Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The Journey Continues

IN FACT, EVERYONE was excited to speculate about Greed and Luna over breakfast. According to Eris, their relationship was quite unusual.

“What kind of unusual are we talking here?” asked Roxy.

“That’s precisely what I was going to ask!” said Memil.

Roxy and Memil were always on the same wavelength at times like this. Their eyes sparkled with excitement as they waited for Eris to speak again. It was clear by her face that Eris relished their attention, even though she wasn’t actually the topic of conversation.

I tore a hunk of bread to chew on as I gazed at the black sword resting on the table. It was true that I couldn’t know what he was thinking without touching him to use my Telepathy skill, but we’d been together long enough now that I had no problem imagining his words.

Fate! I won’t forget this! This…humiliation! You’ll pay for this!

I didn’t need Telepathy to know that was exactly what he wanted to say. Even so, Greed had told me that once his next level got unlocked, he would restore some of his lost power and, with it, the ability to communicate with me without relying on Telepathy. On that day, you could bet he wouldn’t simply stand by and let the girls gossip about him. I actually kind of wanted to hear how that conversation would go, so I was quite eager for Greed to regain the ability to talk freely.

As I thought about it, I couldn’t help but smile. Roxy watched me as a smile grew upon her own face as well.

“Someone’s having a good morning,” she said.

“This is the first time I’ve been on a journey that felt so exuberant.”

“You’re most used to traveling with Myne, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. She rarely talked any more than the bare minimum, and I can only ever talk to Greed through my Telepathy. I’m used to traveling mostly in silence.”

“I still haven’t had a chance to talk to Myne. I hope I can when we get to Hausen…”

It was nice of Roxy to say so, but I wondered if they’d be able to have much of a conversation. Knowing Myne as well as I did, I didn’t have high hopes. Myne was stubborn, awkward, and obsessed with gold and money. Maybe the money part of her personality didn’t make a difference, but Myne was not the sort of person to care what other people thought. Perhaps she had lived for so long that the words of young people just didn’t mean anything to her.

“When you see Myne again, what do you want to talk about with her, Fay?”

The morning sun poured in through the window and glinted off of Roxy’s smile. That almost blinding optimism seemed to clear away my doubts. Her question was like a reflection of who she was, and all her positivity.

“You’re smiling again!” she said, her cheeks puffing up because she thought I was teasing her.

“Don’t get the wrong idea! You’re just really amazing, Roxy.”

“What? Where did that come from ?”

Perhaps it really would be just as easy to talk to Myne as Roxy thought. It was an important lesson, in a way. Battles were not only fought with weapons.

“Thank you, Roxy.”

“Fay?”

“When I meet Myne, what will I say?” I wondered. “Ah, I’ve got it!”

“What is it? What is it?”

“Uh…”

It was hard to say it with her sitting there in front of me. But Roxy didn’t mind in the slightest, so she kept pushing.

“Tell me!” she urged. “You can’t come this far then keep it a secret!”

“It’s…”

“It’s what?”

“It’s just… I want to try to make it so I can talk to Myne the same way that I can talk with you, Roxy. So all I can do is just believe in her and trust that one day we will.”

“Fay…”

“But I owe it all to you, Roxy. I was running around without purpose, and you accepted me for who I was. Someday, I’d like to be just like you in that regard…” Suddenly shy and embarrassed, I looked down at my bread as I took another bite. 

Then Roxy’s hand stretched out and gently patted me on the head. “Who’s a good boy?” she said. “You’re a good boy!”

“Hey!”

“I am older than you, after all. It’s my job to praise you when I see that you’re growing up.”

“But you’re embarrassing me…”

“If I’m not bothered by it, then you shouldn’t be either.”

“Yeah, well, the way you look at me isn’t the problem…”

For some time now, the two girls across the table had glowered at us with steadily escalating intensity. We were supposed to be talking about Greed and Luna, but all of a sudden Roxy and I had veered off into our own little world. Eris held a knife to her neck and shot us a daring grin. Memil simply stared at us silently, as if the color had drained from her eyes. 

Roxy finally noticed. She pulled her hand away from my head and looked down at her lap. “Ooooh…” she muttered.

Her face blazed redder with every passing moment, and I felt the same embarrassment coursing through me too. 

Eris pointed her knife toward us. “Off to an early start today, aren’t you? I don’t suppose this is because you found us in bed with Fate this morning, is it?”

“No, I can assure you it has nothing to do with that!” said Roxy.

“Hm. I wonder if you’re telling the truth… Memil, what say you?”

“I think you’re right, Your Majesty!”

“Memil! How could you? I swear to you both, this has nothing to do with this morning!”

“How can we be sure?” said Eris.

“Your Majesty…You’re so cruel sometimes.” Memil giggled.

