Mortal World 9

The whole way back Yano coaxed Lia as if she was his wife, angry about a mistake her husband made. Lia couldn't repeat more than enough that she didn't care about what he did but he didn't listen while spouting nonsense that he only will ever have one person in his eyes.

"You know we could-"

"Shut up," Lia was fed up, "You don't know anything about me and you try to play your charms."

Lia even wanted to add that he didn't even know how she really looked like as she was still in her teacher's disguise. Her honey-blonde hair swayed in the wind.

"But I do!" Yano made another desperate attempt before Lu stopped him, "Give it up for now."

Yano sighed but Lia long had him out of her mind, "By the way, why did all the ghosts crowd that one house?"

"It wasn't only yours," Lu spoke, "While we chased after the stray ones, we came across the same situation a few tiems and we found a talisman on each house."

"Talisman? So someone deliberately put it up there?" Lia debated.

"Either the victims did it themselves believing it was a lucky charm or someone else did it without their knowledge. I tend towards the latter because it's too much coincidence, how many?"

"7," Holn answered.

"Yeah, 7 houses had the same talisman which can't be a coincidence or they could all just be terribly religious or be in the same cult," Yano continued.

"If it really wasn't the victims themselves, then it must be the same person wanting to harm them," Lia thought.

"Or this is only a test to see the effects."

"What?" Lia, Lu and Holn turned to Yano.

"Just an assumption but we'll check it out. I'll have a specialist sent to investigate."

"Sounds good," Lu agreed with Yano's decision. They arrived at the base and simultaneously headed to the cafeteria. It was already almost midnight but they got some drinks and sat down at a table.

"Hey Kim," Holn spoke up and evaded Yano's glare, "Don't worry, I won't ask anything unreasonable haha!"

Holn was laughing too much to not be suspicious.

"I just want to know, how was it? Purging ghosts, did you get used to Yano's sword?"

"Oh," Lia obviously couldn't tell them she's been an exorcist and now that she thought about it, Yano didn't even question how she purged all the ghosts outside. He trusted her and left it all to her.

"It's a bit scary but I got quickly used to it and the sword was easy to use."

"Hehe," Yano put on a self-serving smile. Lia rolled her eyes, she wasn't even praising him. Even though it wasn't a lie to say the sword felt like her own.

"I think we might have a rising talent, Yano, watch out," Holn teased, "How about staying in the Mortal World?"

At this Yano's ears pricked up.

"No, I need to go back," Lia quickly shot it down.

"Do you know what your power is?" Lu asked Lia.

Lia wondered what she had forgotten to do, she wanted to test if her life force had any effect on the ghosts. All because of Yano, she forgot such a crucial point.

An angry glare was sent to Yano who passed it on to Lu. Lu only wanted to get a simple answer, why, instead, did he receive such misfortune?

"Not yet," Lia lied.

"A shame but guess! Guess what Lu's power is!" Holn excitedly turned the focus to Lu. Again what did he do to receive this?

Lia looked at Lu. What she instantly got from him after getting to know each other was that he was an extremely lazy person. Even the way he sat there seemed like his body was too lazy to stabilise his bones.

What power could benefit him?

"Maybe an ability that lets him purge ghosts with a word?"

"Ahahaha, you heard that Lu? Did you? Lu did you? Even Kim can read you like a book!" Holn hit the table in his cackle before saying, "Maybe he could have had that but it's not, maybe similar?"

Holn was laughing too much to continue, "It's! It's a funny story!"

"Because you messed him up" Yano sipped on his drink before sneakily trying Lia's. Lia caught him and gave him a look in disdain when Yano offered her his. Now, her face turned disgusted. Yano lowered his head and played with his drink meekly.

Holn laughed even more at this interaction.

"I'll explain it, simple," Lu wasted his breath.

"No, no, no! I'll do it!" Holn recollected himself and interrupted. This was a golden opportunity for Holn to take a dab at Lu, how could he let it go?

"Lu's power is a hose!"

"A hose?" Lia's imagination ran wild and she looked Lu down until Yano shielded her eyes, "Where do you think you're looking at?"

Then he said all solemn, "Look at mine."

Again Lia looked at him disgusted. Holn was really having a blast while Lu sipped on his drink too lazy to bother.

"He can create a hose out of his life force and sprinkle holy fire on the poor ghosts who didn't see it coming!" Holn slapped the table again.

"It was all my beautiful deed, still my proudest work until now, who could ever know that something like that was possible?" Holn's cackle filled the room.

Lia didn't understand, "What do you mean?"

"10 years ago the academy didn't have those funny little pills you swallow to give you powers. Those were the good ol' times where the imposing Ghost King would come and infuse you with his y'know," Holn started to seriously tell the story of his glorious act.

"Just the day before, I secretly gave Lu holy water to drink and this lad here actually enjoyed it, so the next day when he received his power, he literally was a hose! The holy water just flushed out of him! Damn, you should've seen everyone's faces, especially the Ghost King's! Man, with a serious face he told Lu 'interesting'," Holn mimicked Min's voice and Lia couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

It did sound like Min but having someone make fun of him was too refreshing. Yano put his head in his palm and watched Lia's eyes curve. It was a beautiful sight and he wished he could make her smile like that.

"Since then Lu's known as the hose guy, the holy hose guy ahahahah!" finally Holn's beautiful story came to an end.

"So, Lu has suffered for all those years because of you. I feel bad for him," Lia remarked and didn't notice Yano's stare but the other two did.

"Well, you also aren't being nice to a certain person," Holn grinned. Lia painfully slowly turned to Yano and rolled her eyes. Yano was for the 1000th stabbed. If he was honest, he really didn't know what made her dislike him so much.

Was it because of the past? That one time? Or because he kept insisting on returning even though she was unbelievably happy with another guy, a certain other guy the first few times?

This time Yano narrowed his eyes in disdain and displeasedly slurped on his drink. The rest of the time until a little bit after midnight they talked in the cafeteria before Yano stood up and pulled Lia with him.

"What?" Lia had a great time talking with them, especially when Holn was very funny and she enjoyed his stories.

"It's late, you have to sleep," Yano took Lia by the hand until they arrived at their floor.

"I'm not a child nor a mortal," Lia shook Yano's hand away and disappeared in her room.

"Don't forget breakfast tomorrow morning and training," Yano shouted after her.

Lia slumped on her bed and rolled to the side. Today was a very exhausting day but it wasn't too bad either.

As for Yano… she didn't understand why he was trying so hard to please her, just what did he want from her?

But all in all, staying here for a month, training and getting hands-on experience was a good time for Lia to improve. Hopefully, the others were doing fine in the Immortal World and weren't too worried about her. There was no communication possibilty to the Immortal World except for the gate.

Everything should be alright. They wouldn't act impulsively.