He didn’t get an ounce of sleep. Grey had to keep his eyes open all night. Since what happened yesterday, Alexia used the fact that until they knew what caused him to faint like that it would be too dangerous to leave him alone in his room. Thus, he had to stay in an artificial sleep in order to prevent Alexia from sneaking inside his bed. Though he could stay in an artificial sleep to be aware of his surroundings, it wouldn’t be as beneficial as a real sleep.

I shouldn’t have allowed her to stay…

After getting ready and dressing up, Grey left the room with a tied and a taped Alexia on the ground. He just needed to get her something to eat after he was done.

Grey arrived in the dining room where breakfast was served and took his usual bread accompanied with a soup. After he sat down and began to eat, another figure came to his table. Seeing the person approaching, Grey gave it a quick glance before coming to an understanding.

The one coming was Carla. The moment she was in front of his table, the surroundings seemed to have frozen. The other costumers stopped moving.

Time magic? Grey while wondered, his wariness grew. Time magicians were a pain in the ass.

“You look better.”

She said, with her usual cold tone.

“Yes. Thank you for your concern.”

Grey just replied her nonchalantly, while sipping his soup. Though he looked defenseless on the outside, every fiber of his body was ready in case those who were still hidden in the shadow decided to come out.

Her gaze grew colder. She knew that he was aware of those who were in the back just in case. She just didn’t understand how he could tell when she herself wouldn’t know if she hadn’t been told in advance.

“I am not here as an enemy and I won’t pursue the matter where you robbed us.”

“I was the victim.”

Pfft. One of those hidden in the shadow nearly burst out of anger.

What victim? Since when did the victims beat their assailant like that?

“You don’t seem like you suffered any injuries.”

“I was mentally shocked.”

“Liar.”

“I guess.”

Carla frowned. Grey wasn’t giving her any respect at all. It was like he couldn’t care less about her. Though her character was little fiery, she was still very beautiful. When she passed the exam yesterday, she didn’t know how many of those flies tried to court her and she didn’t spare them a single glance. And he, with whom she talked to, ignored her completely. This shocked her and dealt a blow to her confidence.

“The Headless guild would like to recruit you. Of course, we will listen to your conditions as we value your potential. It should be said that our guild is one of the strongest in the new world, being with us can only make your path smoother.”

While gnashing her teeth, and glaring at Grey, she finally exposed her goal in meeting him.

This time, it was Grey who was shocked. He didn’t expect this. At best, he thought that they would ask him to reimburse or maybe ask for compensation since he messed with her uncle’s mind; but never he would’ve thought that they would ask him to join them.

And this wasn’t too bad for him. The things he lacked was knowledge, and materials. Though the Academy could provide him in both, it will be limited and restricted. However, if he were to join them, he could ask everything he wanted if they could find what he needed.

“I want materials and books.”

Hearing Grey’s response, Carla’s eyes shone with a bright light. At first, she thought that he would refuse to join them since their job was shady or because of her uncle’s matter. But, when she realized the content of his requirement, doubts filled her eyes.

Books and materials? Why does he need that?

“As long as you can prove yourself useful to the guild, we won’t be stingy on our rewards.”

“And I don’t want to be monitored anymore. It’s been days since you guys have been tailing me. And I always need to check who it is. I wanted to kill them at first you know?”

“… I understand.”

In the report she had seen, it was written that Grey was oblivious of them tailing him. If what he displayed was just an act, then they have been fooled since the beginning.

“However, we need to brand you with our sigil so that we can be sure that you won’t betray us our reveal any secrets related to the guild.”

“It won’t work.”

Carla became flabbergasted.

“W-What do you mean?”

“My body will reject the sigil. And I wouldn’t accept it anyway. If I promise to not betray you it will be enough.”

When he said that, a hooded figure walked out of the shadow and arrived at their table. The figure was clearly one of the member of the Headless guild. The figure retrieved his hood and showed the face of a handsome middle aged man. The man face had common traits with Carla. Grey deduced that he should be one of her relatives.

When Carla saw the man face, her eyes were full of shock. She wouldn’t have thought that he would have come.

The man face exposed a bright smile when he looked at Grey.

“Oh! I see. Then, allow me to present myself. My name is Arnold Meist, 1st chief of the Headless guild, Carla’s father.”

“Nice to meet you. I am Grey Cromwell.”

“I know. Your conditions aren’t too extravagant and can be satisfied, but the fact that a sigil can’t be implanted on you makes things a little bit difficult…”

“If you stepped in this conversation, then it means that you clearly have a way to go past that.”

Arnold’s smile twitched a bit. He thought that he could lead Grey to promise that he will accept any other method besides the sigil before offering his idea, but the latte didn’t even let him this opportunity.

“It’s simple. Marriage. With my daughter.”

Silence.

What the…

Besides Carla, this was what everybody was thinking. Carla just rolled her eyes, already aware that her father was up to no good.

