Advent of the Three Calamities - Chapter 687: It's been a while [7]

Chapter 687: It’s been a while [7]

“….”

“….”

Amid the general noise of merchants and bargaining customers, a distinct silence hung over one particular stall.

“….”

“….”

As if everyone was possessed, they all wore the same stoic faces, gazes directed towards a certain individual whose face looked even more deadpan.

Right now…

Leon was dying inside.

His stomach was twisting, and he was just one moment away from puking. However, he held the disgust in as he looked towards his target. With his back turned towards him, Leon wasn’t able to see his face.

But that didn’t matter to him.

If it were the same guy that he knew, then it wouldn’t matter.

But…

Nothing.

He remained focused on the task at hand. Did he assume wrongly…? Question marks appeared on Leon’s head.

“What… the fuck was that?”

The silence surrounding them was finally broken by a sharp voice, drawing every eye to the speaker, who fixed Leon with a look that radiated pure disgust.

Just as she was about to follow up with her words, a voice chimed in.

“Wait, wait… Did ‘boring Kiera’ just swear? Am I hearing things?”

“…She did.”

Several nods followed after, everyone looking at Kiera with both surprise and relief.

Seeing Kiera not swear felt odd to them. This felt a lot better to them.

The frown on Kiera’s face deepened when she heard their words, and just as she opened her mouth, she closed it as her fists clenched tightly.

Aoife quickly moved next to Evelyn as she mumbled, ‘She’s going to slap me, isn’t she? I can feel it. She’s really about to slap me.’

‘She is. She is.’

Evelyn nodded by the side, adding fuel to the fire. The two were clearly teasing Kiera, and they were doing a very good job at it, as Kiera was starting to lose control of herself.

However, taking several deep breaths, she managed to calm herself down as she lowered her fist and closed her eyes.

‘Calm. I need to remain calm.’

She had been doing such a good job as of late to be more mature and not get triggered easily.

“Tsk.”

“…Tsk.”

Her brow twitched when she heard the sound of tongues clicking; however, she remained firm and resolute.

Staring at the sight, Leon felt that this scene was a lot more in line with how things used to be in the past. For some reason, it made him feel a little more relaxed as he turned his attention back towards the merchant.

His doubts only rose when he saw him blow on another bone.

“Err… customer?”

Getting called again, Leon turned towards the woman merchant as she forced a smile.

“…Did… you find anything that you wish to buy?”

“Feel free to tell us if you found anything.”

An’as forced a smile as he stood next to her. He had been somewhat taken aback by the joke, but it was just a joke. It was weird, but nothing bad.

‘He might not be right in the head, but so long as he pays, it doesn’t matter.’

The joke was quite frankly terrible, too.

He couldn’t think of one person who would even find that remotely funny.

“Oh, yes.”

Looking at the merchants with an apologetic look, Leon shifted his attention towards the manual in front of him as he scrolled through it before picking a random Terror-Ranked bone. Honestly, he wasn’t even paying attention to the bone he was picking. He was more preoccupied with other things.

“I’d like to see this one, please.”

“This one?”

An’as looked at the bone that Leon picked and raised his brow.

“Crown whale. I see. Not a bad choice.”

Nodding, An’as shifted his gaze to Lazarus, who raised his hand to reveal a black bone. A powerful pressure radiated from it, sweeping through the surroundings.

“Thanks.”

Nodding his head, An’as reached for the bone. However, right as he did, Leon opened his mouth again.

“Why did the whale blush?”

“….?”

“….!”

The faces of several people changed at once as they all snapped their heads in Leon’s direction.

“It saw the ocean’s bottom.”

“….”

“….”

“I once read a book about glue.”

“….”

“….”

“I couldn’t put it down.”

The silence that had once filled the surroundings once again returned. This time, it was even more pronounced than before as the faces of everyone present turned stoic, their eyes fixed on Leon, who looked just as stoic.

But upon closer look, one would see that there was no light in his eyes.

He… had the face of someone who had given up on their pride and shame.

“How did the barber win the race?”

“He knew a shortcut.”

“….”

“….”

By now, it wasn’t just the cadets and Anne and An’as who were quiet. As if the other customers and merchants had heard Leon’s words, they too stopped, their faces turning stoic as they all looked at Leon, who looked completely unfazed, his sense of shame thrown towards the furthest place possible.

The entire time he said the jokes, he kept his gaze fixed on the merchant who was continuously moving the bones, seemingly unbothered by them. Leon’s frown deepened when he saw no reaction from him, and it was also then that he was suddenly reminded of something.

“Is my delivery not good…?”

Indeed, that could be the problem.

It was just unfortunate that everyone heard his words as An’as’s face turned extremely strange. Delivery? What delivery!?

