"You failed the test I prepared for you."

Susan couldn't understand what Eth was saying. Was she undergoing a test?

"What test?"

"Did you think I didn't know that you were watching my moves all this time?"

'If you did. You are absolutely correct.'

Susan's eyes widened when she heard him. This was the first time Eth saw her expression changing.

'That's some otherworldly level of beauty, alright. But you can't trick me with your charms!'

Eth rested his cheek on his right fist.

"You began tailing me after I killed the boar. Since it seemed that I had a plan to deal with my teammates, you decided that tailing me would be interesting."

Eth spoke without hesitation.

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But of course, he was lying. Though, this was pretty easy to deduce after knowing her personality and comparing it with what happened in the exam.

For obvious reasons, Susan could have only followed Nathan by the second day at the earliest, when he met with Lark and Ryan.

But knowing her personality, he knew that she wouldn't have kept watching over them for the whole second day and half of the third day from the shadow.

Moreover, she didn't know about Lark's stigma [Echo-Location]. She should have been detected at least once by Lark, but that never happened.

This stigma was the reason Nathan had to make sure Lark was drugged and asleep before sneaking out.

? Coincidentally, in the exam, there was a 'strong examinee' near them who was slaughtering boars.

Eth believed that it was Susan. She must have been bored because she was lost and decided to give up on Exp and only focused on points to pass the exam.

He also knew that as a weapon, Susan was trained to leave not a single enemy alive.

She must have followed the boar after it escaped.

After that, she must have found Nathan interesting when he spoke about the 'gift' he left and went all ballistic to fight the boar.

This must be how she started following Nathan.

"You knew?"

He nodded his head.

Eth knew about the habits nobody other than Susan knew.

He used the fact that only Susan knew about her exceptional direction skills and used them to fabricate the lie.

'It's working!'

Seeing that Susan was getting convinced, Eth decided to push harder.

"Even the duel I challenged you to. Tch tch.. must I say how horribly you failed?"

Before this both, Nathan and Eth believed that Susan accepted the duel to deter anyone else from challenging her.

But with the new information, Eth thought like this: She must have thought that Nathan wanted to see if she has the potential to recruit her. When in reality he was only challenging her to escape Lark.

'Nathan, even I pity you now. You paid so much attention to make sure that you don't get involved with 'main-cast' but here is Susan, following you from day one.'

"What did I do wrong?"

"You patiently waited for seven years to escape. Yet when you found a chance, you couldn't keep yourself composed for even a month. From how you acted during the duel, anyone could have guessed that you were targeting me and had something to do with me."

Contrary to how Leon had assumed, Nathan was aware of the constant stares from Susan. But Nathan always thought that she was glaring because he had pissed her off somehow.

Susan's body shook.

'He knew that I was planning to escape?!'

Eth gloated internally when he saw Susan shake.

Of course, he knew about her plans to escape. This was something she exposed to Leon in the 2nd year.

"Do you understand why you failed?"

Eth spoke again to make sure Susan didn't question him any more.

The two proofs he gave her were all that he could think of to trick her. If she asked anything more, to prove the lie might be busted.

"…Why?"

Eth shook his head to show his disapproval.

"Because you couldn't even wait for me to contact you. Even if you couldn't wait, you should have at least made sure that nobody makes any connection between us."

"B-but the only connection they can make is that I have some grudge against you."

"And that is enough for people to doubt me. Why will you someone who was trained to be emotionless is holding a grudge against me?"

Susan tightened her fist. She had no comeback.

'Phew… I diverted a huge disaster. Hurry back, Nathan! I don't want to clean up your mess'

-Cr..rack!

Eth flinched when he heard the sound of the table cracking.

Susan was gripping the table so tightly that the specially made durable table edges were being crushed.

Gulp-

'She won't attack me out of spite, right?'

It is said that even rat fights back when they are cornered.

Eth understood this fact. The perfect example was Nathan's past life itself.

If Eth left things as they were, Susan would either report him or attack him here and now.

Option 1 meant a slow and horrible death, along with the possibility of torture. While Option 2 meant quick death with his head being popped up like the lid of coke.

