Chapter 220: Kaori moves
As they made their way through the last ten floors of the labyrinth the students were filled with so many questions regarding Alex and the two girls that followed him, the first of which was his connection with their classmate Hajime. They got some answers however since Kaori spent the time back questioning Hajime about his survival and what he had been doing. Though he didn't give too many answers, he did explain that Alex saved his life and that he'd been traveling with him since, this led to Kaori approaching Alex and and directly thanking him for saving Hajime. Other than this nothing interesting happened as they made their way through the top ten floors, until they left the labyrinth and practically an entire crowd of girls appeared as Rias, Grayfia, Yue, Shia, Tio, and Myuu at their lead came to greet them.
"Papa!" Myuu cried as she rushed to jump in his arms. She had started referring to him as 'papa' not long after eliminating the crime groups in Furhen due to the fact that her own father died shortly before she was born, this had led to several of the girls looking at him with gazes that were even more predatory than when Gabriel's pregnancy was announced. Many of the surrounding people looked at them with warm gazes as they saw a daughter reuniting with her father after a hard day working in the labyrinth, until the other five women made their way over and most of them requested a kiss from Alex. This led to everyone being dumbfounded as they realized the scene instead was a man being greeted by his harem and what they now presumed was just one of his children. As for the students however this showed them just how superior Alex was to them as he apparently had more women following him than the two beauties they met before. Not everyone was happy however as Yue flew into his arms with tears in her eyes as she said,
"... I now know how terrible this so call "black history" can be..." Alex was confused at her words and at her insistence that he check her status before he had to fight from laughing out loud, as she now had the 'Magical Girl Vampire Princess' title added. Alex didn't know what to say, but eventually decided on saying,
"Well if it's any consolation maybe you'll get stronger from it; and besides," Alex then moved his head closer to Yue's so no one else, Myuu especially, could hear him,
"That outfit looked partially cute on you, maybe you should wear it next time we're alone." Yue's face turned red at Alex's words as she didn't want to wear such a thing again, but figured she might try it once when they were alone. Alex figured she might have just gained this title from Serafall possibly spreading the idea about Yue being a magical girl, then wondered if she possibly introduced the other new character he mentioned to her show yet. He decided to check with her about it later and directed everyone towards the adventurers guild to inform them of their return, after meeting with the guild head and explaining the story of how the demon race woman fled deeper into the labyrinth while Alex and his group fight the monsters, they were let go to relax for the evening.
"I don't know how I feel about lying like that about what happened." Meld said apprehensively after they reported what happened. Alex shrugged and replied,
"Like I said, the goddess Gabriel wants the conflicts between the races to come to an end. Regardless of how things went if the demon race finds out I killed one of their own they'll still blame humans and consider us to be on your side, even if though they were mostly criminals I've killed more humans myself than demon race people." By this point in the world of Tortus Alex had either killed himself or ordered the deaths of roughly a thousand people through the empire soldiers that came to take Shia and her family, and the crime groups of Furhen. Meld seemed to recall something and said,
"Speaking of this goddess Gabriel, let's go have that drink while we talk since I'd like to know more about her." After talking for a while Alex returned to the bar of the guild while Meld went to think about the things Alex told him, the fact that he was taking what he said and told him to do serious was a good sign. Alex leaned back in his chair and relaxed while drinking his alcohol and watched the minor festivities as the students celebrated living through their endeavor, while the girls visited among the females student a little while the guys were eyeing them as if they were debating talking to them or not. The one who was the center of attention however was Myuu who all the female students were fawning over due to her cuteness. Soon someone sat down at the table Alex was at, and he turned to see a certain female swords woman with a ponytail. Before he said anything she said,
"Thank you, truly, for saving us. I know not everyone seemed to be thankful, but we are." Alex shrugged and said,
"I promised to help Hajime reunite with Kaori, plus not all of you seem bad so it would have been a waste to do nothing." Shizuku nodded, but said with a small grimace,
"Your talking about Kouki right?" It was kind of obvious Alex didn't care much for Kouki, the fact that he purposely tried to antagonize him with his name was a good indicator. Before Alex could say anything Shizuku said,
"He is dumb and could seem kind of headstrong and reckless, but he means well and he only wants to help people so please don't think too badly of him." Alex however shook his head, and asked,
"What does he think of all of you?" Shizuku was confused for a second before saying,
"Kaori, Ryutarou, and I are childhood friends of his so we have a pretty good relationship, and he gets along well with mostly everyone in the class." Alex nodded, and said,
"The thing I don't like about Kouki isn't that he's headstrong and reckless, it's a trait that lots of good people seem to share. It's how each of you are supposedly important to him and yet, even if it wasn't a conscious decision, he chose to sacrifice all of you just to feel better about himself. We all felt the power coming off of him when we arrived, he could have saved all of you easily yet held back just because he didn't want to take a life. Then, though I don't want to toot my own horn, he turned around and tried to condemn me for doing what he couldn't when it was the actions of myself and my comrades that saved him and those he claims to care about. If he wants to throw away his own life then I wouldn't bother, but he shouldn't squander the lives of those he supposedly cares about." Shizuku was silent as she couldn't think of a way to refute Alex's words in defense of her friend, so she was somewhat grateful when he suddenly changed the subject,
