Summoned and Unwanted

Chapter 24: Surprising news opens a new path

After a while of enjoying the feast, Lupa started coughing from swallowing too much soup at once.

Surprisingly, Ester rushed to pat on her back. She acted like a big sister surprising Vincent with her caring side.

Lupa felt glad for her help. It was her first all you can eat buffet after all. She never saw this much food for her to eat in her entire life.

Ester then said while patting her back to be sure Lupa was fine, “It’s your first time eating like a human, so don’t mind, I got your back.”

“Thank you, sister.” Lupa placed her bowl on the ground and hugged Ester in a warm embrace.

Ester felt embarrassed when she picked up Vincent staring at them with a warm smile.

Vincent was happy that after such a dangerous fight, the calm after the storm arrived.

.....

“What do you mean, my sister?” Ester asked with a confused frown.

Lupa released her hands and raised a sly smirk. Then took a few steps back, approaching Vincent.

Her hands soon landed on his shoulders with a proud sly smirk on her face as if she’s the winner.

Then she teased, “I forgot, you aren’t family with Vincent yet. So he’s mine for now, hehe.”

“F-Fam-Family!” Ester became flustered by her words. She could barely think of how to retort her words.

Her face flushed red as she thought of Vincent calling her my little Ester. Then she suddenly remembered her kiss with him.

Vincent felt like this tease went too far as a few unneeded words spoiled an enjoyable feast.

“Ester, don’t mind her. When she became my retainer, I told her I’d be her new family. But she wanted more than that. I didn’t think she could become a beastman, so I somehow agreed to become her mate.”

Vincent tried to explain with his best poker face possible.

His face had a hint of redness; however, he felt conflicted.

Was her mate? Or her dinner? Her predator eyes always looked at him as if she wanted to eat him.

Ester stood still rooted to the ground. From his point of view, it was understandable since what happened was impossible.

However, she felt her heartache by these words.

Was she falling for him? She didn’t know as he was the first person to call her pretty and praise her dancing.

Lupa felt a little pissed that Vincent seemed to care about the human more than her. So she teased, “When will you become my sister?”

Ester became embarrassed and did what she seemed to do a lot.

With a face flushed red by whatever was in her thoughts, she ran inside the cabin for a breath of fresh air to calm down.

Lupa felt proud about the triumph win.

Soon her eyes went over to Ester’s portion as it had cooled off and ripe to eat.

Vincent sighed the sly hungry wolf. It seemed he needed to toughen up, or she would become his master instead of him.

She was supposed to be the retainer, the one to serve, after all.

“You can keep eating. I want to check on Ester and write the inheritance letter since I can’t eat another bite.” Vincent approached Lupa and gently caressed her hair.

Lupa nodded while her eyes were stuck on her bowl of food. Now the food was all hers and a grin appeared on her face.

Ester was practicing her writing when Vincent approached. His head approached her ear as he whispered, “Your writing looks better.”

Being teased all the morning by Lupa made him want to tease Ester.

Surprisingly, he was quickly adapting to being surrounded by two beauties.

Maybe because he had nothing else to do and find people he could trust. Ester didn’t run away, and she was like him with a bad past.

Or the previous day was the culprit. He spent a day being paralyzed and embraced by Lupa. It made him temporarily numb to their beauty.

Ester stood up and took a few steps back. She was surprised by his action.

“I think that I can trust you with my life. So I wish to ask you, do you want to become my retainer?” Vincent decided to pop the question and gain the second retainer.

Ester stared for a few seconds with no idea on a reply.

“You can give me your answer another time if you want since you will be hunted if found out.” Vincent continued as he realized the proposition of being a retainer wasn’t that attractive.

“I... give me some time to think. ” Ester fiddled with her fingers, and a pair of blushed cheeks showed her feelings.

She was quite nervous by his words. Her heart was franticly fluttering. In a way, she was just proposed to.

Because Ester would receive his mark, she would need to travel with them since it wouldn’t be safe anymore.

As Vincent said, like a family and as Lupa said, like a sister. The first two people to openly accept her.

“It’s understandable. You will need to be with us since you might get hunted after all. I bet people are looking for me since the last hero was summoned a hundred years ago.” Vincent sat on the chair to prepare writing the document.

However, what escaped Ester’s lips surprised him.

“I don’t think that’s the case... I heard rumors that there is no rush to train. That there is still twenty-five years until the next invader arrives.” Ester explained a strange thing.

At first, she thought he was a criminal with a low chance of being a retainer. Who would’ve guessed a hero arrived earlier than expected.

