We all sat down at a table near the center of the tattered restaurant and ordered our food. My group members all laughed and cheered at Aria's performance until the old lady brought our food out. Since Aria cleared the store of those thugs, she let us have our dinners for free which only made my group smile even wider… except for me.
I just sat at the wooden table, on my wooden chair, and ate the bland steak. I had a side of mashed potatoes that helped push the cardboard like steak down and some green beans to mix up the flavor.
"So~ Lucy wants to say something important. I think you should hear her out," Aria says, in between bites of her slab of pork.
"What is she gonna say that's so important?" Charles says, clearly annoyed.
"Do you guys… and girl, really think that I would sell my body? Do you just believe all the rumors? You're being manipulated by the richer young masters and mistresses," I say and see Aria's smile slightly waver before returning to normal.
"Then do you have proof?" Fay asks with a smug face as if she's already won.
"I'm a fuċkɨnġ vɨrġɨn," I said blatantly.
My groupmates were shocked by how I could just say that but I just leaned back in my chair and placed my headphones back onto my ears.
"You're just pressed that I started making money while you don't even try to escape your situation. If it wasn't for Aria, you would've just been some weak little shits that don't know how to socialize," I say, ignoring the refutes that came after.
Dinner went on with my groupmates ignoring me and just trying to socialize with Aria.
…
"Alright, we'll all sleep in separate beds. This place is more expensive than I thought so we'll just combine our money to buy a big room with 6 bunk beds. I hope you don't mind if I have the extra bunk bed with nobody on it," Aria suggests, as we all chip in with actual cash.
"I don't mind,"
"Same,"
"Sure,"
My groupmates all turned towards me and I just give them a slight nod of approval.
Good thing I withdrew about 1 million dollars in cash. All I have to do is reach inside my pocket, open up my inventory window and think of the cash going into my hand.
"Alright, your room is on the second floor, and… you are room 28," The receptionist says, handing the key to Aria.
"Let's go," Aria says before we start walking up some wooden stairs.
We finally found room 28 which was at the end of the hallway and when we opened the door, we saw 6 bunk beds and 2 desks. The room was made entirely of wood with not that many cracks in it.
"*yawn*, I'm pretty sleepy so I'm going to sleep early," Aria says before lying down on the bottom bunk.
I climbed onto the top bunk with Fay on the bottom bunk. Charles and Luke shared a bunk and once we settled in, Aria turned off the light and we all closed our eyes.
…
I could hear the sounds of somebody walking on the wooden floor and immediately jolt my head up. It seemed to be close to midnight so nobody should be awake.
Only a few seconds later, my eyes adjusted to the dark and I saw Aria slowly fox walking all the way to the door. (A/N - Fox walk is where you let the front of your foot hit the ground first and then slowly roll your foot down minimalizing the sound and pressure you create. There are more steps but that's a general idea of what fox walking is.)
Why is she fox walking? That's a pretty high-level technique that's pretty hard to master. If it wasn't for my enhanced senses, I probably wouldn't have heard her.
I mean she was able to take down those punks from earlier so it's not surprising that she knows how to fox walk. The real problem is why she's using it. I checked the floor before and noticed how it wasn't creaky, so if she didn't want to wake up the other group members, she could've just walked normally.
As she slowly opens the door and leaves the room, I jump out of bed, not creating a single sound when I land. I tried to fox walk as well but didn't know if I was doing it right since I had such a high-speed stat that made me feel lighter than normal.
Opening the door and closing it behind me, I saw Aria at the very end of the hall and was about to walk down the wooden stairs. I followed her from a very far distance and saw her walk out of the wooden inn we were staying at.
Hmmm… Maybe she wants to deal with the rich kid's lackeys now so we don't get affected tomorrow. Is she hiding a power?
I continued to follow her out of the inn and see her enter an alleyway. Instead of peaking at the corner, I just jump onto the roof of one of the buildings that create the alleyway.
At the very end of the alleyway was a dead end with a few wooden boxes and some familiar faces sitting on top. It was Mia and 4 of her friends that I saw during PE.
"How did it go?" Mia asks.
"I don't like being in a group with such disgusting things. One of them is a whore and the others just keep trying to kiss my ȧss. Getting those guys to attack me and make me look like a hero is kind of backfiring now," Aria said, sitting down on one of the lower wooden boxes.
As soon as I heard those words… I felt nothing. My soul and face were cold. It was as if my body already expected this… you could hardly call it betrayal since we didn't talk much and I couldn't give 2 shits about Aria now.
But since she's friends with Mia, I want to toy around with her for a bit and propose something to Mia that I've been thinking about.
I reach into my inventory and pull out the abyss drake set and my white mask. I change on top of the roof with the chilly breeze brushing my skin as I slip on the tight black armor. I then put on some new clothes which were white cargo pants with light green tassels, and a white crewneck sweatshirt with light green text saying "031."
I then place on my white bird mask and dangle my feet off the ledge of the roof.
Activating [Royal Ice Crown], I feel the crown form in my hand, and only then do I place it on my head.
The temperature drops and I see Mia's face go pale as she looks up. She saw me sitting on the ledge of the roof with a full white moon behind me (A/N - Moons a paid actor btw). She starts to shake in fear as her friends ask her what's wrong while trying to warm themselves up.
"D-don't do anything stupid," Mia stutters.
I jump down from the ledge and land without a sound. Aria and Mia's friends all turned their heads towards me and felt fear shoot through their bodies.
My bloodlust was leaking out causing some of Mia's friends to even piss their pants.
"Yo," I say casually with my voice being altered by the mask.
"H-hello," Mia says, lowering her head slightly.
"Want to create an organization with me? I'll be the boss while you provide me with human resources,"
"H-human resources? Like you want me to provide you with members?" Mia asks.
"Yeah… I'll help you get rid of your enemies while you help me get rid of anybody I want to die," I say coldly.
"Can I think it over?" Mia says, gaining some confidence back after reeling in my bloodlust.
"Sure, I'm just going to wait here. Don't mind me," I say, sitting next to Aria.
Of course, this will favor me and we'll never have a close relationship. We both don't trust each other but if we use each other we can gain much more power than we would have ever hoped of dreaming.
There is also the risk of betrayal since she's the one providing human resources. No… it is guaranteed that she will betray me once she realizes how much she can gain from this. Maybe even trying to antagonize me inside the org so the members will go after my head.
I can't deal with more than 100 humans and I hope to recruit much more than that, so I need to grow stronger.
Since she is part of a big family she can't acquire many connections with the underworld but if it's a loner that's powerful, she can make connections with her and have second-hand benefits from the underworld. If we get found out, she can just break off ties with me and act as if nothing happened.
Not that I'm saying some rich families have connections with the underworld. It's just if you get caught, your entire family could go to shit from that one single connection.
This organization will also be ruled by fear and not trust, which is perfect for me....