The jokes were horrible to begin with. What would the delivery do?

An’as felt like crying. Why did it seem like he was only meeting strange people lately?

First, it was the merchant. Then it was the pirate woman. And now…? This random stranger was fixated on jokes. As if anyone would la—

“Kuk…”

Kuk?

An’as paused for a moment, his eyes blinking slowly as he turned his attention behind him, where he saw Lazarus diligently working on cleaning up the bones in front of him.

His brows furrowed even more.

‘I could’ve sworn that I heard the sound coming from here… Am I overthinking? Yes, that might be the case.’

An’as was prepared to turn around when Leon opened his mouth again.

“What do you call it when a cow grows facial hair?”

Leon’s eyes narrowed as he looked at his target.

Then, following a brief moment of silence, he said,

“A moo-stache.”

“….”

“….”

The silence felt loud.

But within the silence, Leon heard another sound.

“…Euk.”

Euk?

The faces of many changed. Leon’s face started to change as his eyes narrowed further, and he started to whisper.

“…I’ve been learning a lot of jokes as of late. A certain someone did give me a book filled with such jokes in the past.”

Leon’s face looked anything but normal. Taking a look at him, An’as was taken aback. He… looked like someone who had been wronged by the world as he fixed his gaze on Lazarus.

Wait…

Lazarus?

Turning around, An’as was shocked to see Lazarus’s body trembling.

“I… have also improved massively on my delivery. I don’t think there’s anyone who is as good as me now.”

Lazarus’s body trembled further, and An’as’s expression turned even stranger.

No way…

It was just as things were about to escalate when Leon pressed his hand against the table and pointed towards a certain bone.

“I’ll take this.”

“Eh…?”

“What?”

Leon’s sudden action caught everyone off guard. Was he schizophrenic? What was up with him today? While everyone was wondering the same thing, An’as was quick to move, taking out the bone that Leon requested and handing it to him as Leon handed him a large sack of coins.

“Here.”

“…It was a pleasure dealing with you.”

And with that, Leon smiled and turned around, fiddling with the bone in his hand as he moved past the stupefied cadets.

They all seemed to have a lot of things to say, but Leon just smiled at them.

He had gotten what he wanted.

He was also able to confirm what he wanted. That was all that Leon planned on doing. He had no plans on exposing Julien.

‘Since he’s keeping his identity a secret, it must be because he has to. I see no reason to expose him.’

All Leon wanted to do was confirm that he was alive and well.

This was his duty as his knight.

Now that he was certain, he could feel a lot more at ease.

“Hey, what is up with you?”

“…Did you hit your head or something?”

Ignoring everyone else as he walked away, Leon silently smiled.

‘It’s been a while.’

***

‘He definitely figured something out.’

Despite my best attempts, I had blown my cover.

‘…This bastard. His delivery wasn’t even good.’

At the very least, not as good as mine. The issue lay in the fact that his jokes were good. I had made a mistake in giving him the book back then.

Thankfully, Leon didn’t pursue the matter any longer and just left.

He probably understood that I wasn’t in a position to reveal my identity. Well… I wasn’t so sure anymore.

I knew that Sithrus was most likely about to figure out the situation, and Leon was still the owner of the Chalice. Realistically speaking, there was no longer a need for me to hide the fact that I was alive.

It was just that…

I wasn’t quite ready yet. At least, not ready to face ‘her’ just yet.

Honestly, I was scared.

I knew that she knew that I was alive. I had purposely left some clues in order to get her to come. The idea was that she could help me in case I lost myself in Lazarus, but that thankfully didn’t happen.

In the end, she still did end up helping me by getting Xa’hurl.

I knew that things would eventually end up at this point.

But…

‘How in the world is she going to react?’

All sorts of thoughts swirled in my mind at that moment as I struggled to think properly. But soon, my thoughts were broken by a certain voice.

“We’ve struck it quite rich.”

It was An’as. He was currently waving the money pouch.

Looking at him, I forced a smile.

“Nice… With this, we will be able to pay off the damage.”

“Yeah. It’s way more than enough.”

An’as looked genuinely happy. But at the same the smile wiped away from his face as he turned in the direction of where Leon had been.

“That said.. I’ve never encountered anyone as weird as that guy. What was up with him and his weird joke?”

“Yeah.”

Anne nodded alongside him.

But…

“Well.. they were good jokes.”

Quite good in fact.

Enough to make me envious.

“….”

“….”

An’as’s and Anne’s bodies froze, their faces turning stoic at the same time.

For a moment, I almost thought I saw lines tracing down the sides of their faces. Almost like half of their faces were covered by a shadow.

Strange…

The Jokes were good, though.