房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Xeonith, Zoemi, and Miriette were standing by a wall in an emptied room.

"They are taking their sweet time."

Xeonith sighed, looking towards the door.

"Tsk I'm out of time. I will return as soon as possible okay? Don't get too lonely."

Miriette clicked her tongue grumpily also watching the door before nuzzling against Zoemi's arm and purring cutely.

"Being a god sucks more than I imagined... what about sending back your copy? You can experience things through her, right?"

Zoemi wasn't bothered about the latecomers and was far more concerned about his platinum-haired lover he was finally properly reunited with.

"It's not the same! And I am still using my power and stretching the rules when having my copy here! Now that you know the truth and Cherro's power weakened tremendously there is no need to keep a double around. Not to mention, without her around, the real me will be able to stay with you longer the next time I will be able to descend!"

Miriette declared giving her all to hug Zoemi and lift his spirit while explaining her circumstances.

"I understand that much but... I just don't want to let go of you ever again... Can't we just ignore the rules?"

The black-haired boy sighed leaning to the side and burrowing his face in Miriette's hair immediately started curling up and caressing him lovingly.

"I would like that... but I am not talking about something as simple as human rules. I mean if I *^%#^%%$ and #%^$%$$# %E^ ^%47&$ &^#% then ^%&3 &%^$ %^6<":[:^%%$%L:"

Miriette pouted and explained but in the middle of it, her words turned into an incomprehensible sound that caused ringing in Zoemi and Xeonith's ears.

"See? You literally can't comprehend what I just said. I am happy that it only sounds, apparently the more powerful the god the harder they are to be comprehended and look just like blurs of light to whoever they show themselves to."

The platinum-haired girl sighed and sought even closer contact with Zoemi, clinging to him with all her physical might.

...which funnily enough was still laughably weak, but it was also a testament to the control she had over her godly powers...

"...that's why I want a goodbye kiss..."

"Hmm~"

She added and made Zoemi chuckle before he complied with her demand.

"Oh, and just in case. Don't cheat on me with anyone I don't approve of. I will smite them down even if that will get me in trouble!"

Miriette pulled away and smirked before disappearing, and together with her the smell of ozone also vanished.

"...I might be reading too much into her words but why does it sound like she is willing to approve of you having other partners...?"

"Haaa... I am not ready to have that conversation."

Xeonith coughed discreetly and asked tilting his head and looking at Zoemi with a rather amused expression to which the black-haired boy could only sigh remembering how things were in the previous timeline.

"Pffft...!"

Xoenith chuckled and Zoemi simply shrugged his shoulders with a helpless smile...

...just then the first prince Horeo appeared next to them in a flash of golden light.

The two youngsters turned serious seeing his grim expression.

"...where did...? Nevermind."

Horeo raised his brow looking around the room after seeing only Xoenith and Zoemi but then he shook his head and sighed.

"My father and mother claim that they have no idea what the device might be. In their words, Bellcephora kingdom doesn't research any magic devices without young lady Moyena's expertise. They also gave their permission to detain the instructors and question them – which should be happening as we speak. I went a step further and asked them for permission to inspect all of the King's Guard and they allowed it."

The gold-haired boy reported, crossing his arms and tapping his fingers on his arm.

"I made sure to imply that if this is some sort of secret operation we will keep it a secret and wrap it up as an insignificant accident, but it really looks like there are external forces messing with our kingdom."

He added shaking his head in disgust at the thought of so many traitors moving around right under the noses of the royal family.

"I already issued an emergency order to the King's Guard, they should all show up here any minute now, young lord Banemor, I ask you to do the same thing you did earlier and disable their spells when that happens. Also, take care of whoever will try something. Young lord Derizno, you make sure that I am safe."

"Sure."

"Yes, your highness."

Horeo revealed and instructed to which the other two nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later the large canteen became crowded with heavily armored knights.

Most of them were disciplined enough to stay silent and wait for the prince's word but a few felt comfortable enough to look around and whisper amongst each other.

