Anger, the Gentle Assassin (Part 5)

An express letter had arrived by owl.

Tanimaki opened the window and took the envelope from it.

“It’s addressed to you, Debiru, meow.”

Debiru took the envelope and opened it, trying to suppress the sense of dread growing inside him.

—And the instant he read the opening lines, his face froze.

“N-No...”

His hands trembling, he read the letter to the end. Then he sank to his knees and began shedding great, heavy tears.

“What’s wrong, Debiru?”

The look on Debiru’s face filled Mayutan with unease.

“Papa... is dead...”

Debiru forced the words out in a trembling voice. Tanimaki and Mayutan had no idea what they could possibly say to him.

“Tanimaki... go ahead and train with Anger. There’s no need to hurry anymore. I swear... I’ll avenge Papa.”

As Debiru spoke those words, he wore the most frightening expression they had ever seen on his face.

“D-Debiru... we can use the Nyaon Jar, meow. We’ll bring Kylie back to life, meow. Then I can have it turn me back into a human too, and I can return to my old life, meow.”

Tanimaki seemed genuinely worried about Debiru.

“That won’t work. Once the Nyaon Jar grants a wish, it shatters. That means it can’t grant two wishes.”

Mayutan spoke in a calm voice.

In other words, if they chose to bring the Demon King Kylie back to life, Tanimaki would be unable to return to being human—and he would die.

“B-But maybe there are two Nyaon Jars somewhere if we look hard enough, meow!” Tanimaki insisted.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing. Right now, the only one we know about is the jar in Undo’s possession.”

Mayutan continued. He had decided that it was better to tell Tanimaki the truth than to offer him empty reassurance that would only comfort him for the moment.

“There’s no point thinking about the Nyaon Jar right now. Let’s focus on defeating Undo. Until we defeat him, we won’t be able to obtain the jar anyway.”

Mayutan reasoned with Tanimaki.

In a situation where anyone could easily have been overwhelmed by emotion, Mayutan’s ability to continue thinking logically was as impressive as ever.