Chapter 163 Volume IV - 8: Getting Slapped with Words
Chapter 163 Volume IV - Chapter 8: Getting Slapped with Words
I decided to think about something different while I was eating and I thought long and hard about what I could do today. In the end, I decided to go out for a walk and relax a bit.
I\'ve been doing that a lot lately... Ever since I came back from the dungeon, almost every weekend I\'ve been going out into the woods for about two to three hours just to relax. On top of that huge rock where I found Sue before, I think it\'s a really nice place to relax. And it\'s nice when we come across it once in a while.
So I changed into more decent clothes and headed for the rock, which I now consider to be my own place.
As usual, most of the students were outside, hanging out with each other. It was livelier, more beautiful than my university in my old world.
A smile appeared on my face. I kept moving toward my destination.
It was a normal day, like I said before, the usual.
At least that\'s how it was until I had walked halfway.
As I was approaching my destination, something caught my attention and I paused.
Something was strange, not threatening me or anything. It was just... the crowd was looking in one place.
My eyes quickly turned in the direction where the people were looking and there a flash caught my eye. I saw a girl sitting on a gazebo in the distance, among the students.
The reason she caught my attention was her radiance, and the reason she shone was her silver hair, which literally reflected the sun.
Alice, or rather Alysia, was sitting in that gazebo on the side of the road, looking at something on the holographic screen in front of her. It was also easy to see that most of the people passing by were looking at her.
Her silver hair and beauty, even if not as beautiful as Lucia\'s, easily attracted the attention of many, but her cold air prevented anyone from approaching her.
Something suddenly started to sprout in my mind.
In fact, it\'s in my plans to find out what she\'s really up to, and it\'s clear that I\'m still not very far along.
Isn\'t this an opportunity? I think it certainly is.
I put a slight smile on my face and slowly turned my head in her direction.
After a while, a few people who were looking at Alysia noticed that I was approaching her in particular and a funny expression appeared on their faces.
"Someone else is trying their luck."
"How will this one be rejected?"
Speak, I don\'t care. My purpose is not what you think it is anyway.
When I arrived in front of the gazebo, there were many people looking at me in particular. Alysia was just staring at the screen in front of her. When I got closer, I had the opportunity to understand a little bit about what she was looking at from behind the holographic screen.
She was examining a creature and I couldn\'t help widening my smile when I saw that.
Alysia, as a character, is someone who loves to investigate things. She has a general hunger for knowledge, and when she comes across things she doesn\'t know, she really tries to learn them. So, there are probably things she doesn\'t know about the creature she\'s studying. And the creature she\'s studying is a creature that I know a lot of good things about. Likewise, she might be studying this creature for her illness. After all, it\'s not a simple creature, it\'s a very dangerous and powerful creature.
A phoenix.
"Hello."
Alysia lifted her eyes to me, soullessly, despite my words. Her expression didn\'t change an ounce, she just looked at me.
Even if she is not at the forefront of the group meetings, she comes to most of them. So there\'s no way she wouldn\'t remember me. And given that she was technically a spy for her family, there\'s no way she wouldn\'t have investigated someone like me, about whom there were all kinds of rumors.
"Go away."
Alysia shifted her eyes back to the screen in front of her and ignored me as if she had nothing to do with me, as if she was meeting me for the first time.
"Oh? Are you pretending you don\'t know me? I know you stayed in the background during our group meetings, but I didn\'t know you never paid attention to your surroundings."
Alysia turned to me again with a deep sigh.
"What do you want?"
"I want to know why you\'re so quiet in the group meetings. After all, you joined voluntarily but you don\'t communicate with anyone. By the way... Can I sit down?"
"No, you can\'t."
Heh, I knew it.
"And I don\'t think it\'s any of your business as it\'s my choice to remain silent. Now, please leave me alone."
With that, Alysia turned back to her front and pressed a button on the screen. The legendary bird\'s exterior was suddenly replaced by a transparent figure and the bird\'s known circulatory system was revealed.
No one had ever had the opportunity to look inside a phoenix, so with some skills and knowledge gained through the system, an extremely simple figure was created.
Alysia frowned as she continued to study the image.
"There\'s a mistake, isn\'t there?"
"Are you still here?"
"The blood circulation doesn\'t seem to be evenly distributed throughout the body, and there are some places where it\'s impossible for blood to reach and others where it\'s too much. At least on the figure, you\'re looking for the cause, aren\'t you?"
"I just told you to leave, but you are being too stubborn."
Alysia stood up to leave the gazebo but I quickly interjected again.
"Phoenixes have a total of three hearts. You know those places where the blood seems to collect too much, place a heart there. They also have a mana heart because they are high-level creatures, and inside this heart is a mana core. Because their bodies reach extremely high temperatures, their body fluids need to be kept under constant control by the mana in this core. This mana core is also the reason why phoenixes are immortal. As long as phoenixes have a mana heart, they can be reborn, and this is because their mana heart has evolved, especially with a lot of interaction with their blood."
Alysia stayed where she was. Her eyes squinted, looking at me in an overwhelming way. Even... She seemed to see me as an ant.
"You\'re knowledgeable, but it\'s none of my business."
"Is it?"
I widened my smile.
"Why don\'t you test it?"
Alysia\'s brow furrowed.
"Test what?"
"Whether it\'s any of your business. After all, that\'s not the only thing I know about, there are many things I can help you with. If there\'s something you want to know, something you can\'t find, you can ask."
"Why do humans exist?"
"Hm- what?"
"Why did the system come into existence? What purpose does it serve? Why did the world \'awaken\'?"
I blinked my eyes meaninglessly and just stared at Alysia\'s face.
"See? You don\'t interest me."
These... These are not things I don\'t know, but they are not things I can explain right now, in public!
With that, Alysia closed the screen in front of her and started to leave the gazebo. There were dormitory buildings in the direction she was going.
I didn\'t expect... something like this.
Alysia noticed that I was following her, but she didn\'t care.
"All I want to know is why you don\'t communicate with the group. You may think I\'m flattering myself, but I have personally helped most of the people in the group with some things, and I still do. After all, I\'m the one who created the group. So if you have a problem, I can help you."
"I don\'t have a problem, stop following me."
"I think not communicating with people, being expressionless is a problem."
"Not if the person does it on purpose, it\'s a matter of preference."
"Being alone may be a matter of preference in the short term, but in the long term, it brings big problems. You must know what happens to people who deliberately avoid people and don\'t want to communicate with them in the long run. After all, you are very knowledgeable."
"I know and I don\'t care."
"Come on Alice, I\'m trying to help you."
"I know, I see it and I\'m telling you it\'s useless. Why are you trying to help someone who doesn\'t want help, don\'t you realize it\'s ridiculous?"
Alysia stopped and turned around. Her jet-black eyes were cold, and she had the same expression as before, as if she saw me as an ant.
"Just like your friend, Adrian, you chase after ridiculous things. You may be different from other people, but that doesn\'t mean you can see everyone as a tool that needs your help. I\'m not the one who needs help, you are, Aiden Tenebra. You can\'t force me to do something I don\'t want to do, and if you go any further I will report you to the academy, so leave me alone."
Alysia turned back toward the dormitory buildings and started walking away, ignoring me.
I couldn\'t say anything, I couldn\'t move a muscle and just stared after her. I stood there until Alysia was out of sight. Everything seemed to freeze.
What broke it was an annoying voice echoing in my mind, trying hard not to laugh.
\'She is a tough girl, she slapped you with her words, didn\'t she, Aiden?\'