Chapter 249
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"Alina, I think there is something wrong with Alex." Professor Frances whispered to Alina as she and Queen Mother stared at Alex, who was deep in conversation with [Asteria].
"Professor… why would you even think of that?" Alina replied exasperatedly as she glared at Professor Frances. "Do you even know what you are saying?"
"Don't tell me that you haven't noticed it?" The professor hissed at Alina as grabbed Alina's left shoulder. "He's acting weird now!"
"…"
Seeing that Alina did not give any reply, the professor pressed on as she continued talking.
"Did you see the way that Alex is acting now? There's really something wrong! Just look at him! If it were him before, he would have already accepted the offer to make an Unbreakable Pact. But right now, Alex is actually asking for a different way to deal with Lingo! That just does not fit on what he did in the past!"
"…So just because Alex was not assertive today, you already think that there is something wrong with him?" Alina finally replied to the professor as she tilted her head.
"Hah? Don't tell me you really don't think that there is nothing wrong?" The professor replied in confusion as she gave Alina a surprised look.
"…"
"Right at the moment that the Celestial and the Devourer Faction arrived at the arena earlier, something inside Alex has definitely changed." Professor Frances said amidst Alina's silence. "I don't know why you are trying to deny it, but even Queen Mother can see that Alex had been acting weird since that time!"
"…What the professor saying is right." Queen Mother said as she butted in, interrupting whatever Alina was trying to say next. "It might be just slight, but something has definitely changed inside Alex earlier…"
"…"
Seeing that Alina did not give any replies again, both Professor Frances and Queen Mother barked at her, as if she had offended her.
"What, don't tell me that you are still going to deny it?"
"…It's not that I am denying it. I… just have no idea on what to do regarding Alex right now." Alina said as she finally relented. Her shoulders drooped down, as she seemed to have revealed that she was carrying a heavy burden.
"Wait… are you telling me that you have seen something wrong with Alex using your 'eyes'?" The professor, hearing the resignation in Alina's voice, raised her eyebrows as she realized that there was something that Alina saw that she had been hiding from them.
"Oi Alina, whatever it is that you have seen, you should share it with us too." Professor Frances said as she stared at Alina intently. "Or are you thinking of just hiding it? Hmph, I don't know what you have seen, but I don't want you hiding it!"
"…"
"I may not be your Companion yet, but I know that you should not be keeping secrets like this from us, especially to Queen Mother!" Professor Frances said as she jabbed her finger at Alina.
"Hey!" The professor ignored Queen Mother's shout of surprise behind her as she continued jabbing her finger at Alina.
"Even if you are Alex's 'lover', you should not be hiding anything regarding him, especially if it will place us in danger!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head in disappointment.
"…."
"In the long time that I ruled my world before, I only follow one rule. And that is that there must be no secrets between comrades!" The professor said as she took a deep breath. "Only when people have high understanding of people's past that they can mesh well together! I learned that lesson the hard way before…"
"…"
"Alina, out of everyone in this team, I already knew about your past and Queen Mother's. But I know nothing about Alex's past, not even a scrap of it!" At this point, Professor Frances was almost shouting, and she had to restrain herself from speaking louder to Alina. "Alina, do you even know anything about Alex's past?"
"…"
"Hmph, from the looks of it, he also did not tell you about his past." The professor replied smugly as she let out a sigh.
"Alex… he could have a good reason for not telling us about his past…"
"Of course I get that. But that still does not correlate to what you are doing here!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head once more.
"You have seen something wrong with Alex right now, and there is a high chance that it is related to his past! Not only that, but we could be in danger because of what was happening to him now! Just look at him! It's like his bravery had been reduced!"
"Professor I get what you say, but-"
"But what? Don't tell me that you will still not tell us about what you saw with your 'All-Seeing Eyes'?" The professor shot back angrily as she gave Alina a disbelieving look. "Oh come on! Our lives are at stake here!"
"I don't like the way that professor is talking to you right now, but I guess that she is right" Queen Mother muttered as she appeared behind Alina.
