Chapter 371: Siblings? |
Haru stopped dead in his tracks as he turned to face her with a look of confusion on her face. He was waiting for her to repeat herself but as he hadn't asked her to she had no idea that she was supposed to.
It took Haru a good few seconds to process what she had just said before he realised what it meant. He wasn't the only person from earth to have ascended to their planet. Which also came with a lot of questions.
"What did you just say?" Haru asked as Annabeth furrowed her brows in response before replying using her voice.
"Well, I just said that…" She tried to reply but Haru was quick to cut her off.
"I know what you said but what I was really asking was where did you hear it before? There shouldn't be anyone in this town that speaks that language or is there?" Haru asked as the guards were now starting to become weary of Haru's identity.
The people in the Kastron star system only ever spoke Goahen and most people couldn't even read the language. Yet Haru somehow knew a language that not only they hadn't heard before but so did the woman that he was with. They were starting to become suspicious of him as they watched their young lady speak to him casually.
"Well, my master… He has some old books with a strange text on them that he had gotten by chance. He had been trying to translate them on his own without reference but he isn't there yet even after years of trying but he did read me something from it one time and it sounded a lot like how you were just speaking.
It's quite weird to explain but it sounded similar that's all. I could be wrong but I think that it might be written in a language similar to what you were just speaking. What was that by the way? Where did you learn that? The people around here only know how to speak Gaohen…" Annabeth said as she hadn't quite connected the dots yet but Haru was quick to throw in some misdirection as the guards all around became even more suspicious about his origin.
"Well, my family learned it from old books probably a lot similar to the one that your master found. They taught it to me when I was young so that we could speak among ourselves without people understanding…" Haru said as he came up with the quite obvious lie on the spot.
"We're siblings…" Hong Xia said with a smile as she grabbed Haru's arm tightly.
"What!?" Annabeth shouted out in shock as she took Haru's words right from his mouth as he turned to look at her with a surprised expression.
Hong Xia nodded her head with a proud look on her face as she saw Haru looking dumbfounded by what she had just said.
"You mean all this time I had thought that you two were… Oh no! I'm so sorry I didn't know. I just thought that a man and a woman travelling together would mean that you two are… Wait but why did you say that she's your friend?" Annabeth asked as she looked at Haru expecting an answer from him but Hong Xia answered once again as she was clearly much better at lying than he was.
"Because it's much easier than saying we are siblings. People would give us funny looks if they knew that a brother and sister were staying in the same room despite being adults wouldn't they?" Hong Xia said with a few stutters throughout as she wasn't used to joining so many words together but to Haru's surprise she had picked up the language a lot quicker than he thought she would.
"Well, you do have a point… But to think that you are siblings… It all makes sense now. What I saw earlier was just what Luo Yang said it was. You were angry at him and fighting not doing the nasty like I originally thought." Annabeth said with a sigh of relief as she was glad to find out that nothing was going on between them.
But Hong Xia froze for a few minutes as she tried to understand what Annabeth had meant.
"Nasty?…" She repeated quietly with a look of confusion on her face to which Haru sighed and whispered something into her ear which caused her cheeks to quickly flush a shade of red as she found out what it meant.
"No no no no no! That would never happen! No! That's disgusting!" Hong Xia shouted out as she looked up at Haru feeling more embarrassed than she had ever done before.
'She thought that we were doing those kinds of things together!? What was she thinking!? With him of all people?!' She thought as she was both embarrassed and didn't know how to respond to what was going on before quickly looking down at the floor.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Well anyway back to the language thing. Do you mind if I let my teacher know? He might want you to take a look at his books to see if you are able to read it or not." Annabeth said as Haru nodded his head in response.
"Sure, go ahead. Just make sure that he knows that we won't be too long. There is just something that I would like to check out before we meet later tonight. I guess my 'sister' is coming along too. Haru said as he looked down at Hong Xia who was still holding onto his arm and as he did she let out a nervous laugh as she could tell that he was mad about the fact she said they were siblings.
"Yes, I will do just that. And about everything here. You don't need to worry about it at all. I will make sure that everything is taken care of to the highest degree. I doubt they will ever find their bodies!" Annabeth called out which didn't sit too well with Haru. It sounded as though it wasn't the first time that she had hidden people bodies before.
But as he thought about the situation of the world that they had ended up in. It wouldn't be that strange for her to have killed someone before especially since even the force in charge of the star system was as corrupted as they came.
As a young woman, it was only natural that she would be in more danger than a man would be which was probably why she was surrounded by so many guards at any one time. Haru could see that she had it handled so he didn't feel bad about leaving them to clean up while he ventured out on his own.
"I will leave it to you then," Haru said as he walked outside, still arm in arm with Hong Xia who was keeping up with the sibling appearance a bit too much until the door closed behind them she then let go.
"Really? Siblings?" Haru asked as he began to walk.
Hong Xia followed shortly behind him, making sure that he wouldn't get too far ahead of her and leave her behind as he had done before.
"Well, it's not like I really had a choice. You are so bad at lying to the point where they could see through you like a window. If I didn't say something to shock them then they never would have believed your whole story about it being a secret language that only your family spoke.
Do you even have a functioning brain up there?" Hong Xia asked with a laugh as this was her first look into seeing something that Haru wasn't good at and she felt as though she had won one over on him.
"Well, it's not my fault. It's easier, to tell the truth in most cases. I never really learnt how to lie." He said as he continued to walk.
For the first time since she had met Haru, it looked as though he was embarrassed about something and she couldn't help herself before jumping at the opportunity to tease him a little.
"Do you want me to teach you!? All you have to do is Kowtow and beg your big sister to teach you how to lie." She laughed as she could see Haru's veins begin to bulge on the side of his neck as he was getting annoyed with how childish she was acting about the whole situation.
'I made him mad. Awe how cute. I bet he would yell at me some more if I pushed him a little further… Wait, what am I thinking? Don't tell me that I actually liked it when he yelled at me! What is wrong with me!?' Hong Xia thought as her face flushed red once again as she followed behind Haru in complete silence as they headed towards the main entrance to the town.