[20 April 2023, 03:30 PM]

[Zaiden’s House]

Zaiden messaged me the address of his house. It was unexpectedly located near the Santa Monica Pier. It was a perfect place to open a training facility as many people passed the area, which made his family’s training area filled with Non-Awakeners who wanted to train their bodies.

Before going to Zaiden’s house, I changed my clothes into casual ones. Black pants and a white shirt; I also didn’t forget my Faker Earring on my left ear.

Chloe also changed her clothes into a white one-piece dress and black stockings. As an Awakener, she didn’t forget to bring her magic bag. I also brought mine and disguised it as a normal cross bag on my waist.

She was a bit anxious to meet new people, my ‘friends’ from the Academy. But I assured her that they were good girls, even though some of them were annoying. Like,… really annoying. Which led me thinking twice to bring her with me to Zaiden’s house.

We ended up spending around 10 minutes changing our clothes and me going through some doubt before we finally went to Zaiden’s house. We walked to his house because we didn’t have any vehicles. His house was a normal three story house, which was a bit taller than ours but still smaller in size.

Beside the house was a big building, a training facility owned by Zaiden’s family. The training facility had a sign ‘Archman Training Facility’ on a big billboard above the building.

Arrived, I pressed the doorbell beside the door, and the bell rang, followed by a voice immediately.

Ding Dong–

“Yes!” It was a familiar voice of Lily, which I heard almost every day at the Academy.

The door then opened and Lily, who wore a pink shirt and a short blue skirt, appeared and greeted us.

“Welcome, Vincent.” She then noticed Chloe, who stood beside me. “Ah! You must be Vincent’s housemate! Nice to meet you! My name is Lily Sonava!”

“It’s nice to meet you too. I am Chloe Dihart.”

When Chloe introduced herself, Lily’s eyes bulged a little. It was as expected, as Chloe used my last name in her introduction.

Honestly, I was a bit surprised too, because we never talked about this. I looked at her and caught her smiling sweetly at my surprised expression. I leaned against her ear and whispered.

“Hey, why did you use my last name?!”_-.

“Just because. I have no family name.” Whispered Chloe back.

‘Just because?!’ I screamed inside my mind.

This girl had made things more complicated. How did I explain it to Lily, who froze in her place? Well, let’s just bullshit things like usual.

Because it seemed like Lily wouldn’t be able to recover by herself, I clapped my hands loudly and called out to her. “Hey, Lily. Snap out of it and let us in already.”

“Ah!” Lily raised her voice in surprise. “M-My bad… Let’s enter first. The others have been waiting inside.” Then she gestured for us to enter the house.

“Yeah.”

Lily then entered first to show us the way inside the house. We followed her from behind while looking around the entrance. I noticed a family picture of Zaiden and Lily along with two middle-aged people, near the entrance.

In the picture, Zaiden was smiling with Lily by his side. They wore the Academy’s uniform; the picture must’ve been taken when they first entered the Academy. Behind them stood a man and woman that looked similar to Zaiden. The man had wrinkles around his eyes and brown hair that turned white in some parts.

The woman looked like a beautiful aunt. She had long black hair and a smile that looked similar to Zaiden’s.

‘So he did save his parents too. I guess so, knowing his personality. But… I never expected that they would move with him to Los Angeles instead of staying in Texas.’

But, seeing Lily in the picture was strange.

“Hey, Lily. Are you living together with Zaiden?” I asked her as she brought us inside the house, to the second floor by the stairs that were located beside the hallway near the entrance.

“Hmm? What made you say so?” Asked Lily without looking at me.

“I mean, in the picture at the entrance, you are there with Zaiden and his parents.”

Lily stopped in her tracks and looked at me over her shoulder when I mentioned it.

“Well, yes. I have lived with Zaiden since we moved to Los Angeles. It’s been around a year, I guess?”

“I see.”

“Let’s talk in the room, shall we? The others have been waiting to… chew you out, you know?” Lily smirked a little as she glanced at Chloe. “I mean… they will really be surprised when Chloe introduces herself. I can call you that, right?” She asked.

“Yes. Please call me Chloe.” Answered Chloe.

“Nice! They are on the third floor right now, inside Zaiden’s room. Follow me!”

“Zaiden’s room?!” How could they enter his room… But, once again… He wouldn’t even touch them even if they offered themselves.

“Fufufu. You will be surprised. His room is the biggest in the house, so I asked the girls to hang out inside.”

She didn’t say anything more and continued walking upstairs. We arrived at the third floor, and there were only three doors on this floor. All of them led to a bedroom because, in front of each door, there was a sign hung with the names of each person that lived in the house.

On the left side of the hallway was Lily’s room. On the right side was Zaiden’s, while at the end of the hallway was the Master’s bedroom, where Zaiden’s parents slept.

Without any hesitation, Lily opened the door on the right and yelled. “I am back!”

“Welcome back, Lily.”

“Did Vincent bring his housemate too? Please call them here!”

“W-welcome back.”

A few voices answered her back. They belonged to Zaiden, Lisa, and Shina, respectively. I didn’t hear Ao and Mirana’s voices, but when I peeked into the room, I saw them looking at each other seriously while holding cards. Mirana held one card while Ao held two cards. All of them were wearing casual clothes.

“Guh, welcome. Please don’t talk to me for now. I need to concentrate.” Mirana grunted as she tried to choose one of the cards that Ao held in her hand.

