Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

Elizabeth donned on a blue sports bra and shorts combo as she fully expected diving back into the training life headfirst upon leaving the bathhouse; she had already savored in the pleasures of rest and relaxation for long enough. There, with her left arm and under her armpit, she held the slightly dirtied up clothes she had used in just walking over to the bathhouse. Along with her Armor Set, these two outfits would be spending quite a while in her room"s laundry unit…

Just when Elizabeth and Sun were just about to split up, with Elizabeth returning to her room on the female wing and Sun to his on the opposite side of the building, they were caught by Jane…

Jane deduced what had transpired within fractions of a second. Those two were still letting off some residual steam from the bath and looked "very clean." Furthermore, there were still some leftover drops of water clinging onto their skin.

Jane"s "knowing eyes" returned a deep shade of red on Sun"s head, as Elizabeth stayed completely neutral. Sun, hurriedly excused himself, as he truly wished to avoid this conversation with Jane, but as a result, Elizabeth now saw that she had more work to complete…

"You two… are a thing?" Jane asked, as her eyebrows twitched.

"No? It"s a unis.e.x bathhouse, isn"t it? Why can"t we just be two people showering at the same time?" At times like this, Elizabeth felt like cursing the stupidity of her American culture"s taboos. In some countries, people walked around barely clothed; sometimes, just because they could. But here, in her home country, even when going to a place marketed towards both s.e.xes sharing a s.p.a.ce for bathing, there was still a stigma attached to actually opting in on the unis.e.x aspect. It truly sickened her how overs.e.xualized everything was...

However, despite Elizabeth"s word choice reflecting that of a typical tsundere, with her apathetic voice and neutral expressions, Jane took her words as nothing more than literal. She thought it to be inconceivable given Elizabeth"s personality, but since this wouldn"t be the first time something absurd happened revolving her, Jane let it go.

"Right..." Jane said, waiting for Elizabeth to say something.

Naturally, even the asocial Elizabeth knew not to just walk away without a proper goodbye. Only at the moment… a certain someone had abandoned her when he was actually needed. Elizabeth didn"t hold it against Sun for running away from this obviously embarra.s.sing situation. h.e.l.l, if she were in his position she"d probably follow in his footsteps in an effort to not appear disturbed.

Now, that Sun was gone though, Elizabeth had to tell Jane of her plans, so she said, "Anyways, when we were bathing I asked Sun to do me a favor..."

There was a certain something within Jane that snapped as the thoughts of a lone boy and girl bathing together played out in her head. "A favor? IN THE SHOWERS? MHMMM???" These kinds of thoughts caused her to subconsciously blurt out, "OH? Pray tell!"

"I was going to… you didn"t have to cut me off..." Just when Elizabeth was finally starting to hold a normal conversation, Jane act of cutting her off made her turn down that evidently improving communicative ability of hers.

"Oh! My bad. Do go on~"

"Yeah... So, I"m going to request taking today off as well… Not feeling too good right now..."

"Did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d do anything to you..." The first thing Jane could think of, given the context of this situation was that Sun had been the cause of her "unwell feeling." And given Jane"s very imaginative mind, it didn"t take long for all kinds of torturous horrors to be imagined, depicting Sun toying with Elizabeth. Like that time Jane recalled the people from Jhan"s Gym, a cold and icy aura of rejection and hatred began to manifest around Jane as her imagination further devolved.

"Uh… no? I"m just not feeling too well… Sun"s a good guy. He not only did me this solid, he even risked his life to save me before..."

Luckily, Elizabeth"s words managed to quell some of that harsh coldness swirling around Jane, as the room began to gradually warm up again. Jane looked at Elizabeth not knowing exactly how she should describe her and Sun"s relationship. It certainly didn"t look like Elizabeth was into him, romantically speaking, but if anything, she did have a positive inclination when speaking about him. So for the obviously lovestruck Sun, this was a good start.

But then again, as a certain thought entered her head, "Wait a minute! Could it be that..."

Jane probed Elizabeth with a question to see if her thought had any meaning. She asked, "So, that favor you asked Sun to do was..." As she let her words drag on, Elizabeth naturally took the cue and finished her though.

