"What!?"
Both Kira and Fade were so surprised that they ended up yelling very loudly, attracting strange eyes from people nearby.
They looked at Rio and then at Lia, whose face had turned into a red tomato, she seemed like she was having difficulty processing what happened, and her system directly shut down!
Seeing Lia behaving in this way, they thought it was true.
For a while, both of them just looked at Rio and Lia with a bewildered expression on their face and then finally calmed down.
"uh, congratulations! Lia!"
"y-yeah, th-thanks... yeah?"
Lia's face blushed even more; she looked at Rio and glared at him, yet Rio was just sitting there without any care in the world, as expressionless as ever; he just said it out nonchalantly as he was trying to mess with Fade on purpose.
He looked at Lia and smirked a bit. Seeing that smug face, Lia had a strong urge to punch this bastard, but she did not do so.
'I will see you later; just you wait, you idiot, I-I-I will….'
While Kira started to ask several questions from Lia, Fade decided to use his skill, which his system can use to scan other people's information.
'[Appraisal]'
[Generation information...]
[Error!!!!!…. retrying…. Error!!!!!.... Retrying ...Error!!!!]
[Defending counterattack…. high amounts of energy consumed….]
[deducting EXP to meet energy requirements….]
[Defending successful!]
[Appraisal failed!]
[System Warning!!!!]
[Please do not use appraisal on this individual again!]
[Otherwise system might not be able to function properly!]
[Due to high damage sustained, System will go offline for a day]
[10….9….8….7…]
[System shutting down!]
[….]
'WHAT!!!, WHAT THE F***!!!, WHAT HAPPENED.'
'How can it be! Appraisal has never failed before!'
Instantly, Fade became even more vigilant against this dude named Rio. Fade knew that something had gone wrong.
And as Rio counter-attacked his appraisal, Fade's system has gone offline for a day now.
The system has given Fade a warning to not use appraisal on Rio again; otherwise, his system might sustain even more damage.
After seeing this, Fade had a chill run down his spine.
He knew that everything he had achieved was given by the system.
If something happened to his system, he would again be reduced to that helpless person who he once used to be.
Fade looked upward and found Rio was looking right in his eyes.
He seems to have found out what Fade has done. Fade gulped his saliva and his whole body was covered in sweat.
Looking in Rio's eyes, he felt the cold and ruthless nature hidden under that expressionless face.
Fade suddenly felt the feeling he had forgotten for a few months.
The very feeling that drove him into the depths of despair.
'Fear'
Fade was trying very hard to remain calm, but in his mind, he was already too scared to even scream or say a single sentence.
Just as Fade was suffocating from the lack of air, a voice saved him suddenly:
"Hey, Rio, isn't it time we leave now?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Rio and Lia both got up and left the restaurant.
Watching them leave, Fade breathed a long sigh of relief. He had started to think that he would faint due to suffocation.
"What happened, Fade?"
Fade just shook his head and calmed down his beating heart.
"Nothing..."
...
Outside the restaurant.
"Hey! Wh-why did you say that?"
"What did I say?
"Don't act like you don't know! Didn't you say that, that… I-I….."
"Heh, what did I say, I don't remember correctly. Why don't you tell me yourself~"
Seeing that shameless smug face, Lia had a sudden urge to slash this bastard with her sword; she immediately brought out her sword from the space ring given by the academy.
"I-I will wipe that smirk off today! Die you sex fiend!"
"Heh, you won't be able to even land a single attack on me... ehehehe..."
"Yo-you! Die!"
Rio just dodged those half-assed attacks without much of a problem.
Anyway, he is already at the peak of the C rank, while Lia is still in the D rank. She can't land even a single attack on Rio.
After a bit of slashing with no result. Lia got frustrated and stopped while taking long breaths.
In normal situations, she would not get exhausted in such a short time, but due to her emotions being imbalanced and her performing the sword techniques in an unbalanced way, she ended up exhausted in just 10 minutes.
"Yo, exhausted already? Should I carry you, princess style? if you are unable to walk?"
Hearing the remark from Rio, Lia subconsciously imagined herself being carried princess style….What! wait! Wh-what am I even thinking!?
'This bastard!'
Lia glared at Rio with a death stare, but this only made her look cuter. But seeing that the situation had started to get out of hand, Rio decided to stop teasing her more.
She might end up crying if he continued doing this.
'I wonder how she will look like when crying after being teased.'
'Huh, I am starting to have idiotic thoughts recently. No, no, I shouldn't make her cry.'
