Free Web NovelChapter 151: Unresolved Differences
Watching Aiden go into action, the wolves and the enforcers didn’t wait either. They grabbed weapons from the pile and stood by his side, ready to make hell descend upon the monsters.
Meanwhile, Aiden was looking at the army coming down the road. The way they moved seemed familiar.
"Since when did those monsters began moving in organized formation?" Karina commented.
Everyone noticed the same thing. Monsters in front of them had more discipline than the humans in the apocalypse. Someone had drilled these formations into them, and whoever that someone was knew what a proper military looked like.
Aiden looked back at Milarel and Carmila. Both of them thought for a moment and nodded. The advance looked familiar to them as well, which meant only one thing.
While Aiden was wondering if it was the case, he saw something that confirmed his suspicions.
The orcs... were waving white flags, with their weapons sheathed, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. It was the rough insignia drawn on them.
It was the insignia of the crimson court...
It was his own army!?
For a moment, he just stood there, wondering whether to laugh or cry. He was thinking of a way to make an army on Earth, only for the army from the Otherworld to find him.
Meanwhile, the crowd behind him was buzzing with excitement. Since they were all inside the barrier, they knew the beasts couldn’t harm them, while they’d rip them to shreds with the new infinite firepower guns Aiden had procured for them.
However, Aiden was about to pour water over their plans.
"Lower your weapons," he said.
Nobody moved for a moment. The monsters were up ahead, waiting to be slaughtered, yet Aiden was telling them to drop the guns?
"Sir, are we heading out of the barrier—"
"Lower them," he repeated, and this time all weapons went down.
The tenants, not knowing what was going on in his head, prepared themselves to head outside to battle.
He turned to his right. Carmila was already watching him with a knowing expression. She had seen the insignia as well, and so had Milarel.
"You two, go out and greet them." He said. "If they’re hostile, eliminate them and come back. And if it’s her, bring Gruka to me."
With the barrier in place, Gruka’s orcs couldn’t ’see’ him. Someone had to tell them about the apartment for the barrier’s one-way mirror function to cease working. Since Carmila and Milarel knew Gruka, he sent them to do the job.
Carmila’s expression didn’t change, and she nodded. Gruka was the leader of the orcs. And given how she and Milarel arrived on Earth, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume she had transmigrated to Earth as well.
However, her transmigration didn’t look like theirs. In Carmila’s case, she was a part of Aiden that found her place in a new vessel, and Milarel had taken over another body, much like Aiden did.
But Gruka had appeared there as she had been in the Otherworld. There were no changes in her, which confirmed Aiden’s thoughts.
Earth and the Otherworld are merging together.
Meanwhile, Milarel said nothing at all, just fell into step beside Carmila as the two of them walked out of the barrier’s protection.
Aiden watched them go when he heard Alisha’s voice behind him,
"Who are they?"
"Old associates," he said, his eyes on the orc formation outside the barrier.
His answer received a long pause from Alisha. Ever since she saw Carmila and him acting more than friendly, she knew something was off with Aiden.
Besides, his knowledge about the monsters and how to counter them had always taken her by surprise. And now, he admitted to something she didn’t think was possible.
"What do you mean? Those are monsters—" she mumbled. "How can they be your associates?"
Aiden smiled and cupped her face, planting a kiss on her lips. It was the only way he knew to calm her down.
"I’ll tell you everything tonight," he whispered. "Just let me handle this for now."
"Of course," she said, a hint of irritation in her voice. "Of course, this is how it happens."
"Alisha, don’t make a scene."
Alisha pouted, picked up Lily, and headed inside. The crowd took it as a sign and entered the building one after another.
"I think I’d need an explanation as well," Karina said, crossing her arms.
"Then, wait for us to get married," he smirked.
Aiden was clearly drawing a line between them. At least, that’s what she felt like. Since Alisha was his wife, she got to learn about his past, while Karina didn’t.
