Do you L-Lov..?

On Malia's request, Jason retrieved the three greater horned wolf carcasses, the vulture carcass, and the mutated black horned bison carcass, and she began her inspection carefully.

Her mother had asked Malia to be thorough and pay attention to the finest detail while reviewing his kills. She had considered the possibility that Jason might cheat, even if that wasn't the case.

Purchasing a five-star wild beast carcass wasn't difficult and her mother had somehow felt that he would take the easy way out. However, the first thing Malia noticed upon starting the inspection was that four out of five carcasses were killed with a single strike.

Only the vulture had a few more cuts and a larger wound at one of its wings.

After seeing that, she thought for a moment before she decided to scan Jason's mana core rank which left her baffled for a second as she regained her senses.

Looking at Jason, she asked with a serious face but in a slightly hesitant voice.

"You are only at the 4th Novice rank and you want me to believe that you defeated five five-star wild beasts?? According to the wounds, most wild beasts were killed with a single dagger thrust...I believe you don't have any evidence that you killed them, right?"

Greg's eyes widened and he pulled himself up from the floor, he was still lying on.

Standing up within a moment, he looked at Jason carefully with an incredulous face.

"WOAH! You're already at the 4th Novice rank… That's pretty fast." Greg said while smiling at him.

Malia looked at Greg as if he was the dumbest person she had ever seen and she was about to throw a fist at him when Greg continued…

"Didn't you break into the 2nd Novice rank on the exam day? You're pretty fast...haha."

She was way too confused to understand anything.

How could an almost 14-year-old youth, only be at the 2nd Novice rank on the exam day?

That meant Jason's mana control and sensitivity must be awful as he would only be able to sense mana for a short time.

However, considering the fact that he improved his level by two in such a short time told her that Jason was stuck at the first or second Novice rank due to a different reason.

Jason noticed her perplexed gaze and her eyes almost turned into question marks as he answered her unspoken question.

" I have been able to sense mana since a long time ago, but I couldn't improve my mana core rank due to personal reasons. Only approximately a week before the exams started, I was able to improve my mana core which resulted in my weak rank."

Clearing his throat, Jason added, "And you asked If I have some evidence...unfortunately I don't. The only thing that could constitute as proof, is a small injury on my back from the vulture. While I fought head-on with the vulture, the other four beasts were all ambushed by me with a grade-1 Jade Iron dagger."

After finishing his explanation, he took out his dagger from his morning hunt that still had stains of blood though some of it had dried and turned flaky.

Malia was deep in thoughts pondering about what to do as she decided to voice her thoughts out loud without holding back.

"To be honest, I'm not sure if you're really able to defeat a five-star wild beast, but the more confusing thing for me is the question- why exactly are my parents trying to help you get admitted to the affiliated school of the Vanguard school in Cyro city?

They owe you a favor, but that could have been solved with credits or through other ways… My mother said something about your eyes and I understand her slightly as I feel something unusual about them, but considering your rank and your soulbond´s strength, it would be almost impossible for you to survive in any of the affiliated Vanguard schools.

Furthermore, our reputation will be ruined once other nobles find out that we let someone as weak as you into one of Astrix's most prosperous schools."

Malia said, what had been bothering her for a long time though somehow she felt unsettled.

She didn't think Jason was lying but assassinating a five-star wild beast shouldn't be that easy for Jason and killing it with a single dagger thrust even less.

Except for the fact that his combat prowess was much higher than his rank...

Considering what Jason´s background told her, he was extremely poor, without anyone who could teach him about martial arts and Malia didn't know what to do.

"I´ll report everything to my mother and she will have the final say on this, ok?"

After she was done saying everything she wanted to, she tried to appear cold and unaffected but both Jason and Greg noticed her being uncertain.

Greg had always been uncomfortable with anyone except his own family since elementary school. Many parents had urged their children to befriend him because of his parents' business and wealth, a fact he had been oblivious to.

In the beginning, everything was fine until one day when a boy clashed with Greg and the facade had been blown off.

The boy who had clashed with Greg told him that everyone was after his parent's wealth and not a single friend of his was real.

The young Greg didn't want to believe it at first. But one look at the other children's innocent faces who had hung their faces low had crushed his heart. The fact that they didn't even try to deny it was devastating for the young Greg.

Some of them even acknowledged this cruel fact without hesitation which changed his mind.