"But-"
"No buts right now. Don't tell me that you don't trust us?" Professor Frances muttered as she glared at Alina again. "We are all tied together by a tight bond, and we are here to help each other out! That's why we are a team! If there's something wrong with one of our members, then the others should swoop in to help! That is how a team works! And right now, you should follow that responsibility too!"
"…"
Alina looked like she wanted to not speak, but under Professor Frances' and Queen Mother's continuous pestering for the following seconds, Alina had no choice in the end but to give up.
"…You two really are persistent." Alina said with a sigh as an exhausted look appeared on her eyes. She looked at Professor Frances and Queen Mother directly, as if she wanted to impart them with an important message.
"You two…what I am going to tell you now must not be known by others, especially by Alex!" Alina said as she huddled closer with Queen Mother and Professor Frances. "Can you promise me that you two can keep your mouth shut?"
"I get the secrecy thing, but why should we not tell anything to Alex?" Queen Mother asked Alina as she gave her a confused look. "Shouldn't Alex also know about it, since it's related to him?"
"There is no way that we can tell the truth to Mr. Alex right now." Out of nowhere, Astria, who was sitting on a wheelchair, suddenly butted in on their conversation, with her melodious voice interrupting them. "I rarely agree with the glutton swordswoman, but right now, I fully understand why Mr. Alex must be kept out of this."
"Wait, should you even be here?" The professor asked Astria with incredulity as her eyes roved all over her wheel-chaired body. "This is a private talk between our team, so outsiders must not be here! Shoo! Shoo!"
"Let this b**ch stay here, professor." Alina unexpectedly said as she let out an irritated sigh. "I'm sure that with her special nose, she had also detected what had happened with Alex earlier. Since she already knows about it, there's no sense if we chase her out now. Besides, her insights could be of great help to us here!"
"…Hmph, if you say so. But if this brat tries to make a sly move against us, I will be the first one to cut her down!" The professor unwillingly replied as she crossed her arms. "Remember brat, I'm watching you!"
"…"
Astria seemed to have ignored what the professor said as her attention was focused on Alex alone.
"Hey, hey ,hey! From the looks of it, Alex is still busy on his internal monologue…" Astria playfully said as she looked at Alex, who was actually conversing with [Asteria]. "That means we still have enough time to talk about him before he notices that something is wrong!"
It was quite obvious from what Astria was saying that she wanted to start the talk already, which was showcased by the impatience on her voice.
"Hey, don't just ignore me!" Professor Frances growled as she started to walk towards Astria menacingly. From the looks of it, Professor Frances was also pissed by Astria already, which was no surprise to anyone at all.
"Sigh…" Seeing that another fight was about to happen, Queen Mother was left with no choice but to intervene already.
Queen Mother grabbed the professor with one of her green arms as she forced the professor to stay still.
This was an effective move, as the professor's rage had seemingly abated from what Queen Mother did.
"Ok, ok, now that we are done setting the boundaries here, let's go talk about the important thing already." Queen Mother hurriedly said as she tried to defuse the somewhat tense atmosphere.
"…"
"..."
"In that case, let me start this meeting." Alina said as she let out a deep breath.
Alina's atmosphere then turned solemn as she opened her mouth.
"Right before we entered the portal to the Blue Moon, my eyes saw something inside Alex's body." Alina said as her eyes narrowed. "Along his chest area… I saw a small blob of white light, residing right at the middle of his heart. At first I thought nothing of that white blob, as I thought that maybe that was just one of the effects that appeared when Alex… made himself stronger earlier. So I just let that white blob stay there."
"As for me, I did not see anything weird inside Mr. Alex." Astria said as she interrupted Alina. "However, I definitely smelled something delicious inside Alex's heart. It smelled like chiffon cake, and it actually made me drool earlier…"
Alina looked somewhat pissed that Astria interrupted her, but she managed to rein in her irritation as she continued talking.
"That white blob stayed the same way that it is after we arrived at the arena. At that point, I started to think that this white blob could actually be safe after all. But all of that changed when the Celestials and the Devourers arrived."
