Chapter 282: Curious Lily

Vlad had only pulled Lily below the water’s surface, and her ankle was already gone from between his hands.

He blinked. She was nowhere in sight. The next moment, an arm wrapped around his neck in a lock from behind. He tried to pry the grip loose with both hands, but he couldn’t even budge it.

His eyes widened. It was the first time someone had bested him in pure physical strength. His consciousness began slipping away from the choke when he quickly tapped her arm in surrender.

She released her grip, and the duo resurfaced.

"Hehe~ I won," Lily giggled, raising both arms in victory before him.

"C-cough-cough..." Vlad coughed, holding his throat.

The smile vanished from Lily’s face. "Did I hold you too tightly?" she asked, worried.

She had learned from the novels that men preferred women weaker than themselves. Superior physical strength wasn’t a feminine trait, especially if the difference in strength was this vast. What if Vlad thought she was just a brute? She didn’t want to make him feel inferior, or he might start avoiding her as well.

She was about to come up with an excuse when Vlad stated in a surprised tone, "This is the first time anyone except father has defeated me in a contest of strength."

Lily flinched. "I—"

"You’re incredible, Lily," Vlad exclaimed, his tone carrying nothing but admiration, his eyes looking at Lily with newfound respect. "Can we brawl again sometime?"

Lily was speechless. Did those light novels depict men incorrectly, or was Vlad just a rare case among them?

"We cannot," she replied with a narrowed gaze. "Do you think I’m an ox or something?"

"You certainly have the strength of at least a hundred oxen."

Sigh. Once again, the idiot hadn’t chosen his words wisely.

He immediately felt an icy glare send shivers down his spine. Lily was looking at him with a tightened jaw and furrowed brows, as if she might punch him in the face at any moment.

"You know there are certain things you can’t say about women," Lily told him in a surprisingly calm tone.

Vlad immediately recalled the two universal laws his father had taught him.

"I didn’t mean that you weigh as much as a hundred oxen," Vlad blurted, clarifying himself. "I meant it as a compliment. That you are very strong."

Lily just released a sigh. Which woman would take that statement as a compliment? But since Vlad hadn’t intended to insult her for her strength, she wasn’t angry anymore. Words could be deceiving. Intentions were what truly mattered to her.

Seeing Lily’s expression soften, Vlad released a sigh of relief. They stayed in the water for a few minutes, relaxing their muscles in the warmth of the pond. Naturally, Lily maintained a distance of a few metres from him, self-conscious about exposing too much skin.

"Vlad, close your eyes," Lily told him. "I need to get dressed."

"Is there really a need?" Vlad asked with a playful shrug. "I have already seen everything."

Lily’s hands immediately moved to her chest, her white skin turning red with embarrassment. "So you really did see everything."

"It was kind of unavoidable," Vlad chuckled, now feeling a bit awkward.

"I...I have been looted," Lily whimpered, her face falling. Her icy silver eyes turned to Vlad as she muttered, "When I accidentally saw you naked last time, you made me take responsibility. Now it’s your turn!"

"Eh?" Vlad’s brows furrowed. He was already regretting teasing her.

"Don’t give me that look of ’What a drag’," Lily hissed. "Either delete that memory or take responsibility!"

Vlad released another weary sigh. "Tell me, what do I need to do?"

"Tell me something embarrassing about yourself!"

"Why should I?" Vlad scoffed, shrugging.

"..."

"Fine," he sighed. He gave brief thought to an event that would satisfy her without completely destroying his dignity.

"When I was five years old and bathed with Chloe for the first time, I screamed in horror...because Chloe’s Mr. Doodle was missing," Vlad revealed, his hand moving to his face in embarrassment.

"Mr. Doodle?" Lily asked, tilting her head.

"Bhrik," Vlad’s muffled voice came from behind his hand.

"What?" Lily’s brows rose in confusion.

"Dwik."

"I can’t understand what you are saying," Lily muttered, moving half a metre closer to hear him clearly.

"Dick!" Vlad’s voice came louder than necessary, a faint blush of embarrassment spreading across his cheeks.

