#70 Parting ways

I and Taeko continued training for the next 2 days and we ended our last training session close to sunset.

"Akashi, can you go with me somewhere? I want to show you something." Taeko asked me with a slightly shy smile while looking at me with pleading eyes and her hands held behind her back.

"Of course I will go with you." I answered with a gentle smile and gestured for her to lead.

While I was following Taeko somewhere to look at my progress in those few days.

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Class: Blade Master (Lv. 3; +7 Str, +7 Agi, +3 Const) 51/80 XP

Beastmaster (Lv. 3) 27/40 NXP

[You are now able to control up to 100 lesser Beasts.]

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I already had time to hatch some Wrigglers eggs and I must say that it's kinda disgusting how they burst from the victim's body. At first, I had no idea how to do that but communicating with Wriggler Flies did its job. They are much more intelligent than other types and therefore they can be used on communication and they can even inform me of numerous things, they are really great spies.

The state of beasts under my control looks like this...

[50x Beetle Wriggler]

[20x Blood Butterfly Wriggler]

[30x Wriggler Flies]

Of course, some of them already died but I refilled them within only one "hatching session".

"We are here..." Taeko's voice woke me up from my thoughts and when I focused my eyes in front of me I was a bit shocked by the sight I saw. We were currently standing on the peak of the hill and Taeko was standing in front of me with her hands held behind her back while looking at me with a loving smile with the background of the Sun slightly below the western half of the horizon, making the entire sky painted in orange color.

*Ta-thump* My heart just skipped a beat for a moment and I couldn't help but look down with closed eyes and smile across my face.

Even if this world is even more unfair than my previous world, it's also even more beautiful if one knows how to appreciate it.

"T-This is the place I always liked to visit in case I was feeling down. What do you think, Akashi?" Taeko asked me with a nervous smile.

I approached her and wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her closer to me.

"?" She was slightly surprised but she still put her hands on my chest while looking up at my face with a tender smile.

"It's beautiful up here but your presence is making it even more beautiful" I said my honest thoughts while looking at her with eyes full of affection.

"Akashi..." She just called out my name and then closed her eyes while bringing her face closer.

I followed and we sealed our lips together with the sun rays of sunset illuminating our figures in orange light.

For some kind of reason, none of us wanted to involve our tongues in such a moment.

After more than 20 seconds of kissing, we finally separated from each other but not too far away and we joined our foreheads together while staring in each other's eyes.

"Your eyes are like on fire, they look dominating however they are also warm and gentle." Taeko suddenly muttered with a bright smile.

"Your eyes, on the other hand, are extremely calming, your lime green eyes are giving off a calming aura of nature. Staring at them makes my entire mind and body calm" I smiled after hearing her words so I said what I was thinking myself while staring into her lime green eyes.

"Akashi, this will be your last night here, right?" Taeko said with a slightly sad tone and suddenly moved her head a bit back and then tightly hugged me while resting her chin on my shoulder and pressing her head to mine.

"...That's right, I need to return to the Capital and you coming with me is dangerous but I will keep visiting whenever I will have time. And when I will finally hire your entire clan and secure most of the Capital, I will take you with me, that is if you want to come with me." I said with a regret visible in my face.

"I want to go with you but I understand that the circumstances aren't the best. I will wait for you, Akashi, even if it will take numerous years, I don't care." Taeko said with a resolved voice.

"But..." She suddenly continued which slightly surprised me.

"Before you leave...can we do 'that' again?" She suddenly asked me in a low voice.

"Heh, we can't because we must!" I chuckled and said with a teasing tone while pressing her body even closer to me, feeling her breasts pressing to my body made me already hard but it was very strange...I was immune to seduction and even when I see naked women it is no new thing to me and my member usually won't even bother to react but whenever I am with Taeko it feels like I am a horny teenager, haha.

We sat down at the edge of the hill, spending a few more minutes with cuddling while watching the sunset. When the Sun was no longer visible, we decided to go back and eat dinner, take a shower before we started fooling around inside her room. That night...we fooled around almost the entire night and we only went to sleep when it was close to dawn.

The next day after eating breakfast, I went to ask Daniel if he doesn't have any formal uniform since he was the only man here with a butler outfit so I thought that he ought to have something. I didn't want to wear rags that I used during my disguise. Thankfully, he had some suitable clothes and surprisingly, he gave them to me for free so I was finally ready to leave and already outside of the hideout.

