Revealed

"Where do you think you are going?"

Nero asked in a dangerously low voice. Unlike all the other times, he was dead serious right now. However, Lucas wasn't the least bit intimidated by him and stared down at Nero with his bright red eyes.

"Do you think I am an idiot?" Lucas said as both of them continued to stare at each other. They looked as if they were going to fight any minute now.

"Whoa..."

"Cut it out you two."

"Hey guys don't be serious"

The remaining three interrupted the two before things got serious but Lucas didn't move a single inch from his position and continued to stare at Nero. Nero regained his calm at their words but still had a serious look.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice, Nero?" Lucas once again asked eliciting curious looks from the trio but Nero had a surprised look as if he understood Lucas's question.

"How did you know?" 

"HAH! Why wouldn't I know? You might think that you are smart but in my eyes, it was very obvious from the very start."

Lucas visibly scoffed at Nero's words. Just like he said, Nero didn't have the brains to deceive Lucas and it would be obvious to anyone else who would be in the same position as him as to what was happening.

"Hey man, what are you guys talking about?" Kent asked not understanding a thing about what Lucas said. Amelia and Anastasia were the same as they looked at the two for an explanation.

"It would be obvious if you guys think about it a bit, but I will go ahead and explain it to you guys anyway. Amelia, quick question, did you not notice anything strange compared to the last meeting."

At Lucas's words, Amelia thought about the last meeting.

Aside from being a highly talented archer, Amelia was also very smart due to her high intelligence stat.

Lucas who knew this, decided to let Amelia reach the conclusion instead of explaining it himself.

Soon enough, Amelia reached a conclusion and furrowed her brows in confusion as she answered his question.

"Last time, it was notified through the group chat but this time...."

"all of you were informed individually, weren't you? And it was Anastasia who did it right?" Lucas finished her sentence to which Amelia nodded.

This caused Amelia and Kent to look at Anastasia for an explanation but Anastasia was too flustered to give a proper answer. 

"Go easy on her, she didn't do it intentionally," Lucas explained, in case they were suspicious of her.

"Stop going in circles and explain it straight Lucas." Amelia snapped as she was getting annoyed with him.

Aside from the fact that Lucas kept talking in circles, she was annoyed to have just believed Lucas and doubted her best friend.

Normally, there would be no reason for her to feel shame for this small matter, but for her, believing in Lucas is far more shameful.

Perhaps sensing the state of her mind, Lucas decided to get straight to the point.

"Here's what I think had happened. Nero wanted to talk to me about something alone, but let it slip up when he was talking to Anastasia. And Anastasia must have suggested that another group meeting would be the best time for it and said that she would inform all of us."

For every word Lucas spoke, both Nero's and Anastasia's expressions turned from surprise to shock. From the looks of it, Lucas realized that he had accurately described the situation. 

Both Kent and Amelia also reached the same conclusion by seeing their faces and continued listening to Lucas's words more intently.

"From then on it should be obvious. After we were all gathered, Nero would suggest that we practice our coordination as a team, and when the time was right, he would speak to me just as intended."

"H-how?" Nero asked which sounded more like a whisper than an actual question. But no one could blame him for that. That was just how shocked he was.

If one looks at the situation as a whole, then one would know that Nero didn't do anything impressive. Even a kid could have come up with the same plan.

Nero was the type who preferred to do things directly rather than come up with elaborate schemes.

But what had him shaken this time was the fact that Lucas had explained exactly what had happened word to word.

It was almost as if Lucas saw the entire thing happening in front of him.

He wasn't the only one who was surprised by the current situation, even others looked a bit surprised, though not as serious as Nero.

They could already tell from Nero's reaction that Lucas was almost right but they were more surprised by Lucas's attitude.

It was unexpected of them that Lucas could be so smart.

"Why are you guys looking like you have seen something unbelievable? It was quite obvious you know."

"Sure what you said might be right. But how did you exactly come up with that explanation?"

"Haaaah....We have to start from there, huh?" Lucas let out a sigh upon hearing Amelia's question and sat down on the sofa.

"Let's start from the beginning. Just like Amelia mentioned, it was strange that we weren't informed about the meeting in the group chat like the last time. That was the first time I felt that something was strange."

Although what Lucas had said wasn't false, he didn't say the complete truth either. He was indeed suspicious of Nero but what he didn't mention was that he was suspicious about Anastasia as well. 

But by mentioning that, he would have to tell everyone about the conversation he had in the corridor.

Since both Lucas and Anastasia had something to hide about their talk, he decided that it was best not to mention it here.

"The second was when I arrived here."

"Here? What's so strange about here?" Kent asked impatiently acting like a child who couldn't contain their curiosity. But everyone ignored him and waited for Lucas to continue.

"It's easy if you think about it. If we really were planning to practice our coordination then shouldn't we have met at the training grounds instead of here?"

"Now that you mention it, you are right." Kent agreed with Lucas's words and nodded to himself as if he was the one who solved the mystery.

"I could only think of one reason for that, Nero simply didn't think of a proper cover-up for the meeting and just came up with an excuse on the spot. Isn't that right Nero?"

"...yeah....you are right." Realizing that there was no point in denying it, Nero acknowledged Lucas's words.

Nero hadn't actually planned to do things this way. In fact, he himself knew that he was not suited for scheming or the like. But it still left him bitter that Lucas was able to read him to this extent. 

Everyone including Lucas himself knew that what he did wasn't something exceptional. But it was not trivial either.

If anything, this incident had improved Lucas's image in Nero's mind.

Not only he, but everyone else's opinion of Lucas had also greatly improved including Amelia.

But nobody here blindly believed that Lucas had changed for real.

That was just how big the stigma of a sexual assaulter was.

For all they knew, Lucas could just be pretending to have changed.

But at least for now, their gazes didn't hold the usual hate and contempt.

Lucas has already noticed a significant improvement in the way his teammates perceive him evidenced by their stares and felt burdened by it. 

At first, he just wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, but the way they looked at him made him hesitant to take a forceful approach with them. 

Finally, he decided to ask Nero what he wanted to talk about and leave the place afterward.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" 

"I want to know why you talked that way at that time," Nero said as he sat opposite Lucas. Everyone else was also seated in between Nero and Lucas on the L-shaped sofa invested in the conversation between the two.

"If by that time you mean during weapon selection with Instructor Liz or Masta as you refer to, then all I can say is that she was the one who started it."

"Masta?..wait..that's not important right now. Did you really have to do that at that time?"

Nero was a bit flustered to hear the word 'masta' which he always used as a joke but regained his composure right away and pushed Lucas for an answer.

He already knew that it was his master who started it, but he couldn't really blame her considering what Lucas did in the past.

Even he himself felt disgusted when he heard what Lucas did to Amelia so it was only natural that as a woman, his master would be even more repulsed to see Lucas.

Even so, he still felt a little annoyed upon seeing Lucas's blatant disrespect for his master at that time and couldn't help but ask about it. 

He had already wanted to ask about it in the previous session but he was too excited to remember at that time which led to the current situation. 

Oblivious to Nero's thoughts, Lucas continued to speak in a low voice with a dead serious gaze, unlike his usual empty look.

"Nero, I know very well how others perceive me and I don't blame them since it was my fault to begin with. But it's completely a different matter if others were to look down on me using that. And Instructor Liz Snyder is no exception."