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Chapter 197: Return (5)

At the thought of suddenly having a question to be answered out of nowhere, Kon slowly walked towards the front of Shinto and soon sat down on the ground. In the next moment, he tilted his head as he inquired.

"A question for me...? Um... Um... I-I'll try my best to answer..." he blinked whilst slightly shaking. "I-It's not going to be a hard question. right?  No... Could it be a punishment? Ahh! I'm sorry, Master!"

"...?" Seeing that Kon was shaking and concerned, Shinto raised his brow in confusion. "What do you mean? Punishment...? No... It's nothing like that. It's just a simple question. What gave you that impression?"

"Well... U-Um... I did mess up, right?" Kon muttered out as he slightly dragged his feet back and forth on the ground. "You know... How I blabbered out necessary things when you were having that conversation earlier... And uh... My failure in understanding the situation when you summoned me.."

To Kon, for Shinto to suddenly ask a question out of nowhere, he feared for the worse. Not only did he mess up his introduction at the start and blurted out unnecessary information when he was summonedbut he also seemingly ruined the grace of his Master.

"Nah, you didn't," Shinto stated as his hand gently petted on Kon. "If anything, you being here helped in a way. But... In any case, back to my questionDid anything happen back at the shadow Realm?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Despite now feeling at ease, Kon was still confused. "..something that happened back at home? No...? Well um, besides my brother and sister scolding me that is... B-But that's beside the point! Nothing else happened."

"Right, I see..." Shinto nodded his head. "Then, did Blake or Kiara tell you anything new?"

"Well... They did give me an entire lecture about whatever they explained to you earlier," Kon whimpered. "But that's about it. Nothing really new that wasn't already explained to you. Though... I-Is something the matter? Am I supposed to know something that I somehow forgot again!?"

"No, no. I was just curious that's all whether there was something out of the ordinary that happened in the Shadow Realm," Shinto asked. With all the new information he had gotten recently, a thought came to mind. "Like for example, whether the Blood Queen or other Shadows might've appeared in the realm. After all... The Shadow Realm is more or less a space created by the Shadow Diviner, right?"

He had wanted to know if there was anything going on within the Shadow Realm, if not waiting for the Shadow Diviner's returnthen, perhaps other beings of Shadow besides the Shade's Race might've appeared.

"O-Oh you mean something like that?" Kon mumbled. "U-Um... I don't know how to say this but..."

"...but?" Shinto raised his brow.

"Errr... The last I heard from my siblings in regards to the other beings of Shadow is that... They sort of lost connection with everything?" he tilted his head in uncertainty. "How do I say this... It's like they're uncontactable now. Well... Something along those lines."

"I did hear something of similar note from Blake, but... What about the Blood Queen, though? She's contactable," he stated. "Does she not head over to the Shadow Realm?"

He hadn't questioned in regards to the 'Shadow Realm' all that much due to the fact that it was rarely ever mentioned. It was only when he had summoned Kon did he remembered what the Shadow Realm was actually abouta subspace created by the Shadow Diviner. Though, with zero to no details on it, he was only now curious on its main function besides it being a home for the Shade's race.

"Ah... Well, about the Blood Queen..." Kon thought to himself. "Although she still keeps contact... She never really steps foot into the Shadow Realm unless personally asked to? Well... I don't know much about the details!"

"Hmm... That's interesting?" Shinto muttered out. "...then, what about previously, has any of the other shadows used the subspace before? In terms of having things like meetings and the like."

"If I recall... Probably? I know a few had visited us before to meet with Blake or when the previous Shadow Diviner was in the space..." he stated. "But that's really it. There's nothing more to it than it being our home! Unless I'm missing something here..." At the thought, Kon seemingly frowned. "You should probably ask my brother or sister about this... They should be a better fit to answer than me... I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, your answers are helpful," he smiled. "In any case, that should be it. All that's left is... To find Rustly and meet up with the group."

"Rustly?" A sudden male's voice suddenly appeared behind him. "What about him? You don't know where he is?"

"...!" Cautioned by the voice, Shinto turned around as he noted that it was Reru. "...ah, Reru? You're here? When did you get here?"

"Just a second ago," he stated. "But whatever, my question still stands. Where's Rustly? I had thought he might've been here seeing that you were gone but... Did that idiot run off on his own again?! Ugh... Wait till he..."

"Hold on for a second!" Shinto shouted out. "Rustly didn't run away. Or well, I'd hope he didn't. But, he said that he was going to check out the routes that led back to the catacombs. He'll be back shortly."

"Really?" Reru seemed to raise a brow in scepticism. "...hmph well if that's true, then I'm going to the caverns and I'll bring him back. I trust your words, I guess. But no way in hell am I going to trust Rustly's. He could've gotten kidnapped again for all I know! Well... Actually, hypnotised to doing something stupid, to say the least."

"I was wondering how Rustly ended up being involved in the entire awakening of Bareth," Shinto thought. "So it was due to that guy going about with making Rustly seem to be in thought of being able to cure-" he coughed. "To successfully head to his goal, huh?"

"Yeah, something like that," Reru shrugged. "For all I know, Rustly's 'goals' are all over the place. One second he was against Sanke, then the next I learnt he was in arms with him. Then there's Lier too and ugh! Why is he like this?!"

"Lier...?" Shinto questioned.

"Hah, no one mentioned this to you?" Reru uttered out. "Here I thought Sanke would've at least talked about her, but that's not important. None of your business anyways," he scoffed. "Anyhow, I'm heading to the caverns and dragging Rustly back. So go regroup with your companions or something. Leave me alone."

"...none of my business, huh?" Shinto repeated to himself. "Well, I guess so. But what is my business is getting Rustly back here, right? So I might as well just follow you instead of heading back." 

"Ugh... Do you have to be like that?" he clicked his tongue. "Ugh, that's a bother. Just go to your companions."

"Hey! Who are you calling a bother?!" Kon cried out. "Master isn't anything like that!"

"Right... I forgot I was speaking in Arcos, so now Kon can know what I'm saying," he sighed. "You don't even have that necklace with you... A pain. A real pain."

"Mm... It sounds like it's more of a pain for Master and Ethaniel to have to translate everything you say!" Kon pouted. "Why even do that in the first place when all of us can just speak Arcos?"

"Rustly is some other slime, but for me, I just don't like to speak it at all," he clicked his tongue. "I'm only speaking it now because of Rustly's ignorance of the real picture. If not for that, I'd be speaking in my own language and not give a damn."

"You..." Shinto sighed as he awaited for Reru to continue on with his words. However, he never did. "Hah, you're not going to explain anything further in regards to his ignorance, are you?"

"As I said, none of your business, what's in it for me anyway?" he humped. "In the first place... Everything seemed to have been a petty hoax. A hoax that made everyone suffered unnecessarily."

"...and?" Shinto asked in hopes of having Reru continue.

"Ugh, go back, will you?! I want to go and drag Rustly back now!" Impatient, Reru began leaping over towards the end of the cavern. "I won't leave you guys again. Well, not after learning from Erith that you still managed to have an entire horde chase after you. Not to mention, you guys almost ended up getting yourselves killed. But, just go back and let me do my damn job first."

"Master... He's a difficult one, isn't he?" Kon whimpered. "I thought he would be nice but to know his true words! Eeep!"

"Yeah... He's a difficult one," Shinto sighed. His attitude almost reminded him of someone. "But, it's hopeless to stick around anymore I guess. Let's just head back and I'll think of a different reason on the top of my mind."