Chapter 64: When Do People Smile? (Part 2)

Sister: "So that part about 'a prey working for hunters' was a joke?"

She asks with a nervous smile as she looks at the visitor sitting on the chairs.

Bronzer: "Of course it was, Sister. You don't know? It is kinda like the new catchphrase among children."

He says with a smile as he turns to look at Ethan with an expression of 'Right?'

Ethan: "…"

He does not reply, only looks back at Bronzer with emotionless eyes.

Sister: "UH!?"

She starts to panic because of the rudeness Ethan was showing to their 'guest' but,

Ethan: "I don't know. It could be. It's not like I spend much time with 'children'."

He said before she could say anything.

Bronzer: "Ah! I see. And here I was thinking I had given a greeting a child would be familiar with. Guess I was wrong!"

Ethan knew that this man was lying out of his teeth. He knew that there was no trend like that going on among anyone. Yet, he didn't say so. He found no reason to argue over something like that. And so, he didn't say a word.

Bronzer: "Let a lie rule if peace comes from it!"

He suddenly said, causing both Ethan and the Sister to be surprised.

Bronzer: "Oh, nothing. I don't know what came over me."

He said with a smile and closed his eyes as he turned towards the Sister.

She just casually chuckled a bit at that.

But Ethan understood better. He understood that phrase was to represent his approach to the situation. He knew that what their visitor was trying to say.

Let a lie rule if peace comes from it.

Although this was a really small-scale application of it, Ethan did choose to let the lie continue just so he can avoid any unnecessary nonsense that may happen if the lie is discovered.

Ethan: "Mister Bro-"

He got interrupted with a smiling expression and a voice saying,

Bronzer: "Just Bronzer."

Ethan: "Huh?!"

Bronzer: "You can just call me Bronzer."

Ethan sighed and continued,

Ethan: "Bronzer, why are you here?"

He asked with an expression empty enough that 'deadpan' wouldn't even be a suitable word for it. The best word would indeed be – emotionless.

Sister: "Ethan! That's rude!"

The Sister chided him with her hands at her waists but,

Bronzer: "No, no, it's quite okay, miss."

Bronzer casually told her to stop with that and continued,

Bronzer: "I am here to see how unripe the fruits are for eating."

Sister: "Huh!?"

Ethan just emptily stared even as he heard that but the Sister got anxious as to what he meant.

Bronzer: "Oh pardon me, I came to this city with two purposes and just keep mixing them up."

What he said was a lie. Ethan knew that. What he meant – Ethan also knew that. But,

Ethan: "I see."

He didn't tell anyone yet again, causing a grin to appear on Bronzer's face.

Even as he heard that his fellow orphans are being looked at as food by some party that this man represents, he didn't say anything or tell anyone. He just casually walked away.

Sister: "Uh, ah,"

The Sister kept looking back-and-forth between the two of them, unable to decide what to do. Seeing her like that, Bronzer chuckled and stood up.

Bronzer: "I remembered something. I probably need to go now."

He said with a smile. The Sister, hearing that, bowed to him.

Bronzer: "Can I make a request before going though, if you don't mind?"

He asked. The Sister nodded nervously.

Bronzer: "Please tell that boy – people don't just smile when they are happy. They also smile when they are sad."

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Gabriel: "If you decide to go back on this,"

Ethan: "Shut up already! We said we are going to help you with your revenge and so we will. Unless of course, you decide to keep annoying us like you are now and make us change our minds."

He says quite mockingly.

Gabriel: "Tsk!"

While paying little attention to that exchange, I open the door of the car Ethan and Sneha came in.

Kais: "What did you two do with the actual driver?"

Sneha: "Put him to sleep obviously."

Kais: "And … how?"

Sneha doesn't directly answer but makes a motion of giving someone a slap … or a chop.

I see. So they put the driver to sleep with one of Sneha's chops. I guess it couldn't be helped though.

Kais: "Where is he right now?"

Sneha: "All tied up in the back-seat."

She says without showing much remorse for tying up the driver of the taxi inside the taxi itself.

Kais: "Hah!"

I sigh and then open the back-door and see the driver lying there unconscious while his hands and legs are tied up with ropes and mouth is tied up with a cloth – classic 'kidnapped' appearance.

Kais: "Hah! Now I kinda feel bad for the guy!"

I say exasperatedly, to which,

Sona: "Why? He's been sleeping there safely the whole time while we were busy strategizing and fighting."

And to think that they say women are more sympathetic than men!

Kais: "Anyway, are those two done yet?"

I say as I turn to look at Ethan and Gabriel. Ever since we all collectively decided to help Gabriel, he has been bugging Ethan with one thing or another.

Gabriel: "And if you decided to do something that irritated me,"

Ethan: "It's not an 'if', loser, I'll definitely do something like that."

And it seems like it's still going on.

Kais: "Would you two cut it out?"

Gabriel: "Don't interfere with this!"

Ethan: "Yeah, Kais, shut up!"

Well, that didn't go so well. Seeing that,

Sneha: "Seriously, stop it. You are making my head spin!"

Gabriel: "Then go see a doctor, don't complain to us!"

Ethan: "Right, now what were we fighting over?"

Okay, I take it back. Men really are less sympathetic than women! At least, these two men are. However, as there is something important to do here, we can't let them continue this charade. And so, I turn to the best person for the job.

Sona: "Uh …"

She looks at me awkwardly as she understands what I want her to do. She droops her shoulders, making a cute, sighing face.

Sona: "Okay, sure."

She then says those words and looks at the two of them.

Sona: "Shut up!"

She says in a stern voice, and …

Gabriel: "…"

Ethan: "…"

Seeing that, I can't help but think that if I do fall for a woman someday, it'll definitely be this nutcase. Wait! What am I saying!? There's no chance of that happening. It's not like I heard what Ethan was muttering back then or anything like that, NOT AT ALL!

Ethan: "You are disrupting the energy balance again."

Kais: "More importantly,"

Not waiting a second for anyone to react to his statement, I say,

Kais: "There's something you need to take a look at."

Hearing that, with a bored expression, he comes towards where I am pointing … which is the back-seat of the car.

Ethan: "What is it? Everything looks normal to me."

A guy lying in the seat all tied up and unconscious looks normal to you? Well I guess you are Ethan Kales so one can't be too surprised. Anyway though,

Kais: "Take a look at the ropes around his hand, there's something there that I doubt would have been there from the start."

As I say so, Ethan takes a look, finds and picks up an old-fashioned mobile phone. He presses some random button causing the screen to lighten up and "YOU HAVE 1 NEW MESSAGE" to show up.

As he presses the buttons accordingly to view it, the message opens up and inside it, was an image. This image showed a woman in the outfit of a Church or Orphanage Sister lying dead in a pool of blood. And there, alongside the image, it was written -

'I was, years ago, asked to tell you something that I forgot to. So, let me tell you this now - people don't just smile when they are happy. They also smile when they are sad.

The woman lying in the pool of blood – was smiling.

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