Chapter 165 165: So good to see you - part 2

“Hi~…Did you miss me?”

Aurora could not express how relieved she felt to see Ava here at this point. It seems as if a load had been taken off her shoulder as soon as the white-haired female had arrived at the scene.

However, not everyone seemed to be sharing the same opinion as Aurora. Natasha looked suspicious at Ava’s sudden arrival and so did Rita.

However, they both kept their feelings to themselves for the time being. It was better for Aurora as well since she did not have to pacify people.

“So, what’s the agenda for helping us? I suppose you have a plan if you decided to show yourself in front of us.”

Rita’s words were snapping. She was channeling the anger she felt at the thought of being betrayed by Ava.

Even if Ava had not ended up betraying their party, she had taken the initiative to leave their group without delay or warning. And that had been unacceptable to Rita.

“My my, such hostility. I would hate to see how I would be dealt with if I ended up betraying you people someday. I think I will be killed on the spot.”

Ava was teasing but her aura flared for just a bit. Seeing this integration gave Aurora a bad feeling. Something in her was telling her that she needed to stop this confrontation or something would happen.

Even Natasha seemed to be on guard all of a sudden.

‘This is not good. I need to defuse this situation,’ Aurora had noticed the tension that was not going down and so had Ava.

And thankfully, Ava had enough sense to not egg Rita anymore about this situation and back down calmly.

“Alright, that’s enough playing around. First of all, let me start by apologizing. To deceive you all was not my intention but it was necessary to fulfill the conditions of the bet I made with the overlooker of these floors.”

Aurora did remember the proxy of the overlooker saying something about a ‘bet’ they had made. It did make sense if Ava was the one they were talking about.

“That checks out with what I heard from the overlook before.”

Aurora butted in before anyone else could question Ava on her claim. Since Aurora’s words carried a lot of weight, they should help the other two clear out their misunderstanding.

However, instead of looking relieved, Rita and Natasha looked taken aback.

“You met the overlooker? When? And how? You should have informed us of such a huge development.”

Rita’s was the first one to explode. Just as Aurora had expected, the questions were fired in rapid succession and Aurora was not even able to keep up with them.

Even Natasha looked betrayed but understanding drew on her face when she thought more about it.

There were only so many people who could have contested for the spot of being the overlooker and still have only Aurora recognize them.

“Was it Huges? It felt like something was wrong with him when I first saw him but I did not want to overestimate my guess.”

“No, you’re right. It was Huges. Or rather, it was the overlooker who decided to use Huges’s body to meet me.”

Aurora had never wanted to keep this a secret from the other two but there had been no chance or need to air out her dirty laundry before.

But now that things had come to this, it was better for her companions to know of these kinds of things.

“Do you have any idea why she came to meet you? Was it because of the bet?”

Natasha was probing further into the truth. It was cute how she was trying to make sense of the things she knew.

But there was no need for the female to try so hard. She could ask Aurora outright and Aurora would not have lied to her.

“That might be one of the reasons for her to seek me out but I feel like she was more concerned about Aurora not paying her a visit in greetings when she arrived on this floor. It is customary for the divine beings to greet the overlookers when they enter their domain.”

Unfortunately, it was Ava who decided to spoil Aurora’s surprise. She delivered the news as one delivered a daily conversation – without thinking too much about it.

“What the hell? Aurora, do you want to tell us something.”

But of course, the news was not as light for the other two as it had been for Ava to deliver it. Rita and Natasha looked taken aback but not really shocked.

“So, surprise? I was not trying to hide this news from you-“

“-you totally were. But you were not good at it, so we figured it was something like that-“

“-but I had my reasons. Of course, you knew, How long have you known this for?”

Aurora felt her headache at the turn in the conversation. All she had wanted to do was to get her companions to stop doubting Ava, not to tell them the news about her status.

But it seemed like her companions had secrets of their own that they had not told Aurora about.

“It was not hard to figure out. I mean, Ava was an overlooker that no one else but the divine can meet so I took an educated guess and started observing you. Natasha just figured things out on the way.”

“I knew the first time I saw you. You were not really discrete in hiding your identity.”

Ah, that made sense. While Aurora had not gone out of her way to announce her status, she had done nothing to hide it either.

Someone was bound to find out about it sooner or later. She was lucky that the ones who had were keeping her secret to themselves.

“I guess I didn’t try that hard. Still, thank you for keeping my secret. I can’t afford to have my identity exposed.”

Aurora was thankful for having such good friends on her side. They understood her and even stood by her side.

And maybe they were becoming more to her as time passes. It was not ‘love’ yet but it was certainly something.

Something wonderful enough to even make Aurora wish to keep on living like this and forget her past.

“Now that we have everything out in the open I would like to say one thing. Do not lose focus and forget why you are doing all this. We have a task to complete and for that, you need to pay attention to your mission.”

Aurora felt a wave of coldness brew all around her at the sudden reminder.

‘You can’t give up now and leave Clove in her condition. Remember, you need to save her.’

The realization was like a shock to Aurora. Never had she ever entertained the thought of abandoning Clove before for her gain. Even the thought should have been impossible to come by.

‘Let’s not think about it anymore. This and that are unrelated. I doubt they would ever have conflict so I should not worry about it.’

“Ava, I would like to hear what you have in store for us. I am sure you did not come here merely to help us out of this situation. You knew I could handle this, right?”

Despite her holding back, Aurora was still a goddess, and handling this much should not be a problem for her.

“You are right. I did not come here merely to help you out but also to guide you ahead. You are not making any progress in gathering the information you require, right? So I send someone to gather it for you.”

“That someone already approached you with the offer, right? You should take him up on it and give him this the next time you meet him.”

Ava handed Aurora a familiar-looking necklace. It was the same one Aurora had given to the shopkeeper when she had first purchased the auction passes.

“I see. I won’t ask you how you managed to send a spy on these floors. I am sure you have your resources and are doing your best to help us out. But I do want to ask you how reliable your information is.”

“I would say following my lead is better than sitting around here and doing nothing. And I’m sure you were intrigued as well when that seller told you about the information he might have.”

Aurora had to admit that she had been interested in the information the salesman had offered her. And now that she knew he was reliable, Aurora wanted to find out even more about what he knew.

“Aurora, what are we going to do now? Are we going to follow Ava’s lead?”

Natasha sounded unsure but both she and Rita were going to follow her lead on this issue. It was all up to Aurora now.

“I understand. I guess we will be staying in the night market one more night.”

“Ah, that was what I wanted to hear from you. I will be going now so take care of yourself.”

With those parting words, Ava left the scene and so did the ghosts that were loitering around.