The City outskirts, An Abandoned small house.
This house is located in a very remote area on the west side of the city, behind a mountain and near a small river. There's no house nearby. But only forest and mountains. A narrow road, which seems to not have been maintained for years is leading to the road. A masked man suddenly appeared and entered the house, through this road.
From the outside the house seems to be in a very damaged state even several parts of the roof can be seen missing. But strangely the house is close from every area except for the roof which is broken. The windows are still there and do not have any scratches.
Even the furniture is still present in the house. Everything is covered in dust. The man hurriedly walked towards the uppermost floor and entered the master bedroom. He walked towards an old looking painting and tilted it towards right.
As if a mechanism has been triggered, all the furniture in the room slide away by itself and the middle area of the room was cleaned instantly. Then a magic circle started to shine brightly.
Seeing this the man hurriedly made a little cut on his finger and dropped some blood on the middle of the magic circle. Instantly the circle brightened even more than before.
With a flash of light, the man disappeared and the circle faded away. The furniture automatically moved to its original location and everything returned to as it was before.
This is how a short distance teleportation circle with blood recognition ability works. These type of teleportation circles have small teleportation range and several restrictions but are very fast and secretive. You can even add your or several other people's blood samples. This way only those specific individuals will be able to use this circle.
.
After the man teleported through the circle, he was in a dark area. He brought out a mana lamp to see the area. He started to walk through the dark corridor and after walking for about 15 minutes he was in front of a small gate.
Although this gate looks small and very frail but it is actually so durable that it can withstand an attack from a S rank individual. The stopped in front of the door and knocked with a particular rhythm. The door opened and the masked man walked inside.
There were several other similar masked men sitting around a huge round-table. The man also sat on an empty seat and remained silent. No one said anything and time passed. After 15 minutes the last person also came and finally the person sitting on the middle table spoke:
"Now that we all have gathered, let's start the meeting. Report your task completion status first."
"One, I have completed mine."
"Two, I have completed mine."
"Three, I have completed mine."
...
….
..
After the 10th person also reported, the middle person nodded his head and spoke:
"Good, all the work is going as planned. The person has also infiltrated the academy as planned."
"The plan will be carried out as planned before."
"we have to capture 'Lia' and 'Kira' before the chaos from the mana bomb dies down."
"There should be no mistake."
"We have to force both of their father to give up that artifact to us. Kidnapping them is the best method."
"Do anyone have anything to report?"
One of the other mask men suddenly raised his hand.
"Yeah, seven, what do you want to say?"
"I want to report that my lackeys have found that the girl Lia is seen frequently with a black hair kid. What to do if he gets in the way."
"Ah, about that kid…. just kill him if he gets in the way. There's no need for any hindrance in our way."
"Okay"
"Since no one else have anything to say then let's end the meeting?"
Others also nodded their head on the man's question:
"Okay then, the meeting ends here"
After the man ended the meeting, all of the people left the place, one by one. The actions were carried out in a very smooth and secretive manner.
It is clear this is not the first time these people have done the same thing. They are far more proficient in these secretive things to be called novice. All of these people have the rank of B+ and the middle person have the rank of A+. This can already be considered an elite team from any of the S rank guilds.
Although they would not be a match for and S-rank individual but any individual below S-rank can be killed if they work together, with such a well organised team.
.
.
The Freya Academy, Shopping area.
Rio was sitting on a desk, waiting for a certain someone to finally come out after wearing the dress, she chose among all the several dresses.
Thinking back to the moment they entered this shop. The lady at the counter gave a very gentle greeting to them and showed around the dresses. Just as Rio was having a bad premonition, it came true. He was bombarded by a huge amount of questions, about how the dress looked, how that one is etc.
Seriously, he was totally dumbfounded by the sheer amount of talking speed. In the end he was only able to just passively nod his head. Not knowing anything about dressing and fashion trends, he was completely beaten to the pulp in this fight, without even being able to say anything at all.
