Chapter 408: You don’t have to [1]

"Are you alright?"

The voice made me turn towards my left side, only to be greeted by a pair of grey eyes that had a perfectly replicated emotion of pretentious worry in them.

"I am."

Though I said the words, in all honesty my head felt a little heavy.

Was it due to that dream?

I didn’t know.

But thinking about it, there was no logical explanation for a dream to result in my head splitting apart.

Since coming to this world, I had trained quite intensely and along with my experience as X... I could say with certainty that my pain tolerance was quite high.

Still, for some reason, though the pain wasn’t overwhelming... the feeling of intense pain kept hammering my mind constantly, making me feel dizzy—

"You don’t look well."

Hm?

Feeling a strong grip on the side of my arm, I stopped in my tracks and so did Diana as she moved closer to me, before staring at my abdomen.

"Your mana... it seems to have turned unstable—"

"Step back."

Interrupting Diana, I uttered the words with clenched teeth, as I tried my best to not let the feeling of pain overwhelm my sense of logic, but it was proving difficult, as my patience was wearing off.

"I was just stating the obvious."

Shrugging her shoulders, Diana took a step back before resuming her walk.

Sigh.

Taking a shallow breath, I closed my eyes before sensing the area around my mana core, and... it was indeed the same as what Diana had just said.

My mana... it appeared to have been destabilised due to—

My instincts were repeatedly pointing towards the dream that I recently had.

It wasn’t something new, but a glimpse of my life as X on Earth.

The dream felt far more real than a mere dream, still at the same time... it felt as if I was looking into someone else’s memory, which made me give an amused chuckle.

After all, the memories were of X, and I was X.

Remembering a short memory of my past had brought back the taste of dominance on my tongue.

As X... things had really been fun then.

Though it wasn’t like I was on the losing end while being Kael Frost.

Still, my current situation, though favourable towards me, wasn’t exactly in my complete control.

There were several unknown factors roaming in this world, that a single mistake on my part could very well be the end of my ambitions.

As X... I had the body of a human as everyone else.

Which was why my skills made me one of the best—

No.

My skills... they made me the best fighter on the planet, and that was the sole reason why, despite cornering me several times... the governments across the world couldn’t really kill me.

But as Kael... despite my strength... my dominance was limited to the rank of my core, and there were many people out there who could snuff out my life with a flick of their hand.

I—

"Is that girl waiting for you?"

I was walking behind Diana, lost in my thoughts, which was why the question took me by surprise for a brief moment.

Raising my head, I shifted it towards where Diana was pointing—

Hm?

"What is it?"

All my earlier thoughts were erased from my mind as I walked towards Sophie, who slightly waved her hand at me, though her actions appeared to be a little stiff.

"I... I was waiting for you."

"..."

"Father had asked me to stay with you during the classes."

Sophie lowered her gaze, avoiding any eye contact with me.

Listening to her father’s words after saying all those things to me the last time we talked must have been quite the challenge for her.

The girl did know how to put her pride aside, and do what was expected of her—

"She’s gorgeous."

Before I could form any sort of reply to Sophie’s words, Diana, who was tagging along with me, stepped forward as she lightly brushed her hand against Sophie’s hair.

"Ah... my apologies... I just instinctively did that."

Seeing Sophie wordlessly stare at her, Diana cleared her throat before quickly withdrawing her hand.

"It’s... alright."

The brief pause in Sophie’s words didn’t escape my notice, though I made no efforts to comment on it.

"You don’t have to force yourself to stay with me. I won’t tell Arthur, so be at ease—"

"Obeying my father’s words is not the same as forcing myself to do something."

Sophie’s voice had now returned to its usual, as she looked into my eyes with a firm intent clearly visible in her stare.

I just stood staring back at the girl, as for the first time I had no idea what reply would have been the best at the moment.

Heck, my mind couldn’t process any suitable reply at all, and seeing there being no need to argue over something pointless, I simply shrugged my shoulders before motioning Sophie to tag along with me.

"Your friend... the Alistairian princess didn’t accompany you?"

The walk to the class was about five minutes away, so instead of being dead silent, I felt striking a conversation, however small, could be good enough to fill the void.

"She wanted to."

Sophie’s voice felt a little subdued for some reason, making me give her a quick glance.

Her eyes were fixed on the ground, before she raised her head to look at Diana and then back at me.

"She’s working with us."

My sentence might not have made sense to someone else, but the moment Sophie heard it, her eyes widened if only by a bit.

The girl was good at hiding her emotions.

Diana simply smiled at Sophie, making me sigh in return.

After our deal, I had revealed quite a bit of information to Diana, and now... she knew a lot more than she had to.

Well... hiding things from someone like her would have backfired in the future, so I had been a little honest in my approach.

"She was a princess, and father said to be careful about whom I form relations with in the academy as it could... affect your plans."

"..."

This...

I wasn’t speechless, but Sophie’s words indeed took me by surprise.

And Arthur... what else had he told his daughter to do?

I knew the guy was loyal to me, but now... my confidence in his loyalty somehow reached a new margin.

"You don’t have to."