[BL]The Hero and his Party Won't Let Me Go-Chapter 148: Ch : To Compensate

"It seems like you have something important to talk about. I will take the kids back to their room. You are free to join us once you are done here."

Shuu told the Emperor and quickly grabbed the kids to take them back to their room.

Rin obediently grabbed Shuu’s hand and seemed unbothered by what was happening. But Caelis hesitated for just a second and looked at Kaiden with a blank expression.

Kaiden did not look back at him, and with that, they returned to their room.

"Shuu-! Kaiden... looked angry..."

Caelis finally spoke when Shuu put him to bed, and Shuu could not help but be surprised by that observation.

"Really? Is that what it looked like to you? I thought his expression was blank, though."

Shuu pointed out, but Caelis shook his head.

"There was... something..."

Caelis tried to tell Shuu, but he gave up in frustration. Shuu patted Caelis’s head to put him to sleep.

"Don’t think too much about it. I am sure it is all fine. Now, go to sleep. I am sure you are as tired as Rin is."

Rin was already fast asleep on Shuu’s other side, and Caelis’s eyes slowly closed as well.

Shuu let out a relieved sigh as he watched the two kids fall asleep.

Truthfully, he was worried about Kaiden as well. He had noticed the unusual behavior at the end too.

But a part of him had told him not to dwell on it and instead take the kids back to their room. And that was what Shuu had done.

He had done what was right, and yet the feeling of something being ’wrong’ would not leave him.

Shuu also felt like he could hear a very faint whisper in the back of his mind, but he was sure it was just the stress of the situation talking to him.

_________

’Come... back... to... me.’

__________

Kaiden watched Shuu and the kids leave, and finally his breath eased as he looked at the guard who had brought him the news about the recent attack.

"S-Sir, here is the report."

The guard handed the piece of information Kaiden had been waiting for, and Kaiden quickly took it to check it out.

Nero’s handwriting looked back at him, and it made him sigh in frustration.

"Tsk, so the monsters are back? Is this all the outpost wrote to me in his report?"

Kaiden asked while looking at the paper in his hand.

His reports were usually a few pages long, filled with details. So this small report was worth noticing.

The small demons and creatures never truly died out, and even when the Demon King was gone, they usually lingered around and attacked small villages.

Of course, the public was not made aware of this so as not to cause trouble. And when such reports did come out, they were handled swiftly.

But this time, things seemed to be a little different.

"S-Sir, the whole village... we managed to relocate them in time, but the land got swallowed. W-What are we going to do?"

The guard looked terrified, and for good reason. He had witnessed the destruction left behind, and the scene of that blankness haunted him.

He had seen the village many times and had even lived there. But now, it was no more than a blank. Not even the rubble remained of that place.

"This is concerning. Since things are this bad, I will come and visit it myself with Nero. Make preparations for this immediately."

He told the guard, and the guard nodded and quickly left the scene.

The next morning, Kaiden left the imperial palace with Nero before the sun was even out. It was a long way to the village that he needed to check up on.

But as soon as they got closer, the soldiers started to get sick, and Emperor Kaiden made the decision to leave them behind.

From the halfway point, only he, Nero, and the guard who had informed them of what happened stepped forward.

But after a certain point, the guard began to struggle to walk as well.

Seeing as he was just a normal human, it was a given that he would struggle. But that did not mean he was about to give up.

Finally, Nero could not take it anymore and grabbed the guard before he collapsed.

"What is wrong with you? You are not going to make it at this rate. Do you want to die or something?"

Nero asked as he picked up the collapsed human body. He intended to help the guard up, but the guard pushed his hand away and tried to keep walking.

"I-It’s fine. We are close by. I can make it. I can-"

The guard collapsed once more and clutched his chest. The suddenness of this shocked Nero enough to make him kneel in front of the guard.

"Oi-! What happened? Are you alright-?"

Kaiden immediately pulled Nero back using his powers just as the guard attacked him with a small dagger hidden in his clothes.

The guard’s eyes were red and pupil-less. He attacked Nero and Kaiden but seemed unaware of what he was doing.

"He... does not recognize us? It feels like the guard is being controlled by something. I... cannot feel a human presence anymore."

That could only mean one thing- the guard was dead, and there was nothing they could do about it.

"How could this happen...?"

Nero complained as he looked at the human in front of him.

To think that he had just been with the guard and had not even noticed when this happened...

The guard attacked him, but Nero was not able to bring himself to attack back. It felt wrong to do so. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Nero, move."

But Emperor Kaiden had no such trouble. He pulled Nero aside, and his sword made quick work of the guard trying to hit him. There was not even a hint of hesitation or guilt in his expression, but that was to be expected.

Once the body fell, Emperor Kaiden grabbed the family crest as well as the necklace from the man’s neck.

"This should be enough to identify him. We will inform his family that he died on duty and compensate them."

Nothing could compensate someone’s family for a human life. But the guard was already dead, so this was the best they could do.