Chapter 149: The danger
"Have you told your family that you will be going on an S-Ranked quest?" Raphael asked, his tone serious.
"Not yet," Vlad replied. "I will send them a letter once I reach the requirement needed to accept it."
"The students need their parents’ permission to accept S-Ranked quests," Raphael explained, adjusting his monocle. His eyes shifted to Vlad’s mature figure as he continued with a sigh, "But since you are already an adult, I don’t think a permit will be necessary. Still, students lose their lives on S-Ranked quests. You should inform them."
’Although he is a bit uptight, he seems like an honest person,’ Vlad murmured inwardly before replying, "I’ll send them a letter tonight."
"And have you told Chloe?" Raphael asked.
"She was the first person I informed," Vlad replied, stating the obvious.
"That you may lose your life during the quest?"
Vlad’s brows furrowed, a flicker of annoyance crossing his face. "She doesn’t need to know that," he declared. "Every quest comes with its own dangers. It will only cause her needless worry."
Vlad was about to rise from the sofa when Raphael continued, "It is not my place to say anything since it is between you and her. But I think she deserves to know what you are getting yourself into.
When I first met her and took her to meet the other members of the Discipline Squad, she barely said a word other than yes or no. However..." He chuckled before revealing, "One of the squad members asked her about you, the Crownbearer, and she became a completely different person. She began explaining what an incredible person you are, that you are the strongest of your generation, and even that you would become the Legendary Knight.
A few members laughed at her claims. She became furious on your behalf and was ready to throw hands over their disrespect."
Vlad could clearly imagine Chloe getting furious, shaking his head as he pressed a hand against his forehead.
Raphael adjusted the monocle over his eye, an old habit, as he continued, "I had to step in to keep the situation from escalating. But Chloe refused to let the remarks go unpunished. In the end, it was decided that the members who spoke negatively about you would pay for the whole squad’s dinner at the cafeteria."
A soft laugh escaped Raphael’s lips as he recalled the scene. "Perhaps to get revenge on the boys who made fun of you, she ate several days’ worth of food, shaking their budget. She wanted to invite you as well, but her phone was dead."
’If only you knew that it is just her regular diet,’ Vlad thought, hiding his face behind his hand as he felt like an embarrassed parent at a parent-teacher meeting. ’So this was what happened when she said she had dinner with Raphael.’
Despite the embarrassment, Vlad could not help but smile at how she stood up for him despite the discomfort she must have felt from becoming the center of attention she always avoided.
"My younger sister, Aria Starveil, is in your batch," Raphael said, pulling Vlad out of his thoughts. "She is also an introvert, to the point that she doesn’t even talk to me more than necessary. Every time I meet Chloe, I see my younger sister in her."
His tone turned serious, a bitter smile lingering on his lips. "As an elder brother, I wouldn’t want Chloe to learn from someone else about the risks of your mission. She cares deeply about you. So I suggest you tell her yourself."
He rose from the sofa, tapped Vlad on the shoulder, and walked out of the office, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
---
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The loud clangs of metal striking stone echoed throughout the large hall as Chloe rapidly swung her katana at the four stone dummies surrounding her. Their thorn-covered limbs rotated wildly after every strike, but before they could hit her, she struck them again in a relentless exchange. Even though her sword was coated in Mana Blade, her attacks barely left any marks on the dummies.
The marble floor beneath her was drenched in sweat and something darker as she had been training for several hours now.
The force behind her strikes gradually weakened as her stamina ran out, her breathing turning ragged.
Thud!
One of the thorn-covered stone limbs was about to strike her in the stomach when a bare hand suddenly caught it, stopping it in place.
"Vlad?" Chloe murmured, her eyes barely open from exhaustion.
Vlad grabbed her by the back of her collar like a cat and leaped away, landing beside the wall.
Her back slid down against the wall as her knees gave out beneath her.
"Y-your hand..." she murmured, reaching toward his hand, which was bleeding where the thorns had pierced his skin.
"Look at yourself first," Vlad said in a slightly sharper tone. Her clothes were riddled with holes across her forearms, shoulders, waist, and legs, stained dark with dried blood and soaked with sweat while fresh blood still seeped from several wounds. Even the calluses on her hands had split open from the impact of every swing. "Are you trying to kill yourself or what?"
Chloe moved her hands behind her back in an attempt to hide them from Vlad as she murmured, "Training..."
"The material these dummies are made of can only be cut by Sword Aura," Vlad muttered, glancing at the dummies in the center of the training hall before shifting his gaze back to Chloe. "It is too early for you to train with them."
Chloe did not answer. Her knees drew closer to her chest, her eyes lowering.
Vlad took a deep breath to calm his anger. She needed treatment. Scolding could come later.
"Come with me to the infirmary," he ordered, his tone gentler now.
Chloe shook her head. "No, I need to train more."
"What you need right now is treatment and a lot of scolding, young lady," Vlad’s voice turned sharp again, his eyes narrowing at her. There was no room for discussion in his declaration.
He had already decided to carry her to the infirmary over his shoulder if she refused again.
She slowly pulled herself to her feet with the help of her katana and whispered, "I must learn to wield Sword Aura so that I can go on the S-Ranked quest with you."
Vlad’s brows furrowed, his jaw tightening with anger. "Have you already forgotten what we discussed?" he shouted. "You cannot follow me everywhere!"
"So that you can die on a dangerous quest?" Chloe snapped back, her eyes turning moist.
No words came from Vlad for several seconds.
"Sophia already told me... that on S-Ranked quests, even in the best-case scenario, only half of the party returns," Chloe muttered, her voice slowly breaking. "You never told me about the dangers. I wouldn’t have stopped you even if you had told me... I only want to become strong so I can protect you."
This was the exact scenario Raphael had warned Vlad about. He had come to reveal the truth to her, but she had already found out from someone else. Even if he told her that he was about to tell her everything, it would only sound like an excuse.
"I didn’t want to cause you any worry, Chloe," Vlad replied with a sigh. He gently patted her head and continued, "Believe in me, Chloe. I will return safely and even stronger. Believe in me, just as you always have."
"Do you remember giving me three wishes?" Chloe asked, wiping the moisture from the corners of her eyes.
"Yeah," Vlad nodded.
"My first wish is that you must return safely from the quest," she declared.
"Of course I will." Vlad continued patting her head, but instead of calming down, she began sobbing.
"H-hey, why are you crying now?" Vlad asked, worry lacing every syllable.
"Y-you shouted at me," Chloe whimpered. "Y-you never... raised your voice at me before."
"That’s because I was really worried about you, Chloe," Vlad tried to soothe her. He really felt like the villain now. "I promise I will never raise my voice at you again."
He gently wiped the tears from her face with the soft fabric of his coat as she declared, looking straight at him with her pale lavender eyes,
"I-I’m going to add this to the list of Vlad Bully that I will tell Mama when we go back."
A brief silence followed. Vlad could only imagine the amount of scolding he was about to receive when he met his mother again. Still, he was relieved that she was only limiting herself to Mama. Because if Edren found out that he had made Chloe cry... three times now, things would not end with just a scolding.
"And I will tell Dad as well," Chloe declared.
"Ch-Chloe, if you do that, even if I survive the S-Ranked quest, I won’t survive Dad’s wrath," Vlad pleaded, nervously cupping her cheek in an attempt to soothe her. "You don’t want that, right?"
The tears were gone. What remained was Chloe’s usual expressionless face. Yet Vlad could clearly see the smug smile hidden beneath it. She was definitely going to tell Edren.
Vlad had no choice but to accept his fate. He took her to the infirmary while pleading with her the entire way not to tell Edren anything.