Elizabeth said, "...to tell you and Atid that I wouldn"t be going down to the first floor for training today."

"f.u.c.k, It"s possible!!!" Jane"s mind screamed, as a part of her began to feel a little disgusted by a little mini version of Elizabeth with a twisted figure contaminated that active imagination of hers.

Jane thought, "Could it really be possible that she bartered her own body to get Sun to do her bidding?! NO! This girl looks so sweet and harmless, her personality is that of a shy and timid young girl. She can"t possibly the kind of wh.o.r.e that would sell herself for things of such little value!"

As one side of Jane"s mind went the extremely negative route, a different side did the complete opposite as she thought, "But, it could all just be mutual love! I mean, Sun is kind of her knight in shining armor, right? After spending a night at her place with Sun, it"s also entirely possible that she fell in love with him and thus doesn"t feel as shy around him as she would with others."

But as she thought things through, nothing really added up to where she could state with 100% confidence what the deal between Sun and Elizabeth was. "Still… her expression when leaving the bathhouse didn"t at all match up to his. It was almost like she didn"t even care if she was exposed in front of him… But that could just be because its Sun… AHHH, I don"t know..."

"Hey… Hey! Hey!!! HEY!!!" Elizabeth had been gradually increasing the volume of her voice as she called out to Jane, as she was getting tired of being stared at with the level of flux Jane"s face possessed.

"Huh? What?!" Jane asked. She didn"t expect to be greeted with a half-annoyed Elizabeth upon leaving her train of thought.

"Yeah, so I"m uh... going back to my room. See you tomorrow..." Elizabeth said, as she began walking away with her right arm raised; a sign of farewell.

Jane waved back as she stood contemplating this "very juicy" drama, before she too left to go about her business.

…

Back in Elizabeth"s room, after the overworked Elizabeth set aside her belongings: putting her dirty clothes along with the now virtually destroyed purse in the washer, setting aside her medical and forging kits, and cleaning up that precious Demonic Beast Egg of hers. Elizabeth followed through with her plans of exploitation as she ordered enough food to supply a starving village for over a month.

Naturally, meditation would be held off when spiritual meals, or Inner Strength potions, were available to her. Along with the purchase of food, her recent experience out and about, surviving in the Shadow Realm made it very clear, that it would be best if she brought out "a bit" more equipment.

"Heh," Elizabeth couldn"t help but smirk as she thought of the cool gadgets her family could supply her. She went over to her phone"s messaging app and scrolled down to find her last conversation with her father.

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.

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Elizabeth looked at her phone once. Then cleaned out her eyes and checked again. She kept rechecking over and over again, and even when she knew the message wouldn"t change she refused to believe what s.h.i.tty luck fate had thrown her now…

"Adrian! Not to surprise you or anything (let"s be real, you probably won"t read this) but the company"s had a very successful year thus far, and the board as allowed your mother and I to take a whole week off! Well, we also have to attend some corporate meetings that are to take place in Miami Beach, but you get the point, right? Anyways, the whole family will get together next month. See you then~" -Dad, July 09.

A look at the calendar revealed that it was Monday, July 16th. She only had around three weeks to prepare, before her family dropped by. "f.u.c.k me! Why"d they have to come so soon!" Elizabeth cursed. Moreover, a particular detail within the message brought with it even more unease. Elizabeth could only hope it was just her imagination…

She sighed, clearly there was nothing she could do to stall for more time, and after calming down, Elizabeth realized there wasn"t really anything she needed to worry over. It"s not like her parents would disown her for switching genders. Even if they did, in three weeks, there was no telling what kind of abilities she would possess. It was entirely possible that if it came down to the worst case scenario, with everyone abandoning her, she would be more than well equipped to living in the Shadow Realm.

And with Elizabeth being more inclined with pessimism than optimism, this thought indeed crossed her mind. As she envisioned being abandoned, thrown away to fend for herself, she didn"t grow fearful or even apprehensive. Rather, a cruel smile appeared on her face, as thoughts of how she would get back at them all after gaining more power clouded her mind.