"Hello everyone! Miss Mika, sir Corvus."

Bruiser 97-F approached the table where the Wraths were seated and bowed his head to all the people but mentioned only two by name.

They responded with polite nods, all except for Corvus, who nonchalantly saluted the boy without standing up in a rather familiar manner.

"Miss Mika, do you have time to talk for a bit again?"

After the greeting, Mika just as she was done with eating her ration.

"Umm..."

The ashen-haired girl went wide-eyed and looked at her companions.

Was there even anything planned for them to require such a question?

Most of the Sloth soldiers treated the southerners just like air and didn't even respond to their greetings nor did they try greeting them first.

Well, there was one exception, and he was standing right in front of Mika with the excitement of a little puppy that saw their master return home.

"Miss, I am quite sure that we don't have anything planned for today, it's alright to go with him if you want."

The scary-faced Cal waved his hand with encouragement and tried to make a friendly smile but his face ended up contorting as if he was furious.

"Ah! Okay!"

Mika smiled and hurriedly stood up.

"Sure, the usual spot?"

She turned to the boy and asked.

"Yeah!"

His response was no less spirited than hers and they both left the canteen.

"..."

Their departure didn't go unnoticed, most of the younger Soldiers and almost all the recruits were glaring at the leaving two, in particular, their angry stares were focused on the ashen-haired girl.

"Whew, our little miss is hated for sure."

Cri ran his fingers through his hair while leaning back in his seat.

"Well, we are all rather not welcomed here. It seems that our presence is treated as an insult to their competence."

Ti pointed out while scooping the box her ration came in clean.

"How come it's our fault though? It's the system that is saying that they won't be enough to deal with the waves, not us."

Corvus sighed and rested his head on the table.

The three bodyguards looked at each other and then at the white-haired man.

"Say, you don't really seem too interested in who our little miss is hanging out with, huh...."

Cri stopped playing with his fluffy hair and leaned forward with a smirk.

"...heh..."

In response, Corvus simply returned the smirk and shrugged his shoulders as if he actually didn't care.

"...yeah, Corvus, how it is with you in the end...?"

Ti crossed her arms and tilted her head looking at the white-haired young man.

"I beg you pardon?"

Corvus raised his brow and blinked a few times in confusion.

"From what I've learned about you before we got you out of the Wraths' mansion, you seemed like a bonafide scumbag who wants to manipulate our little miss into falling for you..."

Ti stated without even a hint of awkwardness.

"Well, the prospect of being the spouse of the next head of the Wrath family does seem like a really nice thing. If I'll play my cards the right way, it is within my reach within a couple of years."

And Corvus responded with an equally calm manner, lazily waving his hand from side to side.

"Though, being a trusted friend of the couple that will lead the Wrath family in the future is just as appealing - if not better."

He added with a dreamy smile.

"...ah! That's it! That's the part of you that messes up with my previous evaluation!"

Ti straightened her back and exclaimed while keeping her voice low enough to not get any more of the unwanted attention from the Sloth soldiers.

"You aren't motivated at all! No, it's not that either... Oh, I got it. How can you be that flexible? Do you have no personal goals or something? Once our young miss started hanging out with that kind boy, you almost completely stopped interacting with her! Being the head's partner and being the friend of the ruling couple are two completely different things, you do understand that, right?"

Ti started tapping her fingers on her forearm and both Cal and Cri nodded in agreement to her words.

"Things will work out in my favor in the end - I am very lucky after all - I tend to complain a lot when I get physically harmed..."

Corvus paused for a moment to send a meaningful glare to the platinum-haired bodyguard before continuing.

"But I trust in the path that the system has in store for me. I only need to follow my quests and good things will come."

He explained in a relaxed voice.

"Oh? Doesn't that line sounds familiar...! I didn't take you for such a devout believer in the system faith."

Cal's beady eyes widened as he gasped with interest.

"What can I say? When I ended up on the street as a kid, the system faith's church was the coziest place to camp out during the rainy season. And the priest there was a damn good orator. I liked listening to the evening masses - the common folks were usually the most softhearted after those and would even throw a coin or two my way as they were leaving."

Corvus giggled, reminiscing his childhood.

"Ah, those were fun times."

He sighed staring into the distance.

"Huh... if you can say that, then your experience with living on the streets was way too different than ours."

Cri frowned and looked away.

"Oh, for sure. But that's because I was always lucky. My LUC is my strongest stat and I'm not sure if I even have a cap on it. I mean, it just keeps on growing!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

That statement had earned Corvus the silent judgmental stares of all three bodyguards.

"Haha! Do you think that is unfair? Let me tell you about a really broken affinity I was born with, then! Silver lining - no matter how unlucky I am, there will always be some lucky event that will balance things out for me. And it's a passive too - no need for mana or some activation bullshit!"

He raised his head up proudly and boasted.

"I don't know, man. Ending up on the street as a child doesn't strike me as a super lucky thing."

Ti frowned and shook her head.

"It sure beats getting straight up killed by your own family though, right?"

"...!"

The casual tone in which Corvus delivered his response made the CriTiCal trio flinch.