“Phi! This is the knife I promised to give you! Take good care of it!”
“Thank you Shiroi! I will!”
The incident was over and the guards had arrived, so things had settled down to a certain extent, and Yuugo was going back to the Luminous Academy, along with the other students.
As the time to say goodbye approached, Shiroi gave Phi a knife that was just like his, just as he promised, confirming their friendship.
“It was thanks to you that people in the village are safe. Thank you so much!”
“I didn’t do anything. It was my big brother and the others.”
“No, it’s not like you didn’t do anything. You’re a real hero to me too!”
Phi honestly thought he did nothing, but to Shiroi, he was a dear friend who reassured him when he felt anxious, and a real hero.
He smiled as he heard Shiroi’s gratitude, and that smile stayed on his face as he talked.
“I’ll come visit when you’re feeling better. We’ll talk about all sorts of things then. There’s a lot more I want to tell you about my big brother’s heroics and stuff like that.”
“Me too! I want to show you my real village, not that fake one! We’ll make lots of tasty stuff, so come visit!”
As the two boys confirmed their friendship, they exchanged a firm handshake.
They were reluctant to part, but since they knew they would definitely meet again, they said goodbye with big waves.
“See you next time, Shiroi!”
“Phi! Yuugo! Thank you! Come back anytime!”
“…That’s nice, friendship between boys. Innocent and wonderful.”
“Maybe next time he can come visit us! We can show him around. I’m sure it will be fun!”
“Yes! Big brother… It’s because of you that Shiroi and the others are safe. You really are incredible!”
“I couldn’t have done it alone.”
On their way back, a peaceful atmosphere hung in the air, as everyone voiced their thoughts on what happened.
Marcos thought back to it, and whispered with a somewhat exasperated tone.
“But still… I can’t believe her. She didn’t just lock the whole village away, she even replaced them. It’s an evil that goes beyond my scale.”
“No kidding! And I was harassed because of her, and seen naked indirectly! Just the worst!”
“But at least we were lucky that she wasn’t very smart. There are many ways to be evil, so I guess it’s good that that’s all there was to it…?”
“Phi has a point. But I didn’t expect a giant monster armor beast at the very end. Maybe I should prepare a way to fight something like that just in case… Yuugo, what do you think?”
“…Hn? A-ah, sorry. I zoned out.”
Angel spoke to Yuugo, who responded with an awkward smile.
The others looked at each other, and then spoke to him with puzzled expressions.
“What’s wrong, Yuugo? You’re acting strange.”
“Eh? A-am I?”
“You are! Normally, your eyes would sparkle after I said something like that!”
“And you would say something about adding a combining transforming function, whatever that may be.”
“I guess, but even I’m not always like that.”
“Are you okay, big brother? Are you still tired from the fight…?”
“I’m fine! I can’t help being a bit out of it. Go ahead without me, I’ll catch up when I sort it out!”
The others smiled awkwardly, as they thought it must be serious if even his little brother was thinking that, and he urged them to go ahead.
Yuugo watched them go, and let out a deep sigh.
“…Replacing people… That’s pretty much what I did.”
He could not forget it, or simply shake it off. It was a truth that he had kind of been avoiding thinking about.
After all, what happened with him was not that different from what Narul did. He took over the life of the real Yuugo Clay.
He also kept it to himself, and continued fooling his friends, so maybe, he was even worse than Narul.
Yuugo Kurei used the admiration and respect Phi had for his real brother, and felt he could only be called a bad guy for it.
(Is this how that ‘lord’ felt…)
When he came up with the Zanma Guren Blade, the weapon he used as reference was wielded by a hero who also masked his identity and fooled his friends.
Yuugo now thought he understood how he felt, at least a little… And he raised his head to look ahead.
He could not keep tricking Phi and the others forever. One day, he would have to tell the truth.
That was the responsibility placed on him. After thinking about it this far, he exhaled, and ran after the others.
He pushed down the rumbling in his heart and the significant unrest he felt… But vowed strongly to himself to not disappoint his little brother in any other way.
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