Chapter 140: smile

Chapter 140: smile



***

Arthur stood up and looked around.

"Looks like Athena isn't back yet and nor is Amelia here." He put his hands to the waist.

Suddenly, his gaze moved to Amon's hand and the latter saw his eyes widen in shock for a second.

But they returned to normal a second later.

"That's quite a big leap, Amon. I'm impressed." He said, leaving Amon baffled.

'Did this geezer just call me by my name for the first time?'

He was unable to reply back with anything.

Then, Arthur yawned.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go find her, you stay here. They should be back any second." He waved and disappeared.

Vain pulled on Amon's arm.

"Who is that?" It asked, its gaze shivering.

"That human....he's a monster, an abomination." It hissed.

Amon shrugged.

"Like I said, you never want to go against him. Even in a million timelines."

He would explain more, but currently, he had a more important thing to focus on.

Shaving off the distraction, he returned back to the main point and quickly opened the [Quests] tab.

======[QUEST]======

Objective: Resolve the Smile incident.

Time Limit: 7 Days

Reward: [Body Curation] [Revival of Zephyra]

Penalty: [Death of Zephyra] [Removal of Void]

Status: [Completed!]

Amon looked at it with a satisfied gaze.

He noticed that the ??? part of the previous version had been removed and changed to Smile

now.

But now that it was completed...

He gulped, his gaze moving to his arms where he unwrapped the bandages.

And his eyes widened.

The cracks...

They were gone.

His arms...

They were completely back to normal.

He wanted to almost scream in joy but then he remembered the main part.

Where was Zephyra?

Why hadn't she appeared yet if the rewards were given?

He turned anxious and worried as he wasn't able to see any sign of Zephyra.

But then, an idea came to his mind.

He quickly turned to Vainglory.

"Can you go inside my body?" He asked. He knew that the snake had told him this before but he wanted to confirm it.

And it nodded.

"Hooo..." Amon inhaled.

He could only hope that this would work.

Since Vain could go inside his body and Zephyra was previously inside his body...

Then.

"Please go inside my body." He requested the snake and with a hiss, the snake passed through his chest.

A swirling sound echoed in Amon's ears as it passed through.

Swirl!

"Okay huma- Amon, I'm inside your chest now."

Amon gulped.

Here goes...

"Can you feel another presence inside my body? Like an entity or any kind of organism?" He

asked.

"Hmm."

Amon's heart thumped against his chest loudly as each second passed.

It felt as if an eternity had passed when Vain finally replied.

And his reply...

"Yes, I do."

Brought life back to his chest.

"It's an individual. They look to be in a hibernation state. Though they look human, I know

I'll be dead in a second if I head closer." Vain explained.

From his words, it was confirmed that it was Zephyra.

Even blatantly rejecting the boys who confessed to her without a thought?

Something that earned her the nickname of 'The Untouchable Rose'.

Both because she loved roses and the fact that despite being the second most beautiful person

in Eldergrove, she was only supposed to be admired from afar.

Not to be touched.

It was then that he realized.

Yeah. It was because of his sister, Katherine.

Just like Amon, Michael, and Ren, they were also a group consisting of Alice, Katherine, and

Amelia.

All of them were leaders of their respective committees and best friends, often seen hanging

around.

The only reason why he only saw Alice and Katherine near his apartment was because Amelia

lived with Arthur.

Not in the student block.

She probably already knew about him even before their first meeting with Katherine.

Which also partially explained her attitude towards him.

After all, in the novel, Michael was a complete stranger to her.

"Huh?" Arthur questioned and raised his brows at their interaction.

Amon suppressed a shudder.

'Fuck, take this daughter-con away from me.'

Fortunately, Athena was quick to change the topic.

"You are healed?" She questioned and Amon noticed her gaze on his arm.

The sleeve had fallen back when he reached out to stop Amelia.

But it wasn't anything secretive so he nodded.

"Yeah, It was healed after I woke up." He told her.

"I see-" She was also about to move on when she saw the 3-leaves mark on his wrist.

Her eyes widened just like Arthur's, unable to utter a word from her mouth.

Amon even thought he heard her mumble.

'Monster...'

But she composed herself a minute after.

"I can see that you advanced to 3rd order. That's a monstrous growth for your age." She

praised him and he nodded.

"Anyways, let's get back to the matter." Arthur leaned in.

"I'm sure you know what happened inside that dungeon?" He asked, looking deep into

Amon's eyes.

For a moment, Amon telepathically asked Vain if he could tell them the story.

And to his surprise, he agreed.

[Go ahead. I don't see any harm in that.]

And yes, there wasn't.

It was already contracted to Amon so there was no way those guys could harm it anyway.

And so, he quickly explained the whole story from start to finish to the trio.

Even Amelia listened attentively, her eyes occasionally widened at his display of strength and

the reveal of elements.

This confirmed for Amon that except for Athena, he told about his elements to no one.

Just like he had expected it.

Of course, Amon omitted some parts and changed them, not wanting to tell them about it.

Parts that Arthur easily knew were lies using his monocle but chose to say nothing about

them.

Even he knew that people had their secrets.

And when he was finally finished, Athena and Arthur leaned back on the sofa, as if pondering

about something.

Before eventually, Arthur's serious voice came through, something Amon never heard.

"Good job kid."

He stood up and walked over.

"Knowing about this, I don't regret picking you up back then." He was referring to the Daniel

incident.

Then, his hand reached out and affectionately ruffled Amon's hair.

"You've been through a lot haven't you?" He asked, subtly hinting to Amon that he knew

about the pain that he went through back there. Pain that he didn't tell in the story he narrated to them.

And in that subtle moment of silence, Amon felt as if Arthur was the only person able to

understand his pain.

He hung his head low and silently muttered.

"Yeah." A reply that could only be heard by Arthur and Amelia, who were near him.

I forgot to mention this before but this arc was inspired from the horror movie, The Smile. If you want, feel free to check it out.