An awkward silence followed, Lily’s face unreadable.

"Pfffffttt! Bwahahaha," Lily’s unrestrained laughter filled the forest, continuing for several annoying seconds.

"M-Mr. Doodle? Hahaha," she wheezed, her eyes turning teary, one hand holding her stomach as she burst into laughter again.

"Yeah-yeah, very funny," Vlad retorted, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

Once Lily had had her fill, she said, wiping the tears from her eyes, "I will consider us even now..." The corner of her lips rose into a smirk.

"Don’t say th—"

"Mr. Doodle." Lily finished the sentence before Vlad could stop her.

The heck with responsibility. Vlad should have told her something else. Now he was going to be teased for who knew how long. The only way to stop her was...

"So, Mr. Doodle, please turn around so I can get out of the pond," Lily requested with a playful smile.

To her surprise, Vlad gave an even deeper smirk in response. "As you say, Snow Melons."

The smile was wiped from Lily’s face instantly. She immediately understood why Vlad called her that, since she was the one who had shown him something as white as snow, with a size comparable to melons.

"L-let’s just stick to Vlad and Lily," she offered in a serious, slightly embarrassed tone.

"That’s more like it," Vlad smirked before turning his face to the other side.

Five minutes later, when Lily had dressed, Vlad also came out of the pond. After drying his body with a towel, he removed the wet boxers and covered himself with the nanoparticles of his armor, converting them into a loose t-shirt and trackpants. Obviously, Lily was looking the other way during the whole process.

Once he was done, his gaze lingered on Lily, or more accurately on the robe she was wearing. It was a multi-layered robe with wide sleeves, the outer layer just a translucent veil.

"Lily, why do you always wear the same kind of clothes?" Vlad asked, curious. It was his fourth encounter with her, yet her clothing style had never changed. If not for the slight difference in the design of her robe, he would have thought she was wearing the same clothes.

"I never really thought about it," Lily replied, turning around. "I guess I never felt the need to change when no one had pointed it out before."

She looked at her robe as she asked, "Why? Does it not suit me?"

"Of course it does," Vlad’s response came instantly. "It perfectly matches your skin tone."

She just gave a slight nod, tucking the strands of her damp hair behind her ear.

"By the way, don’t you have an exam tomorrow?" Lily asked a moment later. "You should return to your dormitory."

Vlad looked at the time on his phone. It was 8:36.

"I can stay for twenty more minutes," Vlad said. "But if you have something to attend to, I will leave—"

He hadn’t even finished his sentence, and Lily was already gone from her position, now sitting before the tree beside the pond. "I have nothing much to do," she said with a warm smile.

Vlad took the spot beside her, his back leaning against the tree, one leg straight and the other bent at the knee, where he rested his arm.

Lily was sitting with her legs folded inward and her back straight. Her gaze lingered on Vlad’s face for a few seconds, as if trying to understand this mysterious man. There were many things she wanted to ask about him, from how he had reached such a level with just D-Rank talent to how he knew the Song of the Welkin Moon, an ancient lullaby that hardly anyone from the current era would know about. And most importantly, why did she have a sense of familiarity with him?

But she didn’t ask any of it. She could scan anyone inside out using her primordial senses, discovering their body structure, meridians and the extent of their talent, but she had never used it on Vlad.

Since she had never been honest with him about her identity, she didn’t want to pry into his secrets either.

But what puzzled her even more than his mysterious existence was his unreadable mind. He never once asked anything about her. Why had she told him to keep her presence a secret from everyone else? Where did she come from? How strong was she? And why had he never heard of her if she was really the disciple of the Principal, when the Principal’s other four disciples were the most famous figures in Argentum, to the point that their biographies were taught in history books?

Without even knowing anything about her, he was truly treating her like the ideal friend she had always imagined having. Someone who would understand her, tease her and definitely treat her as an equal, not as an unfathomable being or a goddess.

"What is it?" Vlad’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she asked, blinking.

"You have been staring at me for quite a while now," Vlad said, his face turned towards her. "Is there something you want to ask?"

Lily nodded. "Are you not curious about my identity?"