Sebi was startled as he sensed the ability radiating from Nerio, who was coolly just looking at Bellona leading an equally confused Chunmi, Akhenaten and Necomir away.
Nerio turned to Sebi and Misharu, graciously giving them an apologetic smile as she said, “I’m sorry. Please bear with me.”
Misharu was so tired that he didn’t have any qualms, while Sebi simply nodded, since Nerio was a host and Bellona’s family issues were none of his business so there was no use going against her even if he did want to help out.
When Bellona came around, she and her friends were already inside the living room. Nerio sat in front of a middle-aged woman. In front of them was a table with what seemed like a chess game on top. Sebi had never seen anything like it. Instead of the traditional Western or Chinese chess games that he had seen, the one they were playing seemed to be a variant of the Western one and instead of little wooden figures, they used crystal blocks with one side having blue iridescence and the other having pink.
Bellona angrily turned to Nerio and barked, “You dare manipulate us?!”
“Bellona,” the middle-aged woman called out to her. She didn’t look particularly strict – she actually looked quite gentle. Only, her voice seemed to have a strange sort of pressure that made anyone want to bow their heads and heed her. Even Sebi could feel the pressure, unable to block it out.
“Sorry,” Bellona tentatively mumbled.
The atmosphere inside the room wasn’t right. It made them a bit awkward. Akhenaten felt jumpy from the tension and blurted out, “H-Hi, Auntie!”
The woman smiled. “Hello, Akhenaten. You’ve grown a lot since the last time you came here.”
He laughed shakily as he ruffled through the hair at the back of his head. “You still look so young after so many years, Auntie!”
The woman chuckled. “Although the circumstances have become a little awkward, I am glad to have finally met Bellona’s little friends and see dear Akhenaten again.”
“Mom, we won’t be staying long,” Bellona grumbled through gritted teeth.
“Introduce me first,” the woman said, ignoring what she said.
“This is my mom, Minerva Yahontov,” Bellona kept on grumbling. “Mom, these are my friends.”
After introducing each one of them, Minerva nodded approvingly as she stared at the unknowingly talented batch that her daughter had managed to collect.
“You’re very talented, Bellona. You have a future in the family business,” Minerva said, rubbing her chin with a slender finger. “Your connections will surely be useful.”
While it sounded like a joke or was simply spoken offhandedly to outsiders, it was obvious that there was an underlying issue that triggered those words. Bellona snapped her head towards her and angrily said, “Are you done? Can we rest now?”
Minerva smiled. Sebi didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt a foreboding chill run through his body.
“Sebi…” Misharu spoke through his mind.
“Mn?”
“Don’t you think… Bellona’s family is a little weird? She seems cool but her sister and mother…”
“They probably have some family problems going on, it’s better not to comment on this and just let Bellona deal with it.”
“This is so awkward…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“You can go, the rooms have been prepared,” Minerva finally dismissed them. “Tomorrow, when all things go well, let us have dinner together.”
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He considered talking about it to Bellona, but when Necomir saw how exhausted everyone seemed to be, he simply shut up and silently went on high alert.
“There’s only three rooms in all, just check which baggages the servants put together,” Bellona said when they reached the guest rooms. “Chunmi has one for herself, so the boys will be sharing. Don’t worry, the beds are pretty big.”
Sebi felt nervous for no reason. When he went together with the other men to check, he was struck silly upon seeing who he was sharing rooms with.
“Ah, I want to exchange rooms with Necomir! I want to share with Decebal!” Misharu kicked up a fuss, his initial drowsiness disappearing when he learned that he was sharing rooms with Akhenaten.
“No need,” Necomir coldly said as he kicked out the other two and closed the door behind him and Sebi, whose face was so red it began to worry him.
“Sebi, are you sick?” he wondered as he reached out to touch his forehead, but Sebi quickly grabbed his hand.
“U-Um…” Realizing his mistake, Sebi quickly let go of his hand.
