After appearing before Lucas, Quinn cast an emotionless stare his way before curtly asking, “And why the disguise?”
“You can tell it’s me?” Lucas responded with a surprised expression.
“You may alter your physical appearance as much as you want but your shadow will always be the same,” Quinn replied, taking out his twin daggers from his waist belt and gripping them in his hands. “Shadows never betray.”
Things like these reminded Lucas just how creepy this guy was even in the story.
Like, what the fuck does that even mean?
How is Lucas supposed to make heads and tails of that statement?
So he did what any sane person would do. He completely ignored Quinn.
…Or at least he tried to but his curiosity got the better of him.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Lucas asked, his face contorting in a ridiculed expression.
“You won’t understand,” Quinn retorted, his gaze momentarily drifting before regaining its composure. “You won’t understand because you have yet to experience the pain of true solitude.”
As Lucas was about to burst out in confusion once again, Quinn voiced the questions weighing on his mind:
“That aside, how did you know that I was the second traitor? Because as far as I can remember, I didn’t slip up even once. Not only that, but you also somehow knew about the Istana Camp incident, which was suppressed in the news. How?”
As he heard him talk, Lucas’ lips curled up into a smirk once again. He couldn’t help but say:
“Just get to the point. I know the only thing you’re interested in is how I got to know about ‘her.'”
He waited a few seconds before speaking in a mocking tone, “Isn’t that right, Perfect Necromancer?”
Without a word, Quinn stared at Lucas with a fierce glint of rage present in his eyes.
Oh, boy…
If only looks could kill~!
“How?” after a moment or two, Quinn finally parted his lips and asked. “How do you know about her?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Lucas shook my head. “What does matter, however, is what I plan to do with this information.”
Gritting his teeth, Quinn asked, “And what do you plan to do with this information?”
“I will tell the Cadet Council, of course.”
Boom—!
Almost instantly, an intense, crippling pressure fell on Lucas, nearly bringing him to his knees.
‘Ahh fuck. It’s Mana Pressure.’ the fallen noble thought.
In response, Lucas clenched his jaw and enforced his body with his own mana, barely mustering up the strength to stay on his feet.
“I’m done entertaining you,” Quinn said, retracting his mana pressure and readying himself to attack.
“Wait!” panting, Lucas raised a hand. “How about we make a bet?”
Holding himself back from lunging at Lucas, Quinn raised an eyebrow. “A bet?”
“If you win, I’ll leave the academy,” Lucas suggested. “If I win, you will become my pawn. You will not act outside my orders ever and do as I command you.”
“Ha,” a scoff escaped Quinn’s lips. Before long, he broke out into a long, erratic chuckle, “Haha! Ahahahaha! Ahaaaahaha!”
Lucas patiently waited for Quinn to calm down, and when he did, he looked at the fallen noble as if he was looking at a brainless retard.
“Are you stupid?” Quinn asked, amused. “I can just assassinate you after we get out of this VR. With my skill, no one will be able to track me down as the murderer. Also, why should I even trust you? You can just go back on your words when you lose.”
Lucas massaged the bridge of his nose as he let out a sigh before answering with: “
Well, you can’t do that. Because for starters, I have recorded this whole conversation. So if I die within the next few days unnaturally, the first person they’ll suspect would be you.”
As he said that, Lucas couldn’t help but internally shake his head.
Really, this guy…
He fell for the oldest trick in the book! Wasn’t he supposed to be smart?
Lucas continued, “And besides, I have a detailed document in my docs app, which will automatically be sent to the Cadet Council if I don’t log in with my password every day. In that document, I have claimed that you have ‘her’ in your possession. You surely don’t want them to take her away, do you now?”
“You’re bluffing!” Quinn exclaimed. “That is the oldest bluff in the book!”
Yeah… Unfortunately, this wasn’t a bluff.
After seeing Quinn for the first time in this world, the first thing Lucas did was secure a way to ensure his own safety from this guy during his time in the academy.
“I could be bluffing,” Lucas shrugged. “But do you really want to take that risk?”
The grin on Quinn’s face was wiped out and all that replaced it was a troubling expression.
After a moment of contemplating, he spoke:
“If you don’t leave the academy even after I defeat you, I will definitely kill you without caring about the consequences.”
“Hey, believe me,” Lucas raised his hands. “I give you my words. And I always keep my word.”
This was one of the few instances when Lucas wasn’t lying in any way. Even in his past life as Noah Lambert, despite all his toxic and eccentric personality traits, he never went back on his words. This was perhaps the only redeeming quality of his.
After a few minutes of dreadful silence, Quinn nodded his head. “Fine then, I’ll play along. Besides, by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be so terrified of my sight that you’ll leave the academy on your own.”
Lucas didn’t give him a response.
There was no need to exchange any more words between them. From now on, they will let their weapons do the talking.
“Fuuuu.”
After a few seconds of silence, Lucas let out a deep breath.
Swooosh—!!𝑵𝑶𝓋𝐞𝗅𝗇𝖾xt.𝗰𝑶𝓂
Willing mana into his legs, Quinn lunged at Lucas with incredible speed.
Lucas didn’t waste any time either. He picked an arrow from the quiver on his back, imbued it with mana and nocked it on his bowstring before drawing it back.
Taking aim at the black-haired who was charging at him like a bull, Lucas released the string and shot his arrow.
[Thousand Falling Needles Strike]
The arrow that Lucas shot suddenly split into six azure darts and rained down on Quinn.
However, the Necromancer acted swiftly and firmly planted his feet on the ground to gain a footing.
With a single, powerful slash of his dagger, he obliterated all six azure arrows in a flurry of sound and motion.
Thwoosh—!
Dhak, Dhak, Dhak—!!
The arrows instantly disintegrated into fine particles of azure light, unable to withstand the force of Quinn’s strike.
“Is that all?” Quinn looked at the fallen noble with a smirk. “You think you can go against me with this level of strength?”
“Tsk.”
Lucas clicked his tongue and quickly took out another arrow but before he could nock it on his bow, Quinn’s figure disappeared.
In the next moment, to his horror, Quinn suddenly appeared in front of Lucas out of thin air.
“Fuck!” Lucas cussed, widening his eyes in shock.
Quinn, enforcing mana into his arm, planted his fist into Lucas’ abdomen and sent him flying a few meters back.
Thwack—!!!