She just stood there and said nothing, but he could feel her trying not to laugh at the audacity.
Outside the barrier, Carmila and Milarel walked through the shimmer at the barrier’s edge and onto the open street.
To the orcs, they had just appeared out of nowhere, and they stopped. One second, an empty road, and the next, two women appeared before them, looking at several hundred armed orcs like they were ants to be crushed.
"Halt!" Gruka yelled, and the formation stopped.
A figure at the front of the column stepped forward. The women immediately recognized her, and Gruka recognized them as well. But she ignored Milarel, only bowing to Carmila.
"Madam, I didn’t expect to see you here," Gruka said with reverence. "I... might seem out of line, but is he here?"
Carmila looked at her and nodded.
"He is," she said.
Gruka’s shoulders dropped as if a huge tension had been lifted from her shoulders. At the same time, the barrier shimmered, giving them their first look at the apartment.
"Is... this the Lord’s new castle?" Gruka asked, tilting her head. "It seems a bit strange and small."
Milarel looked at the formation behind her, running her eyes across the rows before fixing her gaze on Gruka.
"The lord will see you," she said. "You alone, for now. The others will wait here until the Lord decides their fate." freewebnøvel.com
Gruka nodded before turning and said something to Braku in the orc tongue. The order passed down the column, and the orcs sat down there to rest with their weapons struck firmly into the ground, a sign of compliance.
Only after seeing all of them had settled down did Gruka turn back towards Milarel.
"Lead the way, maid."
Aiden heard their footsteps before lifting his gaze.
He had handed both rifles back to Glenn, telling him to tell the rest of the people to go inside.
Gruka stepped through the barrier and stopped to look at the building and the crowded balconies where people were looking at her strangely. But none of that mattered when she saw Aiden.
She crossed the distance between them in long strides and stopped two meters away from him. Neither Carmila nor Milarel had told her who he was, but she knew it had to be her lord.
"Gruka, it’s been a while," Aiden said, looking at her. "It’s good to see you’re doing well for yourself."
Gruka didn’t reply, just dropped to one knee. Her fist came to her chest with an impact loud enough to crack the ground underneath, which got fixed automatically a second later.
Aiden couldn’t hear it, but he knew a wave of gasps had surged through the entire apartment. After all, it wasn’t every day they saw a massive creature, such as an orc, kneel to a human.
"My Lord," she roared at the top of her lungs.
The voice that had struck fear in the heart of even the system gods and didn’t waver was now trembling with strange emotions.
"You don’t have to yell," Aiden chuckled. "I can hear you just fine."
"My Lord, you look... different," Gruka mumbled.
"Do I? I mean, I used to look like this before becoming a demon. Does it not suit me?"
"...you look as regal as you did the last time I saw you, My Lord," Gruka kept whispering since Aiden had told her not to yell. "However, such form can not hold the greatness of your deeds."
"I had missed your backhanded compliments," Aiden laughed heartily, patting her shoulder as he looked behind her. "How many of you are out there?"
"Four hundred and twelve orcs," she replied. "Plus, the few hundred humans we collected along the way. The humans are being kept elsewhere for the moment, as I thought you might not like them..."
"I’m afraid that’s not the case anymore. I am a human, too, after all. Also, before I forget it, mind telling me how you got here on Earth?"
Gruka thought for a moment and then shook her head.
"All I remember is learning about your passing, and the next second we woke up here," she said. "At first everything was strange, then I remembered the few tales you told about your world and realized where we were and—"
"You tried to find me," Aiden nodded towards Milarel. "Her experience seems awfully like yours—"
"My Lord, I have nothing in common with a brute like her," Milarel cut him off, expressing her displeasure at even the thought of being compared to an orc.
"Neither do I want to be like this fickle rose," Gruka snarled.
Aiden could only sigh as sparks flew between them as they glared at one another.
"They are still holding a grudge, huh?" Carmila whispered. "I guess some things never change, even if the entire world did."
