The trio stares intensely at Zeris waiting for him to summon his soul crest. If Mary wasn't here, he definitely would've pulled out the twin daggers, but with her knowing a lot about him, there was no way to trick them. In a hurry, Zeris could only make up an excuse and escape from the curious trio.

"Mary, I just suddenly remember that I had an appointment today, please tell my parents that I'll be busy and won't be home till the entrance exam!" With that, Zeris ran as fast as he could out of their eye of sight.

"Wait! Tsk, why is this guy so weird recently." Mary mumbled when she saw how fast Zeris left. Normally, he would be much more talkative and friendlier to others, but the current one in her's eyes was distant and cold.

"Hey, Mary what's up with your boyfriend?"

"He had some urgent matter to attend to so he left early," Mary explained to them and she had also stopped complaining since she knew that Quinn would just tease her even more.

"Tsk, you're no fun at all Mary. How are you gonna get married being like this?" Quinn didn't give up and started teasing her again. At this point, Mary really doesn't mind if someone just comes and kills Quinn out of nowhere.

Meanwhile, Zeris had already ventured deep into the mountain trying to find a safe place for him to live for now.

Because of his problem, he would now have to move alone and it would be a nuisance if anyone finds him during a battle, so he decided to go somewhere no one would think of.

Before he left the city, he'd also bought many pieces of equipment for his training including, a cloak, reserved food that can last him for a few days, medicine herbs, and anti-beast candles that he can use while he sleeps.

Not long after, a little den came into sight, the den was small enough to fit a few people. Zeris turns wary when he found trails of blood leading toward the little den.

He approaches the den with caution till he sees a large pile of dead wolves. 'No movement at all, seems like there's nothing left in the den. Whoever fought this battle is probably dead as well…'

Zeris smiles and starts to move the corpses one by one so he can use them as a food source later. After he was done, there was a small dome of stone in the corner of the den that he didn't realize till now.

Zeris came over and inspects the dome, the size of it was enough to fit a person in there. With Zeris's personality naturally, he wouldn't be able to rest peacefully till he remove the dome that could potentially be hiding something.

He'd known this after knocking hard on the dome, there were loud sounds that echos back indicating that it was hollowed inside.

Before trying to destroy the dome, Zeris lit up many anti-beast candles in case there was a strong beast in there. The chance of this happening is very low but Zeris can never be so sure, especially after the betrayal.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

As Zeris was about to demolish the dome with his twin daggers, cracks started to appear and pieces of the dome were falling off quickly.

Zeris was dumbfounded by this sight, there was an injured young girl that seemed to be his age laying unconscious on the ground, but what surprised him wasn't the injury but rather her beauty.

This was no doubt the most beautiful girl Zeris have ever seen. She has breathtaking beauty that could make any man die for, even if it was only a glance. She was wearing a long white dress that covered her entire body to her knee that complimented her charming curves, even Zeris couldn't help but run his eye wildly.

She was injured in many places that were covered by her silver hair but with her clear jade skin, it was an easy task to locate the wounds.

Zeris put away his wild thought and tend to her wounds immediately, even though he'd killed many people in the past, he wasn't a bad person that would mindless kill anyone in his way.

He first applied herbs to the part where her dress was ripped in case there was a hidden injury then he proceed to bandage them after. She had several injuries all over her body and the most serious one was right under her ample. He was only able to see this because she was soaked from top to bottom furthermore outlining her perfect curves.

Seeing how serious the wound was, Zeris had no choice but to rip the clothing revealing a part of her beautiful ample. 'Sh*t'

Zeris grits his teeth and rubbed the medicine on her smooth silky skin when he was finished he was filled with regrets but soon dismissed the thought of this. 'What's wrong with me? Why is my mind in such a frenzy?!'

As Zeris was trying to clear his mind from any crazy thoughts, the woman beside him had already woken up revealing a pair of beautiful ruby eyes. She was still in a daze after waking up, she tried to move but the pain was too much for her to bear.

"Hey, don't move your wounds are too serious." Zeris reminded her in an annoying tone. Ever since her appearance, his mood had been worsening after using up all of his herbs and the uncontrollable thoughts that were still lingering in his head.

"W-who are you?" The girl exclaimed after finally realizing how bad her injury was and the situation she was in.

"You should first introduce yourself before asking for another." He casually replied not minding her ruby eyes staring at him.

"..."

Zeris was greeted by complete silence showing how cautious the girl was, he was left with no choice.

Sigh…

"You can call me Zeris."

"..."

He was again met with silence but this didn't bother him too much since his goal from the start had been using this den for shelter.

Ignoring her stares at him, he took out 2 bedsheets and threw them over to her. He went over to the entrance of the den and lit many anti-beast candles before leaving the den.

It wasn't long till Zeris came back with a handful of woods and a rabbit that he'd found while getting the wood. He lit up the fire and roasts the rabbit alongside a few wolf meat that he'd never tasted before, so he was intrigued about what the taste would be like.

When it was finished roasting Zeris quickly grabbed some of the wolf's meat. The meat was very tender as he chew on it with a weird salty flavor that was actually quite delicious to him. Zeris displayed a very satisfied look and went for another bite while the girl was watching all of his movements.

"Hey, it's gonna get cold soon." Zeris was about to bring the food to her but came to an abrupt stop when she suddenly appeared in front of him.

Zeris was unable to say anything seeing the beauty take a seat next to him and started eating. She took to grab the rabbit's leg and started munching slowly on it, which was extremely cute to Zeris.

"You're really comfortable aren't you."

"Same to you." She replied nonchalantly hinting that she doesn't want to talk to him.

The one that had killed all the wolves was precisely her so Zeris couldn't even refute her even if he wanted to.

With their personality, they continue to eat without saying another word to each other. After they finished the meal, the first one to break the silence was the mysterious beauty.

"Celia. You can call me that."

Zeris only nodded not asking any further questions since he knew that Celia was trying to keep her true identity hidden. Even though he was curious but since she has nothing to do with him, he didn't care much.

Celia walked back to where she laid down her bedsheet and circulates her mana to her wounded area.

Zeris watches her gather mana from the atmosphere and couldn't help but wonder where her crest was. When he was applying the herbs to her wound he'd never seen her crest at all.

He couldn't help but felt jealous at this sight, being able to utilize mana… how nice would it be if he could also do that.

It wasn't long till Celia finished treating her wounds and for some reason, her face was slowly turning red.

Zeris saw this and wonder if anything was wrong but that was it, he'd already done all he could, anymore is impossible.

"Hey, when you were treating my wounds… the one under my chest…" Celia stopped her sentence midway unable to continue any further.

There was no need for her to finish, Zeris already knew that she was talking about the serious wound under her ample. He starts to sweat and the scene replays many times in his mind till he forces himself out of it.

"Would you believe me if I say no?" Zeris replied awkwardly seeing her face turn even redder.