Talk with Anastasia

Previous day.

Just like the last time, Lucas's group decided to meet once again right when Lucas was about to take a nap.

What was strange, however, was that it was Anastasia who contacted him this time.

In his entire group and all the potential main cast he considered, she is the one who is most shrouded in the mystery.

From the very first day when he saw her from far away, he felt something strange about her. Lucas felt something similar about her but couldn't exactly point out what it was.

Lucas had already looked into her past but couldn't find anything strange about her. If anything, considering all the other main character's past, she was the only one who was the most ordinary.

There wasn't any tragic past nor did she get into any sort of trouble.

The only thing that stood out most about her, was her appearance. In fact, seeing her past made Lucas doubt his own hacking skills.

And there was a definite reason behind Lucas's suspicions.

Until now, all the main characters he had confirmed had some kind of past that had shaped their character and skills.

The one who wrote the fate was clearly obsessed with giving some kind of trauma to its main cast and considering that, it was suspicious that Anastasia had led such a peaceful life.

Even disregarding these doubts, Lucas still wondered what was that feeling he felt at that time.

Ultimately, Lucas decided to think about it later and decided to join the meeting. No matter how much he wanted to avoid them, he couldn't simply ignore them and let the team lose their points.

******

"Ah, There you are."

Right after getting out of the elevator, Lucas heard a familiar voice calling him from the front. When he looked at the source of the voice, he spotted a familiar black-haired girl with golden eyes walking towards him.

It was Anastasia.

Even after she stood in front of him, Lucas simply stared at her and didn't say anything. Noticing Lucas's wariness towards her, Anastasia gave a peaceful smile and tried to reassure him.

"Relax, I am not going to do anything. I just thought we could go together to the group."

Obviously, Lucas wasn't buying it. She definitely had a reason for meeting him like this.

Who knows, I might even be able to remember where I felt that same feeling I got from Anastasia.

"Let's just get going." 

Lucas decided to go with her and started walking towards Nero's room. Anastasia immediately followed him and started to walk beside him.

For a while, both the parties kept silent as they waited for the right moment to speak. Eventually, Lucas was the first person to speak.

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

"What do you mean?" Anastasia narrowed her eyes at Lucas's question as if she didn't understand what he meant.

"Don't play dumb. I know you have something you want to ask me. Otherwise, you wouldn't be waiting for me."

Anastasia's eyes widen at Lucas's answer. It seemed that she hadn't expected Lucas to figure out her intentions.

"To think you were able to realize the meaning behind my actions, color me surprised."

"It wasn't anything difficult. The fact alone that you wanted to walk with me given my reputation is more than enough for me to be suspicious towards you."

Anastasia was initially surprised to hear Lucas's explanation but after she gave it a bit of thought, she realized that Lucas's words were indeed true. Since there was no use playing dumb anymore, Anastasia decided to come clean.

"Yes, you are right. I have something to talk to you about and that's why I decided to meet you like this. I just didn't expect you to be this smart."

"Well, I don't know whether you know this or not, but I was once hailed as a genius prodigy because of my intelligence. Something like this is easy for me to figure out."

This was indeed true.

Even before Lucas had regained his previous life memories, he was quite smart and had very high intelligence stats.

If he had not wasted his life behaving like a delinquent, he might have become one of the smartest people in this generation.

"So, what is it that you want to talk about?" Lucas asked once again.

During this entire time, Lucas had not once looked at Anastasia.

He wanted to give the impression that he didn't care about what she had to say. This way he could extract more information from her without needing to show his hand.

Anastasia was not smart enough to understand the meaning behind Lucas's actions, but she was indeed feeling a little restless at his indifferent attitude. It was as if it didn't matter what she had to say. And this was exactly what Lucas wanted to accomplish.

"Well, I wanted to ask if you knew anything about what happened to Chris at that time."

This is what she had been curious about the whole time. She still wasn't able to figure out why her eyes hurt at that time.

At first, she thought that it was just a coincidence and there must have been another reason.

But she still couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that Lucas must have done something. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense that Chris fell silent for no reason.

And it would be too much of a coincidence for her eyes to hurt for another reason at that same time.

"Chris? Who is he?" Lucas asked as he couldn't figure out what she was talking about. 

He had expected her to say something that might have been a clue to figure out what she was hiding but didn't think she would talk about someone else entirely.

"You don't know him? He was the one you fought with in class." 

"Oh that guy, I almost forgot about him. So, what about him?"

Anastasia's lips were literally twitching at Lucas's attitude. Even with her carefree nature, she found it hard to deal with Lucas who didn't seem to care about anyone. 

At first, she thought that Lucas was just indifferent to every one. But he turned out to be much worse than she imagined. Rather than being indifferent, this guy cared for no one else but him. 

"Do you know why he turned silent in the middle like that?"

Oh, that's what this is about. But no one should have noticed what I did back then. Is she just curious or did she notice something when I silenced him?

Although Lucas has yet to be sure, he knew that the latter reason was right. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so discreet about asking that. 

I guess it's best to play innocent here.

"I don't know and I don't care. I mean, shouldn't you be asking the person in question instead of me?" 

Anastasia fell silent at his words. That's because she couldn't come up with a proper retort to his statement.

Lucas was right when he said that she should ask Chris instead of him. But if she were to keep on persisting Lucas for answers then she would have no choice but to reveal her secret.

Ultimately, she decided to give up and forget about it. 

"I see. Sorry, I asked something weird."

After that, both of them were completely silent till they reached Nero's room. Lucas stood in front of the door and was about to knock before he turned towards Anastasia.

"By the way, there is something I wanna ask you."

"Hmm? What's this about?"

Anastasia shot him a wary glance and backed away a few steps. She may have walked alone with him since she had a question she wanted to ask, but not once did she forget Lucas's nature.

In her eyes, Lucas might as well be the natural enemy of all women. And unlike others who believed that Lucas was weak, she knew there was something strange about Lucas.

She may be stronger than him now, but she didn't want to take any chances and was thus completely on guard.

Lucas understood the reason for her vigilance and didn't mind her attitude one bit. If anything, Lucas was relieved that there was at least one person who wasn't a pushover in the main cast.

"Since I answered your question, shouldn't you return the favor?"