Shang looked at the brightly smiling face of Viera, the Dean's second disciple.
Shang had just thought about her, and now she appeared.
"Congratulations, Little Brother!" Viera said with a bright voice, her long red hair covering half her face.
"Little brother?" Shang asked.
Viera nodded excitedly. "As teacher's third disciple, you are now officially my younger brother!" she said.
Then, she walked over and pulled Shang into a bear hug.
Viera was a bit smaller than Shang, but the sheer power of her body made Shang helpless.
When Shang got lifted from his feet without a way to resist, he felt awkward.
He had only talked to this woman once before, and she was hugging him like he was her best friend.
Or little brother?
"Nice to meet you," Shang said awkwardly.
Viera put him down and inspected his entire body.
Then, she nodded.
"You have a very dangerous aura! Many girls like that," she said with pride.
"Dangerous aura?" Shang asked in confusion.
Viera nodded several times. "Yep, very dangerous. As soon as I saw you, I felt like you were an aggressive beast, which is surprising. I mean, you're only at the Initial General Stage."
"Aggressive beast?" Shang asked as he looked at his body.
'I didn't feel angry or aggressive. Also, I only just stood there with nothing on my mind. Why would Viera think that I'm an aggressive beast?' Shang thought.
Then, Viera excitedly walked over to the reception desk and sat on it.
BANG!
And the reception desk broke apart.
Shang only awkwardly looked at Viera, his expression invisible due to his mask.
Viera became red in the face and quickly stood up.
"Stupid cheap wood!" she shouted as she kicked one of the pieces away.
BANG!
The piece of wood exploded on the wall, the splinters shooting all across the room.
Shang didn't say anything.
The chair was obviously not made to be sat on, and the body of a Commander Stage warrior was incredibly heavy. Just Shang's uniform alone weighed 700 kg. If one added the weight of Shang's body, he would probably weigh nearly two tons.
Meanwhile, Shang was surprised that Viera was so very different from Soran.
Soran appeared very adult and responsible with a lot of morals.
And Viera?
She seemed like a carefree girl.
Sure, her appearance was that of a woman in her twenties, but she acted like she was 14.
After dealing with the offending wood, Viera summoned two chairs from a Space Ring.
'She keeps chairs in her Space Ring. Talk about having too much money,' Shang thought.
Viera patted one of the chairs while looking at Shang. "Come! Sit down! Let's talk a bit!" she said with her bubbly, excited voice.
Shang slowly walked over and sat down.
"Tell me, Shang. What's your goal? What makes you, you? Who are you?" Viera asked.
"Directly starting with the hard questions, huh?" Shang asked.
Viera giggled. "I'm not one for small talk. Come on, tell me!" she said with an excited smile.
"Well, I want to become the most powerful being in the world," Shang answered.
"Oh, that's great!" Viera said with an excited smile. "Why?"
"Because I like bettering myself," Shang said. "Training every day and seeing my progress is something that pushes me forward and motivates me."
"That's it?" Viera asked with a confused expression. "I thought you wanted to take revenge or wanted to achieve something."
"What do you mean?" Shang asked.
"Like, wanting to kill all Mages or killing the powerful noble that killed your family or similar stuff, you know?" she said.
"No, I don't have something like that," Shang said. "I only want power for power. I don't necessarily have a use for that power, but I want it."
"You can say I only want it to have it."
Viera scratched the side of her head in thought.
"What if you could become that powerful at this very moment?" she asked.
"Excuse me?" Shang asked.
"You know. What if some super powerful God or something came down and offered to grant you supreme power. You said that you wanted to have power to have it. So, according to that, you would accept that offer, right?" Viera explained.
For a while, Shang remained silent.
He hadn't thought about that.
If he could become supremely powerful at this very moment, would he accept it?
Silence.
"No, I don't think I would," Shang said.
"Why not?" Viera asked in surprise.
"I think it's more about the journey and less about the goal," Shang explained. "On top of that, I want to achieve it on my own. If someone else were to hand me something, that something wouldn't have any value. I want to achieve my goal on my own. I want it to be something I can work towards."
"Oh," Viera uttered. "That sounds noble."
"Noble?" Shang asked with a snort. "I don't think that's noble. After all, if I were to get my power handed to me, others wouldn't have to die."
Viera blinked a couple of times in confusion. "Could you explain that?" she asked.
"Well, you know how the world is," Shang said. "Lots of people and beasts want to kill you because you have something valuable. Sometimes, people just hate you, and when they see that you become more powerful, they might fear that you would be going against them."
"I think all of that is inevitable. So, if I want to become powerful, many lives will probably be lost. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't feel empathy for my enemy, but if I simply gained supreme power, I wouldn't even have an enemy to begin with."
Viera looked at Shang with interest. "That's a very interesting and unique perspective, Shang," she said.
"What about you?" Shang asked.
"Me?" Viera answered with surprise.
"You asked me what makes me, me. It's only fair that I get to hear what makes you, you."
Viera lightly scratched the side of her head with an embarrassed smile as her face became a bit red.
"Well, I guess so," she answered vaguely.
"You don't have to tell me if you feel uncomfortable," Shang said after seeing her reaction.
"No, it's fine," Viera said.
Then, Viera looked to the side with an embarrassed expression. "Well, my goal is a bit special," she said.
Shang could already guess what it was. After all, he had seen how infatuated Viera was with Soran.
"You see," Viera said. "I kind of…"
"Want to kill all beasts."
Silence.
"Excuse me?" Shang asked.
Viera hid her face behind her hands. "Oh, I hate that look! Whenever I tell someone my goal, they look at me with this face. It's like you all think I'm crazy!"
"Eh, no," Shang quickly answered. "But why do you want to kill all the beasts? What's the reason for that goal?"
Viera looked at Shang and noticed that he didn't seem to judge her for her goal. At least his body didn't show any signs. His face was kind of hidden at the moment.
"I mean, think about it," Viera said. "If you were to replace the actions of the beasts with a human, you would believe that human to be a danger to everyone."
"Beasts just randomly walk around, and anything living and weaker than them becomes their target."
"Imagine a True Mage does that! Imagine a True Mage kills every single human that's weaker than them as soon as they see them. That guy would be labeled as insane!"
"Sure, beasts can't help themselves, but that doesn't excuse them from their actions!"
"They attack villages!"
"They attack random animals!"
"They attack any human they see!"
"Are we just supposed to take all of that? Are we supposed to just give up whenever a beast grabs a young girl from a village? Are we just supposed to say that they can't help themselves?"
"Well, if they can't be helped, then we have to deal with the threat!"
"If the beasts kill every human they see, every human should also have the right to kill every beast they see!"
"And that's why I want to kill all the beasts in the world! As long as they exist, many weak people will become their victims!"
Shang didn't say anything as his featureless face only looked in Viera's general direction.
Shang had no idea what he should say.
He obviously didn't agree with her goal, but even more, he was shocked at the sudden change.
Initially, Viera seemed like a nice and innocent girl, but then she said that she wanted to kill all the beasts.
Was Shang supposed to disagree with her?
Was he supposed to lie and say he understood her?
But then, Shang was saved.
Someone new entered the room.
It was Shang's first opponent!
