Chapter 32: 29 – The Monarch of the Storms is a traitor

"Theodore... can I ask you something?"

"Sure?", I replied confusedly as I looked at Raun. He looked very depressed for some reasons.

"Well, it's just that Amelia... I think she has already dumped me"

'...I forgot about that', I heaved an inaudible sigh.

It was time to act my part.

<[F - Emotionless]>

"Tell me everything", I asked in a serious tone.

Raun nodded and started to tell me what happened that day as we walked down a hallway. Well, it was exactly what I thought: Raun was under the impression that Lyran Myrsky was Amelia's new boyfriend.

Nodding my head in understanding, I gave Raun my wisdom. "You should probably get over it"

"What?", Raun was shocked, clearly not expecting me to tell him to give up on her.

"She's with someone new, right? And she is clearly happy with him. You should just let her go"

'So that she can be with the Hero'

Oblivious to my thoughts, Raun pondered deeply before slowly nodding his head. "I guess you're right, I was being selfish. It's my fault that she left me after all"

[F - Emotionless] was truly a useful skill. It erases my emotions, but doesn't prevent me from expressing them. As such, it was also the perfect skill for acting

'Sorry Raun, I'll definitely save you later'
...

We continued walking around Avaron aimlessly, talking about things. Well, it was mostly me trying to cheer Raun up.

Things continued to go like that until—

"Raun!"

—it was Arthur. He called out to Raun as soon as he spotted him. Although, he stiffened for a moment as he noticed me standing next to Raun.

However, his eyes soon turned fiery as he finally realized who I was.

'He really took that rival bullshit seriously huh?', I grimaced. But I couldn't have done anything about it. After all, it was needed to get Arthur's mentality back on the right track.

As I had expected, Arthur also called out to me. "Hey you!"

"What?"

"I don't know what your name is but I will surely surpass you in the future", Arthur's eyes were filled with vigor and determination. His spirit of competitiveness could be felt by everyone present.

"Sure... I guess", I just shrugged my shoulders. I wasn't that troubled about it anymore, as I realized that all I needed to do was to purposefully lose to him the next time he challenged me.

As I finished talking with Arthur, however, I noticed 2 presences behind him.

One was a cat-beastkin with black hair and golden eyes like Arthur. She had a rather attractive face, but the faint yet distinct aura of madness exalted from her kept everyone away from recklessly approaching.

She looked at Arthur, me, and Raun in disgust, as if she was repulsed by even the mere act of staying under the same roof with humans.

The other was a girl with black hair and blood-red eyes, signifying her vampiric lineage. She has a well-proportioned face, but a not-so-well-proportioned figure, as she was what people of Marcos' world would call a 'loli'. The childish and innocent around her arouses the urge to protect her from within everyone that laid their eyes on her petite body.

Normally, I would have stared at them to admire their beauty. But luckily for me, I still had [F - Emotionless] active, so I barely escaped the fate of making myself look like an idiot.

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Well, Raun was not so lucky though, as his ogling gaze made the catkin scrunch her face in disgust. While Lucy, the vampire, wasn't aware of his gaze. More precisely, she didn't know the meaning of Raun's gaze. She was every bit as childish and innocent as she looked.

I quickly elbowed Raun's side, waking him up from his stupor.

Raun quickly straightened his back and asked Arthur in a reserved tone. "Arthur, who are these ladies?"

Arthur, not noticing Raun's gaze earlier, replied nonchalantly. "Oh, this is Lucy Fertilus, I'm sure you know her since she's our classmate", he pointed towards Lucy.

He then turned his gaze to the cat-beastkin. "This is Evelyn. She's the girl I saved from a slave trading auction", Arthur said in a proud tone.

' 'Save' my ass!', I snickered.

What was the righteous Hero of Light doing in a slave auction you might ask? Well, even I had no idea. The novel just kind of dumped him there for no reason.

If Arthur had wrecked havoc in the auction and saved her, maybe you could call it 'saving'. However, in the novel, he just straight up bought her from the auction as soon as he saw her potential using [A - Appraisal].

Seeing the look of disgust Evelyn had on her face when she looked at Arthur, I was sure that things turned out exactly as they did in the novel.

Arthur, being the idiot that he was, forgot to annul the slave contract since he was too busy appeasing Marie, who was sulking at him for bringing yet another girl home. That meant even now, Evelyn must still have that slave crest on her body.

'Well, he'll remember it in time'. Although I could remind Arthur of it right now, it'd only raise more suspicions if I did so. Furthermore, I absolutely enjoyed seeing Arthur getting buried in misunderstandings.

I just watched Arthur and Raun chatting in silence. Since it seemed like they weren't going to finish their conversation any time soon, I decided to turn around and silently leave. But—

Sniff—!

—I flinched as I heard a sniffing sound. Looking behind me, I instantly identified the culprit. It was Lucy.

"What?", I was confused. Even though she was childish, she wasn't the type to go around sniffing random people.

"mmmm", Lucy ignored my question as she tapped her fingers on her cheeks while making a very exaggerated thinking noise.

"Guess I'm wrong". She shrugged her shoulders and retreated back to Arthur's side, ignoring my questioning gaze.

That was when all of our holographic phones vibrated simultaneously, distracting me from thinking about her earlier actions any further.

I pulled the phone out and checked what it was.

'So it's almost time'

===