“Wait!... ” Vincent needed time to think. This information was too important to scoff off.

Suddenly he realized something. In Kevin’s story, he had a child. Could it be alive?

“Do you know when the Selos Kingdom killed the last hero?” Vincent became impatient as he couldn’t wait for her answer.

It felt like the answer could direct him to his next goal. The decedent of his Kevin and his retainers.

“I’m not sure. All I know is that my parents told me how fortunate I was to get born a year after the world became safe.” What Ester said opened a new path for Vincent to follow.

“So... Twenty four years, right?” Vincent raised a smile as he decided on his goal.

“Then, I wish to travel and find the sixth hero’s retainers. He was my only friend back in my world. I want to find his descendant and hope they are still alive.” Vincent became filled with resolve.

“You might need to become an adventurer then.” Ester suggested.

However, she had conflicting feelings. She didn’t know if to follow or leave her life to fate in this village. Both options carried a lot of weight.

To stay, she had to rebuild the cabin. But she had no money to do so. Finding work was also hard as no one wanted her.

To follow, she would have to live in fear of getting discovered. Not many people are as understandable as her.

“Good idea, but... Not with the Selos Kingdom. It can go to hell for all I care!” Vincent contorted his face with anger as they killed Kevin. The only kingdom to ever kill a hero.

“I heard adventurous pass through Aero Forest to hunt or travel to Laurel town. It’s on the edge of the Lusterfall Kingdom border.” Ester informed. She only knew rumors from guards or villagers.

Vincent felt happy that finally, things were going his way.

With the quill in his hand, his tongue peeking out, and a pair of focused eyes, Vincent started writing the inheritance will.

Time passed, and half a day flew by. The inheritance will was complete.

“Vincent!” Lupa impatiently waited for him until he finished. When it was done, she embraced him from his back and giggled.

“Ahem...” Vincent cleared his throat as he saw Ester frown. Then continued, “Lupa, can you help me carry the wolves to the village?”

“Sure, I’m strong, hehe.” Lupa shot a sly glance at Ester. As if she wasn’t needed.

“We have a small two-wheeled pull cart for wood or heavy stuff. We can use it.” Ester didn’t hold back from the challenge.

The two stared at each other while Vincent was in between. Will he die from women this time?

“Ahem...”Vincent cleared his throat, stood up, and rushed to the gray wolves.

He picked the first one and said, “Could you guide me to the cart before the smell becomes worse.”

“Yes but... Are you going to the village right now? It takes around four to five hours to arrive. We would return at night.” Ester was still afraid of the night. There might be other vicious animals lurking around.

“It’s better to go now before someone starts to search for Trek.” Vincent insisted. He had to leave the village of his nemesis kingdom.

“I’ll hold my kills, you hold yours.” Lupa boasted of killing two while Ester killed none. She approached Vincent, took the wolf he was holding, and grabbed the other one’s tail.

“Heh...” Vincent sighed at her challenging personality. Lupa always seemed to want to be the best, maybe not to lose the new life she has gained.

Later, three gray wolves were on the cart. They were about to leave when Vincent remembred the most crucial thing to their story.

“Wait. We need to disguise ourselves as injured. Also, we probably need Trek’s bones, right?” Vincent felt like if they were to show how they killed three gray wolves, were uninjured and only Trek got eaten, then it would be hard to believe.

They had to talk to a noble after all. One that might be as corrupt as the book mentioned.

Ester nodded in response as when they met, his clothes, injuries, and acting made her believe his words. If it weren’t for his mark, then she wouldn’t have found out.

Time passed, and their preparation was complete. Vincent disguised the three of them as heavily injured individuals, and Trek’s bones were in the cart.

.....

Vincent and Ester wore a lot of bandages stained with wolves’ blood all over their bodies.

Lupa was grumpy as she had to stay in wolf form.

Two bandages covered both ears, and another stuck at the bottom jaw to hide its tongue.

The others were around its legs, throat, and belly. All were stained in blood, making Lupa appear barely alive.

To be sure that Ester would not get recognized, he wrapped a stained bandage over her face, covering one of her eyes.

Other than that, Vincent and Ester were riddled with bloodstained bandages as well. As a precaution, he wrapped one around his waist to hide his mark.

Ester had a faint idea of why they looked like a group that barely survived. She didn’t trust nobles, but she didn’t think of going this far to trick one.

Ester was curious of what was in his mind. Why did he concoct this plan as if he had already done this?

This is what she kept thinking while wrapping the bloodstained bandages all over her body.

Vincent didn’t have any past experience. Instead, he had knowledge and ideas from the many stories he read.