He had to calm her down and take the middle ground as he had planned.

"But…"

Susan looked up at Eth when he began speaking again.

"You have good potential. I might give you a chance."

Eth was planning to make her follow all his orders. This way he can stall by saying she was in the testing phase and he will get an OP slave!

Susan's eyes immediately brightened again when she saw that all hope was lost.

"Yes, I have potential! I will definitely reach Sandra-rank in the future. I can prove it. You just need to send me to a dungeon and I can solo it."

There were three types of dungeons: Stage-0, Stage-1, and Stage-2.

Stage-1 dungeons have monsters from Meta-rank to Enma-rank. While Stage-2 dungeons have monsters from Tesla-rank to Gamma-rank.

Moreover, one can only clear a dungeon when a boss monster is killed. Until then, one cannot leave the dungeon.

Even for Susan to clear even a Stage-1 dungeon alone was impossible.

She was strong, but ranks existed for a reason. The gap between Iota-rank and Enma-rank wasn't something to scoff at.

'Is she that desperate to escape? There is no way she can solo a dungeon at her current level. I should just tell her to think properly and calm her.'

"I know I can't clear a dungeon, but if it's a Stage-0 with monsters below Enma-rank I can solo it. Stage-0 dungeons take a huge amount of resources to clear. This should be profitable for you and I can prove that myself."

Stage-0 dungeons were 'unique dungeons'.

Unlike normal dungeons that are classified by their Aether concentration, Stage-0's can not be classified.

Fighting against an army alone, hunting legendary monsters, Possessing and roleplaying as someone in the past, finding a treasure within a time limit. Stage-0 dungeon can have anything.

The requirements to clear them were just as hard.

The system always notifies the dungeon level along with the number of stars and level of the strongest monster inside the dungeon.

Susan believed if Eth's organization knew things like the location of Ward's exam and her plan to escape, they must know the location of many Stage-0 dungeons.

This was why she proposed the deal.

'She got me.'

Eth wanted to refuse, saying that it wasn't possible to solo clear a Stage-0 dungeon. But he couldn't.

He couldn't say that because the speaker was the 'weapon' created to protect Earth. As long as it was within her rank, the number of 'things' that can defeat her can be counted on two hands.

'Should I refuse? No, I can't'

As Susan had said, the deal was too profitable for 'his organization'.

Moreover, Susan seemed to be on the verge of losing it. He didn't know what she could do if he refused.

"Okay. If you are that confident, then I'll have you clear one dungeon."

It was then he saw Susan smile for the first time.

The radiant smile which yet had to lose its innocence in this harsh world seemed very bright to him.

"Then it's a deal."

Susan's words broke him out of his stupor and they shook hands.

***

"So you are telling me you agreed to bring her here because she was about to go off with your head?"

(Yeah, that's what happened.)

"What about the consequences?"

(Consequences?)

"Yes, she is being tracked, remember?"

(The trackers and restrictions were removed from her because Aegis got caught when she suppressed your Ether core.)

"Then what if someone followed you guys?"

(Leon made sure that no one was tailing us.)

I nodded my head.

Leon had a very high perception. If he didn't notice anyone following them then it was safe to assume that everything was fine.

"There still could have been consequences that we didn't know."

Susan was the perfect example.

Knowing that she had been following me since the beginning was the same as knowing you were 5 months pregnant with your ex-boyfriend's child. It wasn't funny.

(That's not my problem.)

What was this guy saying? What wasn't his problem?

We were both sharing one body, for god's sake!

(You were the cause of the problem with Susan. She was tailing YOU because YOU messed up. Yet I was the one to solve the problem.)

(It's because of me that Susan didn't go off with OUR head.)

Eth's tone was a mixture of smugness and annoyance.

(You should thank me instead.)

He was telling me to deal with future problems because he dealt with mine.

"Wow, you are an asshole."

(You don't need to praise me.)

"This guy…"

Where was he learning this shameless behavior?

With the lack of his memories, shouldn't be more like a clean slate rather than the titled asshole he was behaving as?

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