Roxy was outnumbered two to one. I wanted to jump in and help her, but I knew I’d only make matters worse, so I bit my tongue. Roxy gave me a desperate look, but all I could do was smile wryly in return. I mean, just being on a trip with Roxy put me over the moon. I didn’t actually have the power or the means to control the two free spirits who had put her on the spot. And in a way, I thought it was best just to leave Eris and Memil as they were. With that in mind, I decided to take a step back and keep an eye on things from a distance.

“Fay, please say something,” Roxy said.

“Something.”

“Not ‘something,’ say something else!”

“Something else.”

“Fay!”

In the end, I miscalculated, because Roxy chewed me out.

***

With our raucous breakfast out of the way, we took our leave from the inn. As we did, I was flooded with complaints from Greed through my Telepathy.

“You’re a real piece of work, you hear me, Fate?” he roared in my head.

“What’s the big deal? It’s your fault for not telling me anything. What choice did I have but to put you on the table and make you the centerpiece?”

“I’m nobody’s entertainment! That Eris… She’ll take any chance she can get to belittle me.”

“She was pretty unruly. I was worried because she’s been acting weird since we met Libra. Honestly, I was relieved to see that she looked to be back to her old self while we dissected your romantic issues.” 

“Relieved?! She says whatever she wants because she knows the only way I can talk back is like this! She’s always been like that. She’s a wimp when it comes to facing her own problems, but when it comes to someone else, she’s more than happy to barge in and trample all over them!”

I was surprised to hear Greed use the word wimp. I looked over at Eris, wondering. “Wimp? Really? That’s Eris you’re talking about. Just this morning she… Well, she had some pretty cavalier sleeping habits, you know?”

“Ha! You just can’t see it. You don’t know her at all. Her white knights told you, didn’t they? She’s not as strong as you think she is.”

“I just can’t believe it, that’s all…”

“That’s because you haven’t spent much time with her. Think back, Fate. She’s found reasons to stay away from you, hasn’t she?”

“That’s true.”

Greed was never one to go out of his way to tell me what I wanted to know, but he wasn’t a liar either. He liked to poke fun at me, and he didn’t shy from saying what was on his mind. When it came down to it, he was brutally honest. That meant that Eris really did have a side that I didn’t know about. Perhaps the person I’d spent time with last night on the hill overlooking Tetra was, in fact, the real Eris.

“You’ll learn at some point on this journey,” said Greed. “Now that Libra has shown himself, there’s no avoiding it. It’s going to be rough for you, Fate. Myne, your father, the Door to Distant Lands…and now Eris. Think you can handle all of it?” 

“What choice do I have?”

“Ha! Indeed. Until just a little while ago you had your hands full managing only Roxy and yourself.”

“Well, not everything is going to go the way you want. It was like that with Roxy, and of course, it’s like that with me too. But all I can do now is give it the best I’ve got.”

“How’s the situation with your body, anyway?”

“Thanks to Luna, it’s under control. It helps having Memil around too.”

“I see… Fate, let me give you a warning. Something to keep in mind for later.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Remember this: Your Gluttony is a skill that absorbs souls and gives you their power. Because it is all powerful, there are times when that power won’t help you at all.”

“What does that mean?”

“Think of the words like a good luck charm. Anyway, that’s enough for now. Better hurry up or your three girlfriends are going to scold you.”

Looking up, I realized that Roxy and the others were waiting by the motorcycles. Roxy looked back and waved for me to hurry up. I ran over and hopped on the bike, but Roxy started tugging at my sleeve. Her mannerisms were odd…like she was hesitating.

“I have…a request,” she said.

“What’s up?”

Roxy pointed at the motorcycle’s handlebars. “Can I try it?”

“You want to drive?”

“Yes! You always look like you’re having so much fun, so I really want to try it out! But you want to drive too, don’t you, Fay?” She clasped her hands together at her chest, like a child pleading with a parent. I really didn’t have a choice.

“Of course you can drive,” I said. “We’re still quite a way from Hausen, so we can take turns.”

“Really?! Yes!”

“Okay, then let me get the bike out of Tetra, and you can drive from there.”

“Roger that!”

Roxy bubbled with excitement as she hopped on the motorcycle behind me. It could have been my imagination, but I also felt like she hugged me a little tighter than was typical too. As usual, Eris and Memil scowled icily at us, but I did my best to ignore them.

“Eris,” I said, “Roxy’s going to drive for a while, so I want to show her the ropes somewhere outside of Tetra. Ideally somewhere with a lot of space.”

“Understood. In that case, we’ll also swap. It’ll be best for all of us if Memil learns to drive too. You want to give it a shot, Memil?”

“It would be an honor. And I must confess that I’m quite intrigued, having watched you drive all this way.”

The motorbikes were nothing if not popular. We weaved through the main street and put Tetra behind us. Roxy and Memil were truly excited to get on the bikes and give them a spin; I could hear them chatting about which one would learn the quickest.