As Leon was picked, he looked back at Alten, realizing that he wasn't able to go.
The kid who picked him up shouted from the stage, "Hey! You gonna go or not?"
Leon continued to face Alten, seemingly ignoring the kid on stage, who quickly retorted, "Oh what? I separated you from your group. Don't be such a pansy, it's not like you guys are separating forever. It's a few hours and then you can go on another hunt together. Jeez, kids nowadays..."
Alten spoke to Leon, having already forged a decision, "I guess I can just join you next time. You should go, one person getting cores is better than none."
Leon paused, "Alright. Are you sure you will be alright? Just don't get into any trouble."
"Yea yea..."
Leon promptly jumped up on the platform with the rest of the 20 and the 4 kids as the large group quickly dispersed.
Rylan furiously stomped his feet onto the ground as he exclaimed, "Damn it! This shit again!? Every time I get ignored nowadays!"
At first, this reaction seemed comical to Alten, but he quickly un-did his smile as he saw Rylan being silent. He was looking at the ground with genuine frustration and anxiety.
Alten tried to calm him down, "Let's just get back to eating..." He said as the two walked back to their bench.
"I'm sorry again dude. I can't control my emotions." Rylan awkwardly laughed again.
As they got back to their bench, however, that smile turned into a concerned frown. Waiting for them were the bullies from the last time. They all had malicious smiles on their faces, but when Alten and Rylan got close enough, they stepped to the side and made way for an unfamiliar face to step forward and sit down on the bench.
This new kid had a hair full of long, silky white hair, and donned a white tunic with oversized white pants.
Alten and Rylan stopped a few feet from the bench, as the new kid said, "Sit down." With a polite smile on his face.
The two sat down, and Rylan eyes the bullies who were still standing a few feet back. He then looked at the face of this new kid, and slowly, his eyes began to widen as fear spread across his face.
'Why is he here!? He wouldn't come for me, I'm just a nobody!' Rylan thought to himself, before turning his head toward Alten, 'Him? Surely not...'
The boy sitting across from the two of them who had long white hair finally spoke, a smile still on his face, "Alten Apollon... nice to meet you. My name is Kedward Sigel. You can call me Ked."
Alten was slightly thrown off by this but decided to go along with it, "Yea... nice meeting you I guess. So what's the purpose behind this?" He asked outright.
It wasn't like he was politely meeting some random kid. Alten had a bad viewpoint of him since he came with the bullies from last time. He immediately wanted to cut the crap and figure stuff out.
"Sure... what I wanted to kindly discuss with you was... the core situation. You're teammate is Leonidas Serroa, no? You two must have amounted quite the amount of cores."
Before this Alten already had his guard up, but now he was completely at the edge of his seat, "Listen, just tell me what you're talking to me for." Alten was already disturbed by how this guy came in, so he wasn't willing to have any conversation with him.
The boy paused for a short second, his smile disappearing. He looked around, seeing a few faces that were familiar to him that eyed him out, before leaning in and speaking, "You're new here, so I thought I would explain some rules, but since you don't want that explanation, I will just give you the verdict."
Hearing something indirect like this, Alten would have previously shaken in his boots and run away, which Rylan was expecting. However, this time, Alten was different. He had changed.
Although he was still shaking in his boots, he did not run away. Leaning forward himself, he dealt with his nerves and said, "That's what I've been asking for."
the boy paused again, seemingly irritated slightly by Alten's demeanor before retorting, "You have until sundown to quietly give us 500 points worth of cores. No one has to know about it and it doesn't have to be a big deal, understand?"
Alten wasn't completely thrown off by this, since he was pretty much expecting it, "And what if I don't."
The white-haired boy looked around, noticing a few eyeballs latching onto him. He knew he had to finish this quickly and avoid such suspicious behavior, "If you don't, we will forcefully take all of your team's cores and eliminate you as well. It's your choice." He said his final verdict before getting up and forging a smile back onto his face.
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm "It was nice meeting you, I hope we can agree on this subject." He said before walking away with the bullies, who chuckled as they followed him away.
Rylan looked around, before quickly pulling Alten to the side, "Let's go to my tent." He said as Alten followed him. The two ran outside of where the main area of tents and arrived at a secluded one before going in.
Once inside, Rylan didn't speak for a while, only looking at Alten with concern, "I don't even know what to say but... first things first... you have more than 500 cores!?"
Alten, who was looking at the ground also concerned, looked up, "Yea..."
Currently, he was thinking about how much trouble he was in, and Leon directly told him not to be in trouble as well.
"Damn it!" He suddenly exclaimed, not able to find a way to save himself here, "Im too fucking weak! Of course, they probably wanted to separate us in the first place. They knew he was my teammate, and also that I was a goddamn weakling!"
Rylan was taken aback by this, "Woah, woah! Calm down, it's alright..." He tried to say, but Alten continued to exclaim his frustration.
"If I was even a touch stronger, I wouldn't be such an easy target. Now... my entire team's cores are at risk!"
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel