Chapter 180: You’re Not Going Off Alone Again (4)
‘I’m so tired, I can almost die.’
It had been a month since he had entered Mundus.
During this time, Hades Louvremont gathered a lot of information about this land of the dead. On the first day of each month, when the three moons in the sky wane completely, something called ‘the reincarnation gate’ supposedly opened up in the sky of Mundus.
It went without saying, but this wasn’t a gate that anyone could enter. Only the ‘good’ souls that Gaionia had decided to forgive may go up through the reincarnation gate, supposedly…
Though Hades did not fit the standards to enter the reincarnation gate since he was a living being, it didn’t matter. He had a plan…
No, the plan was not to have a plan.
He was just intending on jumping in by force when it opened.
That was also the reason why he was staying on the third story of this inn, renting out the whole floor waiting for the night of the ‘new moon’.
He found out that the place the reincarnation gate portal opened up every month was right behind this inn, that is, right in the sky above the empty patch of land named the ‘dead land.’
There was a day before the new moon. As always, he was on his way back from training all day on the odd ‘dead land’, where not a single blade of grass growing.
Hades had gotten quite famous since he had entered Mundus. He had gotten used to wearing a large robe so as to not wind up in pointless fights. But at least within this inn, everyone knew of the man in a black robe who had charged into Mundus ‘alive’.
The moment Hades entered the inn, the owner noticed Hades and spoke to him.
“Will you have something to eat?”
Nodding aloofly, Hades was about to walk up to the third floor, but stopped.
It was because of a woman’s face, a woman glancing over at entering Hades without much thought as she sat at the table attached to the counter.
‘W-what was that…?’
He almost shouted frivolously from being surprised.
Just why…
Why would she be here?
His body froze so solid in surprise surprised, he couldn’t even move. He eyed her a few more times from under the hood, but it was definitely her.
Aisha.
Despite wearing shabby clothes usually worn by inn girls, she still had her unique expression and her features as they were.
Slightly pale skin and water hued hair, and… that set of eyes that made him fall for, blue like the waving sea.
With that lovely set of eyes, Aisha was currently…
“What are you doing this evening, Daemon?”
…flirting hard with another man,
Propping her head on a pair of her pretty hands, her eyes opened narrow, closing and opening like fluttering petals.
Though he had no idea about Aisha’s intention, it was an expression that anyone would fall for.
‘Who the heck is that punk?’
Though Hades could only see his back, the man was solidly built.
Hard shoulders and straight posture, though his face could not be seen, he was quite an attractive man for certain.
“What should we do with your meal, mister? Should we send it up to your room like we did this morning?”
The owner asked as he saw Hades stationed as if he was nailed to the spot.
“T-t-t-this evening?”
“Yes, if you don’t have any plans…”
She only gave him a glance when he first entered, but otherwise, Aisha was totally unaware of Hades. She spoke as she coyly patted the shoulder of the man called Daemon.
“…Want to hang out with me? There isn’t anything to do in this place and I am bored.”
“Lookie here!”
The owner butted into Hades’ field of vision which was fixated on Aisha.
“I asked how you would like your meal.”
“Bring it out here, I’m going to dine in and go up.” Hades answered in a loud voice intentionally.
For some reason, the man named Daemon who had his back to Hades flinched.
Though the owner went back into the kitchen and Hades was still standing on the spot, Aisha was busy flirting with Daemon.
He raised his voice intentionally to get her to listen, but she was so focused on that man to even…
Thump, thump, thump-!
Hades walked with loud steps. And then sat himself right on the seat next to Aisha, making it hard not to notice.
He could hear their conversation more clearly.
“W-what would we do when we hang out?”
“My, you know what we’re gonna do.”
“I-I-I really don’t…”
Daemon answered tearfully for some reason and at the same time, his gaze met Hades’ as he raised his head half tilted.
Daemon flinched, meeting glaring crimson eyes under the hood.
Hades immediately turned his head away and grinded his teeth.
‘What is the heck.’
He was confused as he checked the strange man’s face.
‘He is quite a looker.’
Truly, he had a dashing face.
Throughout his whole life, Hades Louvremont has admitted only one person as being ‘handsome.’
Of course, that ‘one person’ was himself in the mirror and he lived with certainty that there would be no man to top his looks at least within the empire.
But this man’s face was handsome enough for him to instinctively admit that he is ‘quite good looking.’
And to top that off…
‘He oddly looks like me…’
Glancing over at Daemon’s face again, Hades gritted his teeth.
No way, in a period of only one month she…
‘She started cheating on me?!’
Of course, as he was walking into a place that could be his deathbed, he didn’t want Aisha to live alone all her life.
Of course, as much as he did not want it to happen, if he could make it back, she could be meeting another man to live on happily or get remarried, Aisha has her own life ahead after all…
Slam-!
Just imagining it angered him. Hades slammed down on the table instinctively, making Daemon flinch and Aisha glance over at him.
