Story

"Haa… Ha…" Jay was panting, his body was covered in sweat. He was still holding his blade, but on his wrist were threads connected to a dumbbell. At the same time, there was a weight circling his blade.

After experiencing how heavy Clovis's blade was, he thought about this training to increase both his raw strength and his swing speed. 

Amidst the training, Jay couldn't help but remember. "Now that I think about it, my knowledge about Hacfield comes from Kanaria's family. I wonder how she will react when she knows Clovis is from that family. Well, I should ask about it tomorrow."

…

Clovis's Room.

"Huh?!" Clovis's mind went blank. He couldn't comprehend what Kanaria had just said. In fact, he didn't even know what was on her mind when she uttered those words. "What did you say?" 

Kanaria pinched the bridge of her nose, awkward and embarrassed. She opened her mouth, but the words stuck in her throat. 

Looking at her troubled expression, Clovis faced a dilemma. If he rejected this, would that mean Kanaria would leave the party? If he accepted this, didn't it mean a life commitment?

"Sorry, please forget about it." Kanaria shook her head furiously before grabbing Clovis's pillow and just burying her face. 

Clovis looked unconvinced, but it seemed that it was better to drop this matter. But the silence made the room extremely awkward. 

It took Kanaria a few minutes before she regained a bit of her composure. She explained, "I think it's better to solve the misunderstanding to make the group less awkward." 

"If you don't mind." Clovis nodded in agreement.

"But before that, I have to apologize first. I was rude. Sorry."

"No. I don't mind, but I wish to know what's in your mind before reaching that conclusion." 

"Well…" Kanaria rubbed her cheek before asking, "How much do you know about your grandfather?" 

"My grandfather? I know that he is very strong and influential, but personally, I see him as a carefree grandfather who does things as he pleases. Even the family can't really restrict his desire to explore the unknown." 

Kanaria felt a bit more ashamed after hearing it. She said, "Do you know that your grandfather once saved a city on the surface?" 

"I seem to have heard about it from my grandfather. He said it was a big city that was almost destroyed after being attacked by a large swarm of beasts. He ended up saving the city since he wasn't far away. But the most amusing thing he encountered there was not the cause of the swarm or the fight against the beasts, it was a strange woman. According to him, he saved that woman from numerous beasts, but when they were fighting, the woman proposed to him." 

Clovis recalled everything about the story his grandfather told him. In fact, his story was the reason why Clovis really wanted to become an explorer. "But my grandfather was already quite old, and my father was already a few years old at that time, so he rejected the proposal."

Clovis abruptly stopped after seeing her embarrassed expression. "Don't tell me, that woman was you… no, wait. It was a story from a long time ago.

"It was my mother." Kanaria shook her head helplessly.

"Your mother?!" Clovis's heart skipped a beat, never thinking that the person in her grandfather's story would be related to Kanaria. 

"Yeah. She often told me the story about your grandfather, and I had read all the stories about your grandfather in the Skynet. You could say that I idolize him. Even among the top ten explorers in the world, he is the most free. After knowing that the Hacfield Family is gone, my mother is heartbroken. No, have you heard anything about me?"

"Nope. I haven't heard anything about you." Clovis shook his head with a calm expression. 

"That's weird. Unable to realize her dream, she ended up sending letters to your family about an engagement." 

"For real? But I haven't heard anything about it." Clovis squinted his eyes.

"Maybe you're not the same Hacfield I'm talking about?"

"That's certainly me." Clovis shook his head and opened his device, showing her a photo. It was a photo of a kid with a big smile, which was the young Clovis. Next to him was an old man. His body was muscular, but not too big. He was having the same big smile as the young Clovis while patting his head. 

"It's… really Lord Michael." Kanaria stared at the photo in disbelief. The person in front of her was truly the grandson of Michael Hacfield.

"Well, the family is already in ruin, so you don't have to think much about it." Clovis shrugged. "Besides, I have never heard about the engagement."

Kanaria's eyebrows twitched. Because of the current world's situation, it is normal to see a political marriage, mostly between two people with a high evolution rate. They believed that genes determined the level of the children's evolution rate.

That was why he didn't think much about it when he heard Jay's sister and Kanaria's brother were married.

