Although the negotiations went extremely well, perhaps even too well, Kaito accepted it easily and told Escanor the general situation.
In situations like this, he deeply appreciated understanding the original plot, because otherwise trusting that Escanor's personality was real would have been much harder.
And upon hearing the story, Escanor's eyes shone with determination as he swore to help and give everything he had.
With everything settled, Kaito left the bar with Escanor following only a few steps behind and introduced him to the others.
"Seriously? This old man is supposed to be the strongest among us?" Ban asked with distrust.
On the other hand, while Ban said that, Meliodas and Elizabeth looked at each other and nodded, sharing the same thought.
"You smell like an Angel" said Meliodas.
"My smell? But I just took a bath recently" said Escanor confused.
"Not that. You feel like an angel, not completely, but there's something about you" explained Elizabeth, stepping forward and examining Escanor.
But even after using her divine senses, she couldn't find the origin of that feeling, so she gave up and looked at Kaito.
"What's going on?" Kaito asked.
"Don't you know the reason? You seem to know a lot of things" asked Meliodas, surprising Kaito.
'Am I that easy to read?'
After thinking about it for a bit, he realized that during the past two days he had already done plenty of things that revealed his privileged information, so he understood.
"Do you remember Gowther?" Kaito decided to explain.
"One of The Ten Commandments, imprisoned for helping Mael" Meliodas nodded casually.
"And who is Mael?"
"It's..." Meliodas frowned, realizing he had no idea who that was, yet somehow he still felt sure Gowther deserved eternal imprisonment for helping him.
Confused, he looked at Elizabeth.
"I... don't know either" Elizabeth shook her head.
At least she knew Mael should have been someone from her side, but that feeling was so unsupported by her other memories that she didn't say it aloud.
Both their gazes returned to Kaito for answers.
"Mael was one of the Four Archangels. To be exact, the strongest one" Kaito explained.
"...Memory alteration?" Elizabeth realized in disbelief.
If that was true, and she had no reason not to consider it true, then her memories had been altered since, as a high-ranking angel, she personally knew the archangels.
"Something capable of affecting the whole world, Gowther did that?" Meliodas realized too. "Why?"
"Well, when the captain of the Ten Commandments fell in love with an angel and deserted, the balance between both races broke..."
Meliodas frowned hearing that because the former captain of the Ten Commandments had indeed been himself, meaning whatever happened might have been his fault.
"Because the strength of both races, which hated each other to death, was balanced, there existed a fragile equilibrium preventing the destruction of one of them.
Once that balance broke, the war would have escalated even more and eventually the Demon race would have been exterminated.
Gowther rewrote the memories of the entire world to erase Mael, the strongest warrior of the divine side, restoring balance between both races."
"So what does all this have to do with that old man?"
Unlike the shocked Elizabeth and Meliodas, Ban only cared about how this connected to Escanor.
"To be precise, Gowther didn't kill Mael. His memories were rewritten too, turning him into the now-known Estarossa."
"Estarossa is Mael? This just keeps getting crazier" Meliodas joked, not knowing how else to react.
"Exactly. As you know, angels have divine blessings. When Mael became a demon, his blessing separated from him and searched for a new host."
"And I assume that host is Escanor" Ban understood.
"Then he has the strength of the strongest archangel? He doesn't look that strong" he asked, noticing Escanor's thin frame.
"His body can't endure the blessing's power, so he only transforms during the day under sunlight" Kaito explained.
"And is he strong?"
"Aside from Meliodas, none of you stand a chance" Kaito shrugged.
"That strong?"
"Yes" Elizabeth nodded. "I've met the archangels. They're incredibly powerful. If Mael was stronger than all of them, then he must be absurdly strong."
"I... should return this power then?" Escanor asked after hearing the story.
"No. If the divine blessing chose you on its own, then it belongs to you" Elizabeth denied.
"Hey, Kaito, I had an idea" Ban suddenly approached Kaito and put an arm over his shoulder. "What if you give that supposed divine blessing to me?"
"...Explain" Kaito looked at him, sensing this wasn't random.
"His body can only transform under sunlight because it isn't strong enough, explain that better."
"To be exact, it's not that his body withstands the transformation during the day, quite the opposite, every time he transforms his body gets destroyed little by little.
It's just that the blessing becomes stronger during the day because of the sunlight. Normally his body rejects it, knowing it would destroy him, but under the sunlight the blessing is so strong that his body can't reject it anymore" explained Kaito.
"Alright, that's more or less what I figured. So, don't you think there's another body here capable of withstanding the power of that blessing?" said Ban, hinting at the obvious.
Ban explained his reasoning, and Kaito listened before opening his eyes slightly in realization.
"That's a good idea."
"See? Then what about giving me..."
"What if I give your immortality to Escanor?" Kaito interrupted.
Ban froze.
"...Wait?! What do you mean? Why would you give my immortality to that old man instead of giving me his blessing?" he protested.
"You said it yourself earlier. You're not a hero. Escanor is. Someone willing to use a power that slowly kills him to protect others. Someone who dreamed of becoming a knight since childhood and never abandoned that mindset despite everything. Someone personally chosen by a blessing meant for angels.
Do you understand the difference?"
"...Well, when you put it that way" Ban muttered.
"Let's do this. I'll give you a dream life, live in a mansion with the woman you love and anything else you want. In exchange, I only ask for something you didn't even have three days ago."
Ban felt tempted for a moment, but remembering these past few days, he finally shook his head.
"Impossible. I won't give up my own power."
"Alright" Kaito sighed, already expecting that answer.
Leaving aside the fact that having your own power was always better than relying on others, if he wasn't immortal, he couldn't stay with a Fairy who lived for thousands of years.
"Guess we go back to the plan of studying you and recreating the Fountain of Youth."
"Hey, you two, what are you talking about?" Diane approached them.
"It's nothing" both answered at the same time.
"So, what do we do now?" Ban asked.
"Now?" Kaito thought for a second before answering. "We wait."
...
When Kaito simply told them they had to wait and that even he didn't know when he could leave, the group was stunned by his irresponsibility.
Especially Meliodas, whose girlfriend only had two days left to live because of the Demon King's and Supreme Deity's curse.
However, that was actually good news.
Since Kaito wanted to take Elizabeth alive, he would have to leave before that happened, and if his luck couldn't make that happen, then she didn't deserve an SSS-rank item.
So Kaito had a rough estimate of how long they'd remain there.
After explaining until Meliodas finally calmed down, the group decided to drink together again like the previous night.
It couldn't be helped. In a medieval-like era, there wasn't much else to do.
Besides, as new teammates, they were all interested in getting to know each other.
From Elizabeth's love story, to Ban and Escanor's childhoods, King and Helbram's tragedy, Diane's life in the Giant Clan, and the story of the Demon and Divine war, they spent the night sharing stories and getting closer.
And although Kaito already knew most of them, hearing them directly was more entertaining than watching an anime.
...
"So? Are you done?" asked Kaito.
While listening to the stories, he felt a presence behind him.
Seeing the others didn't react at all, as if they didn't notice anyone, Kaito easily guessed who the visitor was.
"Yes, it was pretty easy" replied the woman as she sat beside him, her short brown hair reaching her shoulders and her hazel eyes looking at him.
Each individual feature was ordinary, but somehow the combination made her look beautiful.
"I wanted you to see me" said Megumi with a smile.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)