“… Wow… I’m… I’m a little speechless…”
It took Elise a few seconds to get her composure back. That was when she realized that her eyes were tearing up. So, she quickly wiped them so as not to embarrass herself. For some reason, Arthur’s story truly touched her heart and she couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
After all, how can she not feel something after hearing everything he went through? For someone to lose their only support in life at such a young age and then have to learn to survive on his own in a cruel world that won’t spare him. She could never imagine how hard it must’ve been on him.
Yet, even then, Arthur didn’t talk about that time as if it was a curse. If anything, it seemed as if he was equally grateful he experienced that harsh life and she didn’t know why that was what she felt from his words.
‘How can he be grateful for that? He must’ve been through hell. What blessing did he find in that?’ She asked herself with a confused look.
“I didn’t know you went through all of this… It must’ve been a really tough journey so far.” Elise muttered.
“It had its ups and downs for sure. But, it was fun and that was what matters to me.” Arthur shrugged. He did struggle a lot and he did question himself a lot, but Arthur had never really stopped trying, even when things looked like they will never change for the better.
Meanwhile, Isla simply looked at Arthur silently the entire time. She was already aware of most of this, but there were some new parts in there she was hearing for the first time and she could only keep staring at him.
The way he talked about her was really weird. It made her feel something completely new… something she never experienced before in her life. She didn’t know that he was that grateful for being a part of their group.
‘What a weird person he is…’ She mused silently. For a moment, a small smile appeared on her face before vanishing quickly.
Meanwhile, Arthur was completely oblivious to her thoughts as he was still talking to Elise. He didn’t even realize that he had made Isla smile.
“Anyway, enough about me. I want to know what you’ve been doing since primary school.” He asked.
“There is really nothing that exciting about my life. After primary school, I left the city and moved with my parents somewhere else for my dad’s new job. I was able to attend a good middle school and our financial condition only got better and better. I was even able to acquire an FIC and play the game and here I am…”
“Hmm, it’s nice to know that you’ve been doing well. You have really worked on yourself and changed a lot.”
“Hehe yeah, I had to reinvent myself. I was sick of living a friendless, lonely life. It didn’t sit well with me.”
‘So you became the exact opposite of that. That’s impressive.’ Arthur thought to himself. He knew very well a change of this degree required a serious reflection on life and not just a different hairstyle and clothes. Even he couldn’t change himself that much so Elise was truly impressive in that regard.
“What about you, Miss Isla?! I have always wanted to talk to you! You’re one of my biggest inspirations!”
Isla, who was simply listening to their conversation, looked at Elise. “I appreciate your kind words.”
“When I saw you a few days ago for the first time here. I was so shocked, you look even prettier in real life! I fell in love!”
“…”
Watching Elise bombard Isla with compliments made Arthur smile. The girl seemed genuinely excited to meet her idol and couldn’t stop herself from showering her with praises.
For a second there, Arthur could swear he saw a difficult look on Isla’s face as if she didn’t know how to handle this situation.
‘I guess even Isla can’t handle this much energy for too long.’ Arthur laughed to himself.
“By the way, what’s your class in the game, Elise?” He asked, trying to divert her attention from Isla.
“Oh! I’m an assassin class player! What about you?”
“Swordsman,” Isla replied without batting an eye. In reality, her class was a special class ‘Gravity Weaver’ which gave her the power to control gravity. However, because of its special nature, Isla didn’t want to reveal it to Elise as she could potentially spread that information.
‘Arthur shouldn’t reveal his class either. I hope he catches on…’ She looked to the side calmly.
“I chose warrior,” Arthur replied with an awkward laugh.
“Oh, nice! I’m surprised you two don’t have special classes. I thought all S-Class students had special ones.”
“… Not really. As you can see, we are not.”
“Sigh, yeah, I understand that it was just a rumor spread amongst the lower classes. Honestly, S-Class students seem so far away from all of us. Hehe, the rumors being spread around are already over the top.”
“Heh, what kind of rumors?”
“Eh, too many to count. How you are all actually not humans but some kind of superior race that came to earth to live amongst us.”
“What?” Arthur frowned. “Who would believe this nonsense?”
“They would,” Isla replied. “Rumors are a good way to feed people’s imagination so even if it sounds ridiculous, they will believe it.”
“Exactly. I have seen people create fan clubs for S-Class students and garner dozens of fans. They already have one of you, Miss Isla.”
“…”
“A fan club of Isla, hahaha? This fun-“
Before he could even laugh, Arthur felt a glare on his back that almost tore him apart.
“Ehem, sorry.” Arthur coughed dryly. He didn’t even need to glance at Isla to know what kind of look she had on her face.
“I am really sorry, Miss Isla! You have too many fans to count. They are creating entire group chats dedicated to you.”
“Ehem, well, we should move on.” Arthur coughed awkwardly.
‘Can’t you see that she’s not amused? Do you want us to die?’ Arthur didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this situation. Having fan clubs with many people who just want to talk about you is simply terrifying. The things people do for their obsession are simply unimaginable.
As he thought of a different topic, Arthur felt his phone vibrate.
“Hm?”
Pulling it out of his pocket, he noticed that he had received a news notification. He usually has his device on mute not to bother him whenever he’s busy but since it was late into the day, he had it back on.
Casually, he opened his phone to check the news, only for him to freeze for a moment. His expression turned blank.
“Arthur?” Isla noticed the weird look on his face. “Did something happen?”
“…” The boy pursed his lips as he slowly put the device down and looked at her. “Huge news.”
“What happened?”
“… The second batch of players had arrived at the capital.” He said in a mysterious tone.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3