This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 18 - Raid (3) - Part 1

18. Raid (3)

“…Did she bring Terisier here because she knew he had abilities?”

“Yes. My mother, in her arrogance, got greedy. I can only speculate, but it seems she believed his abilities were nearly perfect. She likely thought she could fulfill her desires using his abilities.”

Zerdan mentioned that his mother seemed possessed by something at first. How she showered Terisier affectionately, even more so than her own son, was unsettling.

Obella had been unaware of the details, as their father had kept him separate and looked after him, but Zerdan had stayed close to their mother and witnessed everything. He observed how their mother became increasingly obsessed with Terisier, descending into madness.

“That child treated my mother as if she were his real mother. Perhaps, being so young, he truly mistook her for his mother. From that point on, my mother lost her mind, trying to fully understand and exploit his abilities. She lured children with abilities from among the orphans and used them as test subjects. Among them were Liffree and Ding.”

“What about Bella and Zerdan?”

“Bella lived separately with our father, so he might not even know such experiments were happening, even now. As for me, I was confined there as a test subject, treated like a lab rat. It didn’t matter that I was her real son.”

Zerdan continued in a calm tone.

“Because I didn’t have any abilities, I was almost entirely neglected, except for the experiments they conducted on me to see if it was possible to forcibly grant abilities to ordinary people. The results were disastrous. The experiments were absurd from the start, and the other children were no different.”

It seemed difficult for him to recall those memories. His expression, usually unchanging, briefly contorted into one of discomfort.

The fact that he directly referred to it as an “experiment” implied that the situation was far from ordinary. The experiments themselves were unthinkable.

Conducting experiments on living people.

Although Zerdan didn’t go into detail, I could guess enough to keep silent. But suddenly, a question arose.

I understood why Zerdan despised his parents, and it made sense that Obella, being unaware of the situation, often clashed with Zerdan.

Of course, that didn’t justify all of Zerdan’s actions up to this point. I also roughly understood how Terisier, Liffree, and Ding were entangled in all of this.

But there was one thing I couldn’t understand.

“…I get that Terisier was involved, but considering Ding’s current age, it seems unlikely that she could have been part of the group at that time.”

Ding is still a child now—was she involved as a test subject back then? How young must she have been?

No, if Zerdan and Liffree were young back then, Ding wouldn’t have even been born yet.

Although Terisier was younger than them, there seemed to be a bit of an age gap between them now.

Zerdan seemed to have anticipated my question, as he recalled the earlier situation.

The girl who was suddenly attacked by Liffree and was bleeding—while others were shocked, Zerdan remained indifferent.

“Ding died a long time ago. At the same age as she is now.”

Because he already knew that the child was dead.

“…What?”

Zerdan’s unexpected words left me with a stunned expression. This was something I hadn’t considered at all.

Does that mean Ding was being controlled like a puppet through Zerdan’s ability? But if that were the case, Ding still expressed emotions and communicated like a normal child.

“Is it possible to… resurrect someone?”

“At least for her, it seemed possible. When Ding was alive, she could store abilities. The ability to store part of an ability that she was attacked with. And she could use a very small portion of that ability as her own.”

I urged Zerdan with my eyes to continue.

“I guess that Terisier, who was close to Ding, resurrected her after she died. During that process, he gave me the ability to control corpses like puppets to revive Ding.”

“But Ding clearly expressed emotions and communicated, unlike the others you’ve controlled as puppets.”

“I don’t know the reason for that either. Maybe he used some other ability. For some reason, it seems that Terisier used Ding’s ability to store both his memories and Ding’s memories. Including all the memories of Liffree and me, who survived that incident. When Ding, who was acting as a vessel, got hurt, the stored memories must have been restored.”

“…Terisier seems a bit younger now than when you first told me about him, or is that just my imagination?”

“It’s not your imagination. I don’t know if it’s a side effect of sealing his abilities, but the age difference between us isn’t that great.”

I had thought Terisier had just become an adult, but now I was learning that he wasn’t much younger than Zerdan. He might even be older than me or at least the same age.

While everything else was shocking, the idea that Terisier might be older than me was surprisingly more startling.

I had been feeling slightly guilty about being involved with someone I thought had just become an adult, but it seemed my worries were unfounded.

I sighed and continued to question Zerdan.

“What is your guess about Terisier’s ability? The one I know about—transforming into animals… it’s not just that, right?”

Zerdan hesitated at my cautious question. He frowned, looking uncertain, and then spoke.

“As I mentioned earlier, it’s just my guess. But from what I’ve observed so far… I can at least say that he has more than one ability.”

“Having more than two abilities is extremely rare, isn’t it?”

“That’s exactly why my mother coveted him. He might be able to use even more varied abilities. From what I’ve seen, he can read others’ memories or use telekinesis.”

“Add to that the ability to transform into animals and the wind or earth-based abilities we just saw. It’s impressive enough that he could grant abilities to someone like you, who was originally an ordinary person, but the ability to resurrect Ding… I can see why your mother lost her mind over such an ability. It’s the kind of ability that could make anyone lose their sense of reason.”

It wasn’t just an illusion—there was clear damage.

It’s not easy for one person to possess so many abilities. What kind of abilities could he possibly have?

“It seems like Liffree has a rough idea of what his abilities are. That’s probably why he’s so greedy, like my mother. I didn’t expect him to go this far, though… I thought I knew him well, but I was careless.”

