Arc 2 - Chapter 41: A Place for Dreams to Come True (2/2)

Yu understood that the son of Rolderhelm's heir prince, the one who shall one day rule the country, was trying to hit on Sivina, Ana and Lylphia. Lylphia seemed to be happy with the situation, while Sivina and Ana did not hesitate to express their discomfort.

Nevertheless, the prince continued to be a tease. It annoyed him that he was bothering those two girls, but there was someone else who was annoyed and it amused Yu to watch him throw a jealous fit in a corner.

"I wonder if I'm really guessing right? There's something about these two, I felt an attraction. There's no other reason why they could be so close to me and not be interested in me. After all, I'm very good."

In the days they had spent together, Yu had studied their relationship and tried to see if they were really in love.

But he couldn't be more interested in them right now because Yu's surroundings were much more beautiful than watching Raul. A lot of rich and noble girls were gathered around Yu, and Yurine was hugging Yu around the waist to keep him from losing him to anyone.

There were even two princesses among these girls who were sisters. They were close in age to Yu or a little older than Yu. One of the princesses had blue hair and Yu liked her too, but what he really liked was the princess with pink hair. She looked to be in her early twenties.

"Mr. Valarfin, what things do you like?" the princess asked.

The pink-haired princess was named Monia, the blue-haired one Simia. When Monia tried to strike up a conversation with Yu, the other girls, feeling their chances were diminishing, made faces, but they still wanted to see Yu's handsome face, so they stayed close to him.

"I like sweet girls."

With a gentle smile and a polite tone of voice, he replied jokingly. Except for the joking part, Yu was completely honest when he said it.

After Yu's answer, the cheeks of the two princesses and the other girls in the room turned pink and started giving Yu furtive glances. The only one who didn't compete for Yu's heart was Yurine, who continued to hug Yu with a sullen face.

"Mr. Valarfin, can you tell me how you caught the killer? I'm sure he never stood a chance against you."

One of the noble girls, whose name Yu didn't bother to remember, walked through the others and grabbed Yu's arm.

"Who stands a chance against me? I didn't even struggle. I was even thinking of giving the killer an advance, after all, not even a hundred of them can match my intelligence..."

Yurine couldn't take it anymore, the more Yu talked the more the girls approached him and the more Yu's ego swelled.

She stopped hugging him and grabbed his hand and started pulling it away. She wasn't doing it to say anything, she was just trying to stop Yu from talking to them anymore.

"Is she your daughter?"

"Hmph! None of your business!"

She silenced Monia without giving Yu a chance to answer. Yu stroked Yurine's head and tried to clear the air.

"I'm sorry, the prettier the girls around me, the more jealous Yurine gets."

Yurine was trying to think of something to do before the girls praised by Yu fell head over heels in love with him. She had to get him away from here somehow because even though she kept grabbing Yu's hand and pulling him away, she couldn't stop him from chatting with the girls.

But he didn't want to embarrass Yu, so he couldn't follow through with most of his plans. Would it work if Yu really pretended to be his father and threatened to tell his mother? Probably, but then Yu's nose would be too high for her to lower it again.

What else could she do? She couldn't say that Yu was a crook. Should she ask Sivina and Ana for help? No, they were too beautiful for Yurine to be careful.

"Yu, take me in your arms."

Yu did not refuse her and took her in his arms, but what should she do now? She had improvised just to do something.

"Mr. Valarfin, you are not only handsome but also very sweet," Monia said. She was too close to Yu that even Yurine could almost feel her breath.

"That's your sweetness," Yu said, offering a seductive smile.

"Yu, you idiot! Take me to the restroom!"

In trying to alienate the girls from Yu, she had served as an accessory for him and made them like him even more. Now all she could do was make Yu take him to the restroom and buy time to think of a new plan before the girls became more attached to him.

Yu did not refuse her again and asked the girls for permission and took Yurine inside the palace. When they arrived in front of the restroom, Yurine asked to be lowered to the floor as she didn't actually have a toilet.

"Are you jealous of me?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Come on, Yurine. It's not bad to be jealous, it's normal. You should be jealous when you find someone like me. Wait, that's wrong, you can't find someone like me because I'm unique."

Yurine didn't have a restroom, but Yu wanted to check his face in front of a mirror in the restroom. Just before he entered the restroom, a maid stopped him.

"Mr. Valarfin, His Excellency is wait to see you."

---

Yu and Yurine waited at the door of Rolderhelm Prime Minister Denise el Rolder's office. After a few minutes a man in a suit walked out of the room and a maid came out and told Yu that they could come in.

"Hello."

Denise el Rolder was a sixty-year-old man with white hair and light blue eyes. Unlike Satoshi, he was European.

