"Wh-?!"Yunzhen took a step back in surprise. The man had suddenly disappeared from his sight. But he immediately realized that was a mistake.
Before he knew it, a hand had grabbed the back of his neck and plunged his face straight into the dirt. His hands were then bound together by a strange pair of handcuffs. He tried to struggle but to no avail.
"You--"
"Shut up.
Before Yunzhen could even speak another word, he could feel something injected into him. It didn"t take long before he fell unconscious.
"Phew..."
Cole removed the needle from the syringe and safely secured them in a ziplock bag. He then rolled them up and placed them in one of the numerous storage compartments of his coat and bound Yunzhen"s feet and gagged him just in case he were to wake up somehow.
「Hoo...!」
A sigh of admiration came from behind Cole. It was the woman who Yunzhen had called "Fairy Oracle" When Cole turned around, he saw that she was even silently clapping with her hands.
He didn"t see why she wanted to clap since what he just did wasn"t anything special.
"Who are you?"
The Fairy Oracle seemed to have shivered a bit due to Cole"s voice. But she quickly put on a composed expression and said.
「Aren"t you supposed to introduce yourself first when asking for someone"s name? So, who are YOU, handsome fellow?」
Cole got rid of the coldness behind his eyes and made them appear a lot friendlier. He then respectfully bowed and changed his way of speaking to a more formal tone.
"I apologize for my rudeness. My name is Cole Steward. I"m here from the〈Neutral Zone〉with orders from〈S.T.E.L.L.A〉"
「Hmm... Judging fro your appearance, you"re from the Western Branch?」
"Western Branch? And what would that be?"
Cole tilted his head slightly at the sudden mention. He had wondered once in the past if〈S.T.E.L.L.A〉had any other branches since it operated more like a company. It was also because Gaia was a very big place. One building couldn"t cover everything.
「You can ask your boss or something. Anyway, I"m the Fairy Oracle of the Azure Dragon, Sheng Weilan.」
"I guess that means that there are 3 to 4 more people with a t.i.tle similar to yours?"
Cole could guess such from the way she introduced to herself.
"But is it okay for a person with a t.i.tle as fancy-sounding like that to be here?"
The waterfall was easily accessible inside the forest. Maybe she had cast some kind of spell or she had some kind of protection from the Azure Dragon. Or maybe she just didn"t care that much. Whichever it was, Cole didn"t let it weigh on his mind too heavily.
「Correct! Anyway, have you met Xiao Zhujiao?」
She playfully smiled at Cole"s answer. The image of her being a carefree person was slowly being cemented in Cole"s mind.
"Little Zhujiao? Ah, you mean the one who we call "Male Protagonist?"
「Pff-- Well, I guess his name does mean that.」
Weilan let out a burst of laughter. She wiped the tears forming at the corners of her eyes away and got to the point.
「I told him that he would meet you and that he should probably follow you.」
"So that"s why he was staring at me with those kinds of eyes when we first met."
「What? Did you think he was a cut sleeve?」
"Well, no. A few of my companions did so. Is that all you wished to talk about?"
Cole wished to end the conversation as quickly as he could while making sure to not leave a rude impression. He never knew when he would end up coming back to the〈Huaxia Zone〉
That was one of the other reasons why he bothered to take the long route. He was able to gather a lot of information and meet a lot of different people on the way. Building up connections was a necessary thing anywhere.
「No, that"s it. If you come here to have a mission again, visit me! Or you could visit the other Oracles and meet their Guardian Beasts. Your girlfriend is doing quite the number on mine.」
Weilan pointed to a place east of them, and there he could see it.
They were quite far away so he could only see Felicia as a black figure. But Cole had a feeling that she had a crazy smile on her face.
Missiles flew across the sky and portals appeared left and right. The Azure Dragon sent numerous Qi blasts her way but she would just teleport them away or herself.
He started thinking if it was really safe for her to be near Eva but he then remembered that she had probably spent a lot more time with her than he has.
"Now that I think about it, although I had said that I wanted a proper family, I haven"t really been making the effort to deal with the one I have right now."
When Cole realized that, he felt... A bit disappointed with himself. He had made the time to show Eva all new and different sights. But that was just that.
