Fifteen minutes later, in the waiting room for victors, we were seated on a large sofa as we watched other squads compete on the screens set up around the room.
The door creaked open, and Ezekiel walked in, his usual stoic expression barely masking the excitent in his voice. "Good work, everyone."
Though his face was calm, the joy in his voice was unmistakable. It was hard not to feel joyful by his enthusiasm.
"Especially..." Ezekiel turned his gaze toward and offered a thin smile, "Remillia. We were able to win thanks to her eliminating the enemy mage."
I waved my hand dismissively. "You shouldn’t be praising for disobeying your orders, Ezekiel. We already planned and yet I acted on my own."
Alena chid in with a grin, "If you had failed, we might have called you an arrogant idiot. But since you succeeded, you’re the MVP."
Ezekiel nodded in agreent. "Yes, well done for helping the squad."
"By the way, where’s Joshua?" Alena asked, looking around the room.
"Joshua?" I echoed, montarily confused.
"Oh right, Joshua’s not here. He also did well," Hannah added, her brows furrowing slightly.
"Joshua... Ahh..." I tilted my head in confusion again. I kept mixing up Adrian and Joshua. Adrian was his real na, and Joshua was his alias.
Thinking about it further, where was Adrian? He still hadn’t responded to my ssage about Evangeline Lerin or her information service fee of 500 million Glacium. He shouldn’t be worried about being scamd; after all, the Scarlet Phantom had a reputable system. Or... did he just not have the money?
"Let go find him," I said, pushing myself up from my seat and leaving the waiting room.
I walked down the corridor, searching for Adrian. After so ti, I finally stumbled upon him in a dim alley near a vending machine, which looked oddly out of place among the stark walls of the building. He was hidden from view, engrossed in a phone conversation.
My curiosity stirred again so I moved closer, trying to catch the words drifting from his end of the call.
"Umm, if you could lend so money..." he said hesitantly, his voice tinged with embarrassnt.
Just as I suspected—Adrian was short on funds.
The voice on the other end snapped back. {Is that all you’re going to say? How long are you going to drag out what should only take two weeks to do?} I can hear the irritation from the caller.
"...Umm, sorry," Adrian muttered, clearly flustered.
{If you can’t finish it out by the end of the week, prepare to receive punishnt. Oh right, didn’t you also lose the item our leader asked you to retrieve?} the voice continued, visibly upset.
"I’m really sorry about that, but I really need the money, so..." he trailed.
{Are you out of your mind? Don’t tell you sold the item because you needed money!?} The caller’s anger shattered the air.
"No, no, I didn’t sell it. I just lost it...," Adrian’s voice dwindled, embarrassnt evident in his tone.
"Yeah, I’m so proud of you," the caller spat back sarcastically.
Adrian hung up the call dejectedly after being yelled at for a long ti.
"Haa..." With a deep sigh, he turned around and froze when he saw standing there.
"...F*ck!" He scread in surprise.
"I wanted to buy so soda when I overheard you talking with soone. So you’re short on money?" I said casually as I dropped coins into the vending machine.
"Mind your own business," Adrian grumbled, brushing past as he tried to leave.
"Do you want to lend you so?" I teased, and that seed to pique his interest. He turned to look at , brows knitted in annoyance.
"As far as I know, you’re poor and an orphan," he shot back, a smirk turning his lips.
"I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said before I punch you in the face," I replied, giving him a challenging smile as the soda dropped into the pickup box. I fished it out, popping it open with a satisfying hiss. "I can loan you as much as you want, but you’ll have to write a contract with ."
Adrian scowled, but I could see his curiosity flickering beneath his eyes.
"Mages like you could earn money easily, right?" I continued, taking a sip of my soda. "I might not look like it, but I’m quite rich."
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
After my conversation with Adrian, I returned to the waiting room where my squad inford that our next battle would be at 4 PM. Craving a mont of silence, I excused myself and stepped outside for a walk.
The fresh air softly breezed as I took a mont to clear my head before our next match.
"Remillia!"
