-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Ena’s Past(1)-

“Hey, Kenshin. How about I teach you that curse I told you about? In return, you tell me how you keep popping up all these things from nothing.” While Kenshin was thinking about possible paths for his skills, Tar’el floated to him and proposed this idea.

“Huh? You really haven’t given up on it, have you?” Kenshin pursed his lips, letting out an exaggerated sigh.

“How could I? with me like this, what other things can I do?” Tar’el showed her displeasure at being questioned like this.

“Alright. You win. I promised, so teach me this curse first.” Kenshin stopped thinking about his own skills and looked Tar’el in her hollow eyes.

“Good. The curse I am gonna teach you is called Soul Bind Curse. It’s a mid-tier curse which is usually used to keep other's mouth shut about something. We the creature of the underworld, have way too many secrets, and those were what actually made us strong. To protect this secret, we have to keep our subordinate’s mouths shut somehow, right?” after this brief history, Tar’el started to explain the ways and methods of this curse. After an hour of coaching, finally, Kenshin grasped the method.

‘As expected, nothin’s happening this time as well…’ thought Kenshin when he saw no system prompt about him learning a new skill. That time too, when Core taught him the way to create contracts that could bind creatures like them, no such prompts appeared about him learning a skill. This led him to believe that the skills he was learning from these guys are from different frameworks than the system. Therefore it couldn’t read the skill. But if this was true, Kenshin felt that things would become even more confusing about the origin of the system.

“Alright, now that you have learned a curse. You have to keep my promise and tell me where you get these things.” Tar’el pestered even more after teaching Kenshin the curse.

“Wait for a second, let me see if it really works or not.” Kenshin wouldn’t be a fool to believe without testing it once. So he brought out the bottle filled with the blood of Trixie, deciding to make her his guina pig. After following the steps taught by Tar’el, he activated the curse skill.

The blood in the bottle started to glow red and came out of it one drop at a time. Then it floated before Kenshin and gradually changed shape into the form of a small needle. This needle floated before him, and then with a flash of light, it entered into his head. In his subconsciousness, a miniature humanoid figure was formed surrounded by what look like countless swords.

This was exactly what said by her; if she even thinks of betraying him, one of these swords will penetrate the miniature humanoid figure. When this sword penetrates the figure, it will not only alert him of the betrayal but also cause searing pain to the one who betrayed.

“See!! It worked just fine. Now tell me about your skill.” Tar’el was impatient.

“Alright, I am telling you. The skill is called Apport.” Kenshin made up a name. Actually, he had seen the name and theory behind this skill on the internet.

“Apport! What it does?” asked Tar’el eagerly.

“It sacrifices something to bring out another. In my case, I sacrifice my money to bring out all those things you saw.” Kenshin explained.

Just as Tar’el was about to ask some more questions, Kenshin heard car horns coming from the front gate. It seems Joy’s back with his people. As soon as the car stopped, Mrs. Yui came out holding a sleeping Ellie in one hand and Axel in other. Kenshin ran to her and held Axel from her hands and cradled him as they both took them into Mrs. Yui’s house. Joy then helped his mom to his own apartment, the one he rented. Previously that apartment belonged to a couple but Joy gave them enough money for them to even buy a house. They left happily.

Closing the door to their room, Mrs. Yui sighed and looked at Kenshin, “I am sorry Kenshin. It's because of me…”

“What bullshit is this? This has nothing to do with you. Don’t think too much Miss. Yui. Just go and crash for the night.” giving her a reassuring smile he went down and left her room. He was afraid that if he stays with her longer, she will have even more guilty conscience.

Kenshin went to his home and locked the door. Joy won't be coming tonight. Kenshin figured he might accompany his mother to put her mind at ease. Inside his drawing-room, he saw all his zombies standing like a statue, doing their own thing.

“Z1 and Z2, you guys have hunter license right? Go and hit dungeons. Ena, K1 and K2. You are in charge of guarding Miss Yui’s house and Chiba’s house. Go.” All the zombies nodded their heads and left with a flash. Only Ena stood without moving. She came closer to him and asked in a soft voice, “Master, I have a very important thing to confess.”

“Hmm? Ena? What do you want, tell me.” Kenshin stopped in his tracks and asked.

“Master, I am able to recall bits and pieces about my past… are you interested in hearing it?”

“What?” Kenshin was surprised at this revelation. Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “what do you mean by recalling your past? Do you even have a past?”

“That I don’t know. But recently, I am having flashes of memories that I never had. It was of a few people and a small kid. Master, every time I see that kid, I just feel weird, like I should know this kid but I can’t. it's making me feel uncomfortable, even though a zombie-like me shouldn’t be able to feel anything.” Ena revealed slowly, gauging Kenshin’s reaction at her words.

Kenshin was having a hard time believing her. In the past, Core did tell him the process behind undead monster’s creation once. But he was disinclined to believe anything he said and thus forgot about it. Now, after Ena’s revelation, those memories were starting to surface in his head.

“Oi, Tar’el! What’s going on here?” Kenshin asked his resident undead expert.

“The inevitable,” it was her curt reply.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Kenshin, you know the growth stage of an undead?” suddenly Tar’el asked seriously.

“No.”

“Alright, let me enlighten you. Undeads generally start their life from a low-class undead, basically skeletons or ghosts. After they move around for some time, they were able to either kill other undeads or living beings and absorb their essence. This will increase their rank from low-class skeletons to high-class ones and ghosts to spirits. At this stage, while nothing extraordinary happens, the undeads starts to have a tingle of intelligence.” Tar’el then continued to explain how each rank up would increase their intelligence until one day when they became adequate strong and intelligent, they would be able to recall their past.

But when this Ena was made, she already had more than enough intelligence, so it was only a matter of time before she could recall her past. And this was exactly what happened with Ena.