Chapter 89: A Cold Leave?

"Ewwww, fuck off."

Declan pushed her legs away.

She grinned, but her attention quickly refocused back on the game seeing that her bike had tilted off the track.

"What? It’s not like you have any girl you’re talking to. You don’t even have a girlfriend, do you?"

"For the millionth time, I do not need one."

He unzipped the bag and brought out the contents.

They were the same items he had received when he first arrived at X Guard, including a new device, a memory card that probably contained every instruction he would need for the second year, and a purple card that served as the key to his second-year dorm room.

Evie’s eyes faintly caught sight of them.

"And what are those?"

She asked half-heartedly, but then the realization hit her, and she quickly paused the game and stared at them.

"Waaaiiit. Don’t tell me... wait, did you steal this?" she asked and Declan rolled his eyes.

Of course, she would find an excuse. She always did.

"No. What I did do was get myself promoted to second year."

"For real?"

Evie gasped and picked up the memory card and purple dorm card, both of which were brand new and completely unused.

"No way. You really got promoted."

Her shock made Declan grin with pride.

"Whyyyyyyyy! Waaah... ahhh... ahhh!"

She burst into crocodile tears again, her nose turning pink as she rubbed it against Declan’s shoulder.

"Hey, get off me."

He pushed her head back as she covered her face.

"How... how could you get promoted?"

"It hasn’t even been four months. That’s so unfair... ah... ahh... ahhh."

"Tsk."

Declan scoffed.

"Talk about being a bad friend. I was expecting congratulations."

"Nooooo. This cannot be happening... ah... aha... ah."

"You’re leaving me alone... in this hellhole... ahhh... ahh."

She cried bitterly, but Declan ignored her.

He didn’t want to insert the memory card into his device yet. It would be better to do that in his new dorm room, which he planned to move into soon.

Before that, however, there were a couple of things he needed to take care of, including earning back as many points as possible from the equipment in his current room.

He had heavily customized the place, and all of it had cost him points, so there was no way he was going to leave everything behind.

The only person who would benefit from that would be the bastard dorm officer, who would surely sell everything and pocket the points for himself.

"Hey, I need your help packing. Wanna help me out?"

Declan rose to his feet, only for his arm to be grabbed.

He turned toward Evie, who, as expected, no longer had a single tear on her face.

"Can you stay for a little longer?"

Her voice was soft and pitiable, almost enough to pierce Declan’s iron heart.

"How long?" he asked.

"Just six months more."

"The hell?"

Declan yanked his wrist free.

"Six months? Hahaha. You want me to stay in this hellhole for six more months?"

"Nah, that ain’t happening."

"Help me pack my gadgets. I’m planning on trading them back for points."

He walked toward the bedroom.

"And the games too?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Tch. Stingy donkey. You won’t even leave them for me."

"You’re the daughter of the Principal of X-Guard. Points are the last thing you lack in this life. Maybe a little bit of manners is what you need instead."

"You son of a donkey!"

"Now, hurry up and get to work."

With Evie’s help, packing everything up took less time than expected, and within thirty minutes, they were completely finished.

The second they finished, a knock sounded at the door.

Declan opened it and right outside stood a familiar face:

The dorm officer.

"I just got the news. You’ve been promoted to the second year," the man said with a beaming smile, which Declan immediately found suspicious.

"I was told you must leave urgently. You don’t have time to pack your things, so..."

"Actually," Declan interrupted, opening the door wider.

The dorm officer stepped inside, and his eyes widened in shock.

"I’ve already packed everything."

Declan watched as the man’s face paled slightly.

"You... um, hahaha. Good."

"But why do you even need to bother? You should be starting afresh in the second year. Carrying all of this out will be too troublesome."

At that moment, Declan understood exactly what the man wanted, and it was just as he had feared.

"Actually, I don’t plan on carrying them away. I plan on exchanging everything for points. I bought them with points, after all."

"You sure you have time? You know that’s important, right?" the man said.

Declan grinned.

"Oh, don’t worry about it. If I don’t have enough time, I can give everything to Evie and keep it in her home. She can help me sell them and send me the points."

Right then, Evie popped out of the bedroom, bringing out the training equipment.

"That’s all," she said, dusting her hands before her eyes turned toward the dorm officer. "

And what are you doing here?"

