Treacherous

"Tch, it ran away. What a scaredy cat..."

Solomon muttered bitterly as he walked slowly forward. A little farther from him, Azriel was kneeling on the ground, gazing at the monument that once stood as one of humanity's greatest achievements. 

Perhaps it not having fallen yet, despite everything that lurks around, stands as proof that humanity hasn't either—a beacon of hope.

Solomon would have chased the creature by now, but that wasn't his priority currently.

No.

His priority right now was the kneeling boy in front of him.

The wind howled, making the boy's obsidian black hair flutter.

'It really is him... to think he was alive all this time,' Solomon thought.

He already had a grasp of the situation that had happened here.

He had felt the sudden spike of mana at Azriel's location and tried to get there as fast as possible.

Solomon was scared that he was too late and Azriel had actually died.

'That creature... it was at least an Abyssal-ranked.'

Stopping a little further away from Azriel, he gazed at his back.

He felt like if the wind was only a little bit stronger, Azriel might blow away.

'I wonder what he saw...'

He wouldn't comfort Azriel, though, no matter what.

Not the person he believed to have survived the void realm all on his own.

Not the one who is the son of the Crimson clan.

Not the one he had such high hopes for.

After an entire minute, Azriel spoke without turning around.

"If you had arrived even a second later, I would have died. Thanks."

"So, the prince has learned how to be appreciative."

"You learn a thing or two when you spend basically a lifetime in another world," Azriel replied, chuckling, before finally standing up and turning around.

"Ha! You look like a homeless person, though I suppose even then you look just as charming."

Solomon said this while scanning Azriel's entire body, ignoring the twitch of Azriel's lips and his cautious glare.

'Certainly, he has become more handsome over the years... hmm?' he thought, glancing at Azriel's frozen shoulder.

"Oh, did you lose your space ring in the void realm?"

Azriel shrugged his shoulders. "Something like that..."

"Right, right, take this here."

Saying that, Solomon tossed a small vial filled with a shimmering, emerald liquid towards Azriel, seemingly taking it out of nowhere.

"Woah!"

Luckily, Azriel managed to catch it in time before it hit the ground.

"Dammit, careful there! You know how expensive these are!" Azriel scowled, making Solomon burst out in laughter.

"Hahahaha! Oh man, since when did you become so sensitive about money?"

"Huh? What are you yapping about? I've always been cautious when it comes to money."

"Pfft! Sure, sure. Just go and drink that healing potion. Your wound isn't that serious, so this should be enough."

"Dammit..."

Azriel cursed silently but still complied, making Solomon more amused.

'Hehe, he's become much livelier than before.'

'Though I wonder what he saw to make him cry...,' Solomon thought, glancing at the tear marks on Azriel's face.

'Well, not my business unless he decides to tell me.'

Thinking that, he finally started walking towards him.

*****

'Dammit, this guy always gets on my nerves!'

Solomon kept walking around Azriel like he was some animal in a zoo.

A sigh escaped Azriel's lips.

'At least my mind isn't so focused on what just happened...'

'I really have to strengthen my mind, making sure nothing like this ever happens again.'

Resolving to himself, he decided to finally speak to Solomon, who was eyeing him in a way that made his entire body shudder.

'Fucking creep!'

"What are you doing?"

"Hmm? Oh, me? Nothing really, just curious about the boy who managed to survive two whole years in the void world. So, how did you do it?"

'Actually, instead of the void realm, I was on an alternate Earth as Leo Karumi for the past 17 years before I inhabited this body and inherited everything from the previous Azriel Crimson,' Azriel thought.

Shrugging his shoulders, Azriel responded, "How else? I just ran away each time I saw a void creature and hid myself in places they didn't go."

He lied.

He couldn't really tell all of that to Solomon unless he was planning to be called someone crazier than him.

But that doesn't matter.

If there is one thing he was good at, it was lying. He would lie without a second thought if it benefited him.

As treacherous as he might be, Azriel could lie just as easily as he could breathe.

Besides, he could easily lie his way out of this, deceiving everyone.

He had something fundamental that no one else did in this world:

knowledge.

If they would ask him to be more specific, he could easily describe a place the protagonist will be sent by the system.

"Ran away and hid yourself, huh? Sure, but I doubt that was all there was to it. That wouldn't explain how you are so... strong now," Solomon said, his eyes practically sparkling as his crimson eyes, the same as Azriel's, met his.

"You're thinking too deeply about it. I only killed those that I could kill for food and collected their mana cores at the same time. It's only natural that surviving in such an environment would help me get stronger."

"Hmm, right, right. And so? What rank and grade are you now?"

For a second, Azriel didn't respond, but in the end, he shook his head since there was no point hiding it from Solomon.

"I am a Grade 3 Intermediate now."

The moment he said that, he felt a shift in the air as a predatory smile suddenly appeared on Solomon's face. The ground beneath him trembled as well for a few seconds.

'This fucking maniac!'

"Ha! To become a Grade 3 Intermediate in such a short amount of time just by surviving in the void realm for two years! What would happen if you received actual proper training and spent more time in the void realm..."

Murmuring the last part to himself, Solomon looked him dead in the eye.

"Say, Azriel, how about you and I ditch everyone and go live in the void realm for another five years or so, huh? You're already used to it, no?"

Azriel's mind halted for a second, hearing the words leaving Solomon's lips.

'H-he is for real... this lunatic is actually being for real...'

"H-haha, you really have a way with jokes... We should probably head out since Uncle Ragnar must be worried since the drone has been consumed by that weird void creature," Azriel said awkwardly as Solomon merely clicked his tongue.

"Fine, fine. That old man must be on edge by now. If only that void creature that attacked you didn't sense my presence so soon, I would have probably had it..."

Azriel smiled bitterly but was internally relieved that he managed to get out of that situation.

'I swear, he needs to get his head checked,' he thought, though he actually understood Solomon's reasoning as well.

For someone so young to survive two years inside the void realm, and not only that but in Solomon's eyes, Azriel had killed enough void creatures to rank up to become a Grade 3 Intermediate.

No one except for the protagonist is currently as strong as Azriel is at the age of 16. Though not that anyone knows yet about the protagonist until the academy.

'Wait, what date is it even? Has the academy already actually started?'

Shaking his head, he decided he would find out more later when he was somewhere safer.

"You know he is basically as old as you are?"

"Exactly! Yet he is so mature for someone his age. He needs to learn how to have some fun!"

''Well, whatever...''

Shaking his own head, Solomon suddenly turned around and crouched down.

"Get on."

"Huh?"

"What? Or do you want me to hold you in a princess carry instead?"