Bro, I'm not an Undead!

“I’ll be taking my leave,” Skullius said as he patted Yuyui’s back.

The lime haired girl was snapped out of the trance she had been stuck in for a couple of seconds as she gazed at the atrocity done to the food she had been enjoying, a slight burning emotion that made her forehead twitch tingling within her body.

Maxim tilted her head, her smile growing wider as she was ever so happy that Skullius had decided to leave, ‘clearly’ intimated by her prowess. Her technique.

Stylla wore a strange face.

She didn’t want Skullius to go.

To be left with this… lunatic..

The bastard was also pulling Yuyui away so that she had to endure this newly arrived character alone and with the crowd that was gazing this way, bunching her and Maxim together in their gossip…

‘Kill me,’ Stylla said to herself as she clawed on her dress.

Yuyui regretfully stood and followed after Skullius. The Hybrid Luman had had enough of this.

‘I think I’ve gotten just about everything I can salvage from this gathering. Besides, it would be no good to risk transforming back into the Penetrator here. I’ll let Silrat finish up on the rest,’ Skullius thought.

As he walked, he felt someone walking in the opposite direction, going towards Stylla’s table.

He and this person passed by each other and Skullius was led to frown for the umpteenth time.

‘How many dangerous people are in this damn place?’ he thought.

He paused.

It took a bit of focus but he eventually recognised who this figure was.

It was Rias.

He had never actually been close to him before.

The young man walked up to Maxim who had begun to chat with the annoyed Stylla as if they were old friends and looked at the table which remained flat, it and its contents like a high resolution photograph lying on the floor between four chairs.

Maxim and Stylla turned to the young man, with the former gazing warily at Rias.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Rias ignored her and moved his foot, planting it over the flattened table.

The attention towards this area that had begun to wane was restored as everyone curiously turned back to it again, their eyes focusing on this mysterious young man from the EverSword House.

What was he going to do?

There was small burst of mana from Rias’ foot and…

With clinks, a rough scratching noise and a crude wobble, the table, the food, the drinks and the vase over it were restored to their original, forms!

…!

A few gasps were heard but in actuality, very few could appreciate what this really entailed besides the shock factor.

At the top of the list was Maxim who furrowed her brows as a bit of colour was lost from her face.

‘That shouldn’t… That doesn’t make sense!’ she thought. ‘My technique is different! It can’t be dispelled! Unless… unless…’

As her thoughts reached some conclusion she shuddered a bit.

The crushing sensation of both defeat and shock was further reinforced when Rias finally gave her some attention.

“Try not to vandalise our property next time. Father and I will not forgive any more than this,” Rias said with an indifferent and cold look in his eyes.

No.

That was an overstatement. It was too generous to say.

That would imply Rias even saw Maxim as someone of interest.

It seemed more like he was perfunctorily warning Maxim without the slightest bit of seriousness. As if she was way beneath him.

Skullius who had paused to watch this felt an even more complex weaving of mana being released for the briefest of moments when Rias set his foot on the table. His mana unravelled the effects of Maxim’s technique easily!

‘That’s terrifying,’ Skullius commented internally as he turned.

He was one of the people who could appreciate how complex the feats occurring were. Then again, he needed to face the techniques he was glimpsing at to fully understand how mana was being implemented here.

It was like how his new core worked. As if these people’s mana already had effects from their techniques.

Mana cores forged to be proficient in specific techniques… this was Skullius’ conclusion.

‘We should be thankful that this kid isn’t participating in the Premium Age Royale otherwise…’ Skullius thought as he pulled on Yuyui who cast a melancholic reach with her arm towards the restored food she had left behind. She then helplessly drew it back with a forlorn expression and murmured to herself.

“I’m sorry. It’s too late for us…”

On the other side of the attention, Brenn could be seen walking over to the seated Vali Kinn who greeted him with an unnaturally seductive gaze.

The man took a deep breath and imprisoned his desires that tempted him to let his gaze wonder over Vali’s body and instead, he spoke.