"Yes! At the moment that those two factions arrived, something had changed regarding that thing inside Mr. Alex's heart!" Astria enthusiastically said as she interrupted Alina once more. "The smell coming from it became stronger, and its smell became more delectable!"
"As for me, I noticed that the white blob of light tripled in size." Alina said as she gritted her teeth. "Of course I panicked once I saw that, and I hurriedly tried to tell Alex about it. But when I tried to tell Alex about that white blob of light, I saw that white blob doing something that made me stop."
"…" Both Queen Mother and Professor Frances then leaned in as they tried to hear more about what Alina was talking about.
"Before I could say to Alex that he has a white blob of light inside him, that white blob suddenly turned red!" Alina hissed as a pissed expression appeared on her face. "At the moment that I saw that red color, I had to stop, as I knew that that color was a warning signal made by that while blob of light! And then, once I stopped trying to tell Alex about that blob, its color returned back to white…"
Astria then chimed in, as she talked with a pale pallor on her face. "As for me, I also tried telling Alex about the white blob, but just like Alina, right before I could say anything, the smell coming from that white blob changed. From smelling delectable, its smell changed to that of rotting flesh! I have no choice at that time but to back away, as I realized that there is something wrong with that thing!"
"Wait, so let me get this straight." Professor Frances said as she scratched the back of her had. "Both of you detected an object appearing inside Alex's heart, and when you tried to tell Alex about this object, that object suddenly gave you two a warning, as if it does not want you two to tell about its existence to Alex. That's the gist of it?"
"Exactly." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "And at the moment that that object tripled in size, Alex's behavior had started to change…"
"…"
"At the moment that I realized that his behavior changed, I already knew that the object in his heart was that culprit of it." Alina said with a sigh. "I did not feel happy at all once I had realized what was going on…"
"So that white blob is the reason for Alex becoming like this? Huh, now that's interesting." The professor muttered as she cupped her chin. "Very interesting…"
After seeing that the professor was engrossed in the conversation, Alina's tense expression loosened up as she continued talking.
"It does not want me to tell Alex about its existence, and obviously, I will not just disregard its warnings. As for physically destroying that blob, I do not know if I can even attack it right now, especially now that it was inside Alex's body. As for telling the truth to you two…"
"You are not sure if you are even allowed to talk about the object's existence to us." Professor Frances said as she finished Alina's statement. "Since you are not sure if you can even talk about what you discovered to others, you had no choice but to refrain telling about that object to us."
"That's right…" Alina replied as she bowed her head. "With that kind of limitation, I was planning on just keeping what I saw to myself. But after you pestered me for quite some time, I decided to take the risk and tell everything to you. And just like what you can see, I succeeded on that endeavor."
"…And that brings us to this dilemma." Queen Mother said as she crossed her arms. "Now that we know that there is something that is affecting Alex right now, what should we do about it? Should we deal with this peacefully, or do we have to resort to violence?"
"…"
"Come on, we need to think quickly now! If we let this go on for longer, something worse could happen to Alex! We don't want that happening to him, right?"
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"Alina, I think there is something wrong with Alex." Professor Frances whispered to Alina as she and Queen Mother stared at Alex, who was deep in conversation with [Asteria].
"Professor… why would you even think of that?" Alina replied exasperatedly as she glared at Professor Frances. "Do you even know what you are saying?"
"Don't tell me that you haven't noticed it?" The professor hissed at Alina as grabbed Alina's left shoulder. "He's acting weird now!"
"…"
Seeing that Alina did not give any reply, the professor pressed on as she continued talking.
"Did you see the way that Alex is acting now? There's really something wrong! Just look at him! If it were him before, he would have already accepted the offer to make an Unbreakable Pact. But right now, Alex is actually asking for a different way to deal with Lingo! That just does not fit on what he did in the past!"
"…So just because Alex was not assertive today, you already think that there is something wrong with him?" Alina finally replied to the professor as she tilted her head.
"Hah? Don't tell me you really don't think that there is nothing wrong?" The professor replied in confusion as she gave Alina a surprised look.