Rio shook his head and patted the glaring cute girl's head.
"Okay, okay. Let's stop now. Do you want to eat ice cream, my treat?"
"I don't want to talk to you anymore!"
"Good grief, and here I was thinking of buying a vanilla flavor one."
"Who said I won't eat!! let's go!!!"
Rio can even see stars shining in Lia's eyes after hearing about vanilla flavor.
Seriously, no one would expect that the coldest and arrogant-looking girl in the academy would be so obsessed with ice creams.
The duo bought ice creams and sat on the bench nearby.
The scenery and weather everything seemed to have become livelier and more beautiful. It was already evening; the sun was now shining with a red color, giving the atmosphere a calm and beautiful feel.
The slow breeze of air and the faint sound of the tree's leaves rustling in the background added an amazing charm to the beauty of nature.
It was a perfect time to say the feelings hidden in your heart now.
It is now or never.
"I think I like you, Lia"
"WH-wha-wha, what are you saying so suddenly!"
"What about you?"
Seeing Rio become serious all of a sudden, Lia gulped and looked into Rio's dark black eyes directly. Although her face was becoming more and more red as time passed, determination flashed in her eyes.
"I-I l-like yo-you to-too, R-Rio."
Instantly, Lia's face became as red as a tomato, She lowered her head and tried to hide her embarrassment, but suddenly Rio sealed her lips.
A romantic atmosphere appeared surrounding the two.
When Lia came to her senses, even her neck became red from embarrassment.
"It was Delicious..."
Lia's phase became even more redder. Not being able to bear this much shock, she ended up fainting. Before she crashed, Rio caught her.
"Good Grief~ Maybe I went too far."
(Rio got himself a girlfriend on the very first date! is this really his first time rizzing up a girl!? Wtf that was so smooth!!)
...
Behind a bush, several meters away from Rio and Lia.
A commotion has already erupted without the knowledge of Lia and Rio.
"wha-what! They kissed!!!"
"Ye-yeah. I-it se-seems to be t-true"
"I didn't expect that they had already gone so far!! Doing shameful things in broad daylight!!!!"
"….."
"What happened, Why are you not saying anything, Fade?"
Fade looked at the duo spending time in a romantic atmosphere and then he looked at Kira.
Seeing his strange behavior, Kira immediately understood his meaning.
"We-well, I-if you want, w-we can also…..."
Although Kira was saying this in such a small voice, Fade was able to hear her. His face also turned red in embarrassment.
Being inexperienced himself, he was also flustered hearing this. Not to mention, a kiss, He had never even held a girl's hand before.
Just as the two were still thinking about what to do next.
They found that the effect of the artifact suddenly weakens. They have been using an artifact given by Kira's parents to make themselves invisible to people's sight.
After all, if someone found them stalking, they would end up embarrassed. Due to which, when Rio and Lia had left after talking, Kira had proposed the idea to follow them.
Kira was concerned about Lia's well-being and wanted to find out if she was not being deceived, Fade also accompanied her.
The artifact they used to hide their presence can help them avoid the perception of anyone below A rank, as long as they don't use any attacking methods or the artifact doesn't run out of mana.
Since the artifact has now started to run out of mana, its effect has started to weaken. Kira and Fade both decided to leave the place to not get discovered by Rio and Lia.
What they didn't know was that Rio had already sensed their presence the very moment they started following him and Lia.
Ever since Rio has acquired the skill of 'True resistance,' he can resist any illusion and deceitful skill as simply as breathing.
But the skill 'true resistance' is not restricted to skill only; it can even resist artifact effects and other unusual effects. This helped Rio to directly avoid the artifact and sense them both following behind. But he didn't say anything.
The thing that surprised him more was the fact that Fade was lingering around here.
If this continues, how will he reach the place of the bomb?
If he didn't reach there on time, several normal folks would be killed. Far more damage will happen compared to the damage that happened in the novel.
'do I have to fix this sh*t myself?'
'Well, this mess is created by the butterfly effect caused by me in the first place...'
'I don't want to do the hero's work, but since this involves the life of more than a thousand people, I should act this time... otherwise, I might not be able to sleep with peace tonight...'
'I will also change 'that' when I am on it...'
A villainous smile appeared on Rio's expressionless face. Scaring the nearby people, some even fainted due to the evil aura released by Rio subconsciously. (Do you think, Rio has the potential to be a villain? Tell me in the comments.)
'It seems I will have to get involved with the main story myself this time....'