Blue listened to Julie's words pertained to his reward for reaching the goal and couldn't help but smile a little as he showed a “grateful” expression but his reply was contradictory,
“To think I actually have the fortune to be favored by your ladyship, I… unfortunately have to decline the offer.”
He shook his head with a bit of “regret” marred on his face and couldn't look her in the eyes anymore from having refused her generosity like this.
Julie on the other hand had a drastic reaction. From the calm and confident smile she had on her face it turned to confusion and then astonishment. She looked at him as if he was a naive guy who didn't understand the world's harshness.
However before she could say anything he continued while keeping his head a bit lower and his gaze away from her out of “guilt” for refusing her goodwill like this,
“It is not that I don't want to accept your offer, Lady Auburn. I can't bring myself to hurt teacher Nicole’s feelings like this. She, after all, had been my personal teacher for nearly two months and had genuinely taught me well.”
“Not joining her faction even though she did so much for me would truly be ungrateful. As a Paladin I can't do something like this. I request for your ladyship’s understanding. Though I have offended you by not appreciating such goodwill, I will be shameless to ask for your forgiveness.”
He bowed to her deeply in “apology” while his body language showed utmost solemnity and seriousness.
Julie kept looking at him with many thoughts flashing by her eyes, her face calm. At that moment she showed her noble bearing to not be slighted by a commoner in any way. However, there was a stark difference as instead of donning a cold visage she now had a warm expression. It seemed that her last test was successfully passed by him.
Indeed, Blue had already seen through what she was intending from the start.
Earlier, her “reward” for him was actually an offer to be recruited by the House Auburn itself, through her invitation, where he would then be employed personally under her. This recruitment wouldn't have the temporary time limit like the one month those commoners factions were subjected to.
This was a permanent recruitment and if he accepted then he wouldn't have to worry about his livelihood ever again. His primary job would only consist of exploring the world of culinary with her and anything other than that was at his own discretion.
His path as a player wouldn't be cut short though as she would make sure that his salary was enough to support his needs as he kept leveling up on higher stages. With such benefits and welfare being promised by a noblewoman herself it was obviously genuine and would be kept true.
Working for a noble was an opportunity that didn't extend to just anyone, after all.
However, it wasn't offered to be actually accepted by him so readily.
There was indeed truth of what she intended for him but there was another point, she was probing him. Given the way he had behaved and conducted himself ever since arriving at the academy she already knew of his “true personality’’, the one he is showing to all, however there was always a possibility of having faked it from the start and even she might have been deceived.
So she threw a bait at him which would draw out his hidden side for her to see.
An immense opportunity! Once in a lifetime offer for his commoner self to work under a noble like her!! What's more!? He only had to keep doing what he “loved” during the employment and she would even take care of his needs with high salary and benefits!!!
Such a “reward” for a young man of eighteen was bound to draw out his true side in front of her. If he accepted it happily then his previous personality known to all would turn out to be a huge facade meant to deceive everyone. After all, as a righteous Paladin and on top of that he was even a very caring and grateful one, so how could he suddenly forget about Nicole’s feelings like that.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
If he was fickle enough to grab onto her bait without even considering that point then she would have lost all interest in him and had kept a strict distance. The previous image he had painstakingly built up in her mind would crumble and she would later ghost him by acting like he never entered her eyes from the start.
That being said, Blue was a master manipulator so how could he not see through the bait she laid out in the open.
From the very start when she showed her mischievous smile to the end when she finished listing out the benefits of accepting her offer, he wasn't tempted a single bit. Both on the outward and also inwardly. He was only laughing at her amusedly as if he just saw a cute attempt to smoke him out.
His face remained calm like a lake's surface before he finally gave her the “perfect answer” she was looking for.
Now, Julie finally showed her current good mood to him by patting his head out of endearment while looking at him with a satisfied expression as if she got hold of a rare treasure.
“You're truly a fine young man. I will talk with her about your matter so don't be hasty to reject me again, okay? Hahaha, now that we still have some time left before we need to exit, let's try out some new recipes today.”
He gave her a radiant smile as he nodded his head before walking alongside her as they went back to talking about their “same hobby”.
The three day training period ended with it.
°°°°
Luna was happy to have finally been reunited with her crush today.
She got a call in the morning that he was back in his cloud house and would see her at noon on the practice session they were holding after having reorganized the Azure Sun party.
After the result announcement, the lessons were off along with club activities and they were given the remaining time to recruit two more party members of non-combat class to truly form the player party. After forming it, they were told to practice together with all the members for the remaining days so they would get to cooperate well during the monthly evaluation up ahead.
Her crush had invited two more new party members before leaving for his training. They were of support class subdivision of the non-combat class. Those two also turned out to be her crush’s secret admirers. She was glad after figuring out this point and also extra glad that no more girls were invited after her.
One of them, named Dawson, had the rare grade class of Inquisitor. This was a support class who could analyze the traces of an “incident”, reveal those involved in that “incident” and investigate them to get to the core of that “incident”. This was very good on the battlefield where players didn't yet have to clash but needed to figure out the situation ahead.
Dawson had a lean build and had hawk-like eyes as if he was constantly judging people, a misunderstanding that made him feel helpless throughout his life.
The other new member, Darwin, actually had the very rare grade class of Diviner which was highly sought after by almost all the player parties in the academy. In her opinion, it was a massive stroke of luck that the guy was still available to actually join them since if it was her then she might have not waited for his invite as it was an unsure matter. Perhaps the guy already divinated that he would get an invite from his idol one day so patiently waited while rejecting others.
Surely that must have been the case.
The Diviner class naturally focused on the field of divination. Peering into present, past and future on the river of time, an action’s probability of actualization, success and failure of that action, these were all some of the things a Diviner was capable of doing. On the battlefield having a divination result before going to a certain direction or taking a new approach would prove to be a vital reference for what to expect ahead.
Darwin was almost similar to the other stick guy in her party as they were so thin that she had to look out when a strong wind blew lest they get blown away somewhere. Another similarity was that he was bald like one of the bodybuilders in the party.
So now with the combination of Inquisitor’s class skills providing much clues for the Diviner to work on this made a virtuous cycle where the party would benefit greatly.
She had to give it to her crush for such farsightedness.
When she finally saw him arriving with Karla glued together by his arm at the training ground, which were designated by the academy for their practice, she almost rushed to him out of happiness after seeing his handsome self.
She however controlled herself as she was still just a close friend to him and also that wench was near him.
She shouldn't be hasty like this lest he felt a bit creeped out by her enthusiasm. That would be tragic for her. That being said, for some reason, in her eyes he now would appear as a subject of scrutiny. Her mind seemed to subconsciously keep trying to figure out anything amiss about him.
This made her feel very perplexed so she didn't wait around and directly went to him to finally talk about this problem affecting her recently.