"…"
"Right at the moment that the Celestial and the Devourer Faction arrived at the arena earlier, something inside Alex has definitely changed." Professor Frances said amidst Alina's silence. "I don't know why you are trying to deny it, but even Queen Mother can see that Alex had been acting weird since that time!"
"…What the professor saying is right." Queen Mother said as she butted in, interrupting whatever Alina was trying to say next. "It might be just slight, but something has definitely changed inside Alex earlier…"
"…"
Seeing that Alina did not give any replies again, both Professor Frances and Queen Mother barked at her, as if she had offended her.
"What, don't tell me that you are still going to deny it?"
"…It's not that I am denying it. I… just have no idea on what to do regarding Alex right now." Alina said as she finally relented. Her shoulders drooped down, as she seemed to have revealed that she was carrying a heavy burden.
"Wait… are you telling me that you have seen something wrong with Alex using your 'eyes'?" The professor, hearing the resignation in Alina's voice, raised her eyebrows as she realized that there was something that Alina saw that she had been hiding from them.
"Oi Alina, whatever it is that you have seen, you should share it with us too." Professor Frances said as she stared at Alina intently. "Or are you thinking of just hiding it? Hmph, I don't know what you have seen, but I don't want you hiding it!"
"…"
"I may not be your Companion yet, but I know that you should not be keeping secrets like this from us, especially to Queen Mother!" Professor Frances said as she jabbed her finger at Alina.
"Hey!" The professor ignored Queen Mother's shout of surprise behind her as she continued jabbing her finger at Alina.
"Even if you are Alex's 'lover', you should not be hiding anything regarding him, especially if it will place us in danger!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head in disappointment.
"…."
"In the long time that I ruled my world before, I only follow one rule. And that is that there must be no secrets between comrades!" The professor said as she took a deep breath. "Only when people have high understanding of people's past that they can mesh well together! I learned that lesson the hard way before…"
"…"
"Alina, out of everyone in this team, I already knew about your past and Queen Mother's. But I know nothing about Alex's past, not even a scrap of it!" At this point, Professor Frances was almost shouting, and she had to restrain herself from speaking louder to Alina. "Alina, do you even know anything about Alex's past?"
"…"
"Hmph, from the looks of it, he also did not tell you about his past." The professor replied smugly as she let out a sigh.
"Alex… he could have a good reason for not telling us about his past…"
"Of course I get that. But that still does not correlate to what you are doing here!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head once more.
"You have seen something wrong with Alex right now, and there is a high chance that it is related to his past! Not only that, but we could be in danger because of what was happening to him now! Just look at him! It's like his bravery had been reduced!"
"Professor I get what you say, but-"
"But what? Don't tell me that you will still not tell us about what you saw with your 'All-Seeing Eyes'?" The professor shot back angrily as she gave Alina a disbelieving look. "Oh come on! Our lives are at stake here!"
"I don't like the way that professor is talking to you right now, but I guess that she is right" Queen Mother muttered as she appeared behind Alina.
"But-"
"No buts right now. Don't tell me that you don't trust us?" Professor Frances muttered as she glared at Alina again. "We are all tied together by a tight bond, and we are here to help each other out! That's why we are a team! If there's something wrong with one of our members, then the others should swoop in to help! That is how a team works! And right now, you should follow that responsibility too!"
"…"
Alina looked like she wanted to not speak, but under Professor Frances' and Queen Mother's continuous pestering for the following seconds, Alina had no choice in the end but to give up.
"…You two really are persistent." Alina said with a sigh as an exhausted look appeared on her eyes. She looked at Professor Frances and Queen Mother directly, as if she wanted to impart them with an important message.
"You two…what I am going to tell you now must not be known by others, especially by Alex!" Alina said as she huddled closer with Queen Mother and Professor Frances. "Can you promise me that you two can keep your mouth shut?"
"I get the secrecy thing, but why should we not tell anything to Alex?" Queen Mother asked Alina as she gave her a confused look. "Shouldn't Alex also know about it, since it's related to him?"
