Chapter 124

As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm, golden glow over the Bahamut familia's headquarters, an air of anticipation filled the entrance of Bahamut’s room.

The familia members had gathered, buzzing with excitement at the prospect of levelling up.

However, two individuals stood apart from the rest – Clair and Michalis.

While the others eagerly awaited the evening's events, these two wore expressions of inner conflict and a hint of  embarrassment.

Bahamut had suggested pushing the event to the next day, giving everyone some more time and space to sort out and digest the tumultuous events that had unfolded earlier in the day.

But Draco rejected the proposal, saying that everyone must be present, the next day was going to be off, so they would have the time then.

He only needed their updated status sheets, which he planned to use the next day at the guild to level up the familia's rank.

Of course, he planned to conceal most of the sensitive information written on them for obvious reasons.

Draco wanted to be more understanding to the affected people, which included himself, but Denatus was at the end of the week, and time was ticking.

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Earlier that day, during a tense lunch meeting, Draco had diligently explained everything that had happened with Clair to Michalis, Vasileios, and Nikolaos.

As expected, Nikolaos and Vasileios didn't take the situation too seriously, viewing it as just a regular familial quarrel.

However, Michalis' reaction was rather unexpected.

The others had anticipated him to burst out emotionally and potentially do something detrimental to both himself and Clair, which would have likely earned him a stern reprimand from Draco.

Instead, Michalis appeared to be conflicted.

Over the years, he had developed an almost idolized perception of Draco, seeing him as a figure who could seemingly achieve anything.

The thought of Clair's affection being directed towards Draco had only compounded Michalis' insecurities.

Although he acted as though it didn’t bother him, and was willing to fight Draco over her affection in front of the other familia members.

In reality, he lacked the confidence to take that bold step forward.

He was just too afraid that any changes that might follow would be negative in nature, if he were to be more assertive.

The reason for his conflicting emotions, was because the girl he had a crush on had out of nowhere, suddenly made a love confession to his brother, Draco – only to be rejected.

‘Isn't this the chance I've been waiting for?’ Michalis had momentarily pondered, his heart racing with the possibility of stepping forward and claiming Clair's heart.

Draco rejecting Clair was something he had long anticipated, from his perspective, the signs were obvious as Draco never returned her clear advances.

However, his elation was short-lived, as his conscience soon chastised him.

The realization of how callous and opportunistic it all seemed, quickly filling him with a sense of revulsion.

'What a scummy way to think,' he berated himself for even considering taking advantage of Clair's emotionally vulnerable state.

The fact that he had truly entertained such a notion created an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach, one that he couldn't quite explain.

'When did I become such a selfish person?' Michalis pondered, feeling as though the others could see through him at that moment.

Despite his rather chaotic personality, Michalis prided himself on being a good, moral person, but was that really the case he began wondering.

Needing time to process his conflicting emotions, Michalis had hastily excused himself, leaving the others to wonder about his uncharacteristic behaviour.

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Earlier in the evening, just before the planned level up gathering, Eleni, Dimitra, Bahamut, and Clair were gathered in Vasiliki's room.

Vasiliki had woken up early, right on time as Draco had predicted, and she appeared to be mostly healed.

"Seems like a lot happened while I was asleep, huh?" Vasiliki said, glancing around the room, her eyes eventually settling on Bahamut.

"Oh my, are you alright Vasiliki? Did I do something wrong?," Bahamut asked, puzzled by Vasiliki’s expression.

She couldn’t understand the meaning behind the weird look that Vasiliki was giving her.

Clair too was obviously glaring at Vasiliki, but the perceptive Bahamut didn't quite understand the reason behind that gaze too.

"It’s nothing, just a little overwhelmed," Vasiliki replied, her words further confusing everyone in the room besides Clair.

Removing her gaze from Bahamut, Vasiliki's eyes then landed on Clair, who immediately avoided eye contact with her.

Clair had said some rather interesting things to Vasiliki after-all.

