Chapter 52
Anschel looked up at Ender with a gloomy face. His red eyes, which had sunk coldly, had been darkly flashing until now. No, curiosity arose about what was written in the letter that would make Ender McGuire show such a reaction.
“What was in the letter?”
“……”
“Let me see it.”
Since he didn’t particularly stop him, Anschel reached out his hand, picked up the letter that had been thrown, and quickly scanned it. It was indeed a letter from the President. And it contained predictable content.
It was a letter full of the President’s ambitious aspirations to sweep away the northern merpeople. The President was arguing that merpeople should be completely expelled from the sea. If it had been in the past, Anschel too would have been impressed and sympathetic to this aspiration.
But in the last paragraph, there was a sentence whose meaning was incomprehensible.
‘Moriarty… Moriarty?’
It was a somewhat unfamiliar word. Anschel narrowed his eyes and read it through. Of course, it didn’t escape his lips.
[Show us your power, Moriarty.]
This seemed to be what had angered Ender, but Anschel couldn’t understand it at all.
“For now… there are many eyes here. Let’s go back to the base.”
Though Anschel quietly suggested this, Ender did not answer and took an electronic cigarette out of his pocket. Until the moment he turned on the electronic cigarette, Ender did not open his mouth.
The sight of him putting the electronic cigarette in his mouth and blowing smoke was a splendid scene that could have appeared in some magazine spread, but too many people were gathering around them. Anschel called him again.
“Colonel.”
“Sunbae, please let that person go now.”
Instead of answering the anxious Anschel, Ender spoke to Harriet, who was restraining Antonio.
Harriet, with the same slightly smiling expression, released the knee that had been restraining Antonio’s back. Antonio, who had been watching Harriet limping with a strange gaze, slowly got up while rubbing his chin.
He prepared for a possible attack, but Antonio didn’t move. He probably didn’t have the courage to confront Harriet, whose strength was immeasurable, and Ender, who was nominally the strongest ability user, on his own.
Instead, he shouldered Tammy and turned his back. Then he glared at Anschel with blazing eyes.
‘Ah, why me? Right, I’m the easiest target here!’
Anschel swallowed his curse. Antonio said while rubbing his chin:
“…You’ll regret it. Pointing a knife at the President.”
“……”
Why are you telling me this?
Anschel was too flabbergasted to answer.
* * *
Angela got out of the car, touching her hair tied up in a ponytail. The pointed ribbon sticking out was very cute. Wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt with mint-colored polka dots and short jeans, she smiled so widely that her fangs stood out prominently, and said to Ryan who was getting out after her:
“Let’s drop these off at the office and go home.”
Ryan closed the car door while holding various items to be installed inside the office. He was wearing a white t-shirt and navy cotton pants, with a wristwatch and a red string bracelet on his wrist that she hadn’t seen before. Angela stared at him as if licking his appearance for a moment, then closed her eyes.
‘It feels like a date.’
And she cleared her throat. Angela checked her watch while rubbing her reddened cheeks with one hand. Fortunately, they had arrived at the base before sunset. Ryan, who had been examining Angela’s appearance, tilted his head, and she cleared her throat again.
“Did we forget anything?”
“No, we bought everything we needed.”
“The captain’s mug?”
“I got it.”
Ryan answered lightly as he moved toward the office. Angela pouted. Having known him for five years, Angela was his senior, but they had the same rank and got along well, so they often went around together—a perfect position for a strange atmosphere to develop between a young man and woman.
Ryan’s face, with its cute freckles, had no rough edges anywhere. Angela, who was staring at Ryan’s back as he walked ahead, took a piece of paper out of her pocket.
“Ah, how many live chickens did we buy?”
Ryan muttered, then turned around, approached Angela closely, and lowered his body.
Oh my? Look at this guy. Is he flirting now?
“Five.”
“That should be enough.”
They had bought five live chickens for the tiger. If it were its original size, that would be enough for a day’s meal. The animal esper tiger had once returned to its original size and got in big trouble, so now it was maintaining a small form.