Though he finally managed to draw her attention, that was it.
Aisha soon detached her gaze from him with an uninterested look and uttered, “In truth, I’ve recently parted from someone and I’m a bit lonely.”
‘What? No, who says we parted?’
“Ah… so y-you must have had a lover.”
‘Yes, right here. Not a lover but a husband, punk.’
“Yes I had, but he wasn’t a really reliable man. He discarded me and left.”
“No!” Hades shouted, flinching. Aisha turned to see him once more.
‘Keep it in.’
Forcing himself to calm down, Hades merely huffed and puffed.
“This may sound… slightly irritating to hear, but… you look so much like the man who left me, Daemon.”
‘He looks like me, so what? You’d fall for any guy who looks like me? Huh?’
“I-Is that so…”
“Your meal is here.”
Amidst all that, the owner placed the dish piled with mountains of meat before Hades, but he couldn’t even bother to touch it, too immersed in Aisha and Daemon’s conversation.
“D-didn’t you love the man, Miss Aisha?”
“My, love? Me? Would I still love a man who left me without even a single word? Even if I did love him, I would have forgotten him long ago!”
Flinching, Hades clenched his trembling fist tightly as to hold himself back from speaking out at any moment.
Of course, he assumed that Aisha would resent him for leaving, but hearing it from her own lips was much more impactful than he thought.
No still, it was too much that she had forgotten him already.
“This guy is clueless.”
At that moment, two men dining in the corner of the restaurant walked over like delinquents,
‘What are those two?’
Hades was feeling enraged to his core already. He turned to look at them, irritated. He thought he felt that their voices were familiar, and indeed, they were faces he recognized. They were people who picked a fight with him when he first came to the inn, and whom he beat up.
One of the men had a dirty look on his face as he landed his hand on Aisha’s shoulder.
“What would it mean when a pretty girl like this is asking to go out? You really have no clue, don’t you?”
“Oy, how about us instead of a pretty faced shy guy? You’d never be bored throughout the night.”
“My, what are you two doing?”
Hades turned his body around to blast off those men clinging to her, but unfortunately Daemon was faster.
Indeed, the shy guy, as those delinquents stated, slapped away the man’s hand with a fierce expression on his face, a total flip from his face from before.
“Don’t touch her.”
“What now?”
“Yeah, don’t touch me. And I don’t like ugly men.”
“W-what?”
Aisha triggered the two men and they tried to charge at her.
But their fighting spirit didn’t last long.
Blam-!
It was because of Hades slamming down on the table.
With a snapping sound, the old table cracked.
The men flinched in surprise and shrunk back their necks back in like turtles as they eyed Hades.
“Ah… w-when did he return?”
“H-he came in a bit earlier than usual.”
They have been dealt severely with by him before, so they immediately became docile.
Hades spoke as he rose from his seat with an aloof attitude. “Keep quiet. You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Ah, yes!”
“Pardon us for disturbing your meal!”
Standing, Hades could sense Aisha’s gaze looking up at him.
But for some reason he could not bring himself to take off his robe and face her.
He didn’t know why he became so weak when all he had was confidence before.
Was it because a quite good-looking guy was beside Aisha?
Whatever it was, he wasn’t in the mood to just sit there and have a meal.
Despite having a lot he wanted to ask, Hades turned around and headed to his room.
Even after returning to his room, He had no time to wonder about something as obvious as why Aisha was here.
Meeting her unexpectedly, and hearing her quite cold words that she had forgotten him…
Taking off his robe, Hades sat on his bed recalling Aisha’s voice in a dazed state.
He could feel his clothes filthy from being drenched in sweat, but he had lost his will to wash up either.
-Even if I did love him, I would have forgotten him long ago!
Did she mean that? If so, that was truly a blow to his heart.
In the nearly one month he spent by himself in Orcus, Hades could even bet his own hands that there wasn’t a single moment where he didn’t think of Aisha.
It was merely a month, not even that long…
Would that cruel woman even know what torture it was that he could see her face?
Though he wasn’t without fault for leaving without a single word, he couldn’t help feeling crestfallen.
Knock, knock-
As he was slowly drying up, he heard someone at the door.
“What is it?”
“You didn’t touch your meal before going up. So, I’ve brought it up. Please open the door.”
Though the voice outside was quite different from the voice of the errand maid of the inn, Hades was so unprecedentedly shocked that he answered without noticing.
“I don’t feel like it. Take it away.”
“You shouldn’t skip meals. Please open the door.”
“Ha, I said there’s no need…”
Though he had no appetite, the maid didn’t seem like she was about to leave.
In the end, Hades raised his body limply as he tottered over to the door and opened it. And then, he froze as he looked at the face standing before his open door.
The person holding Hades’ dish was, Aisha.
“Your Grace.” She grinned as she spoke with a scolding tone. “Were you thinking of running off like this again?”