“I-I think that’s not good too. We don’t know each other, and she looks at me like she wants to eat me alive.”

“I know. But that’s not a problem. You guys are still young, you’ll have plenty of time. And I don’t believe that someone weaker than her can satisfy her too.”

“DAD! What are you saying?!”

“What ‘what am I saying’? You mother and I are really concerned if we will ever see our grandchildren in our life. You act headstrong and like a man, it’s time for you to be a little more girly don’t you think?”

“It’s my problem!”

Carla started pouting and divert her gaze from her father. Grey was still shocked by what he was seeing. He never expected this woman to be able to express this kind of feelings.

Arnold returned his gaze to the dumb struck Grey and wryly smiled.

“Well… If you look past her little temperament, she can be cute too…”

Oi. Why are you looking sideways then? Do you even believe your words?

“Anyway. Let’s say this. You guys can try to date, and if things really can’t be done between the two of you, we’ll cancel the engagement. Like this, since you’re engag…. Ahum, dating the guild’s little princess, betraying the guild would be less likely.”

Grey’s mind was suffering from overheating. Things were going too fast for him.

Wait. Did you say ‘engaged’? How hard are you trying to sell off your daughter?

“This…”

Grey decided to think about it. He didn’t have any experience with girls. Maya was like a sister to him at most, Alexia was a monster, and his impressions of Sylvia wasn’t too good. However, he knew about Carla. Through her uncle’s memory he knew that she was trustworthy and kind. Though she acted ruthlessly with anything close to an enemy, this was just because of her position to the guild, she couldn’t afford to show weaknesses.

And, for the first time since they began to talk, Grey finally noticed that Carla was very attractive. Her light rosy hair and her blue eyes were traits which Grey found very attractive. Her eyes held a strong will. Her cherry lips and nose made her face look dignified and cute at the same time. Then, Grey lowered his gaze to her bosom and found it sufficient, not too much not too lacking. Her waist was slim and everything below was under the table.

Seeing Grey stare at her like that, a hint of red appeared on Carla’s cheeks. With her father’s intervention, she was overly aware of it and couldn’t control her emotions. Meanwhile, the culprit for all this was wearing a satisfied smile.

“Like what you see?”

Grey knew that he was too obvious in his staring and already felt multiple source of killing intent coming from the shadow. But, you could say that it was his first time checking out a girl like this.

“Ahum… The thing is… I don’t know… I have no experience with girls whatsoever. You could say that besides my mother and sister, I didn’t get to know any other girl for those past 15 years… So, I have never dated anyone…”

Silence.

Grey wasn’t a complete greenhorn in those matters between men and women. He at least knew about sex, since he often saw sex slaves and the like before. His father even explained him how children were conceived and told him that if he were to have a child with a woman, whoever it was, he had to take care of her. That was the main reason he didn’t want to do it with Alexia. However, things like dating were like a new territory for him.

Arnold’s body became stiff at Grey statement, and Carla’s eyes grew wide. Both have seen Grey’s maid and could tell that she just wanted to jump on him. Even yesterday when she came to his room, they thought that he called her to sleep with her. What he just said made them doubt about his manhood.

“This… This is not a problem. My daughter lacks experience like you… And we will be the one supervising your date so that nothing would go wrong.”

It took a lot on Arnold to keep his calm and not ask Grey if how, as a single man, he could resist such a thing? He would have fallen on the battlefield ages ago. If he didn’t know that an asura was waiting for him at home, passing a night with such a maid be too much on his nerve.

Meanwhile, Carla felt a bit of relief. She didn’t want this to happen, but at least, if he were to accept, she wouldn’t have to deal with a beast.

“However, we would like to know a bit more about you… So, if you could show us your level and attributes it would make things easier for us. We won’t ask for you class and stats.”

Grey’s mind cooled down when he heard those words. His status wasn’t something he could show carelessly. At least he couldn’t show them that he had the void magic. And a god grade at that. But, the possibilities that their guild could offer him weren’t something he could discard too. And showing his level and other elements will assure him that they wouldn’t carelessly offend him.

“Show level and attributes.”

Name Grey Cromwell Level 64 Attributes Ice magic (Grade: Emperor) Darkness magic (Grade: Emperor) [Void magic (Grade: God)]

Arnold and Carla breath stopped. Level 64, two emperor grade elements.

I knew he was strong but this… No wonder he didn’t care about the Alpha group, for him, they just are a bunch of kids playing around.

“How about you guys marry right now?”

“No way!”

Both of them had the same reaction. Grey’s reasons were obvious, he didn’t have any feelings for Carla, though he wasn’t reluctant to give it a try, marrying her was out of the question. And as for Carla, Grey was indeed strong enough, but she couldn’t abandon herself to someone just because they wanted to rope him in. She planned on dating him, and making him grew closer to the guild so that he’d feel part of it, then stop this farce. But, she was already feeling embarrassed about what she will have to do.