Adopted Soldier

Alex was about to make a tactical retreat, so he slowly backed away but to his surprise Niel blocked his escape route. He wasn't expecting this kind of betrayal from a comrade.

"What are you doing Niel?!" Alex who was always calm and collected was a bit flustered by this unexpected move. Ever since he returned from the battlefield, Alex has been affected too much by his emotions, and the one who triggered this response the most was Rachel.

As long as the matter was about Rachel Alex felt a bit lost. He was sure that he was feeling this way because he was afraid of failing the mission... But there were times that he thought that there was something more going on. He couldn't understand it, but since it was affecting the efficiency of the mission Alex decided to not think too much about it.

"Running away is a bit rude. One must always treat a lady with proper respect. So Alex how about facing Rachel head on. Don't tell me you're afraid of Rachel? Have you become a coward?" Niel had noticed Rachel was in a bad mood, the obvious cause would be something related to Alex. Ever since he met the two, he had always perceived them as a couple, but he found out later that they weren't like that. Though it was obvious that the two had some feelings for each other. Being in this kind of ambiguous relationship was quite fun to watch. So he also found great joy in teasing these little juniors of his.

"Who are you calling a coward? Me? No you misunderstood, I'm not running away this is simply a tactical retreat." While Alex was explaining his actions to Niel, Rachel was slowly closing on them.

Alex who saw Rachel's smiling yet not smiling face felt threatened by her, alarm bells started to ring in his head. He wasn't sure why he was feeling something like this. All he knows is at this very moment his instincts were telling him to retreat. It didn't matter if this might make Rachel feel uncomfortable or not. Alex could smoothen that out later, but for now he needed to survive.

After a moment of reassuring himself, that what he was doing was not bad. He decided to decisively act on what he thought was the right thing to do at the moment.

Alex slipped out of Niel's blockade and sprinted towards the nearest exit. Seeing Alex ran from her, Rachel immediately gave chase. Watching the whole scene transpire before her very eyes, made Sayaka laugh so hard, She was amazed at how fast Alex escaped from Rachel.

Even though he always had a stoic look, when something involves Rachel, you could see that stoic look of his change bit by bit. It was truly hilarious to think that this was a merc everyone feared.

'If only the others who know him could see him now. One of the strongest mercs in Berdonia is actually running away from a girl who hasn't even seen the horrible sight of killing, of death, or the final hour of desperation. How truly funny...'

Sayaka felt a bit at peace whenever she saw Rachel after doing her part time job for the family. Yet now she found a sense of relief every time she saw Rachel and Alex's shenanigans. She also felt a bit better being beside Oliver, and teasing Kei every now and then. The people in the Mercenary Club had somehow became her safety net.

...

Rachel who was chasing Alex noticed that she doesn't seem to be closing in on him, no matter how fast she ran. It was also obvious that Alex was slowing down every time she was getting to far away from him or whenever she gets a bit tired. Alex was simply letting her follow him in a precise distance he chose.

This was one of the things she loved and hated about Alex. It always seems like no matter how hard she tries to catch up, Alex was always going farther and farther ahead of her. The only reason she can even see his back is because in all circumstances Alex would always slow down for her so that she could catch up.

It was then that Rachel decided to stop chasing Alex, and as she expected Alex stopped running as well. If Alex truly wanted to escaper her, he would have been long gone by now. Yet as usual he was there slowing down for her.

"I'm not mad anymore, so can we just talk?" Sensing that Rachel wasn't hostile anymore, Alex approached her.

Now face to face with Alex, Rachel couldn't help but sigh as she smiled at him.

'The only reason he was running was because he felt I was angry at him. Now the reason he came back to face me was because I told him to. This guy as usual, always thinks about me first and foremost.' Rachel now felt it was really silly that she was jealous because of how close Alex and Emily were awhile ago.

"Hey Alex you just met Emily today right? How come you're so close all of the sudden?" When Alex heard this question he wanted to answer truthfully, but then he remembered that Emily wanted to keep her being a maid a secret.

Still if Alex didn't answer properly, Rachel might come to hate Alex. If that were to happen it would be difficult to fulfill the original mission objective, which will result with him failing the mission. So Alex needed to think of something as quickly as possible. He needed to say a convincing lie to Rachel.

"Oh that, it turns out Emily was a childhood friend of mine. You see my dad was a very busy man so we needed to relocate a bunch of times. That's also the reason why I transferred in such a weird time." Alex had told I lie with no problem at all. With his natural expressionless face and indifferent tone of voice, lying was easy for Alex. Also Alex mixed in some truths into his lie, making it even harder to notice that he was lying.

As expected Rachel couldn't tell Alex was lying, but she felt that something was off.

"You were childhood friends with Emily?"

"Yes" Alex answered without delay nor hesitation.

"Then how come you acted like you didn't know her, when she first messaged you?" Rachel intensified her questioning. Yet even with that Alex was still as stoic as ever, as he calmly.

"That's because when she introduced herself she simply stated that her name was Emily. There are a lot of other people called Emily. If she called herself Emily Hunt then I would've reacted."

"Okay that makes sense... Wait a minute then why did she say awhile ago, that she was glad to meet you and me for the very first time?"

"That's because at that point she and I haven't realized that we were childhood friends. It was during the game when it dawn on us that we have met in the past and that we were childhood friends."

"Is that why you were so close awhile ago?" Rachel was still unconvinced, but everything that Alex said did make some sense. The only thing she could do now was verify this with Emily.

"Yes that's the reason." Rachel was about to ask some more things, but an announcement cut her off.

"To all the players that are part of the quarterfinals please return to the stage. I repeat to all-"

"Looks like we need to head back." Alex nodded his head in response. When Rachel turned around and was about to head back, Alex quickly typed on his phone and sent a message to Emily.

He messaged her about the lie he made up to trick Rachel. Emily who was on stage speaking with her fans, received the message and while reading it, she smiled.

'It would seem like I need to act out a new character. How exciting, young master's childhood friend is it?... Well if you think about it, I am kinda like a childhood friend to him. Even though we only met a few times before on the battlefield, since he was the only other person near my age on that camp. So I guess I was really a childhood friend of sorts.'

Alex who had met numerous people during his mercenary days, couldn't remember most of them. The only people he remembered properly were the people in Carlo's squad.. Everyone else was were like a fleeting cloud to him.