Liam knew that it was better for others to stay away from him. There was no way that anyone would be comfortable around him once his origin was exposed either way.
He didn't trust anyone, no matter how naive they seemed at the first glance. The lessons he learned in the past were more than enough to show him quite clearly that everyone would have the same reaction once they found out about his bloodline and origin. It was easier to betray him than to stay by his side.
That was something Liam learned from a young age. Even if someone could ignore that he was human and devil, it was not possible for anyone to ignore his origin. He vividly recalled the Halflings who took him in thinking that he was just like them. The terror-filled gaze with which they stared at him after they found out that…
Liam nearly shuddered as he made his way to the closest door that led straight to the main entrance of the gymnasium.
"Do you want to open the main entrance already?" Felix asked when he noticed where Liam was going.
"I will take your leave and bring some more survivors," Liam answered with a nod. He looked at Felix and his people who were to his right. Felix seemed to be doing decently fine and some of his people weren't doing that bad either.
However, Liam's focus quickly diverted to something he saw from the corner of his eye.
His ducklings had gotten up from the ground and were following him!
"You guys should think about an answer while I'm away…not…." Liam was at a loss for words at the sight of the dozen or more students who stared blankly at him when he tried to remind them again. He simply rolled his eyes and muttered, "...forget it…"
Liam didn't think that it was troublesome if his identity were to be exposed during the next few fights but he wanted to avoid getting poked in the back by a bunch of steel spears if possible.
"Just stay back, kids. You can follow me after the rain stops if you want to become stronger…" He thus said, while waving at the students to make it clear that he meant them.
Though he couldn't help but glance pitifully at them and think, 'If you can find me once the rain stops that is.'
However, it didn't look like the students wanted to give him an opportunity to leave without them.
"Why can we only follow you after the rain stops? The storm might not end in the next few days!" Rex said in a voice loud enough for everyone around them to hear. He was one of the few students who dared to say something against Liam's decision, but the other students simply nodded their heads, too terrified to open their mouths.
"No questions!" Liam cut him off sharply. He was slowly losing his patience, and Felix kept watching the scene as a neutral spectator. He raised his eyebrows and continued to observe.
"...but why?" Rex continued to retort, just a bit quieter this time. He looked at the ground and tiptoed around, which was enough for Liam to stare coldly at Rex with the desire to snap his neck.
"You guys won't be lacking food, or water for the next few days. That means y'all can just kill the remaining rats all around the gymnasium. It is unlikely that the Elite Ratatuo will focus on you guys since they will fight other monsters on their level. But even if they were to focus on you guys, poke their eyes, and pierce their butts. Don't panic and just kill them. Pay attention to your safety, otherwise, I will not get my re…you guys will die!
Following me right now is equal to a suicide mission for you guys, and even for me since you guys are more of a deadweight than being helpful right now… I don't want to see anyone here die while I slowly move away, which will definitely happen once I take you guys with me!" Liam explained while beating around the bush.
He had a slip of his tongue which thankfully none of the students noticed as he used his 'worry' about the students' health as an excuse to go out alone.
Labeling them as deathweight was harsh but necessary. It prevented most students from beginning to grumble like Rex a while ago and save him a lot of trouble. They knew that he was stronger than them and that he could go to places where they would only hold him back if they are with him.
Liam was satisfied with the reaction of most students, and was relieved but his satisfaction did not stay long when he saw the expressions of the faces of Olivia, Kian, and Rex.
'These fuckers…'
It was quite obvious that he wouldn't be able to get rid of the most annoying ducklings. They would keep following him even if he didn't want that to happen. Liam chose to change his approach to the situation given the predicament he was facing.
Thus, he did something that most would consider extremely stupid. He nodded his head, motioned the students to follow him and he left the gymnasium with more than a dozen ducklings following him. Felix looked at them with a wry smile on his face.
"Why do I feel like something big is going to happen soon?"
While Felix was not sure what his gut feeling was telling him, Liam and the others left the gymnasium through the main entrance. They encountered a few monsters outside but they sensed Liam's bad mood and the bloodlust that radiated from him.
The weakest monsters chose to flee upon seeing him while the other monsters maintained a certain distance from him.
Once Liam and the others were far enough from the gymnasium, he halted in his tracks.
'Let's see if you guys will continue following me after that…' He thought to himself as he removed the black devil mask. Others may think that it was stupid to expose himself to the students but he didn't really plan to return to the gymnasium either way.
He wanted the students to become stronger and turn the gymnasium into an impenetrable fortress while he would pull more natives inside the gymnasium. It was not necessary for him to be inside the gymnasium to complete the customized mission!
With that in mind, Liam turned around, unveiling his face to the students who froze in their tracks.
"Hello there, I am Liam Wandel, one of the trespassers of Haltan!"
"..."
"..."
"Nah…you're just handsome…"
Liam expected the worst when he removed the black devil mask from his face, but the situation took an unexpected turn.
