It was around 6:30 in the evening.
It was almost time for Class 1-A-1 to arrive at their hotel for dinner.
Nero and his group were on their way to the hotel, with Anastasia leading the way and using a holographic GPS map to navigate them.
As they walked, Anastasia spoke up, stretching her hands after an intense bowling session, "Wow, I've never been bowling! That was awesome!"
Amelia cocked her head to the side as she replied in a surprised tone, "Really, Sia? You've never been bowling? But yeah, that place had the biggest bowling lanes I've ever seen, so it's good that was your first experience."
"Wait, why did you call her Sia?" Chase interjected with a question, confused.
Amelia shrugged. "Hmm? I always call her Sia."
Chase frowned at Amelia's answer and turned to Anastasia with a puppy look. "Can I call you Sia too?"
"Haaa?! No way!" but before Anastasia could answer, Amelia jumped in. "Only I can call her that!"
"HUH?! And why is that?!" Chase raged in half jealousy and half absurdity.
"Because I came up with that!" Amelia replied with the same energy.
Meanwhile, Anastasia attempted to calm them down by waving her hand in between them, but it seemed to have no effect on the argument.
"You know," Aster poked Amelia's shoulder and twiddled her fingers. "We've been friends for a long time, but you never gave me any nicknames."
Realizing her mistake, Amelia was quick to apologize, "Wow, you're right. I'm so–"
However, her apology was cut off when she suddenly remembered something and crossed her arms, "Wait, you didn't give me any nicknames either!"
Aster hesitated, "I wanted to give you one, but since you didn't give me one, I thought you didn't want us to become close enough to call each other by nicknames."
"Awww! No, that's not it, Aster! I'll give you a nickname right now. But what should I give you? Hmm."
As Amelia touched her chin and began thinking of a nickname, Chase's absurd expression grew even more pronounced, and he started making a fuss again, "Hey, hey! Don't change the topic! I want to call Anastasia by a nickname too!"
"It's fine, Chase. If you want, you can call me by a nickname."
"Yeah, buddy, you can call me by one too."
"Eww! No! I don't wanna call two gross grown-up dudes by nicknames!"
Seeing him so worked up about it, Nero offered to let him call him by a nickname. Even Elijah joined and offered him the same.
But Chase blatantly rejected the offer in a disgusted tone, which just made the boys burst into laughter.
A faint smile appeared on Nero's face after their laughs died down and the conversation trailed off to a different topic.
It had been so long since he hung out with people he could call friends.
Lately, all he could remember was working out and training in order to become strong enough to have his revenge on his father one day.
He thought he would take a few months easy after entering the Global Academy, but then the Mock War happened, and his plans were ruined.
After that, his whole class started shunning him. It wasn't anything he had never anticipated, though.
People fear the level of strength they can't reach.
By extension, he knew he would either be hated, feared, or worshiped for it if he ever were to reveal his Gift.
Nero knew he possessed the strength that not many can reach in their lifetime. He was ready to walk the path of solitude.
After all, it wasn't an unfamiliar path for him.
Since the day he saw his mother getting killed, he had been walking that path since it was the only route that led to the pinnacle of power.
He wasn't afraid of continuing to do so.
However, he never expected that he would find people who would be willing to treat him normally even after he revealed his Gift.
But here he was, exploring a new city with people who weren't afraid to keep him company, enjoying and laughing like a normal teenager.
The smile on his face grew more visible as he lifted his head and decided to join the conversation.
"Hey guys, let's visit that–"
But just then, when he was about to speak, Nero's eyes darted to a spot in the distance and settled on two well-dressed men who looked to be around his age.
One of them appeared to be an Elf with short, messy blue hair and long, pointed ears. He wore black shades that concealed his blue eyes and a lavish black Armani suit.
The other man, though walking beside an Elf - a race known for their beauty and magic - looked otherworldly.
His silver hair was neatly combed to the side and his scarlet red eyes peeked over his silver shades. He donned an even more expensive-looking three-piece red and white luxury suit.
As the two of them walked down the street while exuding an air of confidence, they were accompanied by four Elven women, each wrapped around their hands.
"...."
Needless to say, Nero was shell-shocked.
Why? Well, because he knew those guys, that's why!
After a second or two, he shook out of his surprise and pointed the finger at the two guys. "...Hey, you all. Do we know them?"
At his words, everyone followed his index finger, pointing in the direction, and scanned the two men.
"..."
"..."
"..."
And just like that, everyone else was left shocked too.
Right at that moment, the blue-haired Elven boy tugged the silver-haired boy's sleeves and pointed with his chin in their direction.
It seemed like the duo had spotted them.
Without wasting any time, they started moving toward them from across the street.
When they arrived in front of them, the blue-haired Elven boy was the first to speak.
"Hey, guys! Didn't expect to see you all here. So, how's the trip going?"
"Umm, you're Kent, right?"
Nero scratched the back of his head, and Kent took off his shades before replying.
"Yeah, man! It's me!"
