“What is wrong with him?!” Lily shouted after Kyle left the team.
“He did the right thing,” Selene answered with a neutral voice. “We were in a dangerous location, and we should have remembered that we were not safe.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Lily shouted.
Then, she pointed at Falk. “He acted like he didn’t care that Falk died! He didn’t even ask if he was still alive or not! He simply told us to leave!”
“Does he not give a shit?!”
“He does!” Selene said with a strict voice. “He fought the Holy Paladin alone. Whenever there is any danger, he is at the front lines. He always assumes the most dangerous positions himself.”
“If he didn’t do all of that, we would have already had deaths in our team.”
Lily snorted. “He’s our Shouter and leader. He’s supposed to do these things.”
“That’s not true,” Selene said with furrowed brows. “While he is our Shouter, his contributions go well beyond the role of Shouter. Don’t forget that he stood between you and the Metal Elemental.”
“So?” Lily asked. “That’s his job. He’s supposed to protect me.”
The next moment, a disgusted expression appeared on Lily’s face. “He obviously also has an Aristocrat’s Body, but he didn’t use it to save me. He probably would’ve been fine with my death. He could’ve saved me, but instead, you were the one who did.”
Selene looked at Lily with a mix of disappointment and guilt.
“What? Got no counter?” Lily asked with a snort.
Selene just kept looking at Lily. “Do you think he should have unveiled his Aristocrat’s Body to save you?”
“Of course!” Lily said. “We are a team! We are supposed to protect each other with all of our powers!”
“And he did just that,” Selene said.
Lily raised an annoyed eyebrow.
“I didn’t save you,” Selene said.
“Kyle did.”
The others all looked at Selene with surprise.
“What do you mean?” Lily asked.
“Kyle created that explosion,” Selene said. “I didn’t use my Aristocrat’s Body.”
“I just jumped to the side and watched.”
“Wait, that wasn’t you?” Michael asked.
“No, it was Kyle,” Selene answered.
“But you said that it was you,” Falk added.
“I did,” Selene said.
“Why?” Falk asked.
The next moment, Selene looked at Lily. “Because we are a team. We are supposed to protect each other with all of our powers,” Selene said, using the same words as Lily used earlier.
“The world already knows about me to some degree, while Kyle’s identity is completely hidden. I have a family to fall back on. He doesn’t. I can take the fallout. He can’t.”
“I protected him.”
Lily looked with betrayal at Selene. “You would’ve let me die?” she asked.
Selene took a deep breath and nodded.
“Why?” Lily asked in shock.
Selene didn’t answer for several seconds.
“Because my life is more important to me than yours, just as your life is more important to you than mine,” Selene said.
“Kyle was willing to expose his secret to the world to save you.”
“I wasn’t.”
Lily gritted her teeth.
No one said anything for several seconds.
“I think we need to talk about something,” Michael said with a sigh.
The others looked at him.
“Kyle obviously has some… problem. Falk, you’ve been there the last time,” Michael said.
Falk sighed and nodded. “Yes, I know. I’ve seen this before.”
Falk and Michael told everyone about the incident with their old team, the Dwarves.
“That makes no sense!” Lily said after they were done recounting the events. “He didn’t grieve at all? He didn’t care?”
“But at the same time, you’re telling me that he is continually risking his life to keep us alive? That’s contradictory!”
“Yet, it is the truth,” Michael said. “Kyle keeps risking his life for us, but as soon as someone dies, it’s like that person never existed in his mind.”
“That’s disgusting,” Lily said with a snort.
“What do you want him to do?” Michael asked. “What do you want him to do?”
Lily couldn’t immediately answer.
Kyle’s actions almost couldn’t be better.
He supported everyone, did the most work, and risked his life all the time.
“That’s what I have been thinking about for over a year now,” Michael said. “I’ve seen what happened the last time.”
“What could he have done better?”
“His actions were perfect.”
“There was nothing he could have done better.”
“Would I have wanted him to fake grief when he didn’t feel anything? No.”
“Would I have wanted him to speak words of support to the survivors? Yes, but only if he actually meant them.”
Michael sighed.
“But that’s the thing.”
“His outward actions were perfect, but his motivations were not.”
“At least, they were not relatable to me.”
Falk nodded. “There are just no negative emotions in him. When was the last time you saw Kyle angry?”
The people thought about that question.
Several seconds of silence passed.
“See?” Falk asked. “He’s very rarely angry. I’ve only seen him angry once, and it was when Michael’s old teammate almost killed him by accident.”
“When was the last time you saw him sad? I’ve never seen him sad.”
“It’s almost like he doesn’t have these emotions…”
“Or he simply buried them so deeply that they can’t surface.”
Falk sighed.
“I can’t imagine a better leader. When it comes to survival and accomplishing the mission, he’s the best I’ve ever seen.”
Then, Falk looked at the ground with a hurt expression.
“But it still hurts.”
“It hurts that he doesn’t get hurt when I nearly died.”
“I thought we were friends.”
The others remained silent.
This was not a simple situation.
Kyle was like a perfect and reliable machine, but that was it.
He felt like a machine to the others.
He didn’t feel human.
There was a certain sense of disconnect.
It was like Kyle was not the same as them.
For a while, the team just thought about the issue.
“What do we do?” Falk asked.
Michael took a deep breath.
“We have to make our own decisions,” Michael said.
Selene nodded.
“Let’s split up for now. I’ll tell Kyle that we will meet again tomorrow.”
“At that point, we can make our decisions known.”
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