While he had expected others to either attack him or flee away, screaming like banshees, all of them just stared at him, unblinkingly. His royal purple eyes and the vibrant black horn that jutted from the left side of his forehead were hard to miss though he stood in the midst of the heavy downpour.
His skin was snow-white and his clothes were drenched in the rainwater even before he could take ten steps. But none of that attracted Liam's interest right now.
He blankly stared at the young woman who blurted out what was on her mind while staring unabashedly at his face, "Nah…you're just handsome…"
The young woman was openly gawking at Liam and only seemed to regain her senses as her eyes met with Liam's vibrant stare. She blinked furiously and she felt momentarily incapable of formulating a coherent response.
"W-What?…you…you are h-handsome…" She said shyly, just for Liam to recall who the young woman actually was.
'She was nearly raped by the head coach. I thought she was soundly asleep,' He recalled and was about to avert his focus when he heard the young woman pushing the student next to her.
"Isn't he?" She blurted out, trying to seek someone's help as her cheeks kept getting redder.
Kian was standing next to the young woman and he had been staring at Liam just like everyone else. He was forced to gather his senses when the young woman pushed him before he noticed that Liam's attention had moved onto him.
"Y-Yeah, I guess he is handsome…the horn is pretty intimidating…adds charm…I guess…" Kian said somewhat helplessly as he snatched words out of his mouth. He had a lot more to say but no more words escaped his lips. Everyone felt like that, well, almost everyone.
The sudden revelation was shocking and it was hard to digest. After all, the students had been certain that Liam was human. He could speak their language, protected them to the best of his ability and Liam made sure that all of them would become stronger to fight against the Arcane Apocalypse. It didn't really make sense that Liam was suddenly their enemy!
Liam scanned the reactions of the students and smiled lightly as he put the mask back on his face. Earlier, he would have considered killing all of them rather than unveiling his identity but he needed them, or rather their strength and their ability to survive the Arcane Apocalypse. The ducklings who had chosen to follow him were somewhat powerful.
Their Soultraits were decent for combat as well, which meant that they could prove to be useful enough to help him passively protect the natives for his customized mission. He would also get contribution points for that, increasing his rating in the mission by a large margin.
Some things changed a little, which was also why he had decided to reveal his identity. He wanted the natives, or at least his ducklings, to be aware that there were not only monsters but also other, humanlike races, who chose to attack Haltan, whether it was to conquer the entire planet, build a relationship with Natives or simply to protect their own Realm in every possible way.
There might be better ways to explain everything neatly but the shock treatment seemed to be quite efficient as well.
Or so Liam thought until he looked into Olivia's eyes.
"Were you trying to hide that you're not from Earth, or whatever you guys call our planet? Wasn't that quite obvious? You must take us for fools if you actually thought that we didn't notice you're different!" Olivia declared in a manner that caused everyone to look at her with stern expressions.
Liam squinted his eyes, feeling pretty sure that the other students were currently cursing Olivia in their minds. He could tell that the others didn't notice that he was different from them even if he was more knowledgeable about monsters, the Arcane System, and a few other things. All of these pieces of information could have been procured in certain ways other than the 'obvious fact' that Liam came from one of the Nine Realms.
'Either she is extremely good at deducing facts, but oblivious when it comes to seeing things that are right in front of her…or she is good at guessing,' Liam figured while shaking his head lightly. The corners of his lips uptilted at the confused expression on Olivia's face as she was stared at by almost everyone else.
It was obvious that she didn't know what was going on right now.
"You look crazy, dude. What a chad!" Rex suddenly exclaimed. His eyes gleamed brightly as he kept stealing glances at Liam's horn. "Can I touch your horn? Just once…?"
"Fuck off…" Liam blurted out an expected response that caused many to smile lightly. The tension around them reduced considerably, which was contrary to Liam's expectations.
He wanted to instill a certain sense of fear in the minds of those around him but he had no control of the situation and that made him uncomfortable. It was especially burdensome that he was not rejected and that they had not pointed their weapons at him, after all, that was the reaction he expected to receive upon revealing his identity.
'Maybe the natives here are more foolish than the Overworldly Humans I know?'
While looking at Rex, whose eyes were basically glowing in a radiant light, Liam couldn't exclude the possibility. As for Olivia, she was probably too intelligent for her own good, which ended up damaging her common sense.
But then there was also Kian who stared a few seconds at Liam before he nodded his head.
"I will still follow you. I can understand why you hid your identity from us before. Now that we have a hideout you should know that it is not necessary to lie to us anymore. It must have been hard to lie to us all the time yet keep us from harm. You were trying hard to help us even though we could have exposed you with every bit of information you revealed. I don't really understand why exactly the Arcane Apocalypse is happening but I can tell that you are a good person." Kian said while moving his head as he was speaking.
He looked at Liam for a while with a faint smile on his face which was more than enough for Liam's eyes to start twitching.
"Are you guys idiots?"
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