"...eh? Niko-ssi?"
Even Ji-yeong was shocked at the sudden tears from the man. Her hands didn't seem to know where they wanted to go as they flapped fretfully around his shaking figure, as if seeking a place to pat him in comfort.
Niko, was it?
Malic narrowed his gaze on him, and activated Character Profile.
Promptly, a glowing, hologram-like projection showcasing the man's details appeared before him. It read:
[ Name: Nikolai Canlas
Personal Attribute: Artist Lv. 35
Specialty: Painter's brush Lv. 32, Erasure Lv. 28, Panel cut Lv. 34
Skills: Wallflower Lv. 35, Animal Instinct Lv. 33, Mona Lisa Smile Lv. 28
General Stats: Speed Lv. 32, Mana Lv. 29, Recovery Lv. 20, Strength Lv. 10, Stamina Lv. 9
5
Overall Evaluation: An artist who knows nothing but work even on his off days. He would make for a loyal companion, though it is advised to take caution when dealing with him. ]
The stats were relatively high for a man who looked like he could be snapped in half even by Kira, who was shorter than him by half his height. Nikolai had either grinded through the apocalypse with an old group to gain such high-level skills, or he'd used unconventional methods to advance by himself.
More importantly...
The character profile had heeded him to take caution. Malic wasn't naïve, nor was he so distrustful as to be paranoid, but he genuinely couldn't feel an inch of danger from the man. His body only had the bare minimum of a strength buff, his stamina was even worse—
If anything, the danger here was his emotional stability. He'd burst into tears with no rhyme or reason, after all.
"What, why are you crying?"
Ji-yeong was still trying to comfort him, tilting her head here and there to get a good angle of his face as he covered it with both his hands. "Niko-ssi, are you hurting anywhere? Please tell me..!"
"I know that Malic's face is terrifying, but this might be the first time I've seen a grown man burst into tears over it."
Malic shot a glare Rhiannon's way, though she only gave a smirk in response. This bastard.
"I'm fine, I'm sorry," Nikolai said eventually, laughing as he used his sleeves to wip at his tear-wet face. "I just—wasn't expecting Malic to look like...that."
Him?
"He looks intimidating, but he's a big softy," said Kira, her small hand tugging at Nikolai's black dress shirt. Malic grimaced at her words, though he couldn't be bothered enough to argue with a child on how she perceived him. "So, don't be scared."
"Oh, I wouldn't say I was scared," laughed the man. "His face was just shocking."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Nikolai didn't seem to have expected him to speak, the way he blinked wide eyes at him. "Well," he said, blinking again before looking away, deliberately avoiding his gaze. "It's surprisingly uglier than expected, is what I thought."
What.
This guy...
Rhiannon burst into a cackle, hand smacking with a vindictive force right into Malic's shoulder. As it wasn't already enough that she was laughing at him, she had to hit him too.
The grin on her face as she spoke was wide, showing off sharp fangs. "Oh, I like this one!" The traitorous bastard immediately left his side to march right up to Nikolai with a hand held out in greeting. "You're welcome to join our group, seeing as Malic needs more people to knock him down a peg or two."
"Oi."
"Can't let that ego of yours get too big, buddy," she said, waving her other hand at him in dismissal. Her smile was a sharp one as Nikolai took her hand, giving it a quick shake before letting go. "What's your name?"
"Nikolai," he said. There was an awkwardness to his smile, as if he were unused to being welcomed or greeted so energetically by another person. "I already know you, of course. Rhiannon, the Iron Chef, famous for her spectacular skill in making mince meat of monsters."
"Aha, you're good in feeding egos too, it seems!" Rhiannon was grinning as she smacked a hand to Nikolai's back, making him stumble a bit. "You gotta work on your strength stats though, can't have you stumbling along if you plan to join us."
"I won't be needing that to help you."
Kira's eyes seemed to sparkle at the man's sudden show of confidence. "Like me?"
Nikolai looked down at Kira. There was something odd to his expression, something gentle and out of place, that Malic couldn't help from staring a little in bemusement. Did he like children, or was he thinking of someone else as he looked at her?
As far as he knew, Kira had no family left after the disaster that destroyed her home. No parents, no grandparents, no other children or adults were spared.
She was the sole survivor.
He wouldn't have blamed her if she gave up right there and then, if the loss had been something that broke her spirit thoroughly. He had, through sheer luck, still kept his family—his parents, as he'd been an only child and his grandparents had passed on years ago—so he didn't know the degree of the loss that she felt. She was still too young, too much of a child to have been left behind so early.
Yet she survived, and she chose to follow him because she wanted to live.
He couldn't begrudge her that will to survive, in the end.
