The group dispersed one after another until only Ace, Jiushi, and Alver remained.
“Now spit it out. I certainly didn’t clash with Lasse because a simple guy rearing chicken,” Alver nagged.
“It’s true,” Jiushi affirmed him. “We brought them with us too. Each of them has a name and they are very intelligent and well-behaved. Harem can be too, if you feed him.”
Alver, “...”
His gaze shifted between Ace and Jiushi. They must be joking, he thought. But he couldn’t read anything from their faces at all. Ace was being half-serious, half-smiling like a fool while Jiushi had his usual face-paralysis.
“Haaah— At least give me his name.”
“Harem God,” Ace answered.
Alver was speechless, “Now you’re going too far with your joke.”
“We’re not joking. He hasn’t told us either, so we went with this alias,” Ace explained.
“He doesn’t seem to trust you,” Alver pointed out. He wasn’t wrong, but this time Jiushi chipped in to answer, “He’s just shy.”
“Haha,” Alver perfunctorily countered. “Sure, but still uses such a daring name.” He turned to Ace, “I'm disappointed in your naming sense. You can do better than that.”
To wash his name clean Ace corrected his misconception, “Alv, it was Jiushi who came up with the name.”
Alver stared at him skeptically, however, neither of the two denied the statement. Thus, he turned to Jiushi, “I didn't think you were into this, Momo.”
Jiushi blushed, “It’s not my fault. He mumbled it in his dream and was quite pleased with it.”
“And he was okay with that alias? His personality seems...unique.” Alver was slightly astonished, “Momo, he seems like a person you wouldn’t get along with.”
“Mn. I can’t deny that...but please stop using that nickname.”
Alver ignored the latter part, “His personality aside, why did you bring him over to us? Looking at it from a rational point, it would be safer to send him to Pax than to keep him in Vanguard. Yet, you still want to keep him at your side, and even let him live with you.” Alver’s eyes bore into Ace with scrutiny and curiosity.
Ace motioned Alver to come closer. “Well, he awakened already, and...” Alver picked up his ears on what Ace had to say next, “He’s quite the looker.”
...
There was a moment of silence and judging, before Alver’s face distorted in disgust. He bluntly excused himself. “Anyway, I’m too busy to deal with your impure motive, but he’s your responsibility now. Whether it’s training or resources, you two will provide for him. And Momo,”
He turned to Jiushi, “Don’t become a pervert like him.”
“Sure, I try my best.”
A minute after Alver had left, the other man who took part in the discussion appeared again.
“Nii-chan!” Jiushi called out. Unlike his stoic and cold expression during the gathering earlier, the expression on his face when calling out the man was angelic and childlike; very fitting his age.
“Momo-chan!” he answered.
Jiushi seemed to be ready to jump into a hug, but Ace fixed him into his chair, then leaned ambiguously to the other man, “How can you look at other men when I’m here, Tommy?”
Tommy immediately gazed deeply into Ace’s eyes, “I’m all yours when you provide for me.”
“My harem is open for you,” Ace chuckled. “But you have to ask for Jiushi’s permission first.”
Both of them looked at Jiushi, who sheepishly answered, “Nii-chan, I’m his number one, you have to play the second mistress.”
...
“Hahahahahaha!” Tommy couldn't help but burst out laughing, “Ahh, my stomach hurts from laughing! Take responsibility and tell me about the guy you brought.”
Jiushi saw him wiping away tears from his eyes and contemplated whether he should tell him everything, or stick to their original plan. He chose the latter. “There’s not much to say about him, except what we already told Alver. You should have heard us, right?”
Tommy looked a bit disappointed, but not for long. If they didn’t want to disclose this information to him, then he wouldn’t insist either, after all, there were many other questions he wanted answers for. “How is it on earth? Is it still the same? Or did nature transmute the cities into a jungle?”
Jiushi and Ace answered every question he had and Tommy would listen attentively. While doing so, the latter would sometimes smile slightly, then his gaze would wander off somewhere, before he would recount something from his past. Ace would also relate something from the past and the chatter went on until late noon. Knowing Tommy, Ace knew that he would make do with some junk food for dinner. So, he invited him to come over to eat with them.
Originally, Tommy wanted to refuse since he had to go to set out early on the next day, and still had to prepare things. But he was dying to see the mysterious guy Ace referred to as “looker” so he changed his mind without a second thought.
On the way to their bungalow, he had asked countless questions about Harem God until Jiushi remembered that it was about time to let out Sin.
“Nii-chan,” Jiushi looked seriously at Tommy, “I’ll show you something good. Don’t tell anyone.”
“Hm? What is it?” Tommy drew nearer, and...
...he was greeted by a rooster’s beak on his forehead.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch!! Momo-chan, that wasn’t very nice!!”
“Haha, who told you to come so close.”
“What did I do to deserve this!” Tommy hid behind Ace, then continued to speak, “Is the rooster what you wanted to show me? My grandparents in the boonies used to rear them too. I know how they look like.”
“That’s Sin,” Ace answered, “Don’t get fooled by his appearance. He’s not your normal rooster.”
Tommy peeked at Sin over Ace’s shoulder, but couldn’t feel anything special. “Nope, nothing. The only extraordinary thing is his violence.”
“Mn, that’s because we kept him in the dimensional space all this time and he was pent up. You just had bad luck.”
Just like their owner, the feathered animals had to stay in quarantine to slowly adjust to the new environment. Otherwise, they could have died on mana overdose, if they had been directly exposed to the abundance of spiritual and elemental energy floating in the air of Agnostos. If they had, then they wouldn’t know how to face Harem God, or better phrased, they wouldn’t know how to stop his rampage without keeping his identity as legacy wielder a secret.
Tommy scrutinized Sin several times, then looked at Jiushi like a wronged child. “Educate me. I don’t feel anything special about him.”
Jiushi only said, “You’ll see,” and let Sin down. They had already arrived at their bungalow after all the talk.
“What is there to see—!”
Tommy stopped his sentence midway and gaped at the rooster passing the protective barriers with ease, unlocking the window in less than ten seconds, and enter the house without a hitch.
Jiushi and Ace looked at Tommy with sympathy.
Lowkey turning Sin into the MC.
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This rosters reminds me of haihai from moana