The Greed of Kronos

A week later

Fifty-two: A week later

Hearing this, Naouii nodded as she seconded with a serious expression on her face. “I agree. After all, it’s the Epitropi’s purpose. To hone our potential.”

Lord Dio, who was silently listening to them, finally had the urge to go inside his cabin.

Thus, he ended their conversation by making things done. “That’s the spirit. So what are you all waiting for?”

Hearing this, Aeria and the others were left dumbfounded. “Pardon, Lord Dio?”

They were in the middle of a serious conversation on how to get stronger, yet someone would just cut them off with an ‘i-wanna-go-inside’ plastered on his face.

“Hurry up and get inside. You are only allowed to go out of the premises if I fetch you. That way, you will not starve.” Lord Dio shooed them away with a scowl. His both hands were on his back as he turned around to go back inside the cabin.

Well, in any way, they can continue their conversation inside so no one makes a fuss.

Seeing this, Lady Carmilla shook her head as she smiled warmly before looking at the class and bid her goodbye. “I will be with you until the end of your Epitropi. Meaning, I will cook delicious foods for all of you. Hence, do your best with wiping down every monster lurking in our backyard.”

Hearing the word food seemed to get their energy up, that they nodded with confidence and excitement. With that, Lady Carmilla slowly turned around as Sir Samael guided her inside the cabin.

When Lord Dio, Lady Carmilla, and Sir Samael were long gone, Mikhail then heaved a deep breath before he shifted his gaze towards his classmates and moved them with a determined look on his face. “All right. We got this!”

“Yeah!”

“Let’s go!”

And with that, the Exi class entered the hotspot area, and the first thing that welcomed them was an overwhelming number of monsters. Because of the surprise attack, the team got split into two and failed to reunite as a whole because of the illusion that the monsters did to the place.

Hence, they did not have the choice but to wait for Lord Dio to pick them up so that they could reunite once again. The only thing that they did was to kill every monster that they could encounter along the way.

As they were split into two teams, the ones who were along with Kronos were Sarlienne, Artem, Kallen, Artem, Luca, Ajax, and Naouii. While the other team was Astian, Yohan, Mikhail, Inoa. Aeria and Asisi.

Each team did everything to clear the monsters and waited patiently for Lord Dio. They also hoped that the more monsters they kill, the greater the chance that all of them could be in one piece.

That was why they waited and killed, and waited and killed, and waited and killed. And the more they go deeper, the noisy the screams are, and the more it reeks. However, over the past few moments that they had together, everyone seemed to be immune to the noise and the stench that some would no longer cover their ears or throw up by the smell of rotten corpses and blood. Moreover, they could no longer distinguish what was stinky or if there was really a train of wailing souls beside them.

They did not only trained their potential to be more good, but they also train their mental stability in case they could encounter the same in the future. The same routine was being practiced up until there were only two monsters left.

After killing the two corrupted monsters, Lord Dio appeared right in front of their eyes. And together with their appearance, the two teams were merely standing beside one another. The foggy place became apparent, and the trees and grass suddenly became alive.

As soon as they reunited outside the gates, Kronos noticed that the once horrible aura was long gone together with the screams and the pungent stench of blood.

After that, Lord Dio held a feast for them and explained that the illusion was not done by the monsters but by himself as he was confirming something. And the most shocking part was that they were actually inside the mysterious place together with their familiars and killing monsters in a span of one week.

“What?! That was a week?!” Asisi replied in shock as soon as Sir Samael explained what happened while they were busy killing some monsters.

Together with Sir Samael, Lord Dio, and Lady Carmilla, the class was currently inside the cabin and were leisurely eating at a long table. The feast was purposely prepared by Lady Carmilla to show her appreciation towards the Exi, who wiped out the entire gang of monsters inside the hotspot area. The garden in the backyard was becoming more and more lovely in a span of a week because of them.

“As I have mentioned before, there’s a difference in time in the real world and in a lair a monster created.” Sir Samael replied before he took a bite of his food.

It may have been a few days for the kids when they were inside the hotspot area, but it was already a week ago when they got to the other side.

“No wonder I am very hungry!” Luca laughed as he had a chicken on the one hand and a beef on the other hand.

Who would not be hungry? Lord Dio told them himself that he would be bringing over food. But in the span of a week, there were no signs of him coming over to see them. Perhaps the thought that they were separated from each other and survival dominated over hunger that they did not feel that much famished at the hotspot area.

They only felt hungry when Lady Carmilla welcomed them with a plate of meatballs in her hand and then had a feast later on.

“Are you not hungry all the time?” Aeria jokingly replied that made the others to tease Luca too.

The table was full of chatters and laughter that even the serious Sir Samael joined in as he somehow missed the kids over the past week.

And when they had already emptied the meals that were prepared, the kids slowly started to stand up and leave the dining room.

As if it was a routine, when Kronos stood up, Ajax, who was eating on his left side, clung onto his arms and let himself be dragged by Kronos.

Everyone who saw it was agape. Even Yohan was left dumbfounded as Ajax would supposedly cling onto him and not Kronos. Just what happened over a week?

“Ah eh? What tandem is this?” Artem asked as he slightly tilted his head, letting his hair prettily get down together.

“You got yourself another man, Ajax?” Inoa replied as she was enjoying the view in front of her with her usual frowning expression. The thing was, a snicker crept in the side of her lips.

Looking at the situation where Kronos was staring at Ajax with the usual blank expression while Ajax was staring at Yohan with the same expression Kronos was making as he continued on clinging to Kronos’ arm. No one could really figure out what the two were thinking.

The only clear reaction was from Yohan, who was panicking as if he was searching in the pits of his brain if in any way he made Ajax upset. The other person was Astian, whose pupils shrank abruptly as he looked at Kronos intensely as if telling him what was happening. “What is that?”

In the span of one week, when they were separated, Ajax would cling to other people whenever they would be walking and resting from fighting against the corrupted monsters. It was at first the most comfortable person, Sarlienne, and then leaped to the other person. No one complained since they were aware of how clingy Ajax was and that the person who would always take care of him was separated from him. At that time, everyone treated Ajax as a little brother and pampered him with skinship.

Now, who would dare explain the situation when everyone from the other team already misunderstood? They would not spoil the drama being placed on a silver platter, of course.

Unintentionally, on their last moment in the forest, Ajax was clinging onto Kronos as it was the latter’s turn to take care of their baby brother. And then that was what brings them to the present, where Ajax was clinging on Kronos’ left side while Astian was looking at the situation on Kronos’ right side.

After saying those words, Astian pulled Ajax away from Kronos as he looked at Yohan and retorted. “Yohan, here’s your man. Pick him up.”

With that being said, Ajax looked at Astian with a pout as Yohan came closer to him. “Since when did I become a thing? I’m a little brother.” When he uttered those last words, Ajax tightened his grip towards Kronos, who was stuck in the middle, unable to do anything.

Seeing how stubborn Ajax was, Astian, for the first time, scowled as he looked at Kronos, who abruptly flinched as soon as they met eyes. “Kronos, who do you love?”

“You.” Kronos immediately answered without any hesitation.

Hearing this, Astian’s frown faded away at once, and he shortly showed off a beaming expression on his face. “Now that’s reassuring.”

While Kronos was breaking in a cold sweat, Ajax was laughing internally as he was enjoying the drama in front of him. But enough is enough. He was already satisfied. Thus, the cunning vampire dropped his ‘little brother act’ once and for all.