My Roleplay System
Chapter 138: Am I that handsome?

Chapter 138: Chapter 138: Am I that handsome?

"May I decline?" Lake asked with a serious expression.

"What do you think?" Alec replied, smirking.

Seeing Lake release a sigh, Alec chuckled, "Look, I don’t understand why you’re so against working with the fairies. Are you racist or something?"

"This has nothing to do with race," Lake said but suddenly thought of something, ’Wait, does it? I haven’t thought of it much since Sylph was the only one I came in contact with, but what if it was all the fairies that had that effect on me?’

As Lake came to that terrifying thought, he shivered slightly.

"Well then, I really don’t know what your problem is. The fairies are humanity’s first humanoid allies capable of communicating with us. They’re both strong and intelligent and would be a great asset to you, whether it be for creating connections for the future or just for the sake of the exam."

"Besides, with cute girls like Sylph and Iris in the mix, wouldn’t an adolescent boy like you usually have one or two thoughts?" Alec said with a sly smile. With his untrimmed beard and disheveled look, he really looked quite mischievous when he said that.

Lake sighed. It’s not like he could just say that being around them makes him feel insecure, as he couldn’t read their fate or that Sylph made his brain cells go on vacation.

"Is there really nothing that can be done?" Lake asked once more with a pitiful expression.

"Look, there really is nothing that can be done," Alec shrugged, "Even if you said you’re okay with failing by giving up the second test, you still have to do it as the test itself affects the relationship between the two races."

Lake raised his eyebrows when he heard Alec mention the two races, "What do you mean?"

Alec leaned back on his chair as he raised his chin up exhaustedly, "The extra test is really just a cover. The real purpose is to test how well humans could work with the fairies."

Lake suddenly had a look of understanding.

’No wonder this test felt so random. The Academy probably got orders from the higher-ups to hold this event. That also means that the chances of me escaping this are basically impossible...’

With this new information, he finally knew the real reason for why he was chosen for this test in particular.

If the Academy had really wanted to test him, they could have increased the number of points he had to gather by a ridiculous amount instead. It would have been far simpler to implement and way more challenging this way, not to mention it fitted with the brutal style of the academy.

However, orders came from above, and changes had to be made.

With Lake’s overwhelming strength and experiences over the rest of students, he would make the perfect candidate for this mission. His strength would allow him to keep up with the fairies who seemed to be above human standards in terms of fitness, while his experience would allow for smoother cooperation between the two parties.

Using an extra test as the pretext for the mission, everything just fitted too perfectly to not use him.

Lake slouched down with his hands on his head as he came to terms with this extra test.

’Sigh... Since I’m doing this, I might as well make the most out of it.’ With a sharp glint in his eyes, Lake raised his head as he looked Alec in the eyes.

"Say, teach, since this is actually more of a mission instead of a test, shouldn’t I be rewarded for my efforts?"

Alec, who had been secretly smiling at his student’s misfortune, suddenly froze.

....

Lake walked out of Alec’s room and stretched.

He didn’t expect negotiations to take so long. Checking the time, he saw that it was already past eight.

Most of the students had retired to their rooms, while a few were still wandering the stronghold.

Lake thought for a moment and decided to head to his room.

Walking down to the second floor, Lake walked down the corridor a bit before stopping in front room 209.

After unlocking the door with his keys, he walked in, closing the door behind him.

The room was fairly simple, with two beds and a door leading to a bathroom.

On one of the beds, he saw his roommate for the rest of the exam.

Looking at the pair of curious blue eyes staring at him, Lake’s expression slowly turned blank.

’I’m going to burn this Academy to the ground...’

"I guess you’re my roommate?" The man in front of him spoke calmly as the pair of wings behind him fluttered softly.

"...It would seem so," Lake answered plainly, "I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced to each other. I’m Lake. I hope you don’t mind my presence."

"It’s fine..." The man in front of him spoke softly as he seemed to mutter something underneath his breath.

Although he muttered it in an extremely soft voice, with Lake’s hearing, how could he not hear him?

As Lake heard the words muttered by the male fairy, however, his eyelids twitched slightly, but he pretended like he didn’t hear it.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lake. This one’s humble name is Bramble."