On the day when the tiger’s irritation peaked and it returned to its original size, it had bitten Angela’s arm when she kept touching it saying it was cute.
If it had been Ryan, the attack would have been enough to tear off his wrist and more, but Angela was different. She looked alternately at her bitten forearm and the tiger, then smiled broadly. And she brought her hand to the tiger’s fang.
Crack.
The tiger’s tooth broke pathetically. Angela crushed one of the tiger’s fangs with her hand and put it in her mouth, chewing it. Crunch—the tiger’s tooth, shattered into pieces in Angela’s mouth, fell to the floor.
Seeing this, both Ryan and the tiger’s expressions became very pale, and the tiger shrank small and trembled at Angela’s feet.
‘Me… meow.’
The tiger imitated a cat, which it was not. They say animal espers develop their brains as much as they have abilities, and that seemed to be true. Angela, who spat out the tooth fragments with a “ptu” sound, smiled and said:
“You shouldn’t bite people, meow~ What would you have done if it wasn’t me?”
“I think someone’s in the office?”
Angela turned her head toward the office and opened her eyes wide.
“The captain?”
“Did he come to work…”
Ryan said cautiously. It didn’t seem likely that Harriet would dutifully give up his holiday to come to work, but… the two exchanged glances and then tiptoed toward the office.
And the two of them stood side by side, listening at the door crack. The murmuring sound from inside suggested there was more than one or two people. Among them was Harriet’s small voice.
Angela opened the office door after knocking a couple of times with relief. As expected, Harriet was in the office. He was sitting on the sofa, spotted Angela, and smiled slightly. He even waved, so Angela was about to approach him with a bright smile.
However, Anschel and Ender were standing beside the sofa where Harriet was sitting, and a gloomy, dark energy was flowing between them. That energy, of course, was not from Harriet or Ender. The culprit was Anschel.
Anschel looked down at his hands with gloomy eyes. It was Colonel Ender McGuire who had beaten up Tammy, and Harriet who had restrained Commander Antonio. But why was he the one receiving the declaration of war, and why did he alone have to receive the advice from the President and Antonio—it was truly incomprehensible.
At that moment, seeing Angela who had entered through the door looking very cute, Anschel complimented her with a dark face:
“You look extremely cute, Angela.”
“Ah, yes… thank you.”
Angela, who didn’t look very thankful, put down the items she had bought. It seemed the purpose of coming to the office was probably to drop off those items in advance.
Angela asked Harriet why the Lieutenant was acting like that, but he just smiled softly and answered:
“Yes. You’re cute, Angela.”
…There seems to be something that only people with the surname An understand.
As Anschel bowed his head gloomily, Angela wanted to shake his shoulders and ask what was wrong. But today, Anschel didn’t notice such feelings from Angela.
Antonio’s words that he would regret it and that he had pointed a knife at the President kept echoing in his head. Anschel didn’t want to regret, and he didn’t want to do the reckless act of pointing a knife at the President yet.
But the current situation was proceeding strangely, different from his intentions. He still didn’t understand why everyone seemed to know that Anschel Lee had orchestrated all the incidents.
Harriet, who pitied the depressed Anschel, moved. Ender’s gaze, of course, followed his senior. Harriet whispered to the gloomy Anschel, who might die at any moment from the President’s tricks:
“Anschel, can you listen for a moment?”
“…What is it?”
“Ender.”
Could Colonel Ender have a brilliant strategy? Right. It’s his own doing, so he should.
Anschel nodded, his eyes sparkling.
“He said he masturbated while looking at me.”
“……”
“……”
“…Pardon?”
A slight blush rose to Harriet’s white cheeks. Anschel had now missed the timing as usual. It wasn’t about a strategy at all, but relationship advice.
“So…”
Harriet, who sighed slightly, continued to whisper in Anschel’s ear.
“This time, I want to masturbate while watching Ender.”
Though he was clearly whispering in his ear, it wasn’t particularly in a volume meant to be hidden, so Anschel couldn’t bring himself to turn and look at Ender McGuire.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
