Chapter 184 – Meeting Libra again

Roxy, who had turned into an angel, flew straight to where Eris and Libra were.

[Fai! What in the world is that…]

[What the! Such a huge thing…]

She stopped as soon as we saw what appeared from beyond the horizon.
A huge object was flying through the sky.
Its shape was similar to a ship… but the ships I knew of could only float on water.

[Black Ship.]

Those words unintentionally escaped my mouth.
Its jet black color made it stand out like a sore thumb in the midst of broad daylight.

[I can feel signs of those two coming from the ship. What do we do?]

As Roxy said, it’s true.
There’s no point in staying here.

[Let’s go.]

[Indeed.]

It’ll be faster to attack if we come closer.
Otherwise, we probably could still negotiate with Libra.

The available options couldn’t be narrowed down as long as we didn’t know what the other side was doing.
Fortunately, the black ship was still far away from Hausen.
Even if a battle occured, it’d at least be in this uninhabited wilderness.

There might be very little casualties, but I preferred that we didn’t have to fight.

The other side might misunderstand if we were to approach speedily.
That’s why Roxy had been flying at a lower speed.
The black ship itself was approaching us with similar speed.

[They have not made any drastic movements so far.]

[Yeah. Eris and Libra don’t seem to be moving out from that ship either.]

Are they telling us to come in!?
That’s really weird to say the least.
But Libra didn’t seem to show any hostility toward us this time.

[I saw them! I saw Eris-sama and Libra! Eris-sama seems to be alright.]

Was she being restrained or something?
That’s what both of us thought.
However, contrary to our expectation, Eris was standing there alongside Libra.

She hated him so much, yet they now stood very close together.
That’s not the only strange thing here. Eris was wearing a maid outfit instead of her usual getup.

When Libra noticed us, he smiled and waved his hand to us.

[He doesn’t seem like he’s looking for a fight…]

[Shall we land?]

[Please do. I’ll go talk to them, so put me down on the black ship first. Roxy should stay put as a precaution.]

[Alright.]

I simply don’t believe Libra.
He tried to demolish Hausen once.
There’s no way I could trust this guy.

Roxy dropped me off on the black ship’s deck.
Libra was standing at the front. While Eris stayed on the back.

[Hi, Fate. You look well.]

[What are you coming here again for this time? And what did you do to Eris?]

Eris looked strange alright. Her eyes seemed hollow.
It’s like she’s not even there.

[You toss out so many questions when we only just met. Can’t you at least enjoy our moment of reunion?]

[Like you have the right to say that. Put your hand on your chest and recall back what you’ve done to us.]

He actually did put his hand on his chest.

[Have I done something particularly bad?]

[You…..]

When I moved toward Libra, someone else got in my way.
That strand of blue hair, it’s Eris.

Wordlessly, she stood between us as if protecting Libra.

[Eris?]

[…..]

No reply came from her.
No matter how I tried to get to Libra, Eris wouldn’t let me pass.

[What’s wrong? Please, say something.]

[…..]

There’s no reaction at all.
That is, until Libra spoke.

[Enough, return behind me.]

Eris obediently returned to where she was before.

[What have you done to Eris?]

[I simply return her to where she should be. She’s been running loose for way too long now. I had to put a firm leash on her to get her back.]

[Where she should be?]

[She is my slave, or you could say a cute pet. She let loose herself, travelling to the outside world with this airship without permission, even creating a Kingdom, doing whatever she wanted.]

[Pet!? She’s a human!]

[Her beautiful appearance was due to controlled inbreeding. Well, a pet who has bitten its master’s hand must be disciplined. It’s par for the course.]

[You…..]

From what I understand, Libra did something to Eris, putting her under his beck and call
I’ve been keeping my hand around my black sword from the moment we started talking.
I had no choice but to draw it now.

[You’re quick on the uptake.]

Libra nodded as he approached me.

[As you might know already, Eris is in my hand. For example, if I want her to die, then she would do so unquestioningly.]

Eris pulled out her black bayonet and attempted to stab herself in the neck.

[I get it already, so please stop.]

[It’s good if you understand.]

Libra gave Eris a look.
In turn, she lowered the black bayonet.

[You’re taking Eris hostage?]

[Didn’t you hear me? She simply returned to where she should be.]

Libra turned his back on me, gazing toward the south.

[Now, what should I do with that? It’s troubling me right now. Something like that is floating high in the sky. What should stay on the ground is instead in such a place. Isn’t it so unsightly?]

[Are you talking about Gallia?]

[What else? Ahh… if only I could find someone to sink that thing back to the ground?]

Libra gave me a sideway glance.
Despite what he said, he’s actually telling me to do it.

[Why being so cryptic. Can’t you just say it clearly?]

[Ahaha, don’t be angry. There must be a mutual benefit in an agreement. therefore…]

Libra put Eris in front of him.

[If you can do that properly, I’ll give this to you. How about that as a condition?]

[Don’t treat Eris like an object.]

[You only carry with you half the blood of the sacred beastkin. I give you that. Which is why I’m making a lot of concessions already. But you shouldn’t offend me too much.]

Now that Eris had been taken hostage, I had no choice but to accept.
Besides, to handle the matter of the floating Gallia, it would be better to have Libra cooperating with us instead of the other way around.

We’re using each other here.
I could care less about Libra.

[Very well. Let’s cooperate.]

[I knew Fate would say that. You’re Dean’s son after all. We were such good friends in the past, enough for me to call him my best friend. It’s beyond me why he ended up doing something like that against me. I really don’t understand.]

[You and Dad? Friends…? ]

[Back in the old days. But that’s not the case anymore. Though I feel like we can get along well. I’m actually looking forward to it.]

[Kuhh…..]

Libra offered me a handshake as he said that.
I didn’t want to shake his hand, but I had to.

[Deal. We’ll be cooperating from now on.]

As soon as our hands firmly held, I tried activating《Mind Reading》.

(Such a bad boy, you are. But I don’t hate this kind of mischief once in a while)

But Libra saw through it.
He couldn’t be read at all.

[Well then, you should let Roxy who is waiting in the sky know about our agreement. And the Wrath down there too. She looks extremely angry there, what’s with that piercing glare that she’s been directing toward me for a while now.]

In other words, Libra could still afford to stay calm even while knowing that I, Roxy, and Myne might join hands to kill him.

Is a clue on how strong he really is?

[Alright, let’s begin. Onward to Gallia.]

Libra didn’t seem to care anymore about us. He turned toward where the floating Gallia was, where Dad was waiting.
His face was like a kid who had found a new toy.