Necomir pursed his lips, dropping his hand awkwardly to the side.
“I can go tell Misharu to switch–”
“N-No!” Sebi said, frustrated by how flustered he was feeling.
This was only Necomir! It’s not like it was some stranger! It’s just Necomir, your friend, the person you really like–
“Crap,” Sebi mumbled as he sighed heavily. “Sorry, I just… feel a bit drowsy. I’m not acting myself.”
Necomir looked at him intently before he chuckled and nodded.
“Alright, go wash up first. I’ll finish up with some work.”
Sebi tilted his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows. “That’s not good, you’re on vacation.”
Necomir smiled. “It’s just a little schoolwork, nothing too heavy.”
After chatting, Sebi went off to prepare his things. Once he had his toiletries and clothes ready, he went off to wash up. He didn’t dare act nonchalant in just a bathrobe and hastily dried himself then slipped into his blue pajamas with patterns of yellow.
When Sebi went out, Necomir looked up from his finalized work, gazing at him then suddenly laughed.
Eyebrows furrowed together, Sebi said, “What are you laughing at?”
“Are those chicks on your pajamas?” Necomir chuckled.
Sebi looked at him pointedly and grumbled, “These are bananas!” as if that made anything better.
The bath had made Sebi’s skin look a bit pinkish. Together with his annoyance, it made him look especially aggrieved. Like a kid who had been wronged and was about to cry.
“Alright, I was just joking,” Necomir coaxed him as he cleaned up his things. “I brought a blow dryer with me, remember to dry your hair first before you sleep.”
Sebi nodded and accepted the device from Necomir before he entered the bathroom for his turn.
The warmth of the blow dryer was so comfortable and mixed with the exhaustion from the trip, Sebi felt his eyes start to droop from drowsiness. When his hair seemed dry enough, he turned off the blow dryer and immediately fell asleep before Necomir could come back.
Sebi was a heavy sleeper. His dreams were vivid and vibrant, they didn’t seem to have any end. Only when he felt like an earthquake was shaking reality did he finally wake up.
“Wh-Wha…?” Sebi groggily uttered, squinting his eyes as he sat up and looked around.
“Sorry, I had to wake up,” Necomir suddenly whispered from his side. He was so close to him, almost pressed directly to his side that Sebi was forced to his full consciousness.
“Neco, what’s going on?” Sebi whispered.
“Don’t you notice?” Necomir answered. It was still dark, and the lamp’s yellow glow against his face gave him such an ethereal appearance. He narrowed his golden eyes and pointedly looked around. “Our room has changed.”
Sebi blinked and loomed around. He didn’t really notice the appearance of the room earlier, but did notice one thing that made him believe Necomir.
“Where did our bags go?” Sebi gasped as he threw the sheets away from his body and jumped out of bed.
Necomir hastily followed after him and took his hand to pull him back. “Shh, keep quiet. Don’t be noisy, something dangerous might be happening.”
“What do we do?” Sebi felt a bit jittery.
“Can you telepathically connect to Misharu? Let’s–”
“AHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK!”
Necomir and Sebi looked at each other then dashed out of the door to see who had screamed. At first, the door wouldn’t budge. It was stuck, and just as Sebi was about to forcefully use telekinesis to open it, Necomir lifted his foot and kicked it open.
Down the hallway, they rushed out to see Bellona and Chunmi huddled together. Bellona looked like she was in shock while Chunmi held her comfortingly, running a hand over her hair to soothe her. Misharu and Akhenaten were grimly talking in low voices in front of a gruesome scene.
It was a murder scene, with the terribly torn apart remains of people.
Sebi flinched in horror as he quickly clung to Necomir and closed his eyes. It was so horrible that Sebi, who had never seen such an unsightly thing despite having lived in a dark world in the past, couldn’t bear it.
