Gigolo Diaries-Chapter 22: Strange Behaviour

The blow landed on the wood as quickly as lightning and the sound it created reverberated like thunder. Eros’ eyes widened as he watched the tree, standing over ten metres tall, split into two. Numerous birds escape upon seeing this chaos.

Eros on the other hand glanced at his palm: he had known that a perfect body was overpowered, but he hadn’t imagined the upgrade to be this much. He stood in awe, watching the tree split even further, until its trunk could no longer hold the pressure and it split into two.

He could still feel that gnawing weakness eating into his bones as he stumbled backwards. He needed rest, and he needed it fast.

He wondered how powerful he would be if he were fully recovered; a smile couldn’t help but spread across his face. Just as he packed his things and was about to head back to the camp, his fingers brushed against the berry Lain had given him

Taking it in his palm, he wondered if he should take it that very moment. If he did then he would most likely be able to recover quickly, almost instantaneously. But after some thought he decided against it. He was soon going to face the tribulation of a perfect body.

Even if he were to survive, he would be severely weakened. More so than right now—much more. And there wouldn’t be the event of Lain causing another uproar to drive away the monster. In that situation, he would rather not be at nature’s mercy.

It only made sense to use something like that when it was necessary. Right now, it wasn’t; he could get back to camp safely and recover easily.

After making the decision, he took his things and headed back to the camp.

The forest was oddly quiet, and although the quiet chirping of birds served to remind him that he was never truly alone, it did nothing to alleviate the sense of unease the quiet brought.

His mind drifted off to the cursed objects he had seen. He hadn’t asked Elaine about it and he wasn’t sure he should.

After all, she didn’t seem so keen on sharing the details of this trip with him. Although he guessed that if he pressed a bit more she would eventually give in.

He eventually found the clearing where they had camped. If the neighing of the horses wasn’t enough to show him here then it was the numerous directional marks carved on trees that did the trick.

The sun slowly dipped into oblivion as twilight had come upon them. The day was an eventful one, that much was certain. But even the most eventful things come to an end.

The smell of burning wood wasn’t present, but rather it was the ash, carried by the unforgiving wind that filtered through his nostrils.

There was scarcely any other human around, save for Rachel who sat near the pile of ash and coal, with a book in hand.

She noticed Eros and turned to him, adjusting her glasses a few times as per habit.

"Thought you abandoned us for a second."

Eros chuckled at her remark. He had indeed been gone for a few hours, so her assumption wasn’t without basis.

"Nothing like that, I was just roaming through the forest. It’s not really common for a commoner like me to get to see sights like these often."

"Well, I guess you’re one of the special ones."

"I guess so."

They were the only two people here, so Eros decided to see if he could get some information from her.

"The other?" He asked with a raised brow.

"They’re scouting."

"For what?" He said on instinct.

Rachel seemed surprised at first.

"Didn’t the commander tell you?"

"Well, I haven’t gotten the chance to ask her about it so I don’t really know much about this expedition."

"Oh. I see. Well, I guess that explains why she hasn’t told you, The commander tends to ignore things that don’t seem important. I doubt she saw a need to inform you about the program."

Eros nodded; Elaine did tend to leave out details, this was a habit she had grown with.

"So, what’s all this about?" Eros came closer and sat opposite her with the pile of ash separating them.

"Nothing really special," she said glancing between the book and him. "We’re just trying to recover a military base that got destroyed by monsters recently."

Eros frowned. "That’s it? I doubt they would need to dispatch holy knights for something as simple as that."

"Well... the monster that destroyed the base is somewhat special."

"How so?"

"Let’s just say, it can’t be killed by regular humans."

Eros raised a brow, but she didn’t seem so keen on explaining further. He had to drop it and make do with the little information he had. The mere fact that the creature couldn’t be killed by a human explained why the cursed object was required.

There was a short silence after that as Eros tried to think deeply about his next move.

Out of the blue, Rachel suddenly leaned in with a dazed expression, like she was drunk, and asked: "What do you think of the Captain. How does she taste?"

Eros who hadn’t expected such a question nearly fell off the stone he was seated on. ’The hell, who just suddenly asks that type of question?’

After regaining his balance he was just about to confront Rachel on her rather private inquiry.

However, to his surprise, she was sitting there and reading like nothing ever happened. He frowned, clearly starting to doubt his memory. He was sure of what had happened a few seconds ago, but the way she just sat there made his certainty begin to waver.

In the end, he decided to act like nothing ever happened.

Shortly after Rachel got up and left, leaving her book behind.

"That was strange," Eros whispered to himself, still wearing a confused expression. He had no idea why she had done that.

Just as he shook his head to get his mind straight. He noticed the book she had been reading.

The title was one that quickly got his attention: "Naked Sword Art." A weird title.