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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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Ironically, Lapis Julie was able to find Faster and Scarlet at the restaurant thanks to the very social media that had deceived her.
Scarlet Rate, ranked second in the world and a prominent figure in the Rate family, was a celebrity. Her appearance in public, happily smiling with a handsome man, was bound to attract attention.
While Ia Aris and Silk Blonde were frantically searching the outlet malls, Lapis Julie, realizing she’d been tricked, searched social media for information about Scarlet.
She found a post about Scarlet enjoying an early dinner with a handsome man at a fancy restaurant called Murphy’s Law and immediately flew there.
Lapis Julie, arriving at the restaurant entrance, was lucky enough to spot Faster exiting the bathroom. She felt a surge of relief, believing that talking to him would alleviate the pain she’d been experiencing all day.
“Congratulations on your engagement. I wish you happiness.”
But Faster’s casual congratulations made her realize something was terribly wrong.
“Ah, you’re here already. I apologize for keeping a lady waiting. It’s unbecoming of a gentleman. My apologies, Ms. Lapis Julie.”
And when she heard the unfamiliar voice behind her, her intuition was confirmed, and despair washed over her.
“…”
A despair so profound it paralyzed her.
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What the hell? Why did her eyes suddenly die?
Lapis Julie’s eyes were not just cold, but devoid of any life, any spark. They were like a bottomless abyss, reflecting nothing but darkness.
It was the look of someone whose plans had failed, whose attempts to fix things had only made them worse, someone who’d been hit by a series of misfortunes they’d desperately hoped to avoid.
In short, it was the look of someone who’d given up.
It wasn’t the look of someone who’d just gotten engaged to a powerful, handsome, and wealthy man.
Engagements were supposed to be happy occasions, a promise of marriage to someone you wanted to spend your life with.
Unless, of course, it was a forced engagement, arranged by your family against your will.
A prestigious family like the Julies might arrange a marriage for political gain, but Lapis Julie could easily refuse.
She was the Team 2 leader of Liar’s Trap, an S-rank Awakened who could do whatever she wanted.
Prestigious families were built on the power of S-rank Awakened.
So, if a family had an S-rank Awakened among its members, the other members usually catered to their whims, careful not to offend them.
They’d operate under the S-rank Awakened’s shadow, wielding their power indirectly. That’s what defined a prestigious family.
Of course, for powerful families like the Rates, the Julies, and the Blondes, who had numerous strong Awakened among their ranks even without an S-rank, the influence of a single S-rank Awakened was less absolute.
But even so, forcing an S-rank Awakened to do something they didn’t want to do? That was absurd.
Even Lapis Julie, fiercely loyal to her family and obsessed with upholding its reputation, could tell them to fuck off if she really wanted to.
That’s how powerful and untouchable S-rank Awakened were in this era. They were practically gods.
So, Lapis Julie’s despair wasn’t because she hated being engaged.
Wool Blonde was incredibly handsome, and no one disliked beautiful people.
Then what was wrong with her?
As I was pondering this, my eyes met Wool Blonde’s, who was standing behind Lapis Julie.
Ah, was it because of that?
The moment I saw his amber eyes, slightly darker than Silk Blonde’s, I understood Lapis Julie’s despair.
She and I had kissed and… done other things just yesterday.
If her fiancé found out, the engagement would be off, and the news would be filled with headlines like, “Lapis Julie Has Affair with F-Rank Awakened the Day Before Her Engagement to Wool Blonde.”
That’s why Lapis Julie was so devastated. She was terrified of him finding out.
Does she think I’d tell everyone what happened yesterday? That’s a little disappointing. Well, we’re not exactly close.
We’d known each other for a while, but we’d only worked together for a year. A year was a long time, but not long enough to build trust.
She doesn’t trust me, she thinks I might reveal our… secret, and that’s why she’s so anxious and despairing.
To Lapis Julie, I was no longer someone she liked. Now that she was engaged, I was just a one-night stand, a shameful secret that couldn’t be revealed.
In situations like this, powerful people usually resorted to extreme measures to bury their secrets. But I had the ability to avoid such schemes.
To Lapis Julie, I’m a ticking time bomb. That explains her despair.
But I, Faster, the man of principles, wouldn’t stoop to blackmail. Making an enemy of an S-rank Awakened would only hurt me.
So, I had to reassure Lapis Julie, let her know I wouldn’t reveal what happened between us.
But I couldn’t just yell, “Hey, Lapis Julie! Don’t worry, I’ll take the secret of you sucking my dick to my grave! Trust me!” with her fiancé standing right there.
Hmm… how could I convey my intentions?
As I was thinking, Wool Blonde, who’d been looking at me strangely, finally spoke.
“Have we… met before?”
“Excuse me? Me?”
Wool Blonde, seeing my surprise at his sudden question, frowned, like someone trying to remember a forgotten search term.
He thought he’d met me before? How?
I knew Wool Blonde because he was a celebrity, a frequent guest on TV, with a fan club of hundreds of thousands of members. It wasn’t strange for me, an Awakened living in the same world, to know him.
But Wool Blonde knowing me was strange.
I was just a lowly F-rank Awakened, practically invisible to someone like him, a highly-ranked A-rank on the verge of becoming S-rank.
“Yes, you. You look familiar… I wouldn’t forget a face like yours… Hmm… May I ask your name?”