After Dimitra had provided Clair with an excuse to leave the room following her failed love confession, Clair had gone to Vasiliki's room to sort out her thoughts.

Tending to the unconscious Vasiliki seemed like the perfect distraction from her horrible day.

At some point in the early evening, while watching over Vasiliki, Clair suddenly began speaking to the unconscious girl about everything she had endured through the day and what she was currently feeling.

Clair would almost never openly display her more vulgar side or even share such sensitive information with Vasiliki, as the girl had a rather eccentric personality, and her reaction tended to be quite... overwhelming.

Clair needed an outlet for her pent-up emotions, and the unconscious Vasiliki just fit the requirements.

Vasiliki couldn't talk back or even hear whatever Clair said to her, and there wouldn't be any backlash - or so Clair had thought.

Without any reservations, Clair unleashed herself, unloading every form of profanity in her vocabulary.

She was almost like a crazy person, at least from Vasiliki’s perspective.

However, although Vasiliki had been unconscious for most of the day, she had actually woken up just before Clair started talking.

Vasiliki had originally planned to surprise Clair, but Clair ended up giving her a rather shocking surprise instead.

So, Vasiliki played at being unconscious until Clair was done speaking before revealing that she had been awake the entire time.

The reason that Bahamut, Eleni, and Dimitra were also present was due to a weird coincidence.

They had just finished making dinner and decided to go check up on Vasiliki, as it was planned that Bahamut would level everyone up just before dinner, and everyone needed to be present.

All this just conveniently coincided with when Vasiliki decided to reveal that she was awake.

Hence, the current awkward situation.

"How much of everything did you hear?" Clair couldn't resist asking, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her eyes were still slightly red from her emotional outburst on the unconscious Vasiliki.

"From the very beginning," Vasiliki replied in a monotone voice.

"You really had a lot to say to me," Vasiliki added, much to the confusion of the others.

Upon hearing Vasiliki’s words, a deep sense of embarrassment and shame washed over her.

'Vasiliki knows everything now. Will she simply let this go?' Clair couldn't help but wonder anxiously.

In that moment, she truly wanted to crawl inside a hole and disappear, but she used what little mental strength she could muster to remain in the room.

"I'm sorry," Clair immediately apologized to Vasiliki, her voice slightly quivering.

"All that you heard wasn't really directed at you," she explained, attempting to clarify the situation.

Vasiliki let out a heavy sigh, processing the weird flow of events that occurred while she had been unconscious.

"I know that already. It was just rather... unsettling," she replied, her brow furrowed in contemplation.

Eleni, sensing something was going on between them, called out to gain the attention of both Clair and Vasiliki.

"Hey, hey, what's with all the cryptic wordings between you two? Something big happened, didn't it?" she asked, her eyes shining with undisguised curiosity.

Dimitra, observing the exchange, couldn't help but glance at Eleni, thinking, 'Uh oh, those eyes mean she won't stop until she knows.' She didn't exactly know the full details of what was unfolding, but she could gather some pieces together to make a rudimentary guess.

The same was true for Bahamut, who quietly observed the scene.

Vasiliki, not wanting to be insensitive towards Clair, was unsure how to respond to Eleni's persistent questioning.

She could tell from Clair's pleading gaze that the information was not meant to be shared.

'How troublesome, but it is interesting to know that one of my competition has been eliminated, on the other hand, another has gotten way ahead,' Vasiliki mused.

"Hey, hey, come on, tell me!" Eleni persisted, moving closer to Vasiliki and hugging her on the bed.

"Sigh, stop being so nosy," Vasiliki said, pushing Eleni away with a finger, gently but firmly.

"Tsk, everyone's keeping secrets now, are we?" Eleni muttered, clearly dissatisfied with the lack of information.

Sensing the need for a diplomatic intervention, Bahamut stepped in.

"Ahem, it looks like Clair and Vasiliki  want to talk about something. I think we should take our leave now," she said, gently dragging Eleni by the collar out of the room.

Dimitra immediately followed behind, leaving Vasiliki and Clair alone to continue their conversation in private.