"Your Highness. Besides the instructors handling the training and the vice leader who's on a mission ordered by his majesty, everyone is here."

The commander of the King's Guard took off his helmet and reported proudly standing at attention.

"Thank you, lord Irghun. I gathered you all here because unfortunately a major problem with the enchanted armor provided to all of you has been discovered. To not cause unnecessary worries amongst the staff, please remove your armor before teleporting to your private quarters."

"...!"

The first prince took a deep breath and ordered with a serious expression causing quite a stir amongst the less disciplined minority of King's Guard members.

"What's the point of us gathering here to do that?"

"Can't we just go back to our quarters and have our armor collected?"

"What about our privacy?!"

Some of them started complaining – but more than half of the knights have already started taking off their armor without any issue.

Commander Irghun and two knights moving in perfect sync already have taken off their chestplates – Zoemi immediately recognized them as lady Yarvestreg and lord Karestas.

What he was surprised to see though, was that beside them there was another pair of knights who would move in sync whatever they did – only that the other pair belonged to the group who complained about the prince's command.

"Privacy? Big words coming from someone that was caught peeking on female servants bathing."

Lady Yarvestreg straightened her undershirt and commented out loud while loosening the straps of the armored shoes.

"What's the big deal? Comply with the order, his majesty the king instructed us to follow the prince's orders."

Lord Karestas sighed and pointed out while taking off his armored shoes just like his partner.

"H-hold on...! I recognize that black-haired bastard next to the first prince!"

"Yes! He doesn't have his mask on, but isn't he that attendant who sneak attacked us and destroyed our armor?!"

The still-armored pair in sync in the back called out all of a sudden trying to cause a commotion all of a sudden.

"...huh...? Yeah, I recognize you. You were the idiots trying to stop me and Kierul at the beginning of the school year. I almost mistook you for lord Karestas and lady Yarvestreg back then!"

Zoemi raised one brow before gasping in realization and smirking cheekily.

"...please don't jest like that..."

"...especially since Valkie and I are lovers and the two you refer to are siblings - the Farkhellare twins..."

Yarvestreg and Karestas shuddered and waved their hands decisively in perfect sync, both very displeased.

"Stop causing a commotion! Remove your armor knights! That's an order!"

Lord Irghun had enough of his underlings bickering and shouted angrily, stopping any backtalk from the twins.

A few minutes later each kinght had a set of enchanted armor put down safely in front of them.

Most of them were standing tall proudly but there were quite a few who were slouching as if they were bothered about something...

"We're done, right? Then..." *haaaaa*

"Huh?! I can't teleport?! What is going on?!" *haaaaa*

The ones most reluctant to remove their armors were the first ones who tried to teleport away – meaning they were the first ones to experience their mana being dissolved by Zoemi's star power filling the room.

"Now then. Traitors with unknown magic devices in their chest, please surrender without resisting."

"!!!"

The first prince Horeo nodded with satisfaction and gave the second order...

----

Reo was sitting in front of a table with thirteen devices that had been pulled out of the chests of the members of the King's Guard now locked up in the dungeon awaiting their trial for treason.

The artifacts were cleaned up from the remains of blood and viscera but they didn't lose that much of the disturbing look.

One thing was sure just from a single glance – they weren't made to just be worn, they were designed to be embedded in the flesh to work which went against every moral code that a proper magic device maker should have.

Insertion and extraction of those things were extremely dangerous, it was already a miracle that the people who subjected themselves to this experiment didn't face immediate health problems, but that could be easily explained...

...the ones who were found were the lucky ones whose bodies adjusted to artifacts out of a much larger group of subjects...

Honestly, that thought was making the brown-haired girl sick.

Most of the traitors didn't want to reveal anything, blindly repeating that they don't know what the device was or how it ended up in their chests.

Some even claimed that they must have been placed there by the martial artist who knocked them out. Their audacity truly knew no bounds.

But not all were like that.