Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 178 Stupid or Brave?　　Rudy couldn't dare to turn around or even glance back. His soul had left his body, or so he thought.

His heartbeat grew louder than ever, and he felt like he was about to die. His legs gave out, and he nearly fell to his knees, but he managed to stand still.

"I am a good person, you said. I don't break promises, you said!" the voice yelled out loud as everything in the house started shaking.

"I am! I wasn't lying!" Rudy yelled back, but not because of anger or fear; he yelled back because his voice was getting overlapped by the noise.

"Lies! You promised you wouldn't come into this house again, yet you came back again just five minutes later! I shouldn't have let you go!"

"I just came back to take my bag! It's your fault in the first place! If you had thrown me out with the bag, I would have run straight home!"

Suddenly, everything stopped shaking. Then, footsteps approached Rudy and stopped right behind him.

"What did you say?" the voice asked from his shoulders.

"Okay, my bad. I shouldn't have said that." Rudy knew that he would be chopped into pieces if he repeated himself.

"I asked, what did you say?" the voice asked again, this time in a more furious tone.

Rudy gulped down and said, "I just said if you had thrown me out with the bag, I wouldn't have come back here to retrieve it."

"I did that on purpose to see how serious you were about your promise, but I guess I was a fool to trust you. In the end, all humans are the same!"

Rudy turned around to face the voice, but he was met with silence and an empty hallway.

"Did you just try to look at me?!" the voice yelled from behind Rudy.

Rudy turned back without caring for anything, but no one was there.

"Stop doing that!"

Once again, everything in the house started shaking— no, the entire house was shaking.

The house was turned upside down, and Rudy was repeatedly slammed into the walls and the ceiling. But even then, he never let the bag slip from his hand.

"I was still considering forgiving you, but you had to turn around, and not once but twice?!"

"Why don't you show yourself? Are you afraid or something? I don't know what you are, or maybe you are a ghost! But whatever you are, you should meet everyone face to face and talk with them."

"Shut up! Don't tell me what to do!" Now, it felt as if the house itself was talking.

"You are just making this worse! Nothing would have happened if you had simply shown yourself when I entered the house. And I definitely never intended to enter this house. I was charmed by something, and the door also opened automatically."

Rudy was saying everything he could to calm the house down. He wanted to make everything clear, but it wasn't as though there was anything else he could do.

He was at the house's mercy.

"What?!" the voice exclaimed. "You are lying!"

"I am not. How do you think I entered the house then?"

The house stopped shaking, and Rudy slammed onto the floor.

"Argh!" he grunted as he slowly got up and glanced around.

"Are you telling the truth?" the voice asked curiously.

"Why would I lie? And In fact, I only came here to bring notes from the school— although I am not sure if I am in the right house or not," Rudy said in a calm voice. "Does this house belong to…. Rias?"

Rudy patiently waited for the answer, but there was no response.

"Hello? Are you there?" he asked.

THUD!

The front door suddenly opened, and the voice followed, "Get out!"

Rudy ignored what the voice said and asked, "Are you Rias?"

"I said get out!"

"But are you Rias? Because if yes, then I would be forced to come here again, or maybe someone else will. And I am sure that they wouldn't be like me. If you do the same thing with them, they won't keep quiet about it, and who knows what might happen next."

"..."

"I am trying to help you here. I don't know why but your voice seems so sad and lonely. So I will ask you for the last time, are you Rias?"

A few seconds later, the front door slowly closed, but Rudy didn't seem to mind it.

"Yes. I am Rias."

SIGH!

"Then can you come out? I want to give you notes," Rudy asked in a calm voice.

"They mean nothing to me. I don't need your help to graduate from school. I contain high knowledge and definitely more than you," the voice commented sarcastically.

"Mind you, I am the top 3rd in the school. And I have never seen your name on the list," he scoffed softly.

"Are you trying to make me angry?"

"I am not. And I know you transferred to the school in the second year. But what I was trying to say is…. I am smart."

"Heh! I highly doubt that. You are a fool who entered the house again just for a mere bag. And when I opened the door to give you a second chance to live, you still stayed in the house. Now tell me, what does that make you?" the voice asked curiously.

"I can either be very stupid or brave." Rudy shrugged his shoulders and said, "But to me, it doesn't really matter."

"You are an interesting human. What is your name?"

"Umm… I am kind of scared to tell you that. What if you bind me to this house or something?"

"I can still do that without knowing your name. I can kill you in a moment if I want to. So tell me your name so I can know what you are," the voice demanded.

"How… will you check that by knowing my name? Is that some kind of superpower?"

"Answer me."

After a brief silence, Rudy reluctantly opened his mouth and said, "My name is Rudy."

"Rudy, huh?" Rudy heard a voice from behind.

"Can I turn around?" he asked in a calm voice.

"I dare you~"

Rudy took the dare and turned around to see a beautiful red-haired girl standing in front of him. She had sharp fangs and red eyes that were looking directly into his eyes. She licked her lips and smiled seductively at Rudy.

"Rias…?"

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Author's Note- That's a helluva first meeting!

Thanks, @jason_babcock, for the gift!