房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"It was not bad at all until that person showed up...!"

The child on the right leaned over the one in the middle and said to the one on the left.

"...could you get out of my face? It's bad enough that you insisted that we come here, Grazio..."

The child in the middle got annoyed and grabbed the face of the one leaning over them and pushed them back in their place.

As they did, long strands of black hair with green luster arose from under the hood and bristled like needles showing off the anger of the middle one...

"...!"

Zoemi's eyes widened.

Even without seeing her face or hearing the other two saying her name out loud, he knew who she was.

Somehow, Miriette ended up being in the same place at the same time as Zoemi.

Surprisingly, it seemed like in this timeline she would keep her hair long despite its liveliness and unruliness that always gave her so much trouble before.

The black-haired child had to use all of his strong will just to not rush to her side.

He had to be strong. She doesn't remember him. Until her memories return just like the demon lord Mirienne said, he will not approach her with that kind of ulterior motive.

Zoemi once sealed off his feelings and focused on being just the attendant to the dark-haired girl, and this time he was going to do the same.

Hell, he was actually ready to support her happiness even if her memories from the past timeline never return and she would choose to be with someone else.

Just seeing her safe and happy, just being able to see catch a glimpse of her – it was already worth more than his life...

"Shut up with the commotion over there! You with the fucked-up hair! Silence!"

"...!"

Zoemi came to peace with his inner self, but just then the armored man turned towards the audience and shouted at the group making a ruckus.

"You...!"

"Not here...!"

At first, it looked like the girl with the bristled hair would say something back, but the child on her left grabbed her hand and shook their head.

"I will make sure that papa will punish this guy later, okay?"

"...hmph... make sure that he will get punished, Ehmi..."

The child on the left asked to which Miriette answered grumpily, grabbing her bristled hair and forcefully pulling them down and stuffing them all back into her hood.

"...law of Aries, law of Taurus, law of Capricorn..."

*shing*

"Zoemi...? ZOEMI!"

Despite Miriette not blowing up and throwing a tantrum, the black-haired boy who witnessed it all was already in motion. Before his father could stop him, he already activated the battle-oriented star powers and snatched the heavy dagger from the sheath on Mizoe's back, jumping down from the stands onto the training grounds next to the armored man.

"Tsk...! Get that brat away from here!"

The instructor merely clicked his tongue and scoffed, waving his hand at the others to handle the matter for him but...

"A FILTH LIKE YOU CALLING HER HAIR FUCKED UP IS GOING TO PAY WITH HIS LIFE!"

*BOOOM*

Zoemi roared and kicked off the ground with enough power to create a crater in the place of his launch.

*WHAM* *CREAAAK* *CRUNCH*

"GHAAAARGHHH...?!"

The next moment Zoemi was already right in front of the armored man – the boy punched at the metal-clad knee of the idiot who dared to insult Miriette in his presence and the strength of his star-power-infused fist bend the metal, breaking the instructor's knee and throwing him off his feet, falling face first into the ground...

*STAB* *SHING* *SPLASH*

Where the blade of Zoemi's heavy dagger was already prepared to sink into the gap between the chestplate and the helmet of the armored man, stabbing into his throat and slicing through his flesh unleashing a fountain of blood that gushed out like a geyser.

"...huuuh...?"

*CLUNK*

The last words of the fallen man let out a shocked gasp right as his body hit the ground with the deafening clatter of metal.

"EVERY INSULT TOWARDS THE YOUNG LADY ESPINE WILL BE TREATED AS A CAPITAL OFFENSE AND PUNISHED ACCORDINGLY!"

*WHAM* *KHRRRRRRRRRR*

Zoemi howled in fury, not satisfied with the swift end of the fight, and kicked the body of the armored man, sending it tumbling like a ragdoll to the very middle of the arena where it lay getting bled out like a butchered pig in the absolute silence that befell the training ground.

"Don't stand like that! Somebody capture him!"

The staff working at the training ground was the first to come to their senses and call for action.

"...!"

...and honestly, Zoemi could only blame himself – he focused so much on not rushing to Miriette's side that there was no willpower left in him to hold back his wild urge of decimating everything even remotely inconvenient for her...