He asked, resulting in her raising an eyebrow.

"What? Am I banned from being here or something?"

The dorm officer sighed.

"You know what, Declan? How about I relieve you of some burdens? You can take this as my goodwill for being your dorm officer."

"What are you planning?" Declan replied.

"How about I give you 100 points to help get rid of everything? You won’t have to worry about carrying anything out. That will be my responsi..."

"Hahahahahha!"

A loud burst of laughter filled the room as the dorm officer turned toward Evie, who was clutching her stomach and laughing heartily.

"One hundred... haha... did you just say 100 points... hahahaha... for all of this?"

She was wheezing from laughter.

"Have you gone blind or lost the ability to calculate?"

One hundred points. That was ridiculously low.

Just his sofas alone had cost more than 100 points, yet the dorm officer wanted everything for that amount.

How ridiculous.

’Talk about a greedy bastard.’

Declan thought to himself but kept his expression calm.

"Everything I bought in this room is worth a total of 2,050 points."

"And if I exchange them back for points, I should still be getting at least 1,700 points."

"Wouldn’t you agree that 100 points is quite unreasonable?" he asked.

The man’s brows creased.

’Tsk. Seems like his bastard ass is pretty smart.’

"You know I’m just being a good Samaritan here."

"But of course, I’m open to kind suggestions, so tell me, how much do you want for it?"

"1,699 points. I’ll leave out one point because of your goodwill."

Declan said it so casually that the dorm officer almost coughed up blood.

"Hahahaha!"

Another round of laughter came from Evie, who fell to the floor while pointing at both of them.

"Stingy... haha... you two are stingy bastards."

"1,699 points. What the hell? You didn’t even treat me well," the dorm officer complained as Declan shrugged.

"Take it or leave it."

"1,400 points. That’s all I have on me."

Declan hummed before replying.

"Make it 1,500 points, and I’ll call it a deal."

"1,450 is all I have."

"I’ll take 1,480. If you don’t want it, then forget it. I’ll just give everything to Evie."

A vein wriggled on the dorm officer’s forehead.

"Tch. Fine."

He shouted and brought out his device.

Declan brought out his own, and they pressed them side by side.

In the next moment...

BEEP.

A satisfying beep rang out, and Declan saw the notification appear on his device.

[+1,480 Points]

"Nice doing business with you," he said with a satisfied grin.

"Get out already," the dorm officer growled.

Declan laughed darkly, grabbed his bag, and stepped out of the room with a rich swagger in his step.

Evie stepped out soon after, but by then, Declan’s back was already nearing the elevator.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

Declan paused with his finger hovering over the elevator button and raised an eyebrow.

"What does it look like?"

"Waaah. You’re just going to leave? No goodbyes, no nothing?" she asked as his finger tapped the button.

DIIIIIING!

The elevator opened, and Declan stepped inside.

"Goodbye, Evie."

He tapped the close button.

"You can rest assured that you will not be missed."

She raced toward the elevator doors.

"You son of a donkey!"

The doors shut just before she reached them.

All she saw was Declan’s relieved smile, the kind of smile that made it look as though he had finally gotten rid of his greatest headache.

"That bastard."

She cursed, tapping the elevator button again.

It opened back up, and she stepped inside too, quickly wheezing her way down the hall.

_______________

"You wait up this instant, you donkey!" Evie yelled as Declan stepped out of the dorm hall, both hands resting behind his head.

"What? Want to give me a ride back to the second-year area?"

He asked from the corner of his eye, watching her fume with a mixture of anger and disbelief.

"I cannot believe you’re just going to leave like that. You’re not even saying anything."

"What? I just said my goodbye," he replied as they both stepped out through the dorm building gate.

Evie paused, watching Declan continue into the distance with disbelief in her eyes.

He was just... going to leave?

Even after everything?

She watched, hoping he would turn back, but he never did, silently disappearing into the distance.

"How... how cold," she whispered as the corners of her eyes turned glassy.

She turned around too, but before she could take her first full step, a faint rush of wind brushed past her, lifting her pink hair into the air.

A hand grasped her shoulder.

She turned and found that familiar face.

"You know... on a second thought, I was thinking... I might not mind having your number..."