Chapter 602 - Under Suspicion (1)
"Oh, you must be the Elysia that Erina has been talking about lately, correct?" Mitsuzuka started the conversation with a friendly smile.
"Y-yes, nice to meet you, sir." Elysia answered politely. Somehow she felt small in front of these two men if she used normal human standards as a benchmark. Their bodies were clearly over two meters tall and weighed around a hundred and twenty kilos with all that muscle...
"Haha, there"s no need to be nervous. To be honest, this is the first time for Erina to take someone home of her own free will. I even felt surprised about it. No, you"re the one who really astonished me a lot." Mitsuzuka shifted the shogi board off the tea table and placed his hands on the table.
"What do you mean, sir? I"m just a little girl." Elysia put on an innocent face as she could handle the pressure for a while.
"Well, you don"t have to be so formal with us. Just call me by my name, or Grandpa will do." Mitsuzuka shook his head slightly.
"Umm..." Elysia just nodded in understanding.
"I heard you went to Greenland on British Airways three days ago. However, your tracks were lost when you landed in London. Have you finished your business at the North Pole? Or have you canceled your intention to go there?" Mitsuzuka clasped his hands and stared into this beautiful purplish blue-eyed girl.
"Uhm, you know about that?" Elysia still had an innocent face, but she was panicking in her mind. "What do I have to do? What do I have to do? This old man is really scary because he has authority and power. He has obviously been monitoring us since we met Erina-san, right? Earth"s satellites have probably caught up on all my activities too, and this old man might already know all about it!"
"Calm down a little, dear Ely. Everything is not as bad as your wild thoughts. This old man is just curious. After all, we didn"t board the flight again then. Our visa was made by Erina, remember? It"s easy for them to track you down." Elena was amused by Elysia"s overthinking thought.
"Then, what should I answer with? I don"t want to lie either..." Elysia felt troubled.
"Let"s just say you fly to the North Pole, fufu... Planes are so slow and unreliable." Elena covered her mouth in a light chuckle.
But, who would have thought that Elysia would take that suggestion for granted?
"En, I went to the North Pole anyway and came back soon after." Elysia replied.
"By what, if I may ask? The distance from London to the North Pole is not much different from the distance from j.a.pan to there." Mitsuzuka tried to dig deeper. He wa realized that this girl was not simple, no matter how she looked at it.
"By flying. The plane is so slow." Elysia answered innocently. She couldn"t come up with another good answer, after all.
Erina and everyone gasped in surprise. They never expected that the answer was said with such an innocent smile.
Kenji almost got a hiccup at that ridiculous answer. He thought it was just a joke, but apparently not. "You"re flying, or are you on a friend"s super-fast jet that happens to be in London, uhh?"
"Take a guess." Elysia didn"t want to answer on that topic anymore.
"Sigh, never mind. You really are truly something. Can"t you spare this old man a bit of a headache by telling your background? I know hidden clans are everywhere, but this is the first time we"ve come across a case like yours. There are no data at all." Mitsuzuka put his hand to his forehead and shook his head.
"But, what do you want to do with the data about me? I"m on my own now, umm, with my cat and my friend Sylvia." Elysia squinted her eyes. She was aware that she had been suspected from the start, and that was to be expected, though.
"Well, you are indeed only with your cat and your friend right now. I just wanted to make sure you are not a threat. Or rather, for peace of mind." Mitsuzuka wouldn"t be fooled by that answer.
"But, is it true, though? I"m just an ordinary traveler. We are currently traveling the world to visit various mysterious places that hold many secrets and treasures." Elysia once again wore an innocent expression.
"Ah, I"ve heard that you"re a hidden treasure merchant who sold a few items at the auction that Erina attended that night. That"s where you two met, right? That makes a bit of sense now. But, you look too young for all of that." Mitsuzuka made a steeple of his fingers and stared at these mysterious girls. The snow-white-haired girl over there was no less suspicious, but the one who would answer only the black-haired girl.
"What do you mean, sir?" Elysia scratched her head in confusion.
"G-grandfather, why are you interrogating, Elysia-san now?" Erina expressed her dissatisfaction.
However, Mitsuzuka ignored that. He was still staring at Elysia and decided to play bluntly. "Alright, if you ask so. You are someone who cannot be detected with an aura level sensor. No, it breaks when it comes into contact with you. I can"t a.s.sess your power either at this time.
I want you to tell us your point in a nice way, or you leave me with no other choice. All of you are really suspicious. If you want to be friends with Erina, you need to pa.s.s this bottom line to clear up suspicions and misunderstandings. As far as I know, a traveling merchant who sells esper-related items is someone with minimal Master-level strength. But, what about you? Are you actually an ageless old granny?"