"By the way your fight was impressive when we arrived, though if you had a more suitable weapon then you might have done better." Shizuku was surprised at Alex's words, and said,
"Thank you, though I couldn't do anything in the end. My family owns a dojo that specializes in using katanas so my fighting has felt off ever since I came to this world that only uses the western swords." Alex smiled at her words and didn't let on that he knew more about her family's practices than even she did, as they seemed to have a history steeped in Japan's shadows as ninjas, though they always denied it. They continued talking for a while until the atmosphere was destroyed by the sound of several gunshots, as Hajime unloaded several rubber bullets onto a couple of the guys that usually hung out with Hiyama. It appeared they were trying to bug Kaori since she was staying so close to Hajime when they returned, they had also assumed that he was the same pushover as before so their actions seem to have been a little extreme. Leaving them lying on the floor, Hajime then started up the stairs to go to his own room for the night as he seemed to have had enough of being around his classmates. Seeing him go, Kaori sighed and made her way over to her best friend Shizuku, and said,
"What should I do Shizuku? I'm glad Hajime is safe, but he seems so different than he was before, I'm starting to wonder if the same kind Hajime is even still there." Shizuku opened her mouth to try and cheer up her friend, but before she could say anything Alex said instead,
"Though he's not the exact same as before, that doesn't mean he's not as caring anymore as well. When he went through Orcus what drove him was how heartbroken you were from him falling, everything he's done up until this point really was to try and return to you and say, "I'm alive"." At Alex's words Kaori started thinking about things, and though he never stated what exactly happened besides Alex helping him, she deduced from his drastic changes physically that Hajime must have suffered quite a bit and this led to his changes in personality. Seeing Kaori's attitude start improving, Alex then added a bombshell onto the girl,
"If you want to be with him then I'd move fast, after all I'm sure there are at least a couple girls that would want to be with Hajime if given the chance to be, just like a certain person I recall running into at Ul." When she heard this Shizuku made a face, but then she shivered as she turned and saw Kaori's 'Hanya Mask' that had shown up on her face. If one paid attention they could possibly even see an oni standing behind her as she said,
"I see." Before mechanically turning toward the stairs. Shizuku stood up and asked after her,
"Wait Kaori where are you going?!" Kaori simply replied calmly,
"I'm going to ensure that Hajime won't be taken by any thieving cats." Though she wasn't referring to her Kuroka turned and narrowed her eyes at Kaori's words, while many miles away in Ul Sonobe Yuuka felt a chill go down her spine. Watching Kaori climb the literal stairs before climb the figurative stairs of adulthood, Shizuku realized that she never before thought she'd connect the word 'scary' to the sweet and caring Kaori. Also noticing Kaori's departure was the world's densest protagonist that was Kouki, as he went to the stairs to stop her before Shizuku stood in his way.
"Get out of my way Shizuku, Kaori's about to make a huge mistake!" Shizuku shook her head however and said,
"Though I do think she might be moving a little fast, it's not for you to judge if what she does is a mistake Kouki. Besides Kaori has loved Hajime for years so there's nothing wrong with her acting on her feelings." At Shizuku's words Kouki looked genuinely confused and said as if it were obvious,
"Shizuku, there's no way Kaori would love a useless otaku like Hajime. Wouldn't it be more likely that he or Hajime did something to her?!" While talking Kouki pointed at Alex who was just drinking while watching what was happening. Alex raised an eyebrow in response to Kouki's accusations, before he turned towards him and declared,
"Kaori, all those other girls, it's suspicious that so many seem to follow you willingly so who knows what means you use to control them! Fight me, and if I win then you'll let them go!" Without even waiting for Alex to say anything Kouki rushed towards him as everyone watched dumbfoundedly, only for everything to spin around before having face his planted on the floor as a vice like grip held him down. With silver hair entering his vision as he was pressed against the floor Grayfia said in a cold tone,
"If you continue to make false accusations about my lord or attack him once again, then I will have to resort to using more force." Kouki was gasping as he tried to struggle from her grip, before saying,
"You coward! Making one of the women you control fight me instead of doing so yourself, and miss I'm trying to help you so why are you against me?!" Grayfia only looked disgusted at Kouki, as she had never seen such a self entitled and delusional person before in her life. Alex however said lazily,
"Grayfia let him up, or it'll look like we're bullying the weak." Soon the grip holding Kouki down was gone and he stood up. He then turned back towards Alex and was about to challenge him once more, before Shizuku said sternly,
"Knock it off Kouki." Hearing his other childhood friend talk to him in such a way Kouki didn't say anything, before turning towards the door and leaving them all behind. Shizuku sighed and quickly followed him to make sure he wouldn't do anything stupid. Alex sighed as well and decided that since the atmosphere was ruined even more it was about time to head to bed themselves. As he went to their room the rest of the girls followed along while Anne held Myuu who was getting sleepy. After putting her to bed Alex turned towards the rest of the girls and said,
"I have something I need to do so I'll be in Asora for the rest of the night, Grayfia come with me since I have a job for you as well." Grayfia bowed slightly and said,
"Of course my lord." While the rest of the girls said their good nights. As Alex and Grayfia were about to leave however Kuroka came up and said,
"Wait~Nya, I have something I want to try so I'm coming too." Alex arched an eyebrow but didn't say anything as the three of them disappeared into the mist.
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