He started to think back to the time when he told her just a little bit of his past. She was crying. She was crying just like a child abandoned by her parents. And she probably felt something similar like that when the other Cole was gone for so long.
What about her right now? It"s at most been a week since he left her with Val"s parents together with Lala. There was a friend she had there but during the day he was probably going to school.
This meant that she was left in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Cole could tell that they weren"t bad people but...
"Steward..."
Cole called out for Steward. He was probably the only thing that knew him so well. Steward knew that Cole could be very harsh with others, more so with himself. H tried to comfort Cole but--
〔...It"s okay--〕
"I"m stupid."
As Cole was left lost in his own thoughts, Felicia had injected something into one of the parts of the Dragon that was now void of scales with only its wounded pink flesh exposed.
She had injected it straight into the Dragon"s wound so it would obviously have some kind of effect.
The Dragon could feel as if something was squirming around in his body and started to flail around. But it seemed to be losing its strength gradually so it decided to at least try and take the human with him and dived down to the ground.
But Felicia opened a portal and made it slide towards Cole and Weilan instead.
*CRACK*
Loud cracks resounded throughout the forest with trees being felled and the ground being dug up due to the force of the Dragon"s sliding body. Eventually, it stopped right in front of Cole and the Weilan.
Felicia then hopped down and wiped her sweat off.
"Ah... That was tiring. I used a lot of my resources too..."
Cole snapped out of his thinking state and looked at her. It was actually only the afternoon and the bright sun made the sweat on her face glisten, making her face look like it was shining.
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She was beautiful. The person in question probably didn"t think so and just a.s.sumed that she was just a bit above average but she truly was. She probably had a few problems here and there but who didn"t?
He had made her choose two random cards one morning. Cole didn"t know why he did such. He may have just been a bit bored that morning or he wasn"t himself. Whatever the reason was, he did it purely out of impulse.
He gave her a few vague words and never explained it to her since.
"I had said that I had five years to make her fall or something..."
At the time, he was thinking about learning more about her as a person. But he realized that his words could have easily been misunderstood.
"...Felicia?"
"Hm? What?"
She answered almost immediately and turned her head to face Cole.
"...Do you remember when I had you pick out random cards?"
"Cards? Hmm... Ah! Yeah, I do. You still haven"t explained that to me yet."
Cole decided something. It might sound a bit selfish and a bit pretentious. It may not even make sense. But it was something he wanted to experience at least once in his life. For the him that most of the time, barely felt anything, he wanted to know what all the stories he would read would talk about.
"I said I have five years to make you fall, but that"s easy considering you view me as something similar to an object of worship."
"Yes."
She answered quite straightforwardly. She didn"t seem a single bit embarra.s.sed about the fact. In fact, she was probably bothered by very few things.
Cole didn"t know why she tried to act like a small animal in the past when in reality she was more like a wild boar that would charge its way into anything. Cole hadn"t confirmed such with her but he had a strong feeling that it was true with her recent actions nowadays.
"Let"s change it. Instead, you have five years to make me fall in love with you."
Her face stiffened and her eyes froze.
"Eh? What? Where am I? Have I been transported to some cheesy Chinese drama?"
"Wait. In no f.u.c.king way is that possible."
It was love.
Ever since his mother died, Cole felt that his ability to feel love died along with her. He could still feel a lot of other emotions although usually in tiny amounts but he couldn"t feel anything related to love.
Whether it be attraction, appreciation, grat.i.tude, contentment. Rather, it was more like he could no longer feel the majority of positive emotions.
But, he felt a tiny spark of that coming back after meeting everyone he"s met so far. It was very small. But, it was at least something.
So, Cole thought that maybe, just maybe. He might be able to feel the romantic kind of love that he"s never felt before.
And for his hope of achieving that...
"But..."
"There"s no other possible way that Cole would say such a... such a..."
Felicia bent her head down to avoid looking Cole directly in the eye. They were one of the things she liked the most about him. She could feel her cheeks redden slightly and she tried her best to not say anything. But in spite of her efforts, she couldn"t help but say.
"...Stupid thing..."