Chapter 420: Acquaintances?

Just as he was finally about to make up his mind regarding his choice of whether to start reserving Rifts, entering them, or leaving to the Cultivation Multiverse altogether, he was distracted by an internal alert. 'Hmm? Someone's trying to establish a direct line to me… is it Lil Belle? Or Amara perhaps?'

Curious about the identity of the caller, Virus straightly connected to the Communication Device on the other side of the line. The next moment, however, a flicker of surprise went through his eyes as he realized the caller was in fact, Ella.

Having just left the company of Ella, Virus had assumed that there was nearly nothing left to discuss between them no more. Alas, that didn't seem to be the case for Ella. 'Maybe something urgent regarding the Rift came up?'

Notwithstanding, after a momentary hesitation, he decided to pick up the call. "Yes? What is it?"

…

After watching Virus disappear without sparing her nearly a single glance, Ella's mood experienced a sharp fall while feeling a squeezing pain in her chest, making it harder and harder for her to breathe.

"So… Frost, DS told us to divide the loots between the two of us, therefore I'll-" Before Thread-Mistress could even finish, however, Ella interrupted, "Do as you see fit, I'm not feeling well, so I'll leave. See you at the headquarters."

Turning around, Ella also vanished among the trees. 

Meanwhile, looking at her downcast back, the Thread-Mistress was honestly very curious as to why she seemed to have been greatly saddened after meeting the Dark Savior.

Of course, there were some possible theories she had come up with, unfortunately, there was no way for her to specify the right one.

…

'This can't end like this… I've waited for years for him to approach me of his own accord, or possibly for us to meet by coincidence and make up. Like today. But… maybe I was wrong all along, he's too much of an idiot to understand how I'm feeling. He's so smart in everything else… but when it comes to us, why is he…' Pondering up to this point, a glimmer of determination became apparent within her pupils as she decided, "We can't go on like this… It's time for me to take the lead!"

'Call Aizen!' Thereafter, this notion which she had dreamt of having day and night went through her head as the Communication Device, the smallest yet most precious gift she had ever received, established a connecting bridge between the two of them once again!

"Yes? What is it?"

Receiving the familiar voice directly into her brain, Ella froze up entirely. For a while, the awkward silence was all that was transmitted between the two.

Still, it didn't take long for Ella to finally open her mouth, "Why… why did you ignore me like that just now? Am I no longer even worth talking to?"

Catching this, another bout of silence dominated the line for a while, until at last, a response came to her anxious heart. "It's not that really. It's just, you were acting too emotional, therefore, I had no other option but to ignore you."

"W-What do you mean? That doesn't make se-" Before she could even end her sentence, however, Virus continued, "Think about it, if you had continued to act emotionally like that, and I had happened to tag along with you and start talking to you, the bystanders and the surveillance cameras would've easily inferred that there was something romantic going on between us. They would've suspected that we are or were a couple. And connecting the dots, after a bit of investigation as to who was your boyfriend in the past, there was a very high chance of them discovering that the Dark Savior is, in fact, the Chairman of the Virus Industries."

"And that will bring a lot of unnecessary troubles and headaches for me which I'm trying to avoid for the moment, temporarily."

A shine of jovial comprehension burned within Ella's eyes as she deliberated happily, 'So that's why he ignored me! It's wasn't something like hating me and thus ignoring me, thank god!'

Just as she was about to express her happiness, unfortunately, Virus beat her to it and stabbed an even more fatal blade right through her heart, "Otherwise, there was no reason for me to deliberately ignore you or anything, I mean, it's not like I'm trying to avoid talking to you. Just like how I wouldn't disregard my other acquaintances, I wouldn't just shrug you off as well."

Following his words, Ella felt like a bucket of icy cold water had been just poured over her head. 'A-Acquaintances? Does he consider me a mere acquaintance now, someone he knows but isn't exactly close with? Is that what I am to him?'

"…"

Showing a painful smile filled with suffering, she pondered, 'Hating me would've been better compared to not caring at all…'

Clenching both her fists as hard as she could, Ella muttered, "Ai, why did you never come looking for me these past few years? Why didn't you just follow me that day? I-I've… sob… I've been waiting for you every single day… sob…" Unable to stop her sobbing, at last, tears began running down her face.

After a few seconds of remaining quiet, letting out a helpless sigh, Virus declared, "Sigh… Ella, I don't think it'll work out between us anymore."

With only this sentence, for Ella, time seemed to have frozen still and stopped functioning entirely. She felt as if her entire world was shattering apart… no, a more appropriate term would be… she felt as if her heart had just shattered into countless pieces, promptly snuffing the life out of her.

Regardless, after what felt like an eternity later for her, while shaking nonstop, mustering every bit of energy she had left, she mouthed in a quivering tone. "A-Ai… you c-can't mean that. I-I… sob… still love you with all my heart. D-Don't you love me anymore?"