Harem Sync: Divine Edition

Chapter 79: SILENCES AND REFLECTIONS (2)

"Wait!" Haru took a few steps back, hands raised defensively. "How can I explain this to you!?"

"I’m all ears!" Isabela crossed her arms. "What’s wrong with you? Why are you so... so perverse at the most impossible moments!? I’m running out of panties!"

"Let me explain..."

"Why don’t you buy and keep them in your pockets instead of taking mine!?"

Haru took a deep breath. "Because they weren’t on you... it works better for you!"

Isabela understood that in the most perverse way possible.

"WHAT!?"

Fire ignited in her hands, dancing on her fingers. "You’re going to get screwed! This time nothing will stop you..."

"It’s just another one of those Gamer scenes!" Haru shouted desperately, taking more steps back.

The fire didn’t come.

Isabela sighed heavily, her flames dying down, and sat on the bed.

She lay there staring at the floor, too tired to stay angry.

Haru opened the balcony window of the room.

Fresh air streamed in, the wind rustling the curtains.

He squeezed the towel as tightly as he could and gestured for Isabela. "Come on. Let’s talk for real."

She got up hesitantly and went to the balcony.

The Capital stretched out below them, magical lights twinkling in the streets, movement even at night, towers in the distance, the Imperial Palace gleaming.

Haru began: "About the panties... it’s one of those gamer things."

Isabela turned to him, waiting.

"When I was born here... I kind of... I was..." he tried to find less perverse words, "...I was born with this individuality. My mana, powers, everything I know... only appears if I touch a rational female or their underwear... my mana doesn’t rise if I don’t do that."

"Doesn’t he just know how to cultivate mana..." Isabela thought.

Haru paused, embarrassed. "I didn’t choose this. It just... came this way."

Isabela processed that, her face turning red again, but for a different reason.

"And... where do you come from?" She quickly changed the subject. "Like where? What part of the world do Gamers live in? What’s it like there? And why do you kill each other?"

Haru smiled, not a happy smile, but a nostalgic one. "We come from very far away."

"Where!?"

"Beyond these skies..." he pointed to the starry sky, "...far beyond. And everything is different there. Unimaginable things that you’re not ready for yet."

"Like a movie?" Isabela asked, remembering the term Haru had mentioned before.

"Yeah... like a movie, but real."

"And how did you end up here? Why?"

Haru leaned against the balcony railing.

"Well... at first I didn’t even know. I didn’t expect it. I guess it’s really a second chance..." he sighed. "Among the Gamers, it’s not that we kill because we’re evil by nature... it’s because the ones I found were evil," he said hesitantly, remembering that the system had ordered him to kill Arwin, just like Kaelthar...

He shook his head. "Each Gamer comes with their own objectives, and mine don’t involve decimating half a village."

Haru looked directly at her. "I just want to live..."

He showed her the ring the Baron had given him, simple, crimson metal with inscriptions.

The wind began to blow strongly, Isabela’s hair flying to the side, Haru’s too.

"The moment I think about plotting against the Valtherions, my soul burns," he said seriously. "And if I want to take this ring... I burn. I won’t even try to find out if it’s real or not. It was the last thing the Baron gave me..."

He paused. "Then relax, and I’m not doing this because of the ring... I’m doing it just because."

Isabela remained silent, processing. "But aren’t you a Herald?"

It suddenly picked up a lot of wind. The doors to the bedroom slammed shut, locking themselves.

And there was no doorknob on the outside.

Haru’s towel flew off immediately, ripped away by the wind.

Without time for the two to process the locked door.

"AAAAAAH!" Isabela screamed, embarrassed, turning and slapping Haru on pure instinct. "WHY DID YOU TAKE OFF THE TOWEL!? YOU’VE BEEN WANTING TO DO THIS SINCE EARLY!?"

"THE TOWEL FLEW OFF!" Haru yelled back, trying to cover himself with his hands. "IT WASN’T ON PURPOSE!"

The towel disappeared, flying across the Capital.

And people on the street below started looking up, pointing.

"THE DOOR IS LOCKED!" Isabela pulled at the doorknob desperately. "IT WON’T OPEN!"

"THEN EXPLODE!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY... DESTROYING IT? THE HOUSE COST A FORTUNE!"

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

"Coming!" Kira’s voice came from inside.

The door opened.

Isabela appeared first, her face completely red, her breathing irregular.

Haru was behind her, completely naked, his hands covering the essentials.

Behind them, a crowd watched the scene.