*thump*

That way, standing there alone while a dozen adults were running towards him, all with their enchantments active, he merely shook his head towards Mizoe, signaling to him to not rush to help, and dropped the heavy dagger stained with the crimson blood of the murdered instructor.

|I only hope they will not kill me on the spot... as long as I can live, I can get stronger by cultivating and escaping whatever prison they will put me in later on.|

The black-haired boy thought to himself and smirked, looking towards the audience stands where the two red-haired siblings were trying to hold back the dark-haired girl from rushing towards the arena...

"Huh...?"

Zoemi's eyes widened – Miriette's hooded cape untied and the girl activated her enchantments, juping towards the middle of the arena while young Grazio and Ehmi fell on their backs with her cape in their hands.

"WHO ALLOWED YOU SCUMS TO APPROACH MY ZOEMI?!"

*WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

*WHAM* *CRUSH* *SLAM*

Miriette roared, her face crimson red from anger while her hair bristled up like a forest of needles, as she waved her hand in fury and unleash a devastating wind spell around the black-haired boy and send all the people trying to capture him flying.

"!!!"

Zoemi gulped down his saliva and reached out his hand which Miriette grabbed onto before landing softly right in front of him.

"I...I remember you now...!"

"!!!"

The words that the black-haired boy prayed with all of his heart to hear one day was spoken so easily during the first meeting between him and Miriette in this new timeline.

Miriette's hair settled down for a moment just to curl up and start coiling around Zoemi's hands and face as if it too had will on its own and longed for him just as Miriette did.

"Y-young lady, please... get away from that individual, he is dange..."

"WIND BLADE!"

*SHING* *SPLURT*

"GH-URGH...!"

Some of the bodyguards from the audience made their way down and one of them was foolish enough to approach Miriette and try to take her away from Zoemi – for which he paid immediately by having his torso split open by the wind spell.

"Whoever dares to even CONSIDER harming MY ZOEMI is going to die!"

The small girl roared as half of her hair remained curly and lovingly wrapped around the black-haired boy while the other half bristled in pure fury.

"..."

Then, she turned back around and hugged Zoemi and staring into his eyes.

"...you left me with Horeo and got sent away who-knows-where, I waited and waited, then the timeline got destroyed... you know what that means? You broke your word and didn't return to me in that world – that's why I will never let you go away now that I found you in this one."

Miriette's glare grew intense and she declared clinging to Zoemi with all of her might – thankfully she deactivated her enchantments just before doing it, or Zoemi's current level of the law of Aries would not be able to withstand her strength at all.

"Oh no. I guess I have no other choice but to accept this heavy punishment."

Zoemi smiled and promised, returning the hug while teasingly whispering in Miriette's ear.

"Say, you are friends with Victureo siblings in this timeline?"

The black-haired boy asked curiously glancing over the dark-haired girl's shoulder and watching the two panicked red-haired children attempting to get down the audience stands while their bodyguards were doing their best to prevent them from doing something so dangerous.

"Their father does want to have the best possible relationship with the family of the supposed future queen, after all."

Miriette's hair slumped down a bit as she sighed and answered in a bothered voice.

"Engaged to Horeo even now?"

"Yeah... hey, what's with that tone...?"

Zoemi scoffed in annoyance and anger – so much of it in fact, that Miriette furrowed her brows and inquired.

"Banemor family is related to the royal family – but that didn't stop your parents from attacking our territory and killing my family. I hope you aren't too attached to them, by the way, because I am going to execute revenge once I'm strong enough."

The black-haired boy revealed with his expression darkening at the thought of the events of four years past.

"Wait... what...? You cannot be serious...! They... wait... eh...? Did they...?"

Miriette gasped in shock – but didn't move even an inch away from her beloved – and her expression went through about half stages of grief before she bit her lips and lowered her head.

"Oh, and just in case – don't think about killing them yourself. This is probably the only exception I would ever have from sharing my everything with you. I have to be the one to get them."

Zoemi reached out and lifted Miriette's head by her chin and made her look at him.