Chapter 144: Physical and mental distress compensation

Meanwhile, after Lemuel gets taken away by Sulfrid, Kyrie and Laurel remain in their seats, silent for the majority of the time. Their minds are somewhere else as they keep on sipping from their glasses, taking alcohol as if it is water. 

Kyrie starts to hiccup, drawing Laurel's attention away from her mind. Kyrie flushes from mindlessly consuming too much alcohol. She rests her chin on her palm and giggles since she finds their sorry state a bit comedic.

"Those bastards have not returned a single letter…" Kyrie opens up what he feels since his brain has already cut the circuit of reason, "Heartless bastards… I bet this is your wife's doing!"

Laurel chuckles when Kyrie calls Imogen, her wife, and she covers her flushing cheeks, feeling embarrassed. After processing Kyrie's words, Laurel is then aware that Kyrie has just badmouthed Imogen.

"How is it my wife's doing? She is not sending letters to me too! I sent her so many letters… You can't blame my wife when your husband is the one not sending you letters as well!" 

Laurel pouts while feeling sorry for herself again, "I swear… If Imogen cheats on me… I will… I will…"

Laurel finds herself thinking, 'What can I even punish her with?'

Suddenly, she feels like a laughing stock for falling in love. While she is completely into Imogen, Imogen seems not to show much interest other than just some passion moments. She laughs and sniffles at the same time, unsure about her contradictory feelings. Just remembering about Imogen, she gets butterflies in her stomach. Yet, the distance and cut communication are beating her down. She just feels like a fool.

"If I knew this would happen, I would just break up with her… before she left me… The promise of that song will not happen… Her words would not make me flutter so much… and I will not be waiting so bitterly here..."

"Ah? What song?"

"You know… That song!" Laurel comments like it is public knowledge. 

"That… song?" Kyrie looks at Laurel with half-opened eyes, not even thinking of what he is currently saying.

"Yes… That one!!!" Laurel nods while looking at the wooden table. She sees how the wood patterns expand and move on the table.

"Hehehe…" Kyrie laughs because he has no idea.

"What is so funny?" Laurel pouts while shrugging her shoulders.

"We are… we are goddamn funny…" Kyrie pats his chest.

"Why are you making fun of us?" Laurel starts sniffling again.

"Who is making fun of us?!?! I will castrate that person!"

"Hehehehehe! But… you said that!"

"I did? You liar!"

"No! We are not liars… Those heartless ones are liars! I should have never trusted love! Love is pain!" 

"But… castrating Ian will only punish me…" Kyrie lets out a sigh.

"What?" Laurel nudges at Kyrie, "You like it that much?!?! Hehehe…"

Kyrie starts to feel embarrassed and blushes. He pushes Laurel, and she almost tilts to the floor.

"Ah! You almost killed your confidant!" Laurel balances back herself.

Kyrie, in his drunken state, looks at Laurel with a serious expression. 

"We can't just let them do whatever the hell they want!" Kyrie slams his hand on the table, "We have to renegotiate terms and conditions!"

Laurel nods while frowning. She squeezes her eyes to look at Kyrie because she is trying really hard to stay awake.

"Let's go!" Kyrie hiccups, "Those bastards have already come out of the gates!"

"That fast?!?!"

"Yeah!" Kyrie searches on his dimensional pouch and takes out the pendant.

The pendant shines, indicating that Ian and Imogen are currently outside of the gates. When Kyrie has seen the pendant shine in his room, he is actually quite surprised that Ian and Imogen have cleared the gate that fasts. 

Laurel holds at the pendant and squints her eyes to look closely if it is shining. 

"We will write our terms and conditions… and if they cannot fulfill it… We will castr-... We will not let them touch us for as long as we are still angry at them!"

Laurel nods, and they shake hands to seal the deal between them even though the deal is with their tops.

---

The wind blows the curtains up into the air, wafting through the room while picking up blank letters scattered around the room. The rustling sound gets picked up by Kyrie's waking consciousness. 

Kyrie feels like he cannot breathe from the pressure on his chest, so he opens his heavy eyelids. His head is throbbing, and his body feels like it has fallen from the sky without air resistance. He looks down to see Laurel drooling on his chest, and he pushes her off. He sits up while holding his head, just in case if it decides to fall off.

He shivers from the cold and sees that the window is wide open. Kyrie shakes Laurel in an attempt to wake her up. 

"What? It is still early!" Laurel lifts her head, lazily opening just one of her eyes.

She looks around, disoriented. Feeling her head throbbing, she lets her head fall back onto the mattress while letting out a groan of agony. 

"My head…" Laurel whines before rolling her body up so that she can see Kyrie, "Why am I in your bedroom?"

Laurel squeezes her eyes tightly while waiting for the answers, and she opens them again to see Kyrie with a frozen expression.

"What is it?" Laurel thinks back to yesterday's events.

Laurel looks at Kyrie, confused, but her memories start to come back to her. Kyrie turns his head towards her with tears almost spilling from his eyes. His face is ashen, aged at least ten years. Laurel covers her mouth as she remembers the things she wrote in her letter.

"Tell me it was a dream…" Laurel squeezes her words out from a dry throat.

Kyrie shakes his head and lets out a shaky whine, "I think we really send the letters…"

Kyrie catches Laurel from falling head first off the bed. Tears are rolling out of her eyes as she hangs upside down.

"Kyrie… After I die, I don't want to have a white funeral. Can you make it blue for me?"