Chapter 53: Eve before the trip [3]   The air around the room was tense. It felt suffocating. Almost as if I was stuck inside of a cramped room with no room to breathe.

The reason for such atmosphere?

Quietly sitting on my chair, a stunningly beautiful young girl with glossy black hair and porcelain white skin devoid of any imperfections, was curiously looking around my room.

Amanda stern.

Someone who I had never thought of interacting with privately.

Seeing her sit on my seat as if it was the most natural thing to do, my eyebrows twitched.

Just what did I do to deserve this?

…no, I knew why, I just wanted to deny reality.

Sighing, I spoke up to try to break the awkward atmosphere.

"Would you like green tea or water?"

Hearing my voice, Amanda's eyes paused on my face for a couple of seconds and after a short pause she said

"…green tea"

"Alright"

Heading to where my teapot was stashed, I took it out and poured steaming hot water into the pot.

After a couple of seconds, I took a bag filled with tea leaves and gently threw them into the pot.

While waiting for the tea to be ready, I turned around and noticed Amanda's obsidian black eyes staring at me.

Taken aback by her odd behavior, I asked

"…Need something?"

Hearing my voice and seeing that I had caught her red-handed, Amanda looked to the side and acted as if nothing happened as she lightly murmured.

"…Nothing"

Smiling, I looked back at the teapot.

What do you mean nothing? You were obviously staring at me!

Even a blind person could tell you were looking at me.

Pinching my brows, I decided to think about this in a positive way.

From the looks of things, it at least seemed that she had no hard feelings against me. Since I knew her personality well, I knew that if she were to have had a grudge against me, she would've avoided me at all costs.

Treating me as if I was nonexistent.

Seeing how she had actively come looking for me, I knew that she didn't hold what happened against me.

…so what did she come here for?

There was definitely a reason for her visit. I sort of had a hunch on what it was, but I wasn't too sure.

Most likely, she came to express her gratitude for saving her.

If so, I better get this over with fast. If someone found out 'the Amanda Stern' who was the talk of the academy was having a private meeting with a boy in his own room, I wouldn't even know how I died.

The fact that she was in my room meant that my life was in danger.

Sigh.

Just when I thought things weren't going to become more troublesome suddenly a new troublesome situation arose.

Looking at the water in the teapot that had started turning murky brown, I carefully removed the teapot from the heater and poured the tea into two porcelain teacups.

Walking back to where Amanda was seated, I handed the steaming hot teacup to her and sat in front of her.

"Thank you"

Taking the teacup with both hands, Amanda gently blew on the cup and took a sip.

Closing her eyes and savoring the taste of the tea, Amanda nodded slightly said

"…it's good"

"Thank you"

Sitting in front of her, I also took a sip of the tea. It had a slightly bitter aftertaste that even after a couple of seconds lingered at the tip of my tongue. It was quite good.

"…so, what did you want to talk about?"

Seeing that we couldn't just spend all the time drinking tea, I decided to get straight to the point.

Placing the teacup down, Amanda's indifferent face stared at me. After a while, she finally spoke

"…Thank you"

Frowning slightly, I said

"For what?"

"For saving me"

Shaking my head, I leaned back on my chair and said

"I don't ever recall helping you"

"Yo-…"

Just as she was about to answer, I cut her off

"It seems like you forgot what I had told you before"

'…forget what you saw'

Listening to my last sentence and remembering what I had said, Amanda remained quiet for a little bit. Her brows continuously knit and relaxed, and after a while, she shook her head and apologetically said

"I can't do that…"

Rolling my eyes, I placed my teacup down. Her response was within my expectations.

Staring at her crystal black eyes that were looking back at me, I thought for a moment before saying

"Sigh, alright if you're really sorry then give me some money"

Hearing my reply, Amanda sighed in relief.

She was visibly relieved by my request.

"Okay"

Taking out her phone, she quickly went to her bank account.

Seeing her like this, I couldn't help but bitterly shake my head.

Amanda's personality was just like this.

She disliked owing anyone anything.

She didn't want to feel indebted to anyone other than herself. No, it was more like she only trusted herself and herself alone.

She made sure to pay back every single favor she owed so that she wouldn't build any unrealistic expectations of others.

"Is 5 million U fine?"

"5 million U? I guess tha…"

Sipping on my tea, I initially nodded apathetically, but as soon as I processed what she had said, I almost spat all my tea on her face

"haaa? what did you just say?"

Innocently looking at me who had just stood up and was looking at her with wide eyes, Amanda said

"is 5 million, not enough?"

"What do you mean that's not enough, that's plenty!"

Waving my hand, I immediately shut her down.

Damm rich second generation kids treating money as if it was nothing.

"…so 5 million okay?"

"Sigh, hold on"

Slumping back on my chair, I started thinking.

million U would definitely help me. With that much money, I could pretty much solve the problem of finding a sword manual…ah!