"There is no way that we can tell the truth to Mr. Alex right now." Out of nowhere, Astria, who was sitting on a wheelchair, suddenly butted in on their conversation, with her melodious voice interrupting them. "I rarely agree with the glutton swordswoman, but right now, I fully understand why Mr. Alex must be kept out of this."
"Wait, should you even be here?" The professor asked Astria with incredulity as her eyes roved all over her wheel-chaired body. "This is a private talk between our team, so outsiders must not be here! Shoo! Shoo!"
"Let this b**ch stay here, professor." Alina unexpectedly said as she let out an irritated sigh. "I'm sure that with her special nose, she had also detected what had happened with Alex earlier. Since she already knows about it, there's no sense if we chase her out now. Besides, her insights could be of great help to us here!"
"…Hmph, if you say so. But if this brat tries to make a sly move against us, I will be the first one to cut her down!" The professor unwillingly replied as she crossed her arms. "Remember brat, I'm watching you!"
"…"
Astria seemed to have ignored what the professor said as her attention was focused on Alex alone.
"Hey, hey ,hey! From the looks of it, Alex is still busy on his internal monologue…" Astria playfully said as she looked at Alex, who was actually conversing with [Asteria]. "That means we still have enough time to talk about him before he notices that something is wrong!"
It was quite obvious from what Astria was saying that she wanted to start the talk already, which was showcased by the impatience on her voice.
"Hey, don't just ignore me!" Professor Frances growled as she started to walk towards Astria menacingly. From the looks of it, Professor Frances was also pissed by Astria already, which was no surprise to anyone at all.
"Sigh…" Seeing that another fight was about to happen, Queen Mother was left with no choice but to intervene already.
Queen Mother grabbed the professor with one of her green arms as she forced the professor to stay still.
This was an effective move, as the professor's rage had seemingly abated from what Queen Mother did.
"Ok, ok, now that we are done setting the boundaries here, let's go talk about the important thing already." Queen Mother hurriedly said as she tried to defuse the somewhat tense atmosphere.
"…"
"..."
"In that case, let me start this meeting." Alina said as she let out a deep breath.
Alina's atmosphere then turned solemn as she opened her mouth.
"Right before we entered the portal to the Blue Moon, my eyes saw something inside Alex's body." Alina said as her eyes narrowed. "Along his chest area… I saw a small blob of white light, residing right at the middle of his heart. At first I thought nothing of that white blob, as I thought that maybe that was just one of the effects that appeared when Alex… made himself stronger earlier. So I just let that white blob stay there."
"As for me, I did not see anything weird inside Mr. Alex." Astria said as she interrupted Alina. "However, I definitely smelled something delicious inside Alex's heart. It smelled like chiffon cake, and it actually made me drool earlier…"
Alina looked somewhat pissed that Astria interrupted her, but she managed to rein in her irritation as she continued talking.
"That white blob stayed the same way that it is after we arrived at the arena. At that point, I started to think that this white blob could actually be safe after all. But all of that changed when the Celestials and the Devourers arrived."
"Yes! At the moment that those two factions arrived, something had changed regarding that thing inside Mr. Alex's heart!" Astria enthusiastically said as she interrupted Alina once more. "The smell coming from it became stronger, and its smell became more delectable!"
"As for me, I noticed that the white blob of light tripled in size." Alina said as she gritted her teeth. "Of course I panicked once I saw that, and I hurriedly tried to tell Alex about it. But when I tried to tell Alex about that white blob of light, I saw that white blob doing something that made me stop."
"…" Both Queen Mother and Professor Frances then leaned in as they tried to hear more about what Alina was talking about.
"Before I could say to Alex that he has a white blob of light inside him, that white blob suddenly turned red!" Alina hissed as a pissed expression appeared on her face. "At the moment that I saw that red color, I had to stop, as I knew that that color was a warning signal made by that while blob of light! And then, once I stopped trying to tell Alex about that blob, its color returned back to white…"
Astria then chimed in, as she talked with a pale pallor on her face. "As for me, I also tried telling Alex about the white blob, but just like Alina, right before I could say anything, the smell coming from that white blob changed. From smelling delectable, its smell changed to that of rotting flesh! I have no choice at that time but to back away, as I realized that there is something wrong with that thing!"