Even the passerby looked at him with sympathy in their eyes. Rio didn't know why the lady at the counter was smiling so much, as if she was enjoying a drama movie's romance scene.
'It seems this thing is more tiring than training.' (Rio)
Just as Rio was getting bored a familiar voice brought him out of his dream world:
"S-so, h-how do-does this l-look on me, its n-not like y-your opinion matters, bu-but I am ju-just asking." (Lia)
Rio looked toward Lia who was wearing a tight top and a mini-skirt with stockings. His mind instantly became blank and he was not able to respond at all.
"Wh-what i-is that expression, just tell me already" (Lia)
"cough! …. Well, you look really cute in this….. cough! But… cough! Isn't that too short…. Cough! I mean….. you know…" (Rio)
"Eh, what do you mean short?" (Lia)
Lia tilted her head in confusion, suddenly a small breeze of wind passed by and cough! .....
Instantly, Lia's face became bright red as an apple, and she ran away inside instantly:
"Idiot! Don't look!" (Lia)
"Hahaha…." (Rio)
After about half an hour of boring wait she came back in a new outfit. This time she is wearing casual clothes, yet she looks so damn good. Even the expressionless Rio can't help but stare at those huge mountains and curves.
Seeing Rio staring at her in such a manner Lia blushed a bit, but gave a glare to Rio and pretended to look fierce. Yet this only made her even more cute.
The shopping continued with several such small sweet and heart-warming incidents. Time passed and it was afternoon now. Rio and Lia decided to have a lunch in the nearby restaurant.
While both of them were sitting together, some passerby glanced and praised how perfect they looked together, but some looked at Rio with envious eyes, before they fainted from a certain someone's aura.
Just as the peaceful time continued two uninvited guests arrived. Obviously Fade and Kira has come.
Since there were no other empty seats left, both of them sat opposite, Rio and Lia. You can consider this meeting a mere coincidence or the play of destiny. But this is how the original mc, Fade and the biggest anomaly of this world, Rio met for the first time, face to face.
Rio remained expressionless, while Lia became cold in an instant, Kira and Fade, had an expression of surprise on their face. Yet they all sat together silently for a while. Before Kira broke the silence:
"What a coincidence, I didn't expect you to be here too, Lia" (Kira)
'As expected of the heroine she knows how to break an awkward situation' (Rio)
"I just happened to be here, it is indeed a coincidence to meet you, out of all people in the world" (Lia)
'Lia is really cold towards Kira, just like in the novel'
Hearing Lia's remark, Fade had a frown on his face.
'Fade and Kira should already be very close around this time-period, only a step away from becoming a couple'
"Why are you even here, since you knew I was here?" (Lia)
"well…." (Kira)
Kira didn't say anything further and her head depressed downwards.
'as described in the novel, Kira have caring personality. She still cares about Lia as a friend' (Rio)
Even in the novel, when Lia was on the verge of death, she still cared a lot about Lia. She even tried to negate the effects of Last villain's skill to save Lia, but she failed. Let's leave that story for some other day, and focus on the current situation:
Seeing Kira so depressed, Fade got irritated, as a mad-lover how can he stay shut after witnessing this scene:
"Oh, come on! Would you stop arguing with Kira, I am fed-up by your constant fighting with Kira!" (Fade)
"How can you not understand that it is already enough, I warn you not to trouble Kira anymore, otherwise- (Fade)
"Otherwise what?" (Rio)
Suddenly, Fade stopped and looked towards the person sitting beside Lia. This person had been silent since the start but now he is looking right in the eyes of Fade. Instinctively Fade felt something wrong about this guy.
He cannot describe this strange feeling which is making his heart beat very fast, making him feel uneasy. This is the very feeling Fade got when he was looking at that S-rank octopus during their trip. He can't help but become more vigilant around this unknown person.
"and who are you?" (Fade)
The next answer that the unknown person gave made Fade, Kira and Lia, all dumbfounded:
"Me? I am Rio Flash, a swordsman and Lia's boyfriend." (Rio)