Flip the Coin [BL]-Chapter 437. Fatigue and Lunch

I think I dreamed a bunch of crap, so when I suddenly opened my eyes because of a knock on the door, I felt absolutely confused.

I looked at the spot beside the door, the memories of being brought into bed hazy, which was probably because of my crystalline counterpart.

I felt so fucking drained, as if I had left a big part of myself in that warehouse and was now supporting myself with half or less of the strength.

"Mr. Howard, please come eat lunch; we will have to talk!" Ethan said from behind the door, sounding like he hadn’t gotten much sleep.

Figured, counting rats, and whatever they did with them then was surely nothing very nice or easy.

"We are coming!" I answered loudly for Ethan to hear, and he left after acknowledging me.

Henry lay beside me with just an arm around me, but he flinched in his sleep and was covered in sweat.

I patted his cheek.

"Henry, wake up. You are having a nightmare."

He didn’t react, so I rubbed his arm.

"Henry, come on, wake up."

Just more flinching and twitching, and it was only when I sat up and shook him as hard as I could in my weakened state that he came to and opened his eyes.

"Nightmare?" I asked, and he winced before sitting up as well and putting his arms around me.

"Haaa... I think I had sleep paralysis." He yawned.

"Poor puppy. Well, yesterday was fucked up." While I patted Henry’s fur, he started kissing my neck softly, making me shudder.

"Do you remember everything?"

"No. Not really the part when we entered the room."

"Good. It was scary, but it is over now and won’t happen again...right?" More kisses while he asked for confirmation.

"It won’t. I am not exactly keen on experiencing that either." Still, there could be moments when we don’t have much of a choice.

My plan for the future included me flipping the coin to find out where the next portal would open, then getting Jeyjey and closing it instantly upon its appearance.

We could also wait until the news of a portal opening reached us otherwise, but it wouldn’t be as efficient and would give monsters the chance to invade our world before we arrive there.

"Ethan called us. He probably wants to talk." I patted the little puppy that had turned into a little octopus, sucking itself onto my skin, before forcing him to let go.

When I stood on the mattress, I nearly fell back, but Henry pulled me up, and we went into the bathroom to wash up.

I was still in my clothes from yesterday; luckily, I had never touched any of the rat corpses, or we would need to change the mattress again, but my shoes were gone.

I hadn’t noticed before, but every time I would fall into the bed while dead tired, I would wake up without shoes, which had to be Henry’s handiwork.

"Handsome?" He asked me with a smile through the mirror, staring back at me.

On the mirror, by the way, still stuck his fake mustache.

Every time I was in the bathroom and saw that thing, I had to chuckle.

"Yeah." Can’t deny that the guy who just sweated with sleep paralysis was now looking like a model fresh out of a catalog.

Henry laughed happily and latched onto me, and that was also how we left without changing our clothes.

Just that this time, it was more him holding me upright instead of me half-carrying him. The puppy had apparently noticed that I was low on energy.

Ethan, my grandmother, and the staff sergeant were present in the kitchen, as was a table full of food.

Ren was there as well, lighting up when he saw us like always.

Henry had let go of me before we entered the kitchen, though he still held onto my arm in case I fell, but I was nevertheless a bit unhappy because of the little touch.

Can’t believe I was already in the state that I wouldn’t mind showcasing our ’closeness’ to the others.

I should be happy that he behaved at least in front of my grandmother.

"At least you produced enough dead rats," the dragon noted while watching me fill Henry’s plate with food after we sat down, her unusual judgmental look piercing into my hands.

"A good morning to you too," I said back with a smirk, relieved that yesterday wasn’t for naught, and I didn’t have to go to the warehouse again to conjure up more rats.

"A bit over six hundred thousand," Ethan clarified, and Henry gave him a bad look while filling our glasses with water, as the number did turn out higher than necessary.

"Good." I leaned back weakly after filling Ren’s plate as well, too tired to get my own food.

Henry took over that task, and besides more mashed potatoes, there was a bunch of meat and side dishes that I liked the most.

What an attentive puppy.

Now doing something exhausting would be rewarded by meat during meals, which was not a bad motivation. Today, I didn’t really feel much like eating, nevertheless, and instead leaned sideways against my puppy while forcing myself to hold a spoon.

My grandmother didn’t say anything about sitting upright and such this time.

"We will meet with the necessary people in the warehouse today," Ethan started after taking a few bites and then putting his cutlery down.

"Alright." I nodded and went for the meat on my plate to gain more strength.

"I will be there too," Henry announced, and Ethan nodded.

"However, it would be good if you used your contact lenses and a mask to cover at least half of your face," Ethan warned.

"When we first talked about today, Mr. Howard brought up that he didn’t want the government to receive the rat corpses. Can you explain again why this was the case?" He explained for the table before turning to me.

This talk happened what felt to be so long ago; I couldn’t really recall, but one part of why I didn’t want them to receive the half a million corpses was that I didn’t want to overuse my power in keeping them here in the ’future’.

