Childhood friend

"No."

The Goddess's ruthless calm voice echoed to everyone's ears present. Lucas was in a daze, not even feeling the tears crawling out of his eyelids itching.

Suddenly, his face distorted in fury as he asked the Goddess with a howl.

"Why? What did I ever do to you?! I kept quiet the entire time and even addressed you formally. Why? Why are you doing this to me?"

The Goddess was silent and did not reply, but she appeared sorrowful, even though she was indifferent inside. His classmates also stood in silence, not even thinking of supporting Lucas.

Right now, what they were thinking was themselves, and even if they helped Lucas, what comes after, then? Should they bear responsibility for their actions? They were not Michael, and that man had already received a high-class title, so he could have the capability to aid Lucas' future.

But it was impossible for them to help him.

Lucas, meanwhile, was still not done questioning the Goddess about his current predicament. His voice did not lower as it was the opposite instead. At first, it would have been reasonable, and they could only wait for him to stop, but some people were becoming exasperated by his ceaseless cry for injustice.

"STOP!"

The Rock roared, and it startled everyone. Lucas's ceaseless cry came to a halt as he turned and stared at Rock with a twisted expression.

"What? Who do you think you are to stop me?"

If only Lucas was aware of what he had retorted, even he would be stunned by it. Of course, even his classmates were shocked, especially Michael and Natalia. Just how deep was he currently feeling right now? To suddenly act differently from the usual Lucas they knew?

"What? What did you say?"

The Rock's face contorted in anger. He took a step forward toward Lucas, planning to beat him up until he died, thinking it would be better that way. But when their distance was closer, Michael appeared near him and hugged him tightly, attempting to stop the Rock's intentions.

"Y-You fucker. Get off of me! What are you, a homosexual?"

The Rock never thought Michael could overpower him, as he felt the hug was too light to restrain him. However, just when he was about to break free, he suddenly perceived the floor was too slippery, which inevitably caused him to stumble on the ground.

His face boiled from excessive anger as the irking only intensified his rage. Quickly turning his torso, he was about to grab Michael when he found out he was actually fine and was standing a bit far from him.

'W-What happened?'

The Rock found it odd that he was the only one who slid when Michael grasped him tightly with his limb. Both of them should have stumbled, right? Why was it only him?

"Goddess! No! Bitch! Why are you not answering my question?"

Lucas, on the other hand, doesn't have time to care about them as he replaced his attention to the Goddess. When the Goddess perceived another word that Lucas described to her, she was actually not aware of the meaning, but her eyebrows arched upward when she sensed the odd atmosphere from others.

Of course, she was not insensitive, so she had an inkling Lucas was cursing her. But… does she care? Maybe, what he was acting right now greatly benefited the Goddess. The students would shift more of their attention to Lucas than her rejection, which was the cause of why Lucas was acting unethically.

While Lucas continued to spit the Goddess with curses, unknowingly, he saw a shadow suddenly appearing beside him. Recognizing the direction of the shadow's owner, he halted his curse and turned to his right, glimpsing at the slim unblemished thighs with a skirt acting like a slightly open umbrella.

Due to the darkness wrapping just before the private part, Lucas, sadly, did not manage to see it. But Lucas could care less about it, as he was slightly stunned when he recognized the person, just even with his peripheral vision.

"Nata-."

Lucas could not continue a single word because he suddenly vomited an ample amount of blood, tainting the pristine floor. It landed precisely at the coincident center of the runic circle, entered through the narrow slit, and eventually flowed and expanded.

Viscous blood continued to pour through the runic circle, and the actual source was actually not the blood coming from his mouth when he vomited it. After all, the single vomit of blood was not enough to wholly cover the runic circle, so the source was something else.

Of course, it was still Lucas's blood, but the problem was… There was a slit in Lucas's neck, and blood was slithering out from it, falling like tears, becoming the source to paint the runic circle with blood again.

"NATALIA!" Michael bellowed, hastily running towards Lucas. "What have you done?"

Natalia, spattered by Lucas's blood mainly on her hands, indifferently turned and gazed at Michael with a cold expression.

"He's so noisy. It's better to kill him right now. It's much better than dying from surviving in another world."

Michael was stunned, forcing him to halt, but after a moment of shock, he quickly moved toward Lucas. His shoes left a trail of blood behind, but he didn't care. He hastily ran towards Lucas, but when he was only a meter away from him, he suddenly found his feet stuck to the ground.

A voice from his classmates entered his ears with an apologetic tone:

"Ah, I'm sorry. I was only testing my powers. I'm really sorry, Michael, it wasn't my intention."

However, Michael did not pay any heed to it, paying more attention to getting rid of the sticky substance that glued his shoes to the pristine floor but to no avail. When he found out he could not move, he was aware it was because of the traits he received after acquiring the Title, so he gave up.

Quickly turning his head and staring at Natalia with a furious expression, he said:

"How could you be so ruthless to him! He's your childhood friend!"

Lucas could barely discern Michael's clamoring, but he perceived two words that echoed repetitively in his mind.

'Childhood friend.'

Memories of him and Natalia have appeared vividly in his mind since they were still a child. The languidness caused his head to wobble like a drunk person. Before long, even before he could process what Natalia had done to him, he fainted.

He couldn't accept the fact...

that his childhood friend attempted to kill him.

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For now, this month, I will update 1 chapter a day and will release a bonus from time to time. It is because I wanted to keep the quality and update the other novel. Next month since I'm planning to focus on this one, then I should update twice a day by then! Wish me good luck!