"Ugh…what a day at school."Scooping a spoonful of rice into my mouth, I savored the sweet, tangy taste of j.a.panese curry and exhaled happily.
Nothing like a good meal of curry rice to end off the day. Alone at home, I had to take care of my own meals, and thus I found myself cooking simple dishes. It didn"t take much to wash the rice, switch on the rice cooker and microwave a plate of curry before mixing them all together. I enjoyed cooking up simple but delicious meals such as these.
After my meal, I did my dishes, and for some reason I unconsciously glanced toward the living room. The television was switched off, and the couch was empty.
Without Dad, the house felt so…deserted.
"He"ll be back soon."
Dad always came back. I knew he would. There was nothing in this world that could kill him. I was sure of that.
Even so, I had to admit that it felt a little lonely when I was the only person living in such a huge house. I wasn"t expecting my female homeroom teacher to show up (my homeroom teacher was male, and he was Teacher Fielding, anyway) to freeload at my house, nor was I hoping for a cute junior at my school to visit me everyday to cook me meals and such. I wasn"t some harem protagonist in a visual novel that received so many anime adaptations.
But sometimes I wished I was one. It probably would feel less lonely.
Fortunately, that loneliness would end when Dad returned, and we could both watch anime or game together. I was willing to even go through his h.e.l.lish training sessions again if it meant I didn"t have to spend another quiet, lonely night in the huge house.
"…I"m getting sentimental, huh?" I muttered to myself as I shook my head, was.h.i.+ng the detergent off my hands and placing the plate in the tray to drip dry. Wiping my hands on a kitchen towel, I then switched off the light in the kitchen and proceeded upstairs.
With everything taken of, I headed straight to my room. Striding toward my bed, I caught sight of the two parcels wrapped in brown paper lying on my desk.
"Ah…I still haven"t opened them yet."
I was busy with school, so I didn"t have time to open them yet. Even though I was curious to see what kind of weapons I had received, I wasn"t in a hurry. After all, I didn"t need Divine Devices or physical weapons. Not when my entire magic skillset revolved around summoning my own Constellation weapons
But I might as well check them out right now, since I had nothing better to do. Reaching out, I unwrapped the brown paper from the two swords.
They were a pair of swords, one black and one white, each representing yin and yang respectively. Forged by the famous swordsmith couple Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, I was tempted to just name them as such, but there were already Chinese script engraved into the side of their blades. Studying the pair of swords closely, I was reminded of my own Gemini twin swords, but these were a little longer, a lot sharper and much more durable and stronger.
"Bai Ri and Hei Yue," I read the names on the swords out loud. The white one was Bai Ri, literally translated as White Sun, while the black one was Hei Yue, which was translated as Black Moon. A fitting name for the pair of them.
I paused for a moment, frowning in puzzlement. Why were they so similar to my Gemini twin swords? How did Gan Jiang and Mo Ye know that I employed a dual sword style? The resemblance couldn"t be a simple coincidence, could it?
Strange…
Perhaps they did their research on their client before forging their swords accordingly. Adrian mentioned they took several days, after all. That was more than enough time for them to look up my personal information and particulars, which was freely available online. Especially since so many people uploaded videos of my fights and duels online. My Gemini twin swords were the Constellation weapons I summoned and used the most. Mostly it was because of my familiarity with them, my favoring of the dual sword style, and the ease of summoning and wielding them, since they were light, fast and cost very little mana to summon.
That inevitably led to the impression that they were my main and favorite weapons. Well, I couldn"t say the impression was false. They were certainly my main weapons, and I favored them a lot. But they weren"t my number one favorite. My favorite weapon was rarely used because it took up too much casting time and consumed too much mana, but it was my favorite because of the immense firepower it unleashed.
What was it, you ask? Well…at this point, it"s a secret. You"ll only find out after I reveal all of my Constellation weapons. I haven"t used all of them yet, so I will leave it to your imagination.
Whatever the case, right now I wanted to find out how Gan Jiang and Mo Ye knew about my fighting style and the swords I favored. Constellation weapons aside, Gemini was certainly my favorite Constellation sword. The twin swords were my favorite swords if you were looking at a specific type of weapon. So Gan Jiang and Mo Ye weren"t wrong in guessing that. The thing was that, I also frequently used a bow, so why didn"t they forge me a bow?
Was it because they were a legendary swordsmith couple, and therefore could only forge swords? Were they unable to forge any other kind of weapons?
Unfortunately, I wasn"t given much time to think about the uncanny resemblance much. My smartphone buzzed and I picked up the call.
"Dad?"
"Hey! Checking on you. How are you faring, being alone at home?"
It was a video call, and I could see Dad"s face in the holographic screen that my smartphone projected upward. In the background, I could see what seemed like a luxurious hotel room from somewhere, but I wasn"t sure where he was currently.
"Yeah, I"m doing fine. What about you? Where are you right now? Have you completed the mission? Did you find the culprits behind the Transdimensional Key? Did you destroy the organization that created it?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dad threw up both hands, taken aback by my flurry of questions. "Asking so many things at the same time…one question at a time, son! Relax!"
