Chapter 3: I’ve already rebated you
About twenty-some minutes later, the female staff member who had taken in his records stepped out of the work area.
"Mr. Erik, the inspection results are in."
Erik stood up and followed her into a small room behind the counter.
The staff member invited him to sit down, then placed an information panel on the table. Her expression still carried a look of remorse, and even a bit of awkwardness.
"After reviewing all the data, we’ve confirmed that the pairing system did make an error."
Erik wasn’t too surprised.
If the compatibility between him and Saraya had truly been high, she wouldn’t have rejected him to that degree.
The staff member continued: "The true compatibility between you and Saraya is only nineteen point three percent, which doesn’t reach the minimum recommended level to proceed with a connection."
Erik knitted his brows: "Then why did the system pair us together three months ago?"
"Your talent data is still in a locked state, and the System couldn’t read your core attributes." The staff member explained: "During the pairing process, the System automatically used your basic awakening metrics to estimate compatibility, which led to the wrong result with Saraya."
Saying this, she stood up again and bowed to Erik.
"This is a fault on the Center’s side. This matter has cost you three months, along with financial loss and a delay in entering the Trial Gate. We sincerely apologize."
Erik stayed silent for a few seconds, then asked: "How do you plan to resolve it?"
"First, the entire connection fee for Saraya will be refunded. In addition, the Center will take responsibility for finding a new match for you, and will raise your file’s priority to the highest level."
The staff member pushed the information panel toward him.
"We’ll do our best to pair you with a Succubus of good aptitude to make up for this loss."
Erik picked up the information panel and looked it over, then nodded.
He didn’t have overly high demands.
Even if the next Succubus wasn’t rank S, that was fine. As long as she truly wanted to connect with him, could help him open up the System, and wouldn’t betray him, that was enough.
If the other side treated him sincerely, he too would use his whole heart to treat her well.
Erik set the information panel down and asked: "When will there be a result?"
"You can head home first." The staff member replied: "We’ll start the pairing process immediately. Sometime today, the result will be sent to your email inbox."
"And Saraya?"
"The Succubus Management Council has already received the report." She said: "They’ll soon send someone to reclaim her, check her physical condition, and take her back to the management area."
Erik nodded.
That was for the best too.
He didn’t want to keep arguing with Saraya, and didn’t want to see her go hungry to the point where something actually happened inside his apartment.
After confirming that the procedure was complete, Erik left the Connection Center.
About half an hour or so later, he returned to the apartment complex.
The moment Erik opened the door, his hand froze in midair.
The living room before him looked as if a storm had just swept through it.
The small table was flipped over, and two chairs lay sprawled across the floor. A drinking glass was shattered against the wall, the TV screen had a large crack in it, and several pieces of clothing along with various items had been thrown all over the place.
Even the decorative photo frame on the cabinet had been smashed.
A flare of anger immediately blazed up in Erik’s heart.
The items in this house weren’t all that expensive, but every one of them had been bought with money he’d earned through backbreaking work.
Over these three months, because he’d had to take care of Saraya, his savings had nearly run dry. And now she had wrecked the house as if none of it had anything to do with her.
Erik drew in a deep breath, trying to press down his anger.
He shut the door, then walked into the living room.
Saraya was sitting curled up on the sofa, both legs hugged tight against her chest. Her blonde hair hung loose and tangled around her, her face still flushed from hunger, but her eyes as she looked at Erik brimmed with hatred and indignation.
"So you finally know to come back?"
Erik took a sweep of the room, then asked: "Did you do all of this?"
Saraya didn’t feel she was in the wrong at all, and instead sneered coldly: "So what? You left me all alone while I was in such pain. Was I supposed to just obediently sit and wait for you to come back?"
"That’s not a reason for you to wreck my things."
"Your things?" Saraya raised her voice the moment she heard that: "I’ve lived here for three months. Isn’t this place my home too?"
Erik looked at her, feeling utterly exhausted inside.
Saraya rose from the sofa, but the moment her body moved she staggered. She had to brace against the armrest to steady herself, then looked at Erik with reddened eyes.
"Do you have any idea how much pain I’ve been in?"
Erik didn’t answer.
Saraya continued to interrogate him: "You know full well that my Chains of Desire have been unlocked, know full well that I can’t use Energy Crystals to suppress it anymore, and yet you still left. If something happened to me, could you take responsibility for it?"
"I told you to sign a trial contract." Erik said: "You refused."
"Because I wasn’t ready!"
"Then I’m taking you back to the Center."
"What gives you the right to decide on my behalf?" Saraya shouted: "I just need more time. Can’t you be a little more patient?"
Erik looked at the pile of wrecked items on the floor, his voice going cold: "I’ve been patient for three months."
"Only three months!" Saraya immediately shot back: "I’m a rank S Succubus. Do you know how many men would be willing to wait for me? You were lucky the System paired me with you, and yet you can’t even bear this little bit of sacrifice."
Hearing that, Erik broke into a laugh, but there wasn’t the slightest joy in that laugh.
"You want me to keep feeding you, taking care of you, enduring your every fit of temper, and waiting for a day that even you yourself don’t know when it’ll come?"
Saraya bit her lip: "If you truly cared about me, you wouldn’t calculate over things like that."
"And what about you?"
Saraya froze.
Erik looked straight at her: "Over these three months, have you ever once cared about me?"
"I..."
"Do you know how many jobs I have to work to pay the rent? Do you know that my money is nearly gone? Do you know that because of you I’ve been delayed from entering the Trial Gate for three months?"
Saraya’s expression turned ugly, but she still gritted her teeth and said: "You’re a man. Isn’t doing those things exactly what you’re supposed to do?"
Hearing that, the last bit of patience in Erik’s heart also vanished.
Saraya seemed not to have realized it yet. She stepped toward him, her voice beginning to soften, but every sentence was still full of a binding pressure.
"Erik, I know you’re angry, but you can’t ruin the future of the two of us over a moment’s anger. I’m a rank S Succubus. As long as you keep waiting, sooner or later I’ll accept you."
"You’ve taken care of me for three months already. Do you really want all that effort from before to become meaningless now?"
"As long as you go back to the Center and tell them this was a misunderstanding, I can overlook what you did today."
She looked at Erik as if giving him a chance to correct his mistake was already an enormous act of charity.
Erik listened in silence to all of it.
Then, he took out his phone, opened the confirmation notice the Center had just sent him, and set the screen in front of her.
"There’s no need anymore."
Saraya frowned and lowered her head to look at the words on the screen.
Erik withdrew the phone and calmly said:
"I’ve already completed the rebate on you."
Saraya’s whole body went rigid.
She was like someone who had just been struck by a bolt of lightning, her eyes going wide as she stared at Erik, her face full of disbelief.