Chapter 154 Founding Members [2]

Heavily silence descended.

Everyone was looking at me.

(Do you perhaps like acting cringe?)

('From today the person all you will be calling captain.')

(Couldn't have been more cringe even if I tried)

"Cough…cough… anyway, shall we start with introductions?"

"I'll go first."

Tristan stood up.

"My real name is Kaiser Tristan. My specialty is disguise and infiltration. Besides that.."

Tristan tore the skin mask he was wearing.

Everyone's eyes widened at such a technology. Skin masks weren't possible for various reasons.

But the greatest hurdle was that they needed to be undetectable, which wasn't really possible, as awakeners could easily see them with their high perception.

I was also shocked. The reason for my shock was different though.

'Is it me or was it real skin?'

(I think it's two of us.)

(That seemed like human skin.)

While everyone was still trying to digest the skin mask, Tristan dropped the bomb.

"I'm a vampire."

He opened his mouth, and his canines grew.

Other than me and Nerael who was sitting on my lap, everyone swiftly backed away and bought their weapons out.

Merlin started chanting a spell, and even Miller took out the shield. The twins were standing behind Miller, ready to rush forward and attack at a moment's notice.

Their eyes lost their previous friendliness, and they were ready to bring down Tristan at a moment's notice.

Tristan had a helpless smile on his face.

'I knew something like this would happen but this is worse than what I imagined.'

A fact that had been instilled in every human's mind since birth was: Every alien race is an enemy, all of them are invaders.

Common sense begged to differ. The Universe was too vast, and Earth was too backward for everyone to care about us.

But when every race that had ever contact with us immediately waged war, common sense no longer remained common.

Enough with the nonsense.

Tristan raised his hands to show that he was harmless, but the others didn't take it.

Merlin fired her spell.

"<Earth bolt>"

Pieces of rock jumped from walls and stuck to each other.

The magic circle shined fiercely and the earth bolt shot out.

From the time Tristan revealed his identity, not even 10 seconds passed, and the fight broke out.

Sighing, I called out to Nerael.

"Nerael"

She understood my intentions through our connection and, without a moment's delay, deployed [Anti-Magic Field].

The earth bolt turned into dust and finally, everyone looked at me.

"Sit back"

"B-but leader he's a vampire!"

Miller was shaking, and his eyes kept going back to Tristan.

The twins and Merlin were also nervous and anxious.

"I know. So, sit back."

The air in the room became heavy with tension.

It wasn't that those three were trying to go against me. It was the fear and suspicion against other races that was stopping them.

The situation showed no signs of calming down.

Just when I thought I would have to do something, Merlin came forward and sat down.

The twins tried to stop her; she was shaking more with every step she took closer to us but she still didn't slow down.

With a light thump, she was sitting in her earlier position.

Shortly, the twins looked at each other and came back.

Only Miller was left, however, he also sat down when I patted Nerael and she smiled at him.

All of them were back to their earlier position.

"Tristan is someone I know and can vouch for. You don't need to think of him as an enemy."

The three nodded their heads but I could see the hesitation in their eyes.

Nevertheless, this was all I could do at the moment.

It wasn't easy to stop following what has been instilled into you from birth. Eliminating their fear of Tristan would take time.

It was something that would happen naturally as they would together go through hardships.

"Then, we should continue"

Taking the cue, the bigger twin stood up.

"We are battle slaves who have been raised by the merchant. My brother and I are twins. While sister isn't blood-related she was the one who helped us grow and took care of us. Also…"

'I see. This is why they look different from her.'

But even that didn't explain Merlin's timid personality.

I wanted to check if she was acting or if this was her original personality, however remembering how her personality was in the novel I stopped.

If this was her original personality then good. If she was acting then even better.

Please keep up your act and don't reveal your true colors. I know you can't harm me but I'm still afraid of you.

"..we don't have names. Master, please give us names!"

The bigger twin banged his head on the forehead, which was immediately followed by the other two.

"Please, master we will d-"

"Elliott, Emmett, and Evelyn"

"W-what?"

I frowned.

"Since you are siblings I chose matching names. You don't like them?"

"Y-yes, we do!"

'Why are banging your head if you like your names? That makes me think you hate it so much that you'd rather die.'

The siblings were happy and relief washed over their faces.

It seems that giving names to slaves was a big deal. Though it didn't matter to me as Evelyn, or Merlin, was too precious to ignore.

She was going to become my goose that lays the golden eggs.

The twins were also not bad. They have better than decent combat skills and still held room for growth.

Finally, Miller stood up.

"As all you know I'm Miller. If you want to know anything else then all you need to know is that I'm the first member, as such I'm everyone's senior except and directly under Leader."

He spoke with his chest out and bragged about his non-existent rights.

Miller too had worked hard in the tournament. Taking that in mind I decided to let him enjoy being a senior, for at least now.

After finishing the introductions, the group engaged in small talk.

Tristan was still a little isolated.

Evelyn was talking with him and trying to bring him into conversations, not that it helped much. She was stuttering with every sentence.

The others were also trying to push themselves and mingle with him.

"I will be leaving for a while then."

I stood up and excused myself.

It was time to check my sweet loots from the tournament.