“I think when faced with abilities beyond human comprehension, people can’t help but react. They either fear it or covet it. Your mother and Liffree chose the latter. But you were afraid of Terisier’s abilities, weren’t you? That’s why you were looking for him. You wanted to eliminate him before he regained his memories and fully manifested his abilities.”

Now that I think about it, I remember how Zerdan seriously searched Terisier’s room, even though it wasn’t Obella’s, when he entered before.

Perhaps Zerdan had been suspicious of Terisier from the beginning.

“He was very attached to my mother, so I believed that if he regained his memories, he would try to bring her back. If that happened, she’d likely resume the inhumane experiments on innocent children or people with abilities. I’ve had enough of that. They’re… very unpleasant memories. Or maybe he’d kill all the ability users and reshape the world to his liking. My mother was not a woman in her right mind.”

“I see… So your mother must have resembled Bella a lot.”

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

“You were almost certain that Terisier would stay by Obella’s side and kept searching for him, right? Despite the presence of other ability users. Was it because, even without his memories, you thought Terisier would subconsciously be drawn to Obella because he resembled the woman he thought of as his mother?”

Zerdan seemed slightly surprised. It was as if he hadn’t expected me to figure that out. I simply smiled at his reaction.

“If Terisier regains his original memories, do you think he’ll try to attack us? I thought Obella and I had become somewhat close.”

“Liffree must have had something in mind when he acted. He’s a clever one, despite how he appears.”

“He certainly is. I’ll have to scold him when I see him later.”

I had gathered enough information to understand the situation. I realized that Zerdan and Liffree’s current positions were directly opposed to each other.

Right now, Zerdan probably wants to stop Liffree’s actions. If that’s the case, we don’t have any reason to fight each other at the moment.

When I helped Zerdan to his feet, he rose without much resistance.

“Is your ability working on Sidon?”

“…I’ve been trying, but it seems things are getting chaotic outside.”

I had suspected as much when I saw that Zerdan’s body wasn’t healing as it had before. It appeared that the situation outside wasn’t favorable either.

If things were going well, Obella and the group would have come to rescue us by now. It seemed we had no choice but to find our own way out.

Zerdan draped his arm over my shoulder. It felt a bit awkward to be this close, especially since we weren’t on a bed.

I deliberately tried to shake off the awkwardness.

“You know, I won’t forget the hole you put in my chest. I’ll make sure to repay you once all this is over.”

“…Did you not see the hole in my waist earlier?”

“That wasn’t enough to satisfy me.”

Zerdan fell silent.

I had hoped to dispel the awkwardness, but instead, an even longer silence followed.

After hearing what Zerdan had to say, our next steps were clear. We needed to stop Terisier’s rampage and thwart Liffree’s malicious plans.

But first, we had to find a way out of here. What ability could we possibly use to escape?

Those with useful abilities were all above us, and for some reason, no one seemed to be coming to our rescue. I could only assume it was due to Terisier’s rampage.

“Do you have any ideas on how to get out of here?”

“It’s not certain, but it seems like this area might be connected to the basement of another building..”

Zerdan replied, looking around.

He must have scouted the surroundings while I was unconscious because he pointed confidently down one of the pathways.

Supporting Zerdan, I started walking in the direction he indicated, when I noticed spiders and ants. Zerdan and I both looked at a spider climbing up my calf at the same time.

I was wearing pants, but the spider was larger than I expected, so without thinking, I kicked it off with my other foot.

I then stomped on the spider on the ground, and Zerdan looked at me with an odd expression. I gave him a playful smile.

“Were you hoping I’d pretend to be scared?”

“No, it’s just that it’s rare to see a woman not afraid of spiders. I guess you’re a bit bolder than most.”

“You like bold women, don’t you, Zerdan? I don’t think demure women are your type.”

“Am I that easy to read?”

Zerdan spoke with a surprised look on his face.

He prided himself on maintaining a good poker face, making it difficult for others to guess his preferences or thoughts, but the woman in front of him didn’t seem to have much trouble.

“It shows in the way you treat me. You and I have a lot in common.”

“I think I’ve heard something like that before. On the contrary, Bella and I are quite different, which led to a lot of clashes.”

“So you fought with Bella a lot when you were young?”

“Siblings do that.”

Zerdan smiled. Seeing his expression, I suddenly felt curious.

“Did you ever think about telling Bella the truth? Even if he couldn’t fully accept everything you did because of his personality, he would have at least tried to understand and would have wanted to stay by your side.”

“Bella had loving parents, after all.”

Zerdan didn’t directly answer my question and instead focused on his own point. But I understood what he meant, so I gave a bitter smile.

“Did you think Bella wouldn’t be able to understand you?”

“It’s something he hasn’t experienced himself, and no one would easily believe that their own parents were conducting human experiments. Even if he tried to believe me, he would still be confused, remembering his parents as kind and caring. Eventually, he would start to doubt me. I didn’t want him by my side under those circumstances.”

“Then who do you have by your side? Liffree, who went through the same experience, now has a different perspective and is acting independently.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Even if you’re betrayed by Liffree and end up killed by Bella, who’s fighting you in earnest?”

Zerdan likely considered various scenarios and possible outcomes. He would have planned and worked to ensure that his plan was successful, but he also would have thought about what might happen if things went wrong.

One of those scenarios probably included Obella not understanding Zerdan’s hidden motives and killing him to stop him.

Zerdan didn’t respond to my question. That probably meant he agreed.