Amidst this absurdity, Clovis couldn't help but realize another possibility. He thought, 'Don't tell me. Did my parents tell me to go to this city when escaping because they knew about this? Did they hide the fact about engagement? No, when I think about it, my family was quite influential, so I should have expected something like this. 

'Then, was it Grandfather who pushed everything away? He always told me to live freely after all.' Clovis looked down, falling into deep thought.

"Is there something wrong?" Kanaria asked, concerned about his serious face. 

"Ah! It's nothing." Clovis waved his hand. Since he had understood where Kanaria was coming from, it was better to drop the topic. "In any case, I will consider that I didn't hear what you said earlier. So, you're still going to join the group, right?"

"O-of course!" Kanaria nodded. She had never thought that her idol's grandson would be inviting her to his group. At the same time, she couldn't comprehend why Clovis had a very low evolution rate.

She remembered that Michael Hacfield's evolution rate might not be the highest, but it was still pretty high. Clovis's father and mother were also in the 90's and 80's. So, why would Clovis's evolution rate be only 15%?

'Adop—' She almost completed her thought, but that wasn't possible. Clovis's recklessness and insanity really resembled that of a Hacfield. 'Does this mean he only inherits their bloodline and characters but not their evolution rate?'

This might be the reason why the engagement never reached his ears. With such a low evolution rate, the Hacfield Family definitely wanted to hide it. When they accepted the proposal, it was the same as revealing Clovis's low evolution rate. 

Nonetheless, what she was planning to do hadn't changed. She asked, "I can't… reveal your identity, even to my mother, right?" 

"Yeah. I hope that you can hide my identity for as long as you want. When I'm ready, I will reveal my identity myself." Clovis nodded. In fact, he thought it would become even more troublesome if her mother knew about him after listening to Kanaria talk about her persistence.

Kanaria agreed without hesitation. The awkwardness started to disappear but the confession from earlier was still stuck in her mind. She just did it out of reflex, never thinking that she would end up hearing something amazing from Clovis.

"By the way, do you have anything to do the day after tomorrow?" Kanaria asked. 

"No. I'm still thinking about what the group should do after a proper rest."

Kanaria took out a paper from her pocket. It turned out to be a poster. "I heard something interesting on the way here."

"What is this?" Clovis read the poster while furrowing his eyebrows. "A joint exploration? Why a competition?"

"To raise the level of the explorers in this city, the military is planning to hold a special competition, calling every Tier 0 and Tier 1 explorer. They will divide the competition, but basically, the military holds a competition to kill beasts. I bet, after the recent beast wave, they're trying to gather the explorers to thin out the number of beasts around the city." 

"That's understandable." Clovis knew how scary a beast wave was. While the base might be able to destroy them, it would be dangerous for normal explorers just like what happened to them earlier. "What's the prize?"

"For Tier 0 Explorers, the first place will get 2 beast souls, 6 super injections, and 25,000 cash prizes." 

"Super injections? As in that super injection?" Clovis widened his eyes in surprise.

"Yes. The government program: Super Injection. The government will provide essence that would allow an explorer to raise all five attributes by 20%, no matter their evolution rate. This is one of the government programs to raise the strength of people with a lower evolution rate."

"That's interesting."

"According to them, we can also keep the essence we procured during the competition. For every Tier 0 beast, the group will be rewarded by ten points and the Tier 1 beast will be rewarded by a hundred points."

Clovis thought for a moment. "How many people per group?"

"Six. But there's no minimum. Do you want to search for three other people?"

"Is that even a question?"

Kanaria smiled, expecting this reply. If they couldn't even take the first spotthem in this competition with only these members, they would definitely have a hard time in the future. So, this was a challenge for themselves. 

"I have one condition. No matter what happens, I'm not going to take the portion like earlier again. If we get the first place, I want all three of us to receive two super injections."

"But…" Kanaria frowned. Clovis was the focus of the super injection, so it would be a waste to not use this opportunity to boost Clovis. 

However, Clovis shook his head. "This is my condition. If you can't accept, I'd rather not participate at all. I'm sure that Jay will agree with me. I'm here not to be pitied by others after all."

Clovis's expression and determination made her respect him a bit more. He was truly a Hacfield. 

"I understand. We'll talk about it tomorrow with Jay."

"Alright."

"Then, good night, Clovis." Kanaria waved her hand."

"Good night, Kanaria."