“I didn’t expect to see you in such a small city, Gray.”
“Knox City is my hometown, Lobelia.”
Gray didn’t look back.
The pink-haired witch walked to his side, resting her chin on one hand as her gaze lingered on Katy’s face below.
“I’d say the reason you’re staying here isn’t just because you’re homesick, is it?”
Katy seemed to sense the stare.
She looked up and saw a beautiful, pink-haired woman standing next to Gray, and she tilted her head in confusion.
Good lord, those are massive.
Blue eyes met pink eyes in the air.
Facing Lobelia, an A-rank Hero who was exuding her full aura, the seemingly fragile Katy didn’t show the slightest hint of fear.
She even returned a smile.
“An interesting girl,” Lobelia narrowed her eyes.
“What’s her name?”
“None of your business.”
“Eh? Don’t be so protective.”
Lobelia reached out and lightly traced her finger along the young man’s arm.
Gray took half a step back, avoiding her fingertip.
“I won’t eat your little cutie.”
“She isn’t ‘mine.’ We only just met.”
“Oh? So the warrior who has been all alone since leaving the Dawn Blade is actually using his precious A-rank privileges to arrange a skip-the-line test for a girl he ‘just met’?”
Lobelia covered her mouth and giggled, her tone so affected it gave people goosebumps.
“It seems people really do change, Gray. The old you would never do something like this.”
“Indeed.”
Gray turned his head, his iron-gray eyes devoid of any emotion.
“I also didn’t expect that the genius mage Lobelia, who is only one step away from becoming a Cardinal, would deign to come to a countryside place like Knox City.”
Lobelia, who was indeed just one step away from a seat in the College of Cardinals, seemed to be stung.
Her expression stiffened for a moment, and though she quickly forced a smile back onto her face, the atmospheric pressure around her dropped significantly.
“Following the Holy Maiden’s teachings, I am merely here to find a certain young man.”
Gray raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when the doors to the testing hall were suddenly pushed open again.
Under the bewildered gazes of the crowd, a brown-haired boy wearing black-rimmed glasses, looking completely unremarkable and out of breath, ran inside.
The examiner responsible for maintaining order was about to stop him when a silver badge was tossed down from the spectator stands above, landing precisely at the examiner’s feet.
“Sorry, that child is with me. We were delayed on the road.”
Lobelia leaned over the railing, her soft chest pressing against the metal in a way that left much to the imagination.
Katy turned her head slightly.
The nearby examiner and the young boys all had their eyes glued to the sight, but Gray didn’t look.
This made her even more curious about the relationship between these two.
“Would you mind accommodating him and letting him take a make-up test?”
Who would dare refuse the request of an A-rank Hero?
The examiner immediately swapped to a smiling face and guided the bespectacled boy toward the largest, most accurate Crystal Ball in the center of the floor, as if it were a stage center reserved specifically for him.
The girl looked up at the pink-haired woman who was gazing down with interest.
This person is also an A-rank.
It seems she isn’t the ‘all beauty and no brains’ type, but… why do I sense a hint of danger from her?
Is her strength greater than Gray’s?
Or is it a threat of another kind—
Before she could think further, the outbursts of shock from the surroundings pulled her attention back to the center of the hall.
“T-Two colors!”
“Red and blue—Fire and Water?! How is that possible!?”
“Two mutually exclusive elements coexisting in one body!?”
Inside the largest Crystal Ball, red and blue brilliance intertwined and swirled, reflecting Timmy’s ecstatic face.
He didn’t even wait for the light to fade before looking up at Lobelia on the high platform.
The sight reminded Katy of a puppy wagging its tail, waiting for its master to pat its head after retrieving a ball.
Is this the seductive power of ‘big things’ over men?
Terrifying!
Thinking of this, the girl looked down at her own chest, which could only be described as having “future potential.”
Tsk, why does it feel like I’ve already been suppressed by this pink-haired woman in some invisible competition?
***
“Is the pink-haired lady a friend of yours, Mr. Gray? I saw you two standing together just now. She seems very powerful.”
After the test ended, Gray hesitated for half a second on how to explain their past bad blood, only for Lobelia to jump in.
“That’s right~ Let me introduce myself. I’m Lobelia, Gray’s ‘intimate’ former teammate. Nice to meet you, cute little sister.”
Lobelia placed heavy emphasis on the word “intimate.”
Gray frowned instinctively, while the boy behind her looked on with eyes full of hostility.
Faced with this almost blatant provocation, Katy didn’t show the surprise or fear Lobelia expected.
Instead, she just gave a sweet smile.
“I see. Hello, ‘former’ teammate lady.”
Whether intentional or not, the girl bit down a bit harder on the word “former.”
“My name is Katy, and I am Mr. Gray’s future captain.”
As if she felt her counterattack wasn’t enough, Katy reached out and hooked her arm through Gray’s.
The young man, suddenly feeling a surge of warmth on his left arm, felt his brain short-circuit for a moment.
In that instant, Gray, a genius of the Lightning Attribute, felt as if he saw a bolt of incomprehensible lightning strike between the pupils of the tall and short girls as they stared each other down.
*Tsk, where did this wild brat come from? Is she trying to declare her sovereignty over a piece of trash like Gray in front of me?*
This was the current thought of Lobelia, who was maintaining her facade of a caring older sister.
Meanwhile, as a steadfast supporter of the “small-chest faction,” Katy didn’t have a single shred of goodwill toward this “big-chested pinky” who was very likely to disrupt her undercover grand plan.
The two women, whose inner thoughts were so dark that staring into the abyss would make the abyss flinch, continued to smile at each other until Gray, sensing the wrong atmosphere, cleared his throat to break the stalemate.
“Ahem. Miss Katy, we have to participate in the Physical Strength Test soon.”
“Oh, what a coincidence.”
Before Katy could respond, Lobelia snatched the conversation away, pointing smilingly at Timmy behind her.
“Even though my little Timmy is a mage, he also needs to test his physical fitness. Since we’re going the same way, why don’t we go together?”
*Damn you, did you even leave any room for a refusal?*
Thinking this, Katy nodded with a smile, then gave a friendly grin toward Timmy.
“Let’s do our best together in the Physical Strength Test!”
However, facing the beautiful girl’s encouragement, Timmy only frowned in disgust.
He shrunk behind Lobelia as if avoiding something filthy, muttering, “Don’t try to get close to me.”
The smile on Katy’s face froze.
She felt the veins in her temple throbbing.
Acting like a dog for a bad woman at such a young age… kid, you’re a lost cause.