"Sorry."
"No, don"t worry about it." Dad chuckled and shook his head. "Okay, let"s address your questions one by one. First, I"m in a hotel somewhere in the Middle East right now. The United Arab Emirates. That was where one of their major factories and research facilities were located."
I noted the use of past tense.
"So you found them and destroyed them."
"That is correct. So now I"m enjoying a bit of downtime. This place is great!" Dad laughed as he leaned back in a ma.s.sive bed covered in velvet lining. "Man, I feel like I can live here forever!"
"At least bring me along if you intend to do so," I complained good-naturedly, knowing that he was joking.
"Of course! I"ll email you your flight ticket!"
"I"ll be waiting." I chortled with him, and then turned serious. "So you"ve completed your mission? When are you returning home?"
"Oh…that"s the bad news." Dad also looked grim, leaning forward as he knitted his fingers together to rest his chin upon them. "You see, the facility here in the United Arab Emirates was only one of many."
I felt cold dread gripping my spine. "There"s…more?"
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"There"s more," Dad confirmed. "So it"ll take me a while to destroy all of them. Looks like I"ll be gone a little longer than I thought. Don"t worry, I"ll make sure to return home in a month or so, once I"ve destroyed the second facility. Like h.e.l.l am I going to let them work me to the bone without giving me a vacation."
A month. That sounded like forever. But I had been through such long periods where I survived despite Dad"s absence, so it wasn"t as bad as it seemed.
"Okay. I"ll be waiting."
"Speaking of which, what about you? I didn"t contact you for a month or so, and I heard all sorts of rumors. They say you were involved in the destruction of the Stuart Corporation Building? It was such huge news all over the Global Federation I even saw it on the news here."
I scratched my head sheepishly. "I wouldn"t say I was directly involved. I was there and witnessed the skysc.r.a.per getting destroyed, but I didn"t do anything except watch. It was Lionel Stuart and Yuan Dao Yue Guang who demolished the whole building during their fight."
Dad recognized Lionel Stuart – the man was a celebrity – but he didn"t seem familiar with Yuan Dao. He just nodded.
"As long as you"re all right." He grinned. "I hope you aren"t too lonely! If you really need company, you can always call your girlfriend…Alicia, was it? Yeah, call her to stay over. If her parents don"t mind, I mean."
"We haven"t gone that far in our relations.h.i.+p," I grumbled. Even if we were officially a couple, we hadn"t done anything romantic or such. Our only date was going to Cecilia"s engagement party together, and we didn"t have anything else planned.
Come to think of it, it was only less than a week since we clarified our relations.h.i.+p. I wasn"t sure if it was normal to not do much. Perhaps I should call her and arrange a date during this weekend. Not only would it stave off the loneliness, it would help our relations.h.i.+p progress a bit further.
"Oh, and before I forget, did you get attacked on your way home from school? Anyone trying to kidnap or a.s.sault you again?"
Dad looked a little guilty. Thanks to his vocation, he had made a lot of enemies, and it wasn"t a stretch to imagine that the organization that created the Transdimensional Key had their eyes and ears everywhere. They could very easily have cells located in Jing Tian City, and send their agents after me as retaliation against Dad for destroying one of their facilities.
After all, they were far from destroyed. And they weren"t going to keep silent after suffering such a huge blow. They would definitely find a way to take revenge, or a method to blackmail Dad into stopping his rampage.
"No," I a.s.sured him. It was the truth. I hadn"t encountered any kidnappers or professional agents in a while. If the organization had cells in Jing Tian City, they were most likely busy doing something else. Perhaps they were keeping an eye on me or monitoring my movements, but I didn"t sense anyone in the distance.
"I see." Dad looked relieved. Then he narrowed his eyes. "Don"t let your guard down, though. If you do encounter them, don"t fight if you"re no match for them. Get home and stay behind the barrier. Call for help. I might not be able to return, but the military should be able to handle them. You have Feng Hai"s contact, don"t you?"
"Yeah." I nodded. Instructor Feng Hai was part of the Silver Wolves, which was also a respectable mercenary group in their own right. They were the next best thing after Dad. I wasn"t reckless enough to attempt to fight professional experts and mages on my own. "I will do that if necessary."
"Good." Dad was relieved, especially he knew my character. I wasn"t the impulsive or reckless kind who stupidly charged the enemy head-on, like so many shounen protagonists loved to do.
"Stay safe, Dad. I"ll be waiting."
"You too.Be careful." Dad glanced at the corner of his holographic screen. "Hmm, it"s getting late. I"ll see you next time then. Get some rest, but keep your eyes open."
"Will do," I said. Dad grinned and gave me a thumb"s up before he cut off the video link from his end. I watched as the holographic screen winked out and disappeared.
Taking a deep breath, I placed my new swords back on my desk. Perhaps I should get ready to go to bed…
Before I could, however, I heard a thunderous crash outside my house.