Christina nodded her head and hugged her brother. Aron can tell that the girl was not very satisfied with her performance. Considering the fact that she had the gall to face the trial without having an iota of knowledge shared with her, he can tell that she was a brave individual.
"What are you looking at, slave boy? Want me to beat your ass?" Suddenly Christina noticed a set of eyes fixated upon her. Aron's gaze was almost reverent but that didn't stop her from lashing out at him. Realizing that she displayed her vulnerability to someone other than her brother, made her flush up with embarrassment and consequently with rage.
Aron can only facepalm himself. This girl was really good at destroying her own image. He can only shake his head in futility. "Haha.. what do you think brother Aron? Isn't my sister amazing?" Being caught in action, Christina wanted to struggle away from her brother, but he held her against his waist affectionately.
The dumbstruck slave had his left eye flicker at the boy. His face very clearly saying.. Didn't you see how she reacted just now? Chris chuckled a bit at the funny reaction, nevertheless winking his eye at him.
"Ahem.. Ms. Christina was amazing. Not everyone can walk in blind into a battle." It was Christina's time to flicker her eyes at the boy. On one hand, his words felt like a sincere appreciation, while on the other when she thought some more about it.. didn't that mean she was probably too dumb to even proper information before jumping into a fight?
"Hmph..!! Worry about yourself, slave. With your puny cultivation.. mhhghh!!" "Now.. now.. no need hostilities..!!" Chris stepped in, pressing her face into himself, effectively cutting her off.
Aron can only smile wryly. He sat at some distance from the twins. In the front, many new aspirants had been filled with newfound hope, eagerly getting in line to try their luck as well.
"Don't you want to give it a try, brother Chris?" Aron suggested, pointing to the ever-increasing crowd at the front. "Haha.. for sure. As soon as I am done with my babysitting job that is.. aaaiioo.."
Christina violently pinched Chris making the boy jump up and down clumsily. Aron chuckled, finding the relationship between the siblings quite wholesome. Thinking about it, the closet relation he had like that was probably with Caleb.
Right then he discovered two familiar girls approaching them once again. It was the same duo who had been on their tails ever since the screening trial started. He saw the blue-haired girl walk up to Christina and extend her hand.
"My apologies for earlier... The name is Gloria MacMillan." Although the twins were taken by surprise at her sudden change of disposition. Christina hesitated for a bit but nudged by her brother, she finally accepted the handshake formally.
"Christina Desmond." Gloria gave a nod. "Please don't misunderstand me. I am not here to extend my friendship.." Her words caused the twins to squint their eyes. Nevertheless, the girl remained calm. "Rather, I acknowledge you as an adversary."
The smile returned to Christina's face as she pulled her hand back. "I would have loved nothing less." She knew the strong always cheered a competent challenge more than some meaningless friendship.
Gloria shook hands with Chris as well, stating how she had been struggling on the 4th stage for many months now and Christina's last fight had inspired her to give it another try. "Let's see who clears it first then."
"She is like that only.." Detached from them, Aron was watching this new development very keenly when someone speaking directly in his ear spooked him out of his mind. "Haha.. did I scare you? Sorry about that..!"
The other girl with an enchanting pair of eyes was sitting right next to him on the bench. 'When did she..?' The fact that he never noticed the girl move from her place, despite his recently enhanced senses left him awestruck.
"Hi.. I am Tracey." Since the first day he attended the meal at the girl's hostel, Aron had noticed her undue curiosity towards him. Naturally, this made him a bit cautious towards the girl.
"Ahem.. Aron." Still, in reality, she had never displayed any kind of hostility towards him as well. It might be the case of curiosity on her part, rather than an intention to cause harm. Thinking this, he shook her hand as well.
"Don't worry.. I don't mean any harm. You see, unlike my friend over there, I got no ambition to make everyone kneel in my presence heehe.." The girl chuckled, pointing to Gloria who was done talking with the twins and now approached Aron as well.
"Hello.. slave boy. I hope you do your little master proud." She came and sat right next to him, although she kept her distance from him, unlike a certain other girl whose chest Aron can feel against his elbow.
"What are you staring at?" Almost immediately Gloria's mood turned for the worse, making Aron look away. "Haha.. she is a little crazy. Only the person who can subdue her can gain her respect." Though Tracey said that in a general perspective, the two winks at the end of her sentence gave her words another meaning altogether.
"Cough.. cough.." "I am right here, Tracey." Aron coughed while Gloria scowled at them with her arms crossed around her chest. Tracey playfully bit her tongue before crossing arms with the boy beside her.
"Hey, Aron.. Are you really the one Julia and her team experimented on?" Aware that it was not exactly a secret, he responded with a nod. "That will be me." Thankfully, Darlene took care of the semen in his glands, otherwise, just the fact that his arm was pressed against Tracey's chest would have been enough to make him uncomfortable.
"Oh.. Did you truly experience death? Can you tell me what you felt?" Concerned that these details might be sensitive for Julia, he only face some vague answers. "Hmm.. I already knew their project was too ambitious. The best potion in circulation right now can only simulate death on a very superficial level. To think some first-year students could develop that.. it's madness."
