“Well, hello there! We meet again!” said Haven Lovewell—one of the charming women—as she waved at the youth. “We do, indeed…” replied Gerald with a subtle smile as he closed the door behind him. Placing his baggage down at a specially designated area for tourists, Gerald then headed over to an empty table that was coincidentally beside Haven’s. As Gerald sat down, Haven added, “Do you remember our little conversation on the train earlier? It was so pleasant that I even wanted to ask you for your Line number at some point! Still, I never expected to meet you again so soon… I guess our meeting must have been written in the stars!” “That’s quite enough, Haven. He came here to have his meal so don’t trouble him any more,” said Xareni—Haven’s elder sister—as she gently stepped on Haven’s foot, reminding her to be courteous. “She’s right, Haven. Why did you even ask him for his Line number?” added Quintin. Hearing that, Gerald simply shook his head before smiling wryly. As Haven
“Hubby?” said all three of the gangsters simultaneously as they turned to look at each other. However, their confusion quickly turned to hostility as they began glaring at the youth. “Hold on now, I’m not her husband!” replied the youth as he began waving his hands quickly in fear. Hearing that, the woman found herself rolling her eyes as she thought to herself, ‘D*mn it! How could anyone be this much of a coward?’ The hooligans themselves broke into roars of laughter as one of them said, “It appears you’re quite smart, little beauty! We’ll be sure to teach you a good lesson later!” Just as they were about to lunge at the duo, the youth suddenly turned around and pointed at the entrance of the alleyway before shouting, “Police!” As soon as they heard that, the three drunk gangsters immediately stopped in their tracks and turned their backs against the duo, squatting immediately after with their hands placed behind their heads! “W-we won’t do it again so please let us off
Dinner? Coincidentally, Gerald himself was planning to go for a meal once he was finally able to get away from her. “…I accept!” replied Gerald with a nod. Since he was being treated to a meal, he may as well just accept the offer to save up on money. “You!” Though Misty Zachary had simply proposed the idea out of courtesy, she hadn’t really expected him to accept her offer. Her immediate response was proof of that. Regardless, women tended to admire heroic figures and while Gerald was certainly no hero in the traditional sense, she had to admit that he had indeed helped her. What more, he was quite handsome, and that alone made others—including Misty herself—rather susceptible to wanting to get to know him a bit better. With that out of the way, Misty then led Gerald to a nearby restaurant where they ate and chatted throughout their supper. Naturally, they soon got to know each other better. “Still, what a coincidence that you chose this place to travel to!” said Misty.
Gerald then continued acting like he was surprised by saying, “Are you some kind of salesperson? You really had me going for a while there! Haha!” “…What? Hey now, I’m an accountant working for a company under the Lovewell family, you know? My company in particular is the main organizer for the yearly exchange event! And again, I have no reason to lie to you! Just know that I’m only sharing all this with you since you saved me. Don’t go spreading the news around! Then again, it’s not like anyone will believe you,” replied Misty as she took a sip of her own drink. “Still, seeing that you’re interested in the event, would you perhaps like to go over to have a look?” added Misty. “The way you’re saying it almost suggests that I could freely go to such a place. I’m pretty sure it won’t be that easy to get an admission ticket, right?” replied Gerald with a smile. “Bingo. But lucky for you, I’m a person who doesn’t like owing favors to others. Since you’ve helped me so much, I can ha
After returning the greeting, Misty then turned to look at her group before saying, “Let’s get the introductions out of the way first. This is Gerald and I got acquainted with him only yesterday. He’s quite a nice person and he even saved me, you know?” “Humph! So this is the guy! If he was aware that we were attending a treasure exchange event, then why did he still choose to dress up the way he currently is?” said one of the other women rather contemptuously as she crossed her arms. Her comment had stemmed from the fact that the exchange event was a sort of gathering mostly only reserved for prestigious people. Since only those who were powerful and influential were expected to attend, suits and leather shoes were considered to be the norm at such an event. Since Gerald was the only one dressed like a tourist, it was no wonder why Misty’s friend found him to be rather humiliating. She wasn’t the only one either. Quite a few of her friends were thinking about the same thing as
‘Something’s definitely wrong with that iron plaque…’ Gerald thought to himself. “Come on, Gerald. Let’s go. Is there something wrong?” asked Misty, wondering why he was still standing in place. “…Ah, um, why don’t you guys go on ahead first? I’d like to have a look around on my own!” replied Gerald with a smile before continuing to look at the direction that the old man had left in. “Well… Fine! But I’ll call you out again when it’s near noon so that we can have lunch together!” said Misty who had also noticed by now that her friends had constantly been giving Gerald the cold shoulder. After agreeing with the plan, Gerald immediately went after the old man. The moment he was gone, women from Misty’s group instantly began bad-mouthing him. “Humph! Why did you have to get acquainted with such a person, Misty? He’s so humiliating to be around with!” “I know, right? What a loser! It’s hard to even have any fun when he’s around!” “Yeah! Please don’t bring him along with us
“Plus…? Also, hold on, young man. Are you being serious here?” replied the old man, his eyes widened in shock. Gerald simply shook his head before asking the old man for his bank account number with a smile on his face. After a brief call, the old man was left utterly shocked five minutes later when he saw that seven hundred and seventy thousand dollars truly had been banked into his account. “T-thank you, young man!” said the old man as he smiled broadly. His joy was no surprise. After all, he would never have dreamed that he would actually be able to sell that iron plaque for such a high amount. Gerald himself had bought the item since though the plaque didn’t look like anything special, there was simply something extraordinary about it. It gave Gerald a similar feeling to when he had first laid his eyes upon the picture of the sun half a year ago. It may have only been a gut feeling, but Gerald chose to believe it. At that moment, a group of people—consisting of both fore
“What’s wrong with you, Kaleb?” “…H-how…?” muttered Kaleb as he looked at both of his hands, evidently still stupefied. “Explain yourself, Kaleb. What do you mean, ‘how’?” “I-I used my inner strength earlier when I was grabbing on to that youth’s wrist… However, my inner strength just ceased halfway through! How is that even possible?” Kaleb remained silent for a while, utterly perplexed as he pondered on the odd feeling he had experienced earlier. “Are you sure you aren’t just looking too much into it?” asked Zolton as he looked at the white-haired man. Since his father was the one who had invited the mysterious Kaleb over, Zolton respected him quite a lot. “No… I’m positive that something’s wrong with that young man!” replied Kaleb as he turned to look coldly at the direction in which Gerald had left seconds earlier. Gerald himself had already made it to a riverbank not too far off. Once he was sure that he was alone, he held on tight to the iron plaque before applying