“You chose to participate in the end it seems.”

“You didn’t offer any incentive for me not to,” Vali casually replied, bringing a wine glass to her lips.

“Unfortunately, my father had bigger concerns at the time. He sincerely hoped you would see the bigger picture.”

“That says quite a bit about your priorities and where I fit among them, doesn’t it? Besides, I don’t like the bigger picture. Responsibility, for the greater good… those are concepts only people with a shallow sense of self would strive for. People like me have a big ego, you know? You should have put in more effort,” Vali said with a ‘mature’ giggle, her gaze that remained on Brenn’s face not flinching as she spoke.

She genuinely believed of what she said.

To some extent, Brenn even felt like she would have preferred that he and his father begged her not to join the Royale than offer her literally anything else.

Meanwhile, a disappointed, pale skinned man in a blanket-like jacket contemplated leaving as the social spree wasn’t doing it for him.

“I’ve had enough. Let’s go,” Aurolio said to Idline who nodded.

“Should we…?”

“No. I’m too tired to walk. Use the <Marked Spot>,” Aurolio said with a tired yawn.

Being around people was exhausting, especially when all of them were irrelevant.

As Idline nodded once again and prepared the means of their leave, the white haired man looked around for the last time and caught sight of a young man with light auburn hair walking towards the entrance with a lime-haired girl.

‘Hmm?’

The two’s life energies caught his eye.

The girl’s was ferocious, blazing like a torrent of green flame that would never to burn.

Frankly, this was among the top ten strongest life energies within this room and possibly because of where Aurolio sat, along with the even more ridiculous pillars of life energy that he had been keeping track of that stole his attention, he had missed this girl.

‘Interesting. Oh, is that a Hidden Class?’ Aurolio asked himself while his eyes continued to follow her. ‘Who is handing these out for free?’

Weird.

The man’s gaze then turned to the other individual.

His life energy…

Aurolio’s eyes narrowed.

His body stopped quivering and he paid extra attention.

There was barely any life energy leaking from this man.

Furthermore…

“Hybrid what?” Aurolio thought before Idline interrupted him.

“It’s ready. Shall we leave?” she asked.

The white haired man watched as the two peculiar individuals walked out of the hall, disappearing from sight.

He then remained silent for a few minutes.

Why did something interesting only have to appear when he was about to leave?

“Wait,” he finally replied before rolling in his thoughts.

‘Peculiar…’

Aurolio stood up from his seat.

Tp.

With a single step he had reached right before these two individuals outside the hall and with another step he was back in his seat.

Idline blinked a few times, not sure what her master was up to.

“We can leave now,” Aurolio said as he rested his table pivoted hand on his cheek, his wandering eyes showing that he was in deep thought.

The formally dressed woman by his side cast aside her curiosity and held her master’s shoulder, the two vanishing into thin air.

*

A millisecond later.

Skullius came to a sudden halt as his entire body grew stiff, mana leaking dangerously from him without warning!

There were many Knight outside the hall, most of them Capital Order Knights that formed rows to the entrance while others organised things beyond the hall.

One of the Knights who was closest to Skullius and Yuyui looked their way and questioned.

“Anything the matter sir?”

“Uh…no,” Skullius thought as he retracted the mana that had been oozing from him.

Yuyui also turned her master as she saw a strange expression on his face.

“What’s wrong, master?” she asked with concern.

Skullius resumed walking while pushing Yuyui to do so as well so that they wouldn’t continue to attract attention.

“You didn’t see or feel anything just now?”

“Huh? See what?” Yuyui responded with a confused, duck face.

Nothing?

The Hybrid Luman upon hearing this response didn’t press any further.

Just moments ago…

No.

For less that a fraction of a breath…

Even though he couldn’t see…

He could have sworn someone had been standing in front of them.

And maybe because his mind was always actively trying to paint an image of what he sensed, it had forged an picture of two pairs of large eyes that had been staring right at him in that very moment…