Ao stayed silent and only smiled at Mirana. She nodded her head slightly to gesture that she also couldn’t talk right now.

It seemed like they were playing some kind of game in the corner of the room, on a chair around a long table with the other girls. There were a total of ten chairs, five chairs on each side of the table.

Zaiden’s room was unexpectedly simple, but it was big. There was a bed in the corner of the room and a bookshelf beside the bed. To complete the room, a closet was placed right across the bed. There were various snacks and beverages on the table.

Lily entered the room and sat on the chair beside Zaiden’s, and conversed with Shina and Lisa.

Zaiden noticed me peeking from the hallway and approached me. “Welcome, Vincent! Thanks for coming to my house!”

“Yeah. I am here. I was surprised because you suddenly called me and asked me to visit your house. You didn’t even tell me the reason.”

“Hahahaha, my bad. But, where is your housemate? You said that she would tag along.”

“She’s here.” I pointed at Chloe as I stepped to the left to give her space.

She then greeted Zaiden. “Hello. It’s nice to meet you.”

Zaiden looked at her and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you too. My name is Zaiden Archman, Vincent’s friend.”

“I see. So you are Zaiden, huh?” Chloe asked curiously. She observed Zaiden from head to toe before nodding her head a little. “You are strong, but… you are still weak.”

“Huh?” Zaiden let out a surprised one and looked at me.

I shrugged my shoulders and sighed. “She compared you to me. She’s an Awakener, so she could somehow judge your strength.”

There was no other explanation for it, and there was no reason to hide it. As long as he didn’t link Chloe’s identity with the Hero, I had nothing to hide about her.

“Eh, really?” Asked Zaiden.

“Yeah. So… How long do you make me wait? Or, am I not supposed to enter?” I smirked and said it playfully.

“Hahaha, no. Please enter. We have been waiting for you.” Zaiden stepped aside and made way for us to enter his room. “You can sit anywhere in the empty chair.”

“Alright.” I entered the room with Chloe followed from behind. As usual, I sat on the seat farthest from the girl.

I had expected Chloe to sit beside me, but she chose the chair beside Lily, the one that Zaiden used earlier. As his seat was used, he then sat on the seat in front of me. Well, she could do what she wanted to do. I had something to ask Zaiden.

I looked at him and spoke.

“Y-” But, when I was about to ask him, a scream from the side interrupted me.

“Ah! I am done!” Mirana shouted as she smiled brightly. “Fufufu, Ao. I won!”

“Congratulations.” Said Ao.

“Fufufu! I am the best at card games!” At that moment, she noticed Chloe, who was looking at her curiously. “Ah! You must be Vincent’s girlfriend!” She exclaimed.

Chloe, who misunderstood the term girlfriend with a normal friend, nodded her head. “My name is Chloe.”

Lily looked at her strangely before turning at me with a gaze that said, ‘Are you dating her? Really?’

I didn’t answer her and only shrugged my shoulders as the girls started to ask Chloe about almost everything. Lily was also dragged with the question and didn’t have time to ask me anymore.

“Hahaha. They are really curious about your housemate.” Zaiden laughed as he looked at the girls.

“I can see that. More importantly, why did you call me here? You never called me before unless you wanted to have a spar.”

“My bad. But, I called you here mainly because of two reasons.” Answered Zaiden. “First, they want to see your housemate.” He said as he looked at the girls, who somehow got along with Chloe in no time at all.

Chloe also chuckled a little when she was listening to the girls’ stories about what I did at the Academy. They were talking about the rumors about me that spread in the Academy from what I gathered from their conversation.

‘… Why must they talk about that?’

Because I didn’t understand the girls’ conversation at all and why they were laughing at my rumors, I turned to Zaiden. “Then the second reason?”

“This is the most important reason, actually.” Answered Zaiden seriously. “I… I am thinking of leaving the Academy tomorrow.” When Zaiden said that, silence suddenly descended into the room, and the girls’ laughing stopped as they looked at Zaiden at the same time.

“Huh?” Mirana let out a confused sound.

Zaiden smiled wryly and scratched his cheek. “I called you here because I want to tell you that.”

I narrowed my eyes on him.

Mirana recovered from her shock, stood up, slammed the table, and shouted.

Bam!

“Why?! Why are you leaving the Academy?!”

The others nodded their heads as they waited for Zaiden’s reply.

“I…” Zaiden seemed to be hesitant. Maybe because he was not Awakened yet, he couldn’t tell them that he was leaving the Academy because he wanted to get stronger and prepare for future chapters.

“I…” He was still hesitating. I decided to help him.

“If you can’t tell us your reason, then don’t tell us. But, I hope you will tell us in the future.”

“But!” Mirana tried to chime in, but I stopped her with my gaze.

“He must have his reason,” I said seriously.

“Ugh…” She finally backed down and sat again. “I-I’m sorry for my outburst.”

Zaiden smiled and nodded his head. “I will. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

So he did arrive at the same conclusion as the original Zaiden. No, he might be forced to make such a decision because if he didn’t follow the original track, he wouldn’t be able to save the girls. He was afraid to change the future events, although he had changed the story when he was a child.

But, my plan was ready too. I would make sure that he would be able to save the world… Even if it meant that I would be needed to kill the ones that I called my ‘friends’ in this world.

‘It begins, the main story.’