona scrambled backwards, as if she had seen something she should have never seen.
"Huh?"
[Die!]
Confronted with the spiritual energy, the endless whispers within her became louder.
A voice strong enough to compel her to slice her brother's throat open.
She and Bouvard were born from deeply concentrated chaos. However, Bouvard's chaos wouldn't react similarly in the face of spiritual energy.
"Get rid of it!"
Jin dispersed the smoke on his hand. The voices in Yona's head died down, and she was able to be freed of her impulse to kill Jin. The spiritual energy only lasted for about two to three seconds, but her entire body was covered in sweat. She gasped for each breath.
If she didn't truly love Jin, she wouldn't have been able to hold herself back.
"Yona!"
"From now on, never… never show that thing to me again. Don't ask any further."
"What…?"
Jin deduced a conclusion.
'She definitely backed off to not attack me. The spiritual energy stimulated her.'
A few seconds ago, Yona's widened eyes filled to the brim with fear.
The fear of almost killing her own brother.
Jin suppressed his feelings of horror and shook his head.
"I don't understand, but I apologize. I didn't know."
"If I see spiritual energy, then I lose my consciousness. No need to be sorry, since I never explained it. Heh, I thought you'd hide that secret until you actually became a flag-bearer."
"Why would I?"
"Am I not someone to be trusted that much? Or is it because you might not like me?"
"The former is completely wrong, but the latter sounds like an honest concern. It's true that I wanted to hide that bit. Until we spent time together in the flower fields, that is."
It wasn't the smoothest reply, but he didn't want to lie. If he had his spiritual energy out for a little longer, Yona would have killed him on the spot.
Jin had no intention of making her sad.
"I should be more careful. We'll naturally solve this problem when I get strong enough, so you can't do anything. Don't worry too much."
"Heh. Dream on, kiddo. Now play with me like you promised."
Afterwards, Jin and Yona traveled around the area and hung out.
Not only were Joshua's knights stationed in the area—although they were already dead—but Cyron's knights were also guarding it.
And naturally, news of their little 'playdate' reached Cyron's ears.