"The pleasure is mine. Since we’ll be working together for the next three days, I hope we can get along." Lake replied plainly as he observed Bramble’s reaction.

"Indeed." Bramble nodded with a subtle smile, "I hope you can also get along with Miss Sylph and my sister as well."

Lake’s eyes narrowed.

’It seems like he already knew about the second test.’

"I also hope I can get along well with everyone else, but your sister...?"

"Iris, the other fairy besides Sylph and myself. We don’t usually interact with each other but are indeed siblings."

Lake was a little surprised when he heard this but he didn’t find it strange. Both Iris and Bramble had blue hair and eyes and similar facial structure, so it wasn’t too surprising that they were siblings.

Lake nodded his head slightly at Bramble before walking over to the other free bed and sitting down, "Since I plan to move out early tomorrow, I recommend taking the time to rest."

"Sure." Bramble replied as he closed his eyes. He was sitting with his legs crossed and seemed to be meditating.

Lake didn’t pay him any mind and also sat cross-legged as he activated his Mana Heart a bit.

As he absorbed the mana in the surroundings, he made sure to carefully sense his thoughts for any abnormalities.

’Alright, so far so good. I don’t think I’m missing any brain cells.’

Lake felt relief in the fact that the ability to make him go dumb didn’t belong to the entire fairy race.

’It’s probably something that belongs exclusively to Sylph...’ Sighing at this thought, Lake started to feel a little scared of Sylph.

Someone who could just disable or weaken your intelligence was always a scary thought, especially to someone like Lake, who relied purely on his thoughts to drive his actions.

’I have to figure out a way to deal with this troublesome fairy before the end of the exam...’

Lake felt a headache at the thought of having to meet Sylph in the morning but decided to focus his thoughts on his Mana Heart instead.

Just like that, time quickly passed as both Bramble and Lake spent a portion of their night meditating and the other sleeping.

In the morning, Lake was the first to awaken from his short slumber. After cleaning up a little in the shower, he walked outside.

The sun had barely risen by the time he stepped outside, but he could already see a few students walking about.

Lake looked around before spotting Kate waiting at the side of the street.

"You got up early. We aren’t due to leave for another half an hour," Lake said as he walked over.

"I could say the same to you." Kate’s eyes were glued to her wristband as she spoke.

Lake couldn’t see what she was looking at and didn’t care to find out.

"Since you’re already up, wanna walk around with me?" Lake asked casually.

"Sure." Kate replied half heartedly as she began to follow behind Lake.

Neither of them spoke to each other as they walked. Kate was scrolling through her wristband while Lake led the way.

They walked around for a bit, visiting a few shops and stalls that had opened early.

When the time to meet up had arrived, Lake returned to the front of the dorm with a few items held in a small backpack.

Kate had stopped scrolling through her wristband at this time and instead was looking at Lake with a disgusted look.

"What? Did I do something?"

"Do you usually carry around monster parts with you? And how did you fit so much of it into your pants..." Kate spoke as she looked at Lake’s seemingly infinite pockets.

Lake smiled but didn’t explain.

Lake had found out after some tests that the system storage also functioned as an infinite preserver. Time didn’t seem to flow within the system space, so as long as he kept something in there, it would remain in the same state as when he put it in, even after a hundred years.

Ever since he learned this, he had stocked up on several food items and stored a few monster parts for a few of his alchemical experiments.

However, he didn’t have many monster parts on him as he only found out about the test after his hunt with the third years. Otherwise, his inventory would have held a small menagerie worth of monster corpses...

"It looks like everyone else is here." Seeing that the group of fairies was waiting, Lake decided to shift the attention to them.

He had messaged Kate last night so she also knew a bit about the second test.

However, what Lake didn’t expect was that as soon as Kate saw the fairies, she instantly changed to a smile.

It was so fast that Lake thought he was seeing things but what happened next left him standing still in shock.

"Good morning, Miss Iris and Sir Bramble! I really didn’t expect that we’d get the chance to team up together today."

"Haha, it is indeed my blessing to have this chance, Miss Kate." Bramble replied with a bright smile.