“What’s going on?” Necomir asked, rooted on the spot as he let Sebi cling to his arm with cold hands, understanding that he had been spooked. He showed a hint of worry on his face as he frowned and asked, “Is that…?”
Bellona’s sobs suddenly grew louder.
“It can’t be,” Misharu said, shaking his head. “I can still sense a few people in the perimeter, they seem to be the servants and guards we met earlier, and they don’t seem suspicious.”
Necomir reached out and touched the wall. He closed his eyes and used his ability. His ability can come as random, but he can make it work when he needed it as long as he had a subject he can touch and probe.
In his mind flashed the same scenes from earlier, when they just arrived at the hall. Then, even earlier scenes with Bellona’s family came.
Necomir straightened up and shook his head. “Nothing happened. We’re still in your house.”
Bellona’s sobs suddenly stopped. Silence ensued, then she lifted her head up from Chunmi’s shoulder, revealing a very angry expression.
“I knew it!” she bellowed as she suddenly punched the wall next to her. A faint outline of her fist remained against the surface. “This is all their stupid shenanigans again!”
Akhenaten who had been silent for a while suddenly sighed. “If I have guessed right, your parents want you to solve this crime scene.”
Sebi raised his eyebrows tentatively. “Crime scene…? So… none of this is real?”
Misharu had been looming around the outside of the perimeter of the crime scene. When he heard what Sebi said, he suddenly had an idea.
“I’m going to touch the bodies,” he declared. “Or parts… whatever.”
“No, it’s better you–”
Akhenaten sighed when Misharu ignored him and just straight up touched the gut on the floor. When he did so, the thing seemed to flicker green before Misharu’s hand went through.
“It’s a hologram,” Chunmi spoke up.
“I’m sure now, your parents definitely want you to solve this,” Akhenaten firmly said.
“Your family did seem weird, but why would they bother replicating a crime scene and make you solve it…?” Misharu wondered.
Bellona sighed as her voice fell into a low whisper and she said, “My family owns the largest private security and investigation agency in the star system. We work closely with lots of government agencies, since the public law enforcers simply can’t cope up with everything.”
Sebi felt his mouth drop open. Necomir was the son of the Minister Marshal. Misharu was the heir of the Tsai Clan who held a prestigious position as one of the star system’s founders. Now, Bellona had a family that run a private security and investigation agency. Who’s next? Akhenaten and Chunmi are children of another government official?
Misharu hummed. “I see. But why do you feel hesitant?”
Bellona glared at him for peeping into her mind, but she ended up just sighing and shaking her head. “I want to be an archaeologist, I have no interest in the family business.”
“But what are you going to do now?”
“Solve it, of course,” Bellona said through gritted teeth. “They won’t leave us be if we don’t do what they say.”
“Don’t be upset, we’ll help you,” Chunmi coaxed her as she patted her back. “We need to look for clues. I’m sure we’ll have to look for clues leading up to the cause of this… this murder.”
“Then let’s all split up and search for clues,” Necomir said. “Be vigilant, let’s end this quickly.”
Author’s Notes:
The main plot of the storyline is unfolding~ R.I.P my chapter queue, I only have a chapter written left and everything is still just an outline 😂 I hope I don’t mess up the story and go off tangent sigh
Misharu is just silently eating vinegar~
Thanks for the chapter~
Very overbearing, no wonder Bellona doesn’t want to interact with them.
I see Neco still spoiling Sebi 😍
Thanks for the chapter <3
Sebi was cute today as well, his reaction when he noticed him and Neco would sleep in the same room was so cute. Truly a cinnamon roll.
Bellona’s family is surely strange, if my parents were like hers i’m sure i wouldn’t like them as much, though i understand they have high expectations of her and want her to take the family’s business, however they should respect that she wants to take a different path and not force it in her.
Anyway,
Thank you for the chapter.
Sebi is so adorable.
This test isnt just for Bellona only, i think the mother also wants to know their capabilities.
Thanks for the chapter