novelaction Chapter 96: The Fun Toy
Chapter 96: The Fun Toy
Realizing that Alice had caught him in a flawless social checkmate, Verso decided he had no choice but to open his mouth. Running away would only confirm his guilt, and staying silent was making him look like a complete idiot.
’I guess I will just take a page out of Han’s book and act like everything is perfectly normal.’ He thought, awkwardly clearing his dry throat with a cough.
He forced his posture straight and offered a polite, stiff smile.
"Nice to meet you again, Lady Ragnar."
Hearing this formal exchange, Han looked between the two of them, his practiced diplomatic smile faltering into genuine confusion.
"Wait, you both really know each other?"
Instead of answering verbally, both Verso and Alice unanimously nodded their heads ’yes’ at the exact same time.
"Actually, why don’t you do us a favor and tell Han exactly where we met, right Verso?" Alice’s cheeky voice cut in. She tilted her head, her pale blue eyes sparkling with wicked delight. She was clearly enjoying the torturous situation he was in right now.
Seeing her striking, mischievous face and hearing the blatant trap in her question made Verso’s face flush completely red.
The memory of the boutique’s dressing room started unraveling in his head as he remembered her unforgettable figure covered with only sheer underwear.
"W-we met at a shop," He stammered, offering Han an incredibly awkward strained smile.
Alice’s amusement only deepened at his pathetic attempt to keep things vague while speaking the truth.
But before she could let this agonizing, embarrassing ritual reach its absolute peak, a loud, brash voice echoed across the quiet marble lobby.
"Hey fucker, hope you did not fall asleep waiting for me!" Moon strolled out of the elevators with a loud, booming laugh.
He was fully geared up, wearing his usually hunting clothes, carrying his usual arrogant swagger as he looked around for Verso.
As his red eyes finally fell on the trio standing by the pillar — Verso, Han, and the terrifying white haired Alice Ragnar— he froze mid step.
His carefree laugh died instantly, replaced by a deeply sour, bewildered look that practically screamed What the actual fuck is happening here?
"You guys going somewhere?" Han asked smoothly, quickly recovering his friendly aura as he looked between his two former teammates from the exam venue.
"Yeah, we kind of planned to go hunting-"
Before Verso could even finish his sentence to establish boundaries, Han’s voice lit up with bright excitement.
"Hunting?! Oh, Lady Ragnar and I have been talking about heading to the Iron Graveyard. Do you guys mind if we join you?"
Hearing those words, Verso froze once more.
’We? Who the fuck does he mean by we?’ He flicked his panicked gaze back to Alice’s calm face, his heart plummeting to his stomach.
’There is no way we are letting Alice join us on the hunt.’
"Hmm, not a bad offer at all." Moon’s voice cut in, completely bypassing Verso’s internal meltdown.
"The entry level for the Iron Graveyard is notoriously high, mostly filled with heavily armor Elite beasts. But with this group, we should easily be able to hunt the outer sections without much risk."
Moon’s tone had turned completely analytical. He was seriously considering Han’s offer, measuring their potentially combined combat power, which only amplified Verso’s shock.
’Wait a damn minute, weren’t you the one who literally dragged me out of the store and told me to stay the hell away from her?!’ Verso screamed in his mind, staring at Moon in absolute disbelief.
He quickly looked back at Alice, who was currently wearing a sheepish, knowing smile as she watched his embarrassment unfold.
’AND WHY AM I THE ONE WHO IS EMBARRASSED? I WAS THE ONE WHO WALKED IN ON HER CHANGING!’ He yelled internally.
Absolutely nothing about this entire interaction was making any logical sense to him anymore. It was almost like a play out of a sitcom.
"Yeah, I think this is a perfect team, then. We should easily be able to clear the starting section of the dungeon." Moon finalized, officially accepting Han’s offer without so much as a team vote.
Verso just looked over at Moon with a deeply conflicted, betrayed expression. Moon caught his gaze and just gave him a careless shrug of his shoulders.
"Hey man, it is not every day we get to clear a high level dungeon and kill a dozen of elite monsters." Moon said, gesturing toward the main doors with his chin.
"Come on guys, let’s not waste time."
Seeing Moon walk ahead with purposeful strides, Han flashed his practiced smile and slowly started following him. He glanced back at Alice and Verso, who were still standing by the pillar, but wisely decided not to pry into their relation any further and just walked out the glass doors.
Now alone, Alice took a slow step forward.
"Verso, right? Nice to meet you-" She began, her tone dripping with cheeky, playful sarcasm.
"Hey, I am really sorry about the thing that happened at the shop!" Verso cut in, his voice desperate and rushed.
He couldn’t take the psychological torture anymore.
He bowed his head slightly, staring at his boots.
"I know I should have apologized before, right when it happened, but I panicked and didn’t know how to. Please, I really don’t want any trouble."
He held his breath, waiting for the National Rank 1 to summon a dragon or cleave him in half right there in the lobby.
Instead, he heard a soft, melodious giggle.
"Oh, don’t do that," Alice said, her voice dropping into a playful, chilling whisper that sent a shiver down his spine.
"It would be an absolute shame to waste such a fun toy."
With a final click of her heels, she turned and gracefully walked out of the lobby, her white sundress flowing behind her.
Verso slowly stood up straight, his face completely pale as he stared blankly at the doors.
"...A fun toy?" He muttered to himself in absolute, terrifying confusion.
x-X-x
[A/N]: I Super apologize for the super late Chapter, it turned out that I had to get admitted and operated on, thankfully I was able to get discharged in time to write these two Chapters just in time for you guys!
The next two Chapters will also be slightly late as I need to get some rest but after that, we should be returning back to the usual schedule!