Grey slowly opened his eyes. His chest was still hurting a bit, but the cores seemed to have calmed down. He didn’t know what happened. It was the first time such a thing happened. Though he wasn’t sure, there was something in the Academy to which the core reacted.

He slowly sat up and finally took notice of his surroundings. He was on a bed in a white room. The room was devoid of furniture and looked like it was cleaned not long ago.

Clueless of where he was, Grey released his mana and spread it to scout the surrounding in order to find any living being nearby. But, before his mana could leave the room, the door suddenly opened. The old lady walked, her hands behind her back and her eyes still closed.

Sensing Grey’s mana she was quite surprised by its density and purity but quickly calmed down. When she was treating, she found out something about him. Not only does his body rejected her mana, he was also hollowed. There was like an abyss in his chest, though she didn’t know why she wasn’t too curious about it. Each person had his owns secrets.

“How are you feeling?”

She asked him with concern in her voice. She finally decided to take a direct pupil, and on the first day, he was already at death door. Her worries were normal.

“I feel better… Thank you…”

“Good. You really scared me earlier. I don’t know what has gotten to you but if you need help, you can ask me. You’re my direct pupil after all.”

“I see… No, I will be fine. It shouldn’t happen again.”

He clearly couldn’t be sure about that. But he still said it with a straight face.

“No need to act tough with me. Humph. And you’re quite the lady killer. Three different girls came to me to ask about your condition.”

“Wait what?!”

Grey was dumbstruck. Besides Maya, there shouldn’t be any girl who would visit him.

“How long was I in that state?”

“Only a few hours, it’s way past noon. You should come up and eat something.”

Few hours?! And three girls came to see me? When did I get that handsome?

“Oh, and someone came to me telling me that she is your maid. I let her stay in the living room. You should go and see her, she was restless when she heard about your condition.”

“Hum, I understand… By the way… Who were those three girls?”

“You don’t even know? Are you a playboy?”

“No! Besides Maya and my maid, I didn’t talk with that many girls…”

Well, if I count you, I had a conversation with 6 girls since I was born… How am I a playboy?!

“Really? Well Maya did come to see you with a friend, someone called Bahus something, I think?”

She doesn’t even care about his name…

“Yeah, they are… my friends…”

For Grey, the idea of friendship was still very vague. If ‘friends’ were people with whom he could spend time with and have fun, then they did qualify. If they were people in whom he could trust, they were still lacking. However, he could say that he cared about their wellbeing.

Bahus was easy going. He didn’t take anything serious to heart as long as it didn’t concern his family. He never told Grey why he wanted to enter the Academy besides graduating and getting hired by a wealthy company to help his family. Grey felt that there was something else, but since he didn’t mention it, Grey didn’t ask. He couldn’t force them when he, himself barely said anything about his past. But, the reason he could consider Bahus as his friend was that he could see his heart. Bahus was greedy but cautious. He wouldn’t risk losing something if it wasn’t worth it. On the outside, he acted like a fool, while scheming internally. However, when they were together there wasn’t any trace of malice in his words. How did Grey know that? Grey followed him secretly to his workplace. Bahus would like a humble and sometimes clumsy waiter to make the customer drop their guards, and when they weren’t looking some silver coins would fly out of their pockets without them knowing about it. However, it didn’t always work. Bahus knew that his façade couldn’t trick everyone, so he would only act if he was sure. When Grey observed him at that time, he could clearly see that it was an act. His breathing, his movements, everything was calculated, but his heartbeat was his main flaw. It was irregular when he spotted a potential prey. However, he couldn’t notice anything strange with his behaviours when he was with them, which meant for Grey that, he ‘trusted’ him and really wanted to befriend him.

As for Maya, she was acting like a big sister for both of them. She was the only child in her family. Her mother passed away after giving birth to her and her father didn’t remarry. So, she treated us like the little brothers she couldn’t have. She would not talk that much, but she always listened to what people told her. The best example would be when she is receiving the customers for her father. None of them would complain and she would entertain them while they were waiting by talking to them. Some even just came just to get advice from her on how to deal with their wife or partner in their group of adventurers. She would take the time to listen to their trouble and advise them, some even came to propose to her before being shot down. The gentleness she showed to the customers even surprised Grey, because when they were together, she was like a sleeping tiger waiting for an occasion to hit them. And Bahus was the victim by default since Grey could dodge her strike, he ended being the only beaten. Grey wanted to tell to those guys who proposed to her that they didn’t know what kind of monster they wanted to marry, but he knew that if he said it aloud, he would blow his cover and get hunted down by her in the process. However, whether it was with them or other people she was always straight forward and true to herself. Grey didn’t know if she knew about Bahus little mischief to gain his pocket money but judged it safer, for him, to not say anything.

Anyway, after leaving the white room, Grey found out that he was in the old lady’s house which was located behind the Delta building in the inner courtyard. He was lead to the living room where a familiar figure was waiting for him.

When Alexia saw Grey come down, many different emotions were visible in her eyes, but the dominant one was the relief she felt. She didn’t know what would have happened to her if he were to die. Nothing mattered more than his wellbeing to the current her.

She got up from her seat and quickly came in front of him to greet him.

“I am glad that you are well, young master.”

She gave him a slight bow while looking at him. Grey gave her a wry smile. Though he didn’t know what kind of predicament she was in, if he were to leave her alone, he knew that what awaited her wasn’t something she wished. He didn’t want to have too much to do with the Bethel, so he could not really trust. At least, not until he took out those things in her body. But taking them out now wouldn’t be productive, so he just needed to wait a little bit.

“Don’t worry. I won’t die yet.”

Alexia just looked at him before turning her head to the old lady.

“I thank you again for taking care of my young master while I wasn’t around. I will accompany him back to the inn now.”

Please DON’T take care of me…

For some reason, Alexia’ smile became dangerous all of a sudden. Grey clearly told her to stop trying to seduce him, however, even his father was afraid of a woman’s scheme.

“Ahum… Since I was accepted, maybe there is some kind of dorms in which I could stay…”

“Young master. There is no need for you to stay on the Academy ground all the time. It will only take you around 15 minutes to come here since our inn isn’t too far. And you clearly paid enough money for at least two more weeks. It would be throwing money at the window if young master stayed here.”

Grey’s mouth was wide open. He wanted to retort but just couldn’t. Since the term will officially start in two weeks of time, he did pay for a month. However, he hadn’t expected the x factor which is Alexia. Seeing his deadpan expression, the old lady was clearly amused. At first, she thought that Grey would the kind who wouldn’t be intimidated by a woman. If she knew that he was just afraid of her because she enticed him too much, she would have wondered if he was truly a man.

Grey sighed in defeat and thanked the old lady again before taking his leave. However, as he was about to leave the house’s ground, he turned around and went back in.

“I forgot! You didn’t tell me who came here to see me.”

“Oh? Interested?”

“Well… A bit…”

“Besides Maya and the guy, there were Sylvia Bethel and another girl named Carla Meist.”

“Sylvia huh… wait! Carla Meist?”

Grey was shocked. He knew who it was, but didn’t expect her to look for him. Did she treat his threat as air? No, she wouldn’t. She must be looking for him for something else, and it required him to be alive. Thus, Grey concluded that she wanted to talk to him, about what? He didn’t have any clue.

In the memory of her uncle, he managed to find out about her. She had a fire attribute with an emperor grade. And at the mere age of sixteen, she was already level 30. She was clearly a walking monster. Whatever she wanted from him, he could only get benefits, since they couldn’t force him anyway.

Grey bid his farewell again before heading toward the inn with Alexia.