All three of them were standing on the ground floor, the lifeless and ruthlessly slain body of the Corpse Eater still marring the ground.
A couple of seconds of silence flew by with the night wind after Northern asked why.
Ellis also showed intense interest in the next thing Annette was going to say.
However, she just shrugged with both her hands.
“Who knows? No one knows what that girl is thinking about. I personally think she’s a disaster on two legs.”
Northern paused, seriously thinking about it for a moment.
‘Could the reason be related to the fact that we have to set out soon? But she didn’t need to disband her party, did she?’
Even he could not come to a sensible conclusion to explain Raven’s action.
“Well, I don’t care,” he declared and trudged towards the stairs. Annette and Ellis naturally followed him, albeit silently.
Both of them were probably still lost in the thought of what they had witnessed just now.
It was hard… incredibly hard for their minds to recover from the awe of it.
And the sad part was… they’ve not even begun to see what Northern was so much capable of.
This was just Northern just trying to maximize the [Formless] Attribute and know how to activate it willingly.
His mind has been searching for every possible answer to a certain question about this particular attribute after all.
They finally reached Northern’s abode. Immediately, the door opened. Mr. Fluffy jumped up, stretched its leg forward and snarled audibly… it was almost as if it was greeting Northern, but that wasn’t the case.
“Have you seriously been sleeping all the while?”
The beast made a low growl and caressed Northern’s leg with its white furs.
“Ah, whatever… better don’t get awfully comfortable.”
Northern placed the three orbs on his bed, pulled the chair out from the table and faced Annette.
“You can sit here…”
Annette nodded with a downturned mouth, “Hm, so you are hospitable? That’s unexpected and a good quality.”
Northern’s brows rose a little, “A good quality for what?”
“Don’t worry about that,” she gestured a dismissal with her hand, “Don’t we have something else to discuss besides that.”
Northern sat on the bed and crossed his legs, then spoke:
“Yeah, you said you were going to tell me what I needed to know about the party leaders. What is your price?”
Annette’s brows slowly furrowed.
“What do you mean price?”
“Price is price now, there’s no way you were going to give me that information for free…”
Annette was silent for a few seconds, staring into Northern’s soul with her vermilion eyes.
Then she opened her mouth, with a slight hesitation though.
“Actually, I was going to do exactly just that. But you see Northern, I think you need serious help. Now that you mention it, I think I will have a price. And my price will be that.”
Her eyes drifted to the soul cores that were laying sparsely behind Northern.
Northern followed her eyes with his, turning his head back a little bit, then he shot back at her.
“No way! No! I am not going to give you that. Wait, why don’t you just do it for free if you wanted to do it that way before? Shouldn’t you be wanting to prove a point to me?”
“What point?”
Annette grinned at him; the grin was like that of an aged vixen. It was very uncomfortable.
“I mean… that you don’t have to take prices for everything?”
Her mouth went round.
“Oh, you do know that.” She then shook her head subtly, “No. No, there’s no use trying to prove any point to you. You are a faulty human, a couple of screws are loose, there’s no use proving anything.”
Northern’s mouth slightly fell, “Isn’t that too harsh?”
Annette tilted her head, “Is it?”
“Either way, I can’t give them to you. Instead of these, I’ll give you five soul cores… but not these.”
He folded his hands and looked away with his eyes closed, waiting for her response.
“Well, I wasn’t looking to gain anything from this, but thanks to your insecurities, I did. So maybe five is good… or you could make it ten.”
“I’ll reduce it to three,” his glare was almost petrifying.
“Okay, okay, five is okay. Don’t bite me,” Annette conceded, raising her hand slightly. “So, what do you want to know about the party leaders?”
“Everything.”
“Oh, I see…” her lips slowly curled up.
Silence ensued the moment she stopped talking.
Ellis was standing by the doorside, leaning on the wall. Mr. Fluffy was sitting on the floor, paying attention like it could understand every human tongue they spoke.
Northern was seated on the bed, while Annette was on the chair.
Then her words came out, beautifully cutting through the decorum, words after words.
“So, first of all, we have thirteen party leaders. Thirteen.”
She paused and looked at his face; it was unflinching. Then she continued:
“Ninety-nine students appeared in this land minus us, well obviously since we are not students.” She allowed a soft giggle and carried on, “I know you know the narrative of how we got to this point, so I’m going to skip all that.”
“Thirteen best students, both in talent and potential, were selected…”
“How? Through combat? Don’t tell me you guys were holding a duel for leadership when you were surrounded by monsters that could attack anytime.”
Annette laughed a little, “It’d have been more fun if we did that. But the Headmaster was the one that selected. Although there were several private meetings between him and Raven, I have no idea why though.”
Northern looked down for a moment, then raised his head, nodding, “I see…”
“Well, the first party leader is Raven… her full name is Raven Light Kageyama, and she’s…”
Annette had no choice in that moment but to pause because the moment she mentioned that name,
Northern’s expression changed.
His eyes widened, and pupils thinned in; for a moment, he looked paler than usual.
Eventually, he raised his head and asked again.
“I’m sorry… what did you call it again? Her clan name?”
“Kageyama, Raven Light Kageyama.”
‘Okay, what the crap now?’