Getting to know that he was only befriended because their parents had asked them to do so, shocked him. The revelation caused him to have a major setback and scarred his innocent mind. 

After realising the bitter truth and digesting the cruel fact, Greg couldn't help but feel left alone since that incident.

It took him a long time to even talk to his family as he blamed them for being rich.

But what could his parents do about it? 

They moved into a different city where Greg entered middle school but he didn't make a single friend.

He became a loner who ignored everyone's approach, seeing them as frauds before even getting to know them.

After some time, Greg noticed a blind youth sitting next to him in class, silently listening to the lectures, focusing solely on school.

He didn't mind envious classmates bullying him or treating him like trash because of his perfect grades.

Somehow, Greg grew comfortable around Jason with time and he kept the bullies at bay while asking Jason for advice about certain subjects once in a while.

Jason answered them diligently, but he didn't pay attention to Greg more than required. 

This was exactly what Greg had been looking for to find someone who wasn't trying to bootlick his or her way into a friendship. This made Greg somewhat happy and he began to secretly see the blind youth as a friend while Jason was oblivious to everything.

Jason thought that it was a mere coincidence that his classmates had stopped bullying him as Greg sat next to him in school.

He answered Greg's question because he felt a certain degree of gratitude towards him, but that was it.

Malia thought about Greg´s situation, which was the reason for her wavering eyes as she was happy that her brother had finally found a friend.

Even if she wasn't happy when Jason had told Greg to pick a different soulbond, in the end, it was fortunate that Greg had listened to Jason, which was all that mattered.

Their parents were also concerned about Greg and she hoped that they were as hopeful about Jason as she was.

It was the second time that Greg had noticed something different about his sister and both times were about Jason so he drew his own conclusion.

"WOAH sis!! Why are your eyes wavering...do you want Jason to follow us to school?? DO YOU L-LLo-v....."

Before he could end his sentence a small ball of water hit him square in the chest. The impact sent him flying in the air and he fell down on the floor a few meters away.

"You are embarrassing! It's not like that, Idiot."

⊙.⊙ Jason thought they were playing again so he didn't mind their words.

But upon noticing the strength of the small water ball, he was astonished and extremely terrified.

This unstable-looking waterball had the strength to blow away a 3rd Adept rank with a physically attributed first soulbond that was probably already at the low evolved stage, without much difficulty.

"Malia, if your mother doesn´t believe me or my capabilities, can you ask her if I can hunt another five-star wild beast while recording it?"

Jason smiled gently, trying to cover his insecurity.

Greg's sister looked feeble and beautiful but behind this facade was a ferocious monster. Jason was a little anxious about her wrathful outbursts.

Malia seemed to be at least at the Expert rank if not higher, but he couldn't really read her mana core rank as he had never seen something comparable.

She seemed to have a higher mana core than the teachers he had seen so far, but her parents and the old man were still a lot stronger.

Jason still asked Malia for the small favor if her mother wouldn't believe him.

He desperately wished to enroll in a high school in an A-Grade city as the mana density there would be multiple times higher, while instructors could help Jason with his martial arts.

Many resources would be provided against school merit points that wouldn't be as easily available to commoners without any achievements or a vast amount of credits.

Other than that, many other benefits could be gained through schools.

Greg´s family was his only way, but there wasn't anything he could do once his mother rejected him.

Even so, Jason was already grateful for the opportunity he received as well as the permission to master Heaven's Hell technique that they had given him.

If he were to be honest with himself, Jason didn't think he deserved this chance as he only asked Greg to pick a different beast as the first soulbond due to his gut feeling.

He could see the radiating color of the bull, but why should he care about someone he wasn't even close with?

Or were they close?

Jason wasn't sure about that… social interactions were still new to him and he didn´t know when exactly one could call someone else an acquaintance, friend, or even a close friend.

Jason stored the carcasses away after Malia finished her inspection.

After that, she wrote a detailed report to her mother.

Thinking that he should return home, Jason wanted to take their leave, when Greg stopped him.

Greg wanted to talk to him a little bit more about Cyro city, the Vanguard school, and so on, so he stopped in his tracks.

Hours passed and Jason left the Fler´s mansion after the three of them finished their talk.

Getting to know more about the affiliated schools of the Vanguard school, Jason was at first excited and then he grew more and more serious by the time he understood something.

He was pitifully weak…