"Mhm," Iris, who stood next to him, nodded her head slightly with a calm expression.

"Hmm..." Sylph, who was standing at the side, was more quiet than usual as she fumbled with her hands below her waist.

Kate also looked over to her with a small smile, "It’s nice to see you too, Sylph. I hope we can work together on this exam."

"I-I also hope so as well..." Sylph stuttered as she replied in a meek voice.

"...."

Lake watched everyone interact with an unfamiliar expression.

’...Who the hell are these people?’

Lake was on the verge of questioning whether he was still dreaming or not.

The behavior of everyone left him genuinely confused and slightly creeped out.

He never interacted with Bramble or Iris much, so he didn’t have much to say about them, but when he saw Kate smiling so brightly, he was deeply disgusted on the inside.

’That’s right... Kate had always been smiles and business with everyone else. I had almost forgotten since she always acts so casually around me...’

Remembering how Kate was before, Lake felt that he could somewhat understand her current behavior but still felt slightly appalled by it.

But what he couldn’t possibly comprehend was the behavior of the "shy" little fairy in front of him.

’What the hell is wrong with Sylph! Where the fuck did the annoying fairy who always fluttered around me disappear to?’

’Sylph? Shy? I don’t fucking believe it, not even for a second!’

Lake watched on silently as everyone interacted with each other in a friendly and polite manner.

’I can’t take this any more...’

Recognizing that the conversation wouldn’t conclude anytime soon if he left it be, Lake decisively pulled Kate aside to talk privately.

Kate felt a little annoyed when Lake suddenly pulled her away from the conversation.

"What?"

"Fess up, what the hell is wrong with everyone?"

"?"

Kate looked at Lake with a confused expression.

"I could understand you acting in front of them, but why is Sylph acting so... weird?"

When Kate heard Lake, she was still a little confused but suddenly had a look of realization.

"Strange... I thought you of all people would know." Kate said as a smile slowly formed on her face.

"Know what?"

"Hmm..." Kate had a thoughtful expression as she looked at Lake, "I guess I could tell you..."

"?"

"You really never noticed, did you?" Kate felt a small bit of joy watching Lake’s confused expression.

Rarely did she have the upper hand on him so small moments like this always made her feel a little happy.

If she could, she would rather not tell Lake and keep hoarding this secret over him for a bit longer, but she knew that it wasn’t a wise move from her experience with Lake.

If he were to suddenly say he wanted to do another training session, Kate really didn’t know how to reply...

"It’s nothing special really. The Sylph you saw just now is the way she usually acts around everyone else. It’s only when she’s around you that she acts so... differently." Kate said as she folded her arms.

"You’re joking, right?"

"I’m serious."

Hearing that Kate wasn’t joking, Lake raised his head and looked in Sylph’s direction.

Sylph’s eyes sparkled as Lake looked over to her, and she waved with a brilliant smile.

Lake’s expression became slightly somber as he looked back at Kate.

"...Am I that handsome?"

Kate rolled her eyes when she heard Lake’s question but didn’t reply immediately.

"...Who knows? Maybe the little fairy finds you attractive. Aren’t you lucky? If things go well, won’t you be the first human to have an interspecies relationship?"

Lake didn’t feel pleased when he heard this; instead, he felt a headache coming on.

After staying silent for a while, Lake let out a sigh before returning to the three fairies.

Kate resisted the urge to laugh when she saw Lake’s depressed face as she followed behind him.

"Sorry about that. There was something I had to talk about with Kate." Lake said as he bowed slightly, "Since time is limited, let’s head out immediately."

"Aren’t we going to strategize or plan our route?" Iris asked as she frowned.

"I already have a plan. I’ll explain it to you on the way. The earlier we move out, the better." Lake replied plainly.

"Where are we going then?" Kate asked.

"We’re heading toward the grassland east."

"The grassland, didn’t you say that there were a lot of hunters there? Wouldn’t we have a harder time getting prey if we had to compete with others?" Kate frowned as she thought about having to deal with other hunters.

"Indeed, but I have a plan, so don’t worry about it too much." Lake said as he started walking off toward the stronghold exit.