Kapitel 65: Book 3: Chapter 5 – Five Year Grudge
Ace wasn't even paying attention as Lauriella took her leave. Instead, his complete focus was on the forest before him. The longer he looked at it, the more his blood boiled with excitement, and the smile on his face seemed to reflect that.
He had reincarnated into this world over 13 years ago, but this was the first time he would get the chance to really explore. Though he loved all the people in his life, for someone as free-spirited as Ace, not being able to go adventuring was difficult at times.
Amira seemed to notice the change in her team leader. As she turned to look at him, she couldn't help but stare. Between the pure-hearted smile on his face and the unfettered aura he subconsciously released, she couldn't help but become captivated.
It wasn't until Julius cleared his throat that Ace and Amira snapped out of their daze.
"Sorry about that. I just lost myself in my excitement," Ace explained. "Mira, are you okay? Do you have a fever? You look like you're burning up."
Ace may not understand the reason for her flushed face, but Julius did.
"Hmph! I'm leaving!" The angelic caramel-skinned teen snorted when she noticed the teasing smile on Julius' face.
"I don't get it," Ace muttered in confusion.
"Who knows," Julius shrugged, feigning ignorance. "Women are a complicated bunch."
"What do I have to do to get her to ac…" A frown appeared on his face before he could finish his sentence.
Julius was just about to ask what was wrong when he realised he was staring at an afterimage.
Even with his new glaive strapped to his back, when using [Soru], Julius was incapable of following him with his eyes.
Amira, who had stormed off in frustration, was caught by surprise when Ace suddenly appeared beside her, and that surprise quickly turned into shock, then fear, and then anger when she saw the arrow Ace had caught in his hand just under a meter away from her.
"Mathias and the others weren't kidding about humans being the ones we need to be most weary of," Ace muttered softly as his eyes frosted over.
Ace had off-handedly activated his [Observation] whilst talking to Julius when he noticed three humans lying in wait in the bushes no more than 50 meters away. One of whom was an archer who had taken aim at Amira.
"Come out," Ace commanded coolly.
"Looks like he's pissed," A tall warrior of the fourth rank wielding a 4-foot black sabre chuckled as he jumped out from his hiding spot.
"What do you expect," The peak fourth rank archer voiced as he stepped out from behind the tree, realising they had already been caught. "I did almost kill his little girlfriend."
The last to appear was a burly warrior of the fifth rank with an ominous war blade.
Of the three, only he appeared to be somewhat cautious as he stared at Ace. He had been focusing on Amira, waiting for his comrade's arrow to take her out before he and his sabre-wielding follower attacked the other two. Still, he didn't even notice Ace's movement until he had already caught the arrow mid-flight.
Despite being caught off guard by Ace's intervention, he was only slightly more cautious. He refused to believe three teens could ever be a match for him, even if they were young elites from a big clan.
Holding an arrow in one hand and his old glaive in the other, Ace took a step forward, preparing to kill the three who dared target Amira when her emotionless voice entered his ears.
"They're mine!"
They had only just stepped into the forest, and yet, because she allowed herself to be distracted, she had almost been assassinated. If it weren't for Ace coming to her rescue, she may well have been taken out by that arrow.
"Did you hear that, boss? She wants to take us out on her own," The sabre-wielding man sneered. "Let me play with her for a bit."
The burly man furrowed his brows slightly. He thought it was strange that the other two didn't make a move to help her, but ultimately, he didn't stop his subordinate, believing that they were just young elites who thought too highly of themselves.
"[Supersonic]," Amira muttered as she calmly drew her swords, stepping past Ace.
As experienced killers, as soon as they heard Amira's words, they understood she was a mage and though being somewhat impressed that she could insta-cast, it fit with their guess that they were arrogant young elites, but they never could've foreseen what happened next.
Amira suddenly disappeared from their line of sight, only to appear behind the archer who had tried to kill her.