"Uhm, I haven"t lived that long... But, I seem to have gotten into the b.u.t.terfly effect from getting involved with someone from a well-known clan. It"s scary how you have to know everything about me. I don"t have any bad intentions, but how should I explain my situation to you?" Elysia hugged Vanessa because she felt insecure right now.
"Okay, you left me no other choice. I just hope you tell us the truth about you, your background, and your goals. I"m not going to make your situation difficult because Erina seems to like you. All you need to do is talk. Fine, but you don"t want to answer an important question from me." Mitsuzuka felt a bit annoyed and couldn"t wait any longer.
Erina became very panicked, but she didn"t know what to do now. She never thought her grandfather would corner her friend. After all, she had thought this would be just a peaceful friend-introduction event.
"I am Elysia, have no background, and my current objective is to search for treasures and explore the world"s mysteries..." Elysia answered according to the scary old man"s request.
"Is it like that? But that only explains a bit of everything. If that"s bothering you, then let me confirm that myself." Mitsuzuka sighed.
"What, what do you want to do to me?" Elysia is feeling worried now. She had followed the request, but why was she still cornered here?
"I"ll scan your aura with my spirit power. It"s only three seconds." After saying that, Mitsuzuka applied a spirit pressure on the two girls and the cat to force their bodies to give off some aura to detect.
"!!!" Sylvia was alarmed, and so was Vanessa. They didn"t know what had happened, but it seemed Elysia was in a predicament.
Sylvia"s red eyes lit up with a blood-red sheen. She brought Elysia to jump back from the sudden pressure.
"I don"t know what lowly humans like you guys want to do, but I know you don"t have any good intentions towards us." Sylvia put pressure on the old man for a light warning.
"!!!" Mitsuzuka smirked and put his hands together for a thunderclap. He removed that heavy pressure with a clash of spirit power. "Can"t you use j.a.panese or English? I don"t understand what you"re saying. It"s definitely not Russian or any other European country. What language do you speak? Anyway, that"s really impressive power. But, what did you say? However, you won"t achieve anything with that pressure before me, little girl."
"Don"t you realize I"m holding back a lot here? You are only an old thing at the Intermediate-level, and you dare to grin arrogantly at me?" Sylvia intended to make this old man aware of his place, but Elysia prevented her.
"Don"t do that, Sylvi. We"ll hurt them and then endless trouble." Elysia shook her head.
"Kisha!" Vanessa bared her fangs as if she was ready to attack.
"Elysia-san, please forgive me for what just happened. My grandfather didn"t mean to do that to you. And grandfather. Why would you do that to Elysia-san? She didn"t do anything wrong. She might be shrouded in many mysteries, but she really didn"t have any bad intentions. If she had it, I would have known about it, and she would have done the evil from the start." Erina stood up and tried her best to reconcile the situation. She was truly dissatisfied with her grandfather right now.
"The situation is a bit tricky, Erina-san. If it"s like this, we should just stay at a hotel. Uhm, we came because we wanted to know your recommendation, but it seems I brought trouble here. I"m sorry." Elysia intended to leave after consulting Elena.
They should have gone straight to exploring possible mysterious places without asking Erina for information.
"You will be staying here for the night. Come back and sit here. Sigh, I may be exaggerating a little, but I am amazed at your resilience even though you are both so young. If what you say is true, I don"t know what to say now. Please forgive my exaggeration." Mitsuzuka decided to apologize only because his hunch suddenly told him not to offend these girls, especially the black-haired one.
Erina rushed to Elysia and Sylvia to apologize for everything and tried to persuade Elysia and Sylvia to stay.
After several apologies and persuasion, Elysia agreed to return to sit before the scary old man. Sylvia and Vanessa just sighed as Elysia asked them to be patient.
"Well, what do you want to do by exploring mysterious places, to begin with? Do you just want to hunt for some rare resources and treasures for you to auction? How about you work for the Minamoto Clan?" Mitsuzuka made an offer.
"I"m still underage, sir. I must decline your offer." Elysia shook her head.
"You, truly, sigh..." Mitsuzuka then made some offers and slipped in some questions to find out more about Elysia"s real ident.i.ty. Unfortunately, the latter was clever enough to play with words.
One thing that made Elysia relieved, she didn"t provoke the old man"s annoyance even though she didn"t respond seriously.
Erina just blinked her eyes in confusion and wonder. Her grandfather was now talking casually to Elysia as if the previous incident had never happened.. She looked at her father, but he had no clue either.