A familiar voice cut through the atmosphere, prompting to turn around. Angela was striding towards , her expression was dark.
"Cypher wanted to tell you he liked your match," she said reluctantly, as though delivering unwelco news.
I raised an eyebrow at her tone, montarily puzzled. Did I do sothing to upset her? "Cypher really said that?" I asked, wanting to confirm.
"Do I need to repeat it? He can’t say it to you himself since he went straight into his own match," she replied, irritation edging her voice.
"...I see. Then, let’s et later again," I said, trying to brush it off and continue on my way, only to stop short when I spotted soone ahead of .
It was Edge and Whitney.
Edge’s cold, dry gaze landed on . Until now, I’m still not used on how I beca friends with him. It felt like he was looking at in disdain because of how emotionless his eyes are.
He’s on par with Cypher when talking about appearance but considering how scary he is, he’s definitely not my type.
"...." He flicked his gaze back and forth between and Angela, and I could almost sense the tension in the air.
Angela frowned, breaking the silence first. "What do you want?"
"...Haha." Edge chuckled though it left feeling a bit weirded out. What’s so funny?
Although Edge found Angela’s reaction amusing, Whitney, who stood beside him, can’t seem to understand his reaction.
"I’m leaving," I said, slowly stepping past Edge, feeling an impulse to escape the intensity of his stare.
"You’re leaving already?" Whitney asked, her attention still fixated on Edge.
"Yeah. What about you? Are you going to your match?" I asked, trying to redirect the conversation.
"Yes, it’s at 10 A.M." Whitney said.
"...I see. I should get going to stretch a little bit," I said, starting to walk away when sothing struck my mind.
"Oh right, Whitney, I have a favor to ask you," I called back.
"What is it?" Her tone shifted, and she focused her eyes on , ready to listen.
"Can you help look for daggers made of obsidiarite?" I asked.
"...You want to get you so?" she replied, seemingly surprised.
"Yup," I answered simply.
"It’s possible... but what do you need those daggers for?" Whitney asked, eyeing curiously.
"I’ll be needing them in the future," I explained vaguely.
Whitney’s curiosity only deepened, and she flicked on her smartwatch to take so notes. "How many do you need?"
"At least twenty daggers," I said.
"Twenty... what?" She looked at as if I had lost my mind.
"You heard right," I said with a confident nod.
"Wait, wait, wait. You need twenty daggers which are made of obsidiarite. You do know that weapons made of obsidiarite costs at least 1000 Glacium1 each? Depending on the size right?" Whitney said, her voice laced with disbelief.
"Yeah, which cos to at least 20,000 Glacium. I know that already," I continued, anticipating her point.
She stared at , seemingly in a daze, then shifted into business mode, calculating the profit as she processed the information. "Rest assured, I can find what you’re looking for. I can even give you the best quality of obsidiarite with tax added, of course."
I shook my head with a hint of a smile. As expected of Whitney—the future Queen of Business. The mont any financial discussion surfaced, she slipped excellently into her business-like deanor.
"Just make sure they’re high quality," I added, cracking a smile. "I wouldn’t want to be disappointed."
"Leave it to ," she said with a nod, her eyes gleaming with ambition.
As I continued to walk away, I caught Edge’s voice drifting back to .
"Hey Angela, aren’t you angry at her anymore?" he said, his tone teasing.
"Hmm? What are you spouting all of a sudden?" Angela retorted, but I could hear the annoyance lingering in her voice.
"....You didn’t forget about what happened before, right? I heard you say you don’t like her and she’s weird," Edge pressed further, almost playfully.
"I misunderstood her at the ti but..." Angela began to explain, her voice trailing off.
But I didn’t stick around to hear the rest of their conversation. Instead, I let my thoughts wander as I left them behind.
I know we’re friends in while we’re still in the Academy but what happens if we graduate and we beco heroes? Are we still friends after that?
I shook my head. I might as well cherish our ti together before we go on our lives in the near future.
Glacium is equivalent of USD in case you forgot
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