"I suppose," Nikolai said, smiling as he raised a hand, hesitated for a bit, before setting it gently upon Kira's head. Kira was beaming at the show of affection, reminding Malic once again that for all her genius, she was still just a child. "I have my other skills, and they've helped me survive for long enough."
"That won't be enough for long," Malic said.
"Oh, I doubt it," Nikolai said, smiling at him. His eyes were showing a hint of puffiness from his earlier crying, and his cheeks were flushed red from all the rubbing and wiping he'd done with his sleeves a moment before. Malic had to wonder where he got the balls to act so confidently when he'd been crying so pathetically just earlier.
There was no way he cried just because of his face. And if he did, it was impossible for it to be due to something as ridiculous as his supposed ugliness.
Bastard.
Nikolai seemed to sense the insult being mentally thrown at him, going by the amused smile and raised brow he directed his way. "If you look at me that hard, I might melt, you know?"
Renato started coughing at those words. A bottle of water was in his hand, though Malic didn't know him as the type to be this clumsy with drinking.
"Renato. What."
Renato took to scratching at his cheek—a nervous habit that Malic had learned to recognize over the few months spent with the man. "It's nothing! I just misheard something, so, er."
Ji-yeong squinted askance at him. "Misheard what?"
"It's really nothing..."
Malic glared at him, making the man shrink further and further into himself. He was no fool; Renato had misunderstood something from what Nikolai had said, and though he didn't know what it was, he could feel that he wouldn't like it. "Explain yourself."
"I told you, it's really nothing," Renato insisted, avoiding his gaze still. "It's just, the comment about melting..." He began fidgeting then, making an odd image: this large, muscular man towering over all of them in height acting like he had any right to feel small, with his hands clasped together to his chest, fingers wiggling. "And Nikolai had been talking about you since earlier when we first met..."
Oh?
Malic turned to Nikolai then, who—
Had his face hidden behind his hands once again.
Oh.
Is that so.
"I wouldn't throw you out for being attracted to me," he said bluntly, holding back a smirk at the horrified expression that peeked through those thin fingers. "Though, I have to refuse you now if—"
"No! It's not like that!" Nikolai insisted, lowering his hands to reveal a face flushed pink with embarrassment. For a person who wasn't all that pale, he certainly turned red easily. "I admire you for your strength, that's all. And I didn't talk about you that much..."
"We spent the whole time returning talking about him, though?"
Nikolai looked pained at Ji-yeong's words. "Because there wasn't much else to talk about, was there?"
"You were the one who began asking questions, Nikolai-san."
Kira's words seemed to land critical hit, the way Nikolai immediately fell silent.
Well, this was interesting. Had the character profile told him to take caution because of the man's personal interest in him? If so, it was certainly childish. They were both adults; he was sure there was no need to be that careful when the fate of the world was more significant a thing to consider.
He was the hero the world chose, and he chose such a role back.
There was no room for anything else.
"I told you, I don't care."
"And I said it wasn't like that," Nikolai grumbled further. He looked a little younger, the way he pouted as he looked away.
Funny.
"If you say so."
Nikolai dared to look at him then. The flush on his cheeks was still there, lingering despite the embarassment swiftly being taken over by irritation.
When Nikolai glared at him, he ended up smirking in response.
"You think this is funny," Nikolai said.
"You have a mind-reading skill? That will be useful."
"That's not—you egotistical bastard? Just because you have fanclubs doesn't mean everyone is a part of it."
He frowned. "I have what?"
Nikolai gave him a long, disbelieving look. "...you must be joking."
Rhiannon shook her head. When Malic looked over to her, she was smiling—pitifully, like he was a pathetic fool.
"Malic, you uncultured swine," she said.
"I'll kill you."
She laughed. "You can try, but I assure you that you'll fail. You've had fanclubs ever since the world started watching your every move, dumbass."
It was true, that the media followed him ever since he began making a name for himself as the world's hero. He was used to it at this point, and he didn't mind how cameras followed after him—provided it was during a mission, and not during their breaks.
It was one way for his parents to keep updated, after all.
But that didn't mean he actually checked how he was seen by the world. And having fanclubs?
That was strange, and unnecessary.
"I'm not a celebrity," he said, frowning. "I'm just doing my job."
"I'm sorry to say this, Malic-ssi," Ji-yeong said, smiling in amusement at him. "But you're a celebrity by virtue of being so famous. It can't be helped."
He scowled at the very idea.
Was the world so wretched a place that it would use a mere man as entertainment so easily?
...he should already know the answer to that.
"Never mind," he said. "I don't care for such things."
"Well—"
[ Ding! ]
Damn it.
[ A mission has arrived! ]
They couldn't even rest, it seemed.