He seemed to think he’d remember if he heard my name, so I told him.
I was curious too.
“I’m Faster.”
“Faster? Faster… That name sounds familiar too. Do you have a surname…?”
“No, I don’t. I’m not from a prestigious family.”
Wool Blonde, after hearing my answer, fell into deep thought, clearly struggling to remember.
His struggle ended when a familiar voice came from behind me.
“What are you guys doing here? Why are you so slow?”
The moment Wool Blonde heard Scarlet’s slightly annoyed voice and saw her face, he clapped his hands together and exclaimed,
“Ah! Faster! I remember! Seeing Scarlet reminded me! You’re that Faster, right?”
He suddenly switched to informal speech, which made me frown.
But Wool Blonde, oblivious to my frown, or perhaps simply not caring, beamed, happy to have remembered my name.
What did he mean, “that Faster”? How did he even know me?
His knowing smile annoyed me. But getting angry would make me no better than Scarlet, and I was a reasonable person, so I asked politely, expressing my annoyance through the formality of my tone.
“How do you know me?”
“You went to the academy, didn’t you? Everyone who went to the academy back then knew Faster.”
Wool Blonde, now completely dropping the polite speech, even pointed at me. But I ignored his rudeness.
The moment he mentioned the academy, everything else became irrelevant.
The academy… he went there? Well, unlike Silk Blonde, the illegitimate child, Wool Blonde, the eldest son and heir, would have naturally attended the academy.
My time at the academy had been a dark period in my life, filled with nothing but pain and misery.
And the “Faster” Wool Blonde knew was the “Faster” from that dark period. The thought made me want to leave immediately.
Talking to someone who knew that pathetic version of me made my skin crawl.
“By the way, you’re still with Scarlet? Wow…”
He trailed off, but the unspoken words hung heavy in the air.
Wool Blonde’s eyes and voice held no respect for me, only a hint of familiarity and a heavy dose of condescension. He was a condescending prick.
I wonder if he’d shut up if I zapped his balls with Rabbit Burrow sparks. I really wanted him to stop talking.
He’d earned some points for taking Lapis Julie away, but his current behavior had negated them completely.
Even Lapis Julie, whose mouth dripped venom, hadn’t mentioned the academy. She’d seen firsthand how much I’d suffered there.
Maybe Lapis Julie was better than Wool Blonde in that regard.
Of course, they’d both left a bad impression on me. Just as I was thinking, Maybe Lapis Julie isn’t so bad after all…, Wool Blonde smirked, his eyes filled with mockery. It was an unsettling look.
“So, you were called… Scarlet’s…”
Oh, shit.
He was about to say the words I dreaded the most, the words that would ruin my good mood and give me nightmares for days.
Fuck it. I’ll just zap him. Even a high-ranking A-rank Awakened wouldn’t be able to withstand a direct hit to the balls.
I didn’t care about the consequences. I was about to charge my right hand with sparks, prioritizing my future sleep, when Lapis Julie, her eyes dead, whispered,
“P-Please stop…”
“Hey, who the hell are you? Do you want to die?”
But Lapis Julie’s weak plea was cut short by Scarlet’s angry outburst.
“E-Excuse me?”
Wool Blonde, who’d been enjoying his monologue, stammered, startled by Scarlet’s sudden rage.
“What are you asking? I’m asking who the hell you are and why you’re being such a dick. Are you deaf? Want me to melt your ears open?”
Scarlet, stomping towards the terrified Wool Blonde, grabbed him by the collar with one hand. Wool Blonde, almost a foot taller than Scarlet, was easily lifted off the ground.
A high-ranking A-rank was still just an A-rank. He was no match for Scarlet, the second strongest S-rank Awakened. Scarlet clenched her other hand into a fist and pulled back her elbow, ready to punch a hole through his chest.
“Gah…?!”
“How dare you interrupt our date? Who the hell do you think—…”
Scarlet’s actions were clearly meant to protect me. She was doing this for me.
Honestly, it was pathetic.
I grabbed Scarlet’s elbow and said,
“Scarlet. Stop.”
“Faster! This bastard was about to…!”
“I said stop.”
“Ugh…”
Scarlet, turning to look at me, her eyes meeting mine, her previous rage replaced by fear, froze.
I didn’t know what kind of expression I was making, but it must have been terrifying for Scarlet to react like this.
“O-Okay…”
Scarlet, her face mirroring the expression she’d worn when she thought I was going to leave her, released Wool Blonde. He collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. Scarlet, ignoring him, rushed to my side and clutched my sleeve, as if afraid I’d disappear.
I glanced at Scarlet’s hand, then, looking down at the crumpled Wool Blonde, said indifferently,
“Mr. Wool Blonde, we’ll be going now. Enjoy your meal. And congratulations on your engagement.”
“G-Gah…”
An A-rank Awakened shouldn’t be this affected by being grabbed by the collar. Scarlet must have done something else.
Even though Scarlet had done it for me, it felt… hypocritical.
I averted my gaze from Wool Blonde, who was staring back and forth between Scarlet and me, and said goodbye to Lapis Julie, whose face was a mask of despair.
“Sorry to interrupt your… date. See you at the guild on Monday.”
“…”
“We’re leaving.”
I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I grabbed Scarlet’s wrist and used Rabbit Burrow.
-Crackle.
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Enjoy bud!