I was slightly surprised when everyone went to see me off...even Mera which creeped me out a bit, to be honest.

"The next time we meet, I want to continue our match!" Gil shouted at me while pointing at me with her finger and a competitive smile across her face.

"Goodbye, it was a pleasant time with you around." Dora said with a calm tone while bowing a little bit to me with closed eyes.

Daniel also bowed to me with a grateful expression so I just nodded at him.

"Well, you didn't cause any problems here so you being here for some time was acceptable." Mera said with a teasing smile while holding her umbrella but she was acting a little bit weird from her usual self.

"Have a safe trip back, mister Red Devil~! It's really unfortunate that we came back just this morning, we missed all the fun..." Even the twin-sisters Loris and Meela returned when I was getting ready to leave.

Chelsea, on the other hand, was just looking at me with a complicated expression as if she wasn't sure if she should be happy or sad, quite funny.

"Mera...What are your plans with that assassination unit? I know that your pride won't let you just let them go or return the money to the Revolutionary Army. I must warn you that their teamwork is superb also their strength isn't something to underestimate, Taeko can tell you more about it." I asked with a serious expression.

"...I am planning to wait a bit and investigate them more. However, we still need to at least weaken them a bit. We are allowed to end the contract by returning money and doing at least a little bit of expected job but that would certainly stain our reputation." Mera said with a thoughtful expression and everyone was surprised by hearing her words, that she even mentioned not completing the contract.

"I see, well, once I will hire you, your current reputation will become completely irrelevant anyway so you don't need to think about it so much. As for the second point about at least partly completing your job...I can help you with that if I will get a chance, I will kill at least one of them" I said with a small smile but in my eyes was visible hatred when I thought of that guy who almost killed Taeko.

"But you aren't Oarburgh, if you were to do that then the contract-" She said with a troublesome expression.

"Are we honestly still discussing if I am Oarburgh or not? Isn't this more than enough of proof?" I asked while ordering my own Wrigglers to come out of my shadow.

"?!" Twin sisters immediately became speechless when they saw me controlling Wrigglers.

"...*sigh* I guess there is no need to speak about your position anymore, you already know everything about us and you also lived here with us for a short time. Have a nice trip and good luck, hehe" Mera released a short sigh with a small smile before turning around, returning the hideout, her maids threw a last glance at me before following after Mera.

After saying goodbye to everyone, most of the people returned to the hideout expect for Babara and Taeko.

"...I just wanted to thank you for saving me, I can feel that my strength is slowly recovering so I will be able to perform my duties just fine. That's all, I will let you two alone, heh" Babara said with closed eyes and hands behind her back, it's apparent that it was difficult for her to thank me because she wasn't accustomed to thanking someone. She left us leaving only teasing words behind which Taeko responded with a small blush.

Taeko kept staring at me with a sad expression for a while without saying anything while the sun was right above our heads.

"Come here..." I spread my arms and ordered with a playful smile.

Taeko instantly smiled and jumped at me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

When she jumped at me, I immediately gently pinched her ass totally surprising her.

"Ak-?! Mm..." She wanted to exclaim something with wide-open eyes but I sealed her lips with mine before she could say anything and she immediately surrendered to me and closed her eyes.

Since it was our goodbye, we didn't waste any time and started using our tongues while I was also squeezing Takeo's firm yet soft ass with my hands. I also ordered a few of my Wriggler Flies to hide in Taeko's shadow just in case. Since they were in my full control, I would be able to keep connection to them despite being a great distance away from them.

When we finally separated after a minute, the bridge of saliva remained between our lips. So we got rid of it by kissing one last time this time without our tongues.

"Never show such a sad smile to me ever again. Your stoic expression, your smile, your focused expression, everything suits you and make you even more beautiful but never wear that sad expression ever again. We will meet again very soon." I comforted her with a tender smile while caressing her cheek and tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Mm!" Hearing my words, a single tear escaped from Taeko's eyes however she had a satisfied and happy smile on her face.

I wiped away the tear and we proceeded to kiss each other for the last time before parting ways.

Taeko kept standing on the same spot while watching my slowly disappearing back which almost made me remain but I forced myself to stop looking behind me by biting my lower lip.

...This was much harder than I thought it would be...I wasn't sure at that time if I was just extremely fond of Taeko or if I truly loved her, but now I think that I truly do love her. We, humans, work in a really strange way...we usually don't appreciate what we have until we lose it or about to lose it. This is a slightly similar case.