"Achoo!" He sneezed. It was windy and cold.

Kira didn’t ask anything, just looked at the two, processed the scene, and let them in.

Luckily, the entrance didn’t lead directly to the dining room; there was a hallway.

She grabbed a robe hanging where coats were kept and handed it to Haru.

"Welcome home, master," she said with absurd nonchalance. "Dinner is on the table."

Isabela had already endured so much embarrassment.

Haru stared at Kira for a while, then smiled, brushing her head between her fox ears.

Kira’s tail wagged happily.

"The master won’t change, right?" she asked softly.

"No... I promise I won’t."

Kira relaxed completely, already feeling comfortable with this strange life they had.

At the table, Haru arrived already seated in his robe.

The others were already eating, Yukihime animated, the two guards chatting, Isabela avoiding looking at Haru.

Kira brought the last steaming pot and sat down too.

The conversation began when Yukihime innocently said: "It was fucking hot today, wasn’t it?"

Absolute SILENCE.

Everyone looked at her.

Then at Haru.

"LOOK what you taught the child!" Isabela exploded.

"I didn’t teach her anything... She just heard it!" Haru defended himself. "She must have heard it on the street!"

"Dad swears all the time!" Yukihime added happily.

"HE SAYS IT ALL THE TIME!?" Isabela turned to him accusingly.

"It’s not all the time..." Haru murmured.

The butler laughed. "Miss Yukihime is right. Mr. Haru has... a colorful vocabulary."

"Colorful is an understatement." The other guard added. "Yesterday he cursed the entire carriage when the wheel broke."

"The wheel broke because of your incompetence!" Haru retorted.

"WE are guards, not coachmen!"

"Then why were you driving!? Why don’t you let me drive anyway!?"

Kira served soup to everyone, laughing softly.

"Master, you really do swear a lot."

"I don’t swear."

"You do." They all said together.

Haru crossed his arms, pouting.

Yukihime continued innocently: "And Dad talks to himself too!"

"I don’t talk to myself..."

"Yes, you do!" Yukihime insisted. "Yesterday you were in your room yelling ’damn system’ really loudly!"

Isabela almost spat out her soup. "System!?"

"It’s... it’s just a way of speaking..." Haru looked away.

The guard who had gotten lost in the cemetery commented: "Speaking of the cemetery... what happened there? I got lost and when I came back everything was burned."

"Dad blew everything up!" Yukihime exclaimed excitedly. "BOOOOM! Giant fire in the sky!"

"It wasn’t all..." Haru murmured.

"It was!" Kira confirmed. "I saw it. A twenty-meter column of fire."

Isabela massaged her temples. "And the inspector saw it..."

A heavy silence returned.

Then Haru said: "At least Kira’s food is good."

"Very good!" Yukihime agreed, eating quickly.

Kira smiled. "Thank you."

"Where did you learn to cook again?" Isabela asked.

"When I was banished from the tribe... I worked in a tavern for a while. Cook, waitress, cleaner. Everything."

"Why were you banished?" the guard asked curiously.

Kira stopped eating, her ears drooping.

"Because... I protected someone I shouldn’t have."

She looked at Haru. "And I’d do it again."

Haru swallowed his food with difficulty, emotional but unsure how to express it.

Isabela observed this, absolute loyalty between the two.

"Can gamers really create true bonds?" she thought.

"Daddy..." Yukihime tugged at the sleeve of Haru’s robe, "...will you pick me up from school every day?"

"I will... I think everyone’s going to boarding school anyway..."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

She smiled broadly and went back to eating.

The butler raised his glass. "A toast... to this strange family that has formed."

Everyone stood up, water, juice, nothing alcoholic because Yukihime was there too.

"The strange family!" they repeated.

**ACHOO!**

Haru looked around the table:

Yukihime happily eating. Kira smiling genuinely. Isabela still somewhat suspicious but present. The guards relaxed. Warm house. Good food.

"This... this is good," he thought.

And for the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to believe that maybe, just maybe, it would work out.

After dinner, when everyone had gone upstairs, Haru stayed in the kitchen helping Kira wash the dishes.

Upstairs, Isabela lay on the bed looking at the ceiling. "Gamers seem good but they aren’t..." she reminded the old woman.

"...But what if this one is different?"

She turned to her side, hugging her pillow.

"...I want to believe so."

System notified Haru:

◊ Isabela Trust: 50% > 85% (slow recovery)

◊ Kira Loyalty: absolute