Additionally, back then, we didn’t know how many rats I would be able to touch, and the chances that I had to, let’s say, conjure up a few hundred repeatedly to achieve the half-a-million number meant that if the government dissected or destroyed the corpses, then we could have a time paradox in the worst case.

I didn’t really want to take that risk, but now I conjured up the same rats just six times, so they could have them if leaving them out wouldn’t weaken my state so much.

Henry intercepted.

"They just need to see and count them; that was stated in the deal. It is unnecessary for us to hand them over, so they won’t get anything. We said I would use my power to make them believe that the corpses had been destroyed, while in reality, Kenny would put them back to the past."

After he finished, he glanced at the staff sergeant, as if warning him silently that everything about my power was top secret.

True, we had ignored his presence more or less while talking about powers and such, but he could still be seen as a military person.

The staff sergeant showed a cordial expression while my grandmother slammed the table, unclear if she didn’t like how Henry looked at the old man or if she just had one of her antics.

"You won’t use that cursed power in front of anyone after what you failed to do!"

"Don’t scare the kid!" I warned her, but in reality, Ren had become accustomed already to the way this family communicated, and I just didn’t like how SHE talked to Henry.

The old mummy squinted her eyes at me but didn’t do more, and there was a long uncomfortable silence at the table, which was perfect so everyone could get a bit of food into themselves.

I held Henry’s hand under the table so that he wouldn’t be sad because of the dragon spewing fire on the table.

Ethan finished first and put his napkin down after tapping his mouth.

"That was what I wanted to get at. Henry can’t show his powers after he used them that night; we don’t know if there is someone from that family involved today. So instead of doing that, we will first prolong and then deny their request for delivering the corpses. As far as I’ve heard, they won’t be able to bring enough manpower and transport options to today’s meeting."

Henry clenched his jaw.

"But the deal will be done today, and Kenny will regain his freedom?"

"I will do my best, and I believe so, yes." Ethan nodded.

"When is the meeting?" I asked before I continued to force myself to eat.

"Six o’clock, so in about three and a half hours," our attorney answered after looking at his watch.

I nodded,

"Thank you, everyone; the drinks are on me."

I internally chuckled at my inability to provide drinks, though I could later conjure up some or break into a liquor store.

My grandmother scoffed again before mumbling into her beard.

"Just turned eighteen and already drinking... just like your..." In the end, she didn’t finish, probably noting how the staff sergeant had flinched slightly, as if he knew where this was going and who would be mentioned.

Hmm, unusual for her to be considerate. I think that old man had wormed himself into the dragon’s heart; what a mighty and resourceful knight.

Ethan saved everyone from the next wave of uncomfortable silence.

"We will meet here at five again, though I have to show you something before that." He looked at me, and I nodded again.

The rest of the lunch went uneventfully, and when everyone was finished and brought their plates away, my grandmother and the staff sergeant left after the former had her little dark beverage.

Ethan excused himself for a minute before he came back with a thick, big laptop.

He placed it on the table, and I stared at the screen when it lit up from him pressing on the keyboard.

I looked at the inside of a warehouse.

"You can watch everything from here. Please let me repeat: do not come to the warehouse under any circumstances," Ethan implored me.

There were a fucking bunch of cameras, some even showing the outsides of the warehouse.

The rat mountain from outside was gone, and the thousands of shelves inside the warehouse seemed to be filled with plastic containers that surely held the little corpses.

"Wow. Good job, Ethan." I met his eyes and saw him quirk a smile at my praise.

Henry leaned against me demonstratively but didn’t say anything more at me praising someone other than him.

"Are there microphones as well? Can I hear you guys?" I asked, and Ethan nodded.

They had to receive quite a bit of help, so a bunch of men had come.

I was really curious if these were also from the model agency or something, though they surely were out of business now.

"Part of the help was provided by the families of the guards that had died in the south district. Mrs. Howard did apologize to their families and gave each a big sum of money. The rest were men the staff sergeant knew and had trained in the past," he explained, as if he had read my mind.

"Naturally, we can’t be sure that nobody talked about what they did last night, which is also a reason you can’t appear at the warehouse." He implored me yet again.

"I won’t show up, no worries."

"Very good."

He nodded and left for good; now only Ren, Henry, and I were the only ones inside the kitchen.

The puppy played with the laptop, zooming in and out of a few cameras, figuring out where they were exactly placed.

"Are you sure you want to go?" I asked him, now leaning on him and Ren leaning against me.

The moment the little one moved, I could again hear the paper rustling; he apparently had decided for good now that his stomach was the best place to keep the drawing.

Well, paper is a bit isolating and will help keep him warm.

I patted Ren’s head with a grin and nudged Henry when he didn’t immediately answer.

"Yes. I don’t want to leave you here, especially if you are weakened, but I have to be there to make sure nobody acts out." He sounded a bit bloodthirsty at the end.

I think it’s also because he wants to oversee his promise getting fulfilled and to kill everyone misbehaving in the worst case.

"Before YOU act out, give me a call."

"Alright..." Henry leaned back with a sigh,

"...we will finally charge your phone."