"Holy…" Nero then turned to the silver-haired boy on Kent's left and spoke, "So this must be… Lucas?"
"No shit," Lucas ridiculed before taking off his shades too. "What up?"
"....The fuck happened to you two?! And who are these women?!" Amelia was the one who raised the question that had been pressing in everyone's mind.
"Life happened, Amelia," Kent smirked while putting his shades back on, taking a dramatic pause in order to look cool.
Although none of the people present here wanted to admit it, in those rich clothes and two beautiful Elven women wrapped around his arms, he was indeed looking cool.
"Life happened, and we suddenly became millionaires," Lucas completed his bro's sentence to make this sequence even cooler.
"Then we picked up some hot babes," Kent said, flicking back his blue locks.
"Now, now, Kent. What did I tell you about treating girls with respect?" Lucas said as he playfully pinched the cheeks of the women in his arms, making them blush and giggle.
"Oh, yeah. My bad," Kent grinned. "I mean, we picked up some very respectable ladies. Anyway, ladies, introduce yourself."
"Hehe. I'm Akia."
"And I'm Chia."
"My name is Ria."
"You can call me Dia."
With another round of short giggles, the women introduced themselves as they pinched the sides of their lavish dresses and curtsied in an elegant fashion.
"...Oh, nice to meet you ladies," while everyone else was baffled, Chase shrugged and pointed at Amelia and Anastasia. "Meet them. They are Lia and Sia."
"No! No! No!"
Anastasia quickly waved her hands while Amelia turned to Aster and said, "I don't wanna be called Lia. That sounds like a hooker name now."
"Yeah, I'll think of something better."
"...Oh-kay, but seriously guys," Nero turned to Lucas and Kent. "Did you guys spend all your trip money on clothes and hook– I mean, respectable ladies?"
"What? The money that Council rewarded us? That money is not even enough to buy our suits," Lucas scoffed.
Kent pushed back his shades and let out a scoff too. "Right. We just went casino hunting."
"Casino hunting?"
"Yeah, we went from casino to casino and conquered every one of them! Until we were kicked out of every one of them, that is."
"....So you guys gambled?" Amelia commented.
"No, weren't you listening? We didn't just gamble. We conquered! We conquered every game that there was in those casinos! Blackjack, Indian Poker, Roulette, and even Slot Machine! We won and won until they had to kick us out! We were kings! Well, I mean, Lucas won most of the stuff. I was there just for support. But I may have won a million of two with him too. Haha."
".....So you are good at gambling?" Amelia turned to Lucas.
Lucas shook his head with a scoff. "No, Amelia. I'm good at winning."
"....."
"....."
Fwooosh—
Only the whistling sound of the wind could be heard after Lucas dropped what he thought was cool but what, in reality, was a cringe line.
"Bleargh! Wait, I'm going to throw up because of the sheer cringe I just experienced," Amelia said while retching.
"Hey, that line was cool!" Lucas narrowed his eyes.
"Bro, I love you but… that was cringe," Kent shook his head.
Lucas glared at Kent and then turned his gaze back to Amelia before tapping on his smart bracelet and opening the internet search engine.
After a bit of scrolling and searching, he said: "Oh, is that so? Let's wait here, you two. Maybe a fuck will fall in my hand and I'll give it to you both!"
"Okay, bro, THAT was cool!"
"You just searched up that comeback on the internet, didn't you?! You're still on your smart bracelet! You just searched that comeback!"
As Amelia yelled and Kent clapped, Lucas kept scrolling the webpage he had just opened before saying,
"I'm sorry, Amelia. My garden of fuck is barren as of now. I promise to grow some fuck in it so I can give them to you. But as of now, I don't give you a fuck."
"Stop reciting internet comebacks! That's literally the opposite of cool!"
"Naw, naw, bro! That was cool too!"
"Stop encouraging him!"
"Ahem," as that chaos continued to wage on, Nero let out a dry cough. "Anyway, guys. We are on our way to the hotel. It's almost time for dinner. Wanna join?"
"Oh! Yes, please!" Kent jumped at the offer without even thinking over it.
The reason for this was that a few minutes earlier, Lucas insisted on leading the way to the hotel.
Kent tried to talk him out of it, but it seemed like it hurt Lucas' pride, so his stubbornness to read the map and lead the way only grew.
Lucas was good at many things and an absolute genius at most, but his sense of direction was that of a chicken… maybe even worse than that.
"Umm… okay?" a bit taken aback by Kent's overexcitement, Nero nodded.
"Not me. I have to go somewhere first," Lucas took his arms off the Elven women around him and said, "See you later, ladies."
"Aww. So soon?"
"Shame, we wanted to spend some more time together. Well, see you sometime else, I guess~"
As the ladies walked away, Kent frowned. "What? Where are you going?"
"Ahh, it's something personal, but I'll see you back at the hotel. Bye!"
"W-Wait!"
With that, Lucas dashed off from there as Kent could only stretch out his hand.
"...He'll definitely get lost."
