Chapter 58 - Intermission
Chapter 58 – Intermission
Back at home, it seemed nothing had changed even though it had been more than four days. The house was still neat as they were only gone for a while. Del placed his backpack right next to the couch as usual.
He sat himself down on the couch, "Damn, I miss this damn couch." He put his M240 on the couch and he got a notification on his tablet that told him that the weapon customization for G3 had been finished. Del pressed the notification and a G3 appeared on the coffee table in front of the couch.
"Del, what is that thing that you always hold?" Cassandra asked since Del always held the tablet ever since he found it on the ancient site.
"This?" Del showed his tablet, "It's called a tablet, a rugged one on that."
"I see, does it have any special feature?" Cassandra asked.
"Well, more or less, at the very least, this thing has a map of the entire region so I shouldn't get lost anytime soon," Del said.
"That's quite a convenience, don't you think?" Cassandra asked.
Suddenly, Cole interrupted, "You know, Del acted as if he understood everything about the ancient tech when he was in the ancient site. It seems his knowledge of another world really helped when traveling on the ancient site."
"Another world?" Cassandra was curious.
Del just realized that Cassandra was not aware of his origin. Even if every single thing that Del used was not from that world, it seemed that no one really batted an eye. It might be because there might be something stranger than that.
"Yeah, Del hasn't told you about that?" Cole asked.
"No, he never told me about that. Is that true?" Cassandra asked.
"More or less, yeah," Del replied.
Cassandra hummed, "So, Elbanian is going into war again, huh? I will bet next year will be quite hectic for me. You know, Del, what did those cousin fuckers tell you when you arrived at this world? I really want to know."
Del explained that he and his classmates were summoned by the court magicians of that country to fight the demon lords. Del told Cassandra that he didn't believe in the bullshit that the king uttered to him and the classmates. He also mentioned that he was banished from the party of the heroes.
"Ah, the classic method of manipulating the youth, I see," Cassandra nodded. She understood something.
"What do you mean by that?" Del asked.
Cassandra sat down on the couch, "Now I understand why you are so friendly with Cole and me. People of this world won't even be nice to a demon most of the time. Anyway, I think Elbanian summoned you and your classmates because the last time Elbanian summoned adults, it didn't end too well."
"Huh? How so?" Del asked.
"Well, at first, they explained about the cruelties of the demon lord and all. However, it didn't take too long until they saw through Elbanian's lies. At first, the heroes questioned the Elbanian about their objective, they didn't get their answer. After that, it revolted into defiance. Reian Genocide was the last nail in the coffin before the heroes started a full-blown rebellion against Elbanian itself," Cassandra explained.
"How did it work out?" Del asked.
"It failed catastrophically. The heroes were just a mascot for their cause. At the end of the day, it was Elbanian that did all of the heavy liftings such as bombarding the Reian with their airship or fighting the demons. Bounty hunters came after them as hard as they could and they died," Cassandra said.
"That's quite… surprising," Del said. He always thought that the heroes were the strongest people in Elbanian. It turned out that it was a lie, huh? He was not surprised about that. Cole had told him about the heroes were only a mascot, but he didn't know that the heroes used to be an adult.
"For me, it's not that surprising. I keep some information that I learned from IS anyway," Cassandra said.
"What's IS?" Del asked.
"It stands for Internal Security. Cassandra worked for Internal Security for a while after she joined her volunteer organization, or that was what she told me," Cole answered, but he was doubtful with his own answer.
So, the woman that accidentally killed him was personnel from an intelligence agency, huh? So that was the main reason why she was quite powerful. It also meant that Cassandra was quite an important person in Ilbistirum.
"Tell me again, who are you?" Del asked.
"Do you really need to know?" Cassandra asked.
"Yeah, after all, we need to trust each other, right?" Del asked.
"Alright, I think I won't keep any secret from you. My name is Cassandra Gable. I'm a general surgeon at Heria Hospital. Currently, I'm studying at Southview Medical University. I'm taking my master's degree as we speak. On the side, I'm Group C leader of MVSI and a freelance contractor of IIS."
"I… see," Del said.
"Do you have any questions for me?" Cassandra asked.
"I have a lot, but I want to ask some questions that I think are important. One, does the demon lord or Reian really have a spell that can make us return to our own world?" Del asked.
"I didn't remember whether there was something such as that in our world. Even though I know that Elbanian is the only country capable of bringing someone from outside of this realm," Cassandra explained.
"So all of it is lies," Del said.
"Most of it, yeah," Cassandra answered.
"Anyway, where is Ilbistirum?" Del asked.
"Ilbistirum is a country located three weeks away from Elbanian. You need ship to get there and it will take a very long time. Still, if you want to go there, we can take you there," Cassandra said.
"How?" Del asked.
"There's a smuggler ship on the north, in the border region between Elbanian and Irium. You can take that ship to go to Ilbistirum. Still, going there is quite a challenge if you are wanted by the Elbanian. Don't worry though, we know some secret routes," Cassandra said.
"I'll keep that in mind. Still, I want to bring my sister first," Del said.
"Your sister? Did Elbanian even bring a person younger than you?" Cassandra asked.
"Nah, she is my twin sister. She's still with the heroes, but she will eventually meet me again, sooner or later," Del explained.
"Ah, I see. Well, what happened between you all anyway?" Cassandra asked.
"Well, I was kicked out of the heroes party because I was too weak which I admit that I was. Still, the thing that I disliked is that the Elbanians threw me into the middle of nowhere with nothing and I'm not even from this world," Del said.
"Ah, it must have been tough for several months. Still, you're not weak. Heck, I can say that you should be ranked C at the very least," Cassandra said.
"Maybe later, right now, I just want to rest here for a while. Still, Cassandra, thanks for taking care of both of us," Del said.
"Hey, no problem. If you're Cole's friend, you're my friend too. Maybe we have few disagreements, but I don't have any bad opinion of you, I'm honest," Cassandra said.
"Thanks, it means a lot coming from you," Del said.
"It's my pleasure."
"Anyway, can you let me sleep for a while?" Del asked.
"Sure," Cassandra left Del in the living room.
Del closed his eyes. Wolfie was sleeping right beside him. Life was going all well for him. He just needed to wait for his twin sister to visit him. However, Del really doubted that their reunion would be easy. He still had a lot of things going between them.