Aron had nothing to add, so he could only nod in conjunction with her. "Still, kudos to those guys for trying something so ridiculous haha.." Tracey chuckled, mostly speaking to herself.
"That being said.. tell us something about yourself Aron? Where do you come from? And how did you end up in slavery? Is it related to your parents taking loans that they could never payback?" Her fantasies made the boy cringe.
"Ahem.. it's nothing too complicated." With the girl unwilling to release his arm, Aron was forced to narrate his background story for everyone to hear. Even the twins found themselves interested. Just like Gloria and Tracey, they too had discovered how special the kid was.
For the next half an hour, the group actually found themselves increasingly getting acquainted with each other. And even though Gloria never actively took part in any discussion, she refrained from interrupting the flow of conversation either.
As it turned out, Tracey was quite a bubbly girl, easily hitting it out with everyone. She had no problems engaging with both Aron and the twins. "I am telling you, you are going to love the Divinity department. There are a lot of strong students there."
"Not to mention, the most celebrated among the recent generation of Nebulas was someone adept in Divinity magic." Tracey immediately had Christina's attention. "There is someone like that?"
Instead of answering her, Tracey turned her gaze over to the boy sitting next to her, much to his and the siblings' confusion. "Julia never told you about her?" Aron had no idea what was going on here. What does this have to do with Julia?
"Her name was Rivia Rutherford. She passed out just last year as the final year student from our Academy." Tracey declared, with a prideful expression on her face. Keeping the matters of her friend's personal rivalry with the Rutherford clan aside, Ms. Rivia was nothing less than a legend for the later generations of Greenville Academy.
Not expecting such a turn of events, Aron immediately recalled the picture frame on Julia's desk. There was an extremely beautiful girl portrayed in the frame, that must certainly be this acclaimed figure Tracey told them about.
"Hmph.." Right then the group heard a sneer coming from Gloria as she got back to her feet and left. "What happened to her?" Chris asked. Tracey shook her head in a wry smile. "You guys must be aware of the continuous conflict between the Rutherford and MacMillan clans."
The siblings nodded their heads while Aron had no particular response to her remarks. "As fate would have it.. the very person Ms. Rivia Rutherford defeated to declare her dominance not only over the Greenville Academy, rather among the younger generation of the entire country, was none other than Drake MacMillan, Gloria's elder brother."
"So there is something like that." Chris scratched his chin, clearly fascinated by the facts. "Hmm.. I can understand about Aron, but how come even you two never heard of it?" Tracey questioned the brother-sister pair on their lack of common knowledge.
"Ahem.. You see, for the last few years, master has mostly kept us isolated from the world. As such, we never heard any news at all." Tracey nodded with a sense of realization.
"What about this Drake MacMillan? Did he belong to Greenville as well?" Christina was certainly interested in knowing more about the topic. "People like us can't even talk about those legends in the same breath. I mean they are like giants to us."
"No, he was from a different school. Last I heard he was already commanding a core against the orcs at the age of eighteen." Her words left the twins stupefied with their jaws dropped. "He is commanding a core?" No matter how much of a composed demeanor Chris possessed, this new information left him simply dumbfounded.
Each core consisted of almost tens of thousands of men and women. To think that a teenager could command such a reckoning force, was simply unimaginable. Christina had a similar reaction, but she was quick to respond.
"Then what about Ms. Rivia? She must be even more impressive?" As someone compatible with Divinity magic, Christina was obviously more interested in her.
The smile on Tracey's face was retracted, giving Aron a bad premonition about what was going to come out of her mouth next. "No one knows exactly what happened to her."
"What?" Needless to say, Christina's reaction was the most prominent. "You are saying that she vanished?" Tracey once again turned to gaze at Aron, before sighing and getting up from her seat.
"Not exactly disappeared.. but there is little to no information on her truly. Some claim her cultivation deviated, backfiring.. others say her mother did something bad to her.. there are rumors after rumors but nothing concrete."
Tracey only shrugged her shoulders when asked more about the topic. She took her to leave, claiming to look after the trial. "Give it your best, Aron. I would love to see you around in the academy." Those were her last words before finding her way back to Gloria.
Once Tracey left, Chris immediately turned to look at Aron. "Who is Julia, brother Aron? You know her?" The boy under intense glare can only fill his lungs with fresh air. "She is a good friend of mine. Though she never exclusively told me about her sister.. I would assume that she might be the younger sister of Ms. Rivia."
The siblings can only gawk at each other in complete shock. Is this guy messing with them? First, it was with Ms. Darlene, now he even had a connection to another famous personality. "Ahem.. I know what you guys are thinking." Aron waved his hand in front of his chest. "But believe me I am certainly a slave here. It's just that things happen.. and I end up.."
"Haha.. we were just pulling your leg, brother. You don't need to keep reassuring us." Midway through his sentence, Chris patted his shoulder, making Aron seemingly calm down. And yet, in Christina's mind, she had already begun to conceive scenarios as to how the boy must have honey trapped this innocent girl named Julia.
< Kudos!!>>