Chapter 618: Time of decisions
Hearing the words of the guest, I couldn't claim that I was surprised all that much. I knew for a fact that Eve's bastard father was somewhere near the realm of immortals in terms of strength, so it was quite obvious that if anywhere, he would be most likely live in the city of immortals. The part of one of the sect leader's sentence that made me worried though was the one that claimed that there wasn't just a Katenari powerhouse in this city, but an entire clan to speak off.
"Judging from your expression, I think it's rather safe to assume that I nailed the point. Am I right?"
Looking up after a moment of hesitation, I could see a smug smile growing on the face of the man who was speaking for his entire small group. It seemed that he was quite happy with the results of his sneak wordy attack, making me reconsider how much I could trust his words. After all, it was in his best interest - if he wanted to coax me into joining his sect - to make me think that without their help and protection, I would be unable to face what might be coming for my wife.
"I hope you will excuse my rudeness, but I need to talk about this matter in private with my significant other. I hope you won't mind what I'm about to do."
While my words could sound threateningly, I waited for a few seconds to make sure the visitors would understand it… before taking a step back and slamming the doors right in their faces. Only after adding a set of barriers all around the room to make sure no sound would escape it, I turned myself back to Eve with a troubled look on my face.
"Dear, what do you think about this situation?"
In the end, while I was always willing to take the mantle in this relationship and make sure that we were all safe and happy, this problem was something that I had no right to solve unless Eve were to explicitly ask me for it. Even though I never bothered her with the matters of my family, she was willing to extend her helping hand as soon as she thought it was possible for her. And this was the attitude that I was willing to adopt. Yet, no matter how happy I would be to help her in whatever the decision she would make about our next moves… Ultimately it was now up to her to decide what should we make off the current situation.
After all, it was her father that was in store for us. Whether she wanted to take revenge on him for everything that we went through, whether she was willing to join a random sect just to live the rest of our days in peace or whether she was about to decide on doing something that I couldn't even come up with on the spot… It was her decision to make, as I was okay with doing literally anything.
"Bart…"
Instead of replying to my question, Eve simply moved a few steps forward and hugged herself into my embrace. Taking a moment to stabilise her breath and calm herself down, she rubbed her cheek against my chest.
"What do you think I should do?"
Reaching out with my hand to pat her head in my instant drive to treasure and protect this lovable ball of cuteness, instead of answering right away, I took my time to consider our options.
In the end, nothing would stop us from just planting the teleportation seed right here and now, taking a leap through it to my own stronghold and then destroying the portal from the other side. In this way, not only I could take my time to use the resources that I obtained to turn them into the best weapons that I could create with my current crafting ability, we could also take our time to reach this continent once again in the very same way that made us appear on it in the first place.
The question was, was there really any reason in being so cautious?
"Bonger, are you here?"
Throwing this quick question into the air, I honestly didn't expect for anything to happen… Yet in the very next moment, Bonger was casually sitting on the bed while snacking on some kind of nuts.
"What the heck are you doing…"
Before I could even say 'here', the physical personification of my system, or rather of my other, more creative self smiled and stood up, stopping me from finishing my words.
"Don't you know? If you were to count the time from the moment of your reincarnation to today, then it would be November on earth by now. And while playing around with dimension, I got to watch some of the quite fun broadcasts where a cute, squirrel girl was praising the nuts to be the ultimate thing that earth had to offer, even going as far as to claim that the entire current month back on that silly planed should be called 'Non-stop nut November'. While I might be wrong here, I think it was some kind of inside joke directed to the people watching here, but well… I think you should know more about it being the local, don't you?"
Instead of answering the question that I wanted to ask, Bonger answered the question that he forced me to utter by stopping me from finishing my words. Thankfully, when my face darkened in response to his words, Bonger actually smiled in exchange before breaking out in maniacal laughter.
"Okay, okay, but seriously, what are you so worried about? Do you still fail to realise that in this city, or rather, in this world, each of us is already way beyond the reach of even the strongest powerhouses and experts in hiding? While I can't say you can easily defeat anyone in this world…"
With his smile disappearing and his entire face turning serious, Bonger's voice also changed. Now, I was perfectly aware that each of his words holds a huge meaning and it was better to listen to it with my full attention.
"... you are by far the most powerful person in this entire side of universe… With your wife following you relatively close behind. Ah, on that note, congratulations."
Turning his face to Eve, Bonger suddenly smiled with a rare kindness and sympathy appearing in his eyes. Sadly, this short moment of humanity seeping from behind the facade that he liked to wear at all times was indeed… short.
"So, what would you recommend us to do?"
Sensing the reality that in the current situation, Bonger had simply more information to make the proper decision, Eve nodded her head in response to the kind words before asking.
"Isn't that obvious? Just do whatever the heck you…"
This time, it wasn't me that broke into Bonger's sentence, stopping him from finishing it. It was someone pushing his weight against the barriers that I set around the room!
In just a single moment, the walls that I erected just for the sake of keeping the sound of our voices away broke under the immense strength of an incoming attack, before the doors leading to the room exploded into a myriads bits.
"There you are!"
In one instant, I could feel the atmosphere in the room turning freezing cold. Even without looking at Eve's face, I could tell from how her body tingled in my arms, that she managed to recognise the man that intruded in our room.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Noticing that Bonger didn't bother to do anything and was still sitting on the bed and munching on his nuts, I forced myself to ditch all the hesitations aside and take a hard stance in the currently appearing conflict. Gently shoving Eve aside, I turned around and taxed the intruded with my eyes.
"I don't recall giving you the right to speak in my presence, trash. Now, move aside. I'm here to reclaim my property."
Not even bothering to talk with me like a civilised person, the man moved towards me, while reaching forward with his hands. In just a single moment I realised that his fingers were not directed at me in particular, but at the person that was currently hiding behind my back!
"Stop."
Rather than flying into a rage, I simply let go of all the limiters I continued to put on myself in order to appear ordinary in this city. In just a single instant, I allowed all the power that was curious through my veins to surface, nearly ripping through my muscles and skin apart just to escape from my grasp.
Yet, instead of allowing this insane energy to fight with my own resistance, I simply put it to use, tearing the space between the man and myself apart. After all, I would have to be really naive to not guess just who the fuck this intruder was!