"Sit down," Denise said, who had once rewound time. "Would you like something to drink?"

"It could be juice," Yu said.

"I want juice too."

Denise nodded and gestured to the maid, "Just get me some water."

The maid bowed her head and left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Are you from Earth?" Denise asked. He had spoken as soon as maid left.

"Yes."

After the answer, the room fell silent. Yu couldn't tell if he was the one who should continue the conversation or if he should wait for Denise to speak, but when the silence continued, he felt it was his duty.

"I'm curious, what year was it when you came from Earth?"

"Two thousand twenty-five."

"Hıhıhı... Pardon me..."

They were in the year thirty-nine, and if he was sixty now, Denise in the story would have been nineteen. If he came to earth in the year two thousand twenty-five, he was younger than Yu.

"Yu, why did you laugh?"

"I come from two thousand nineteen."

Denise came thirty-nine years earlier, but his time on earth was two thousand twenty-five, and Yu came thirty-nine years later, but his time on earth was two thousand nineteen.

"The world doesn't run parallel to us. That means..."

There was still a time in the First World when his older sisters never died.

"Time works funny between different dimensions," Denise said and the silence continued.

Denise was not likely to bring up the letter he had left at the academy. So it was up to Yu to bring up the writing after the drinks arrived.

"We found the letter you left at the Academy and read it. Your friend Natalia was the master of Yurine's mother Rie," he said as he drank his juice.

"Natalia?" Denise's wrinkled eyes widened. "She's still alive? I'm glad. She was never seen again after the last battle."

"She's not alive," Yurine said, but she didn't say that her mother killed her.

The slight smile on Denise's face disappeared and her cheeks hardened.

"Uh... When?"

"Four years ago."

Yurine answered again, but she still hadn't told him how she had died.

"Natalia told Yurine's mother about your adventure and that it was possible to grant wishes there. Then her mother told Yurine. Yurine and I are looking for Nekoverine because Yurine's mother died and when we go there we will wish for Rie to live."

Instead of saying that they would turn back time, he said that they would wish for Rie to live. If he had said that they would turn back time, Denise might not have told them where the Nekoverine was, thinking that his current self would be destroyed, and he might even have killed them to ensure the safety of himself.

"Ethalot."

"Ethalot?"

"Mount Nekonozwei is located in Ethalot. Nekoverine is there."

He said they would try to persuade Denise, but he had answered before anything was asked.

"I didn't think you'd say it right away," Yu couldn't hide his surprise.

"Why shouldn't I answer?"

Instead of revealing the location of the Nekoverine, Yu would have killed his opponents and secured his self-preservation.

"Little one, you must be a bit of an idiot? Maybe we'll turn back time too. When we turn back time, your current self will be gone, why are you saying that? Anyway, it was good for us."

He didn't know what motivated Denise to say that. Maybe he just wanted to help because Yu was from the same world as him.

"And where exactly is it?"

Denise put a map on the table and marked west of Ethalot with a pen.

"It's inside Mount Nekonozwei, but you can't enter here."

"Why?"

"It's not just a place where wishes come true," Denise said. "To preserve their youth, Ethalotian pilgrims enter the temple and bathe in the fountain of youth for forty days and forty nights. They consider Nekonozwei to be the center of the world, and no one is allowed inside. It doesn't matter how much money you have, only a pilgrim can enter, with the king's permission. The entrance of the temple also sealed. We entered from a northwest point of the mountain, it took us two day to climb. We broke the seal with brute force. I don't know if it's possible know, because Bedivere is not here to kill archangels anymore."

"I see..." He needs more details. "So, what will we face inside?"

Denise didn't answer that question. He only said one thing.

"You will only get one wish, don't think you can fool him. Just one wish."

"Him? Who is him?"

Despite Yu's insistence, Denise said nothing more about Nekoverine. Eventually Yu gave up and it was time for her other requests.

"Well, thank you for that information. There are... Or rather, there are two things I'd like to ask you."

"What do you want?"

"Now that you've given us an engagement, that's all well and good... Don't you think it's too dry? I mean... We're going on a trip or something, you could have at least given us a prize money."

Yu didn't do it for the money, but what he didn't do for the money was the Sony job. They had gotten rid of a murderer because of him and he thought he deserved money for that.

"How much do you want?"

"Now this killer usually kills well-off people, and if he kept killing people for another ten years in the future, you would lose a few hundred gold coins in taxes. I mean, three hundred... Four hundred... Five hundred if your heart desires..."

"That money can feed the army."

"And we are a small army in our own right."

Denise laughed at Yu's answer.

"Will you share this money with your friends?"

Yu took a deep breath and looked Denise in the eyes.

"And we had a court case."