The hairs on the back of his neck immediately stood on edge. However, he didn't hesitate as he threw himself forward, hoping to give his teammates enough time to come to his rescue. But, unfortunately, he was still too slow.
Amira's sword flickered through the air, and before the man's head could even fall to the floor, she had already disappeared once again.
The eyes of the trio's leader suddenly bulged as he realised one of his men, who was only a few meters away from him, had been decapitated before he could even react.
Unfortunately, by the time he realised the kids he believed to be prey were actually predators in disguise, Amira had already decapitated his other follower and was rapidly closing in on him.
Despite being a warrior of the fifth rank, even now that he was seriously concentrating on her, he was still only barely able to react to her movements.
He could only raise his sword in time to block one of her katanas; the other moved like the wind as it cleanly cut him two.
"15 steps? Your [Soru] has improved again," Ace said with a smile, his former killing intent having long since disappeared.
As promised, Ace had sold 'his' technique to the Pavilion for 1000 contribution points up front and ten for every time it was purchased.
Unfortunately, at that price, it was too expensive for any of the other disciples, but there were many ways to earn contribution points in the pavilion. One was selling magicite gems and cores, the collection of which meant venturing out of the Pavilion's grounds which until now wasn't allowed. Another was through making breakthroughs in major realms and comprehension.
Still, it remained too expensive, which was why other than Julius, who wasn't a warrior, all of them were thankful to Ace for agreeing to teach them for only 100 contribution points. Though expensive, It didn't take them long to accumulate that much.
The best part about it was that Ace earned himself ten times more by doing it this way, something that made Mathias roll his eyes, but ultimately there was nothing he could do. After all, it was Ace's technique in the first place – he was free to do what he wanted with it.
Amira merely snorted as she re-sheathed her swords. She was still feeling frustrated over having to be saved. The fact that Ace was the one who saved her only made it worse. The thought of her thinking of her as some sort of damsel in distress really wound her up.
Ace frowned at Amira's wilful behaviour. "I don't mind you being so headstrong when we're at the Pavilion, but if this incident proved anything, it's that none of us can afford to switch off over the next six months."
She hated to admit it, but Amira knew Ace was right, but she wasn't ready to forgive him just like that.
"Fine," Amira said unwillingly. "But first, you need to apologize!"
"Apologize?" Ace asked in shock. "What did I do?"
Ace racked his brain for anything he could've done to offend her, but nothing came to mind. For the last five years, Ace had been nothing but nice to her. Although he had feelings for her he couldn't quite explain, Ace was still Ace. He wouldn't apologise for no reason, not even to her.
"What do you mean what did you do?" Amira glared at Ace when he said that, her voice getting louder and louder with each word. "You called me a little kid!"
"Huh? When?" Ace asked, thoroughly confused, believing this to be one big misunderstanding.
"Back at the Yin-Yang Mountain, on the day we met, you called me a child… Now APOLOGISE!" Amira shouted.
As soon as the words left her lips, memories of their meeting five years ago came flooding back all at once.
"You mean you've been ignoring me all this time because of something stupid I said five years ago?" Ace asked dumbfoundedly.
It was only when he saw her drawing her swords that he realised how serious she was being.
"I'm sorry!" Ace hurriedly exclaimed. "I honestly didn't mean it. I was just embarrassed."
Seeing the sincerity on his face made her anger dissipate, although her hands remained on her swords.
"Truth is, I was caught by surprise when I saw you. I've never experienced how I felt when I first saw you, and when Kong said what he did, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind in embarrassment," Ace admitted. "I hope you can forgive me!"
"I for…"
"BLEUGH!"
Before Amira could finish her response to Ace's heartfelt apology, the sound of Julius throwing up really put a damper on things.
"I'm sorry," Julius said whilst keeling over by a tree. "I tried to hold it in, but those corpses are too disgusti…
BLEUGH!"
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P.atreon.com/AceInCoilingDragon: Book 4 - Chapter 2
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