Looking at Amanda, an idea suddenly came into mind

"Can I ask for something else instead of money?"

Frowning lightly, the room temperature dropped and Amanda's demeanor became increasingly colder.

Understanding that she was probably misunderstanding something, I quickly followed up by saying

"No, I am not asking for any dates or anything that is remotely close to that"

Hearing my next part, Amanda's brows relaxed. Nodding her head she said

"…Okay"

Sighing in relief, I said

"Can you get me a sword manual?"

"A sword art?"

Taken aback by my request, Amanda looked at me strangely.

At first, I was confused by her reaction, but remembering what had happened a few nights ago I realized why.

"…I am looking for something to disguise my main sword art"

"oh"

As if she understood something, Amanda nodded

Seeing her react like that, I knew she still had a misconception about my strength. In the end, I said nothing. I was honestly too tired to solve the misunderstanding.

Plus no matter how much I'll try to solve the misunderstanding, chances were that she wouldn't believe me.

In the end, It didn't really matter if she misunderstood or not. At the end of the day, she wasn't the type of person to treat people differently regardless of her strength.

Moreover, she wasn't a blabbermouth. Meaning that my secret was pretty safe.

"What type of sword art would you like?"

Thinking for a bit, I said

"Let's see, I would like a sword art that primarily focused on defense"

Touching her chin for a second, Amanda pondered for a moment before saying

"How many stars?"

"Hmmm, since you were previously offering me around 5 million U, I guess something that went along that price"

Thinking for a bit, Amanda scrolled through her phone for a couple of seconds before nodding.

"Okay, let me have a look"

Turning on the holographic function on the phone, a long list of sword manuals appeared before me.

"This is what I got from the criteria that you had given me"

Seeing the long list of manuals, my mouth twitched. If I said I wasn't jealous right now, that would be a lie.

…As expected of the daughter of the guild master of the number one guild in the human domain 'Demon hunter'

She had access to an immeasurable amount of resources and manuals that would cause anyone to turn green from envy.

For the next few minutes, we went through the long catalog of sword manuals that Amanda had access to. After a while, and a lot of contemplation I finally decided on the sword art I wanted.

[★★★ Ring of vindication] : Highly advanced sword art that creates a perfect ring of defense around the user. Upon mastery, the ring can create a three-dimensional sphere that protects the user from all sides. Because of the lack of offensive capabilities, the manual was graded three-stars.

Talk about a perfect sword manual.

Though it was a three-star manual, it was in fact a four-star manual if the only thing that was taken into consideration was its defensive properties.

This went along perfectly with my wishes as this was exactly what I needed. [Ring of vindication] for defense and the [Keiki style] for offense.

…this was exactly what I wanted

After selecting [Ring of vindication], Amanda nodded and messaged someone.

Soon the room was enveloped in an awkward silence.

"…"

"…"

After a couple of minutes of silence, Amanda stood up and said

"…thank you for meeting me, I'll take my leave"

"No problem"

Smiling, I escorted her out of my apartment. I could finally be free!

Arriving at the door, Amanda indifferently waved her hand

"Goodbye"

Smiling, I waved back and said

"See you"

…

Leaving Ren's room, Amanda was satisfied with the outcome of their meeting.

She more or less got a better understanding of the student that had helped her.

His personality was a far cry from what it was when they met at the party. Despite no longer hiding the fact that he was hiding his strength, his demeanor did not return to what it was back in at the party.

Cold and emotionless.

He was a far cry from that. He wasn't cold nor emotionless.

He was calm and collected, and despite the fact that she was standing in the same room as him, it didn't seem like he was entranced by her beauty which was a first.

His demeanor was completely different from what a regular sixteen year old kid should have. He was neither overbearing nor arrogant, and aside from the fact that his expression was really easy to read, he was quite easy to talk to.

It felt like she was talking to an adult.

It honestly felt weird.

Walking along the corridor of the dorm, she suddenly noticed many eyes staring in her direction.

"What is Amanda doing in the horned sheep dorm?"

"Was she meeting with someone?"

"Nah, she was probably coming to check on something. There's no way Amanda would talk to those peasants living in the horned sheep dorm"

Along the way, Amanda heard people whispering amongst each other as she walked back to her dorm.

Being used to such attention, she promptly ignored what they were saying and exited the building.

Taking out her phone she quickly dialed a number.

-Ring! Ring! -Ring!

After a couple of seconds, an aged voice entered Amanda's ears.

—Hello? how may I help you, young miss?

Because Amanda disliked making small talk, she immediately got straight to the point

"Send the three star manual [ring of vindication] at the location I messaged you a while ago".

After a short pause, the person on the other side of the phone spoke

—…very well.

"Thank you"

-Tak!

Hanging up the phone, Amanda felt a weight lift off her chest.

Turning back towards the horned sheep building, she lightly murmured

"Now I don't owe you anything…"