"Wait, so let me get this straight." Professor Frances said as she scratched the back of her had. "Both of you detected an object appearing inside Alex's heart, and when you tried to tell Alex about this object, that object suddenly gave you two a warning, as if it does not want you two to tell about its existence to Alex. That's the gist of it?"
"Exactly." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "And at the moment that that object tripled in size, Alex's behavior had started to change…"
"…"
"At the moment that I realized that his behavior changed, I already knew that the object in his heart was that culprit of it." Alina said with a sigh. "I did not feel happy at all once I had realized what was going on…"
"So that white blob is the reason for Alex becoming like this? Huh, now that's interesting." The professor muttered as she cupped her chin. "Very interesting…"
After seeing that the professor was engrossed in the conversation, Alina's tense expression loosened up as she continued talking.
"It does not want me to tell Alex about its existence, and obviously, I will not just disregard its warnings. As for physically destroying that blob, I do not know if I can even attack it right now, especially now that it was inside Alex's body. As for telling the truth to you two…"
"You are not sure if you are even allowed to talk about the object's existence to us." Professor Frances said as she finished Alina's statement. "Since you are not sure if you can even talk about what you discovered to others, you had no choice but to refrain telling about that object to us."
"That's right…" Alina replied as she bowed her head. "With that kind of limitation, I was planning on just keeping what I saw to myself. But after you pestered me for quite some time, I decided to take the risk and tell everything to you. And just like what you can see, I succeeded on that endeavor."
"…And that brings us to this dilemma." Queen Mother said as she crossed her arms. "Now that we know that there is something that is affecting Alex right now, what should we do about it? Should we deal with this peacefully, or do we have to resort to violence?"
"…"
"Come on, we need to think quickly now! If we let this go on for longer, something worse could happen to Alex! We don't want that happening to him, right?"
"Alina, I think there is something wrong with Alex." Professor Frances whispered to Alina as she and Queen Mother stared at Alex, who was deep in conversation with Asteria."Professor why would you even think of that?" Alina replied exasperatedly as she glared at Professor Frances. "Do you even know what you are saying?""Don't tell me that you haven't noticed it?" The professor hissed at Alina as grabbed Alina's left shoulder. "He's acting weird now!"""Seeing that Alina did not give any reply, the professor pressed on as she continued talking."Did you see the way that Alex is acting now? There's really something wrong! Just look at him! If it were him before, he would have already accepted the offer to make an Unbreakable Pact. But right now, Alex is actually asking for a different way to deal with Lingo! That just does not fit on what he did in the past!""So just because Alex was not assertive today, you already think that there is something wrong with him?" Alina finally replied to the professor as she tilted her head."Hah? Don't tell me you really don't think that there is nothing wrong?" The professor replied in confusion as she gave Alina a surprised look."""Right at the moment that the Celestial and the Devourer Faction arrived at the arena earlier, something inside Alex has definitely changed." Professor Frances said amidst Alina's silence. "I don't know why you are trying to deny it, but even Queen Mother can see that Alex had been acting weird since that time!""What the professor saying is right." Queen Mother said as she butted in, interrupting whatever Alina was trying to say next. "It might be just slight, but something has definitely changed inside Alex earlier"""Seeing that Alina did not give any replies again, both Professor Frances and Queen Mother barked at her, as if she had offended her."What, don't tell me that you are still going to deny it?""It's not that I am denying it. I just have no idea on what to do regarding Alex right now." Alina said as she finally relented. Her shoulders drooped down, as she seemed to have revealed that she was carrying a heavy burden."Wait are you telling me that you have seen something wrong with Alex using your 'eyes'?" The professor, hearing the resignation in Alina's voice, raised her eyebrows as she realized that there was something that Alina saw that she had been hiding from them."Oi Alina, whatever it is that you have seen, you should share it with us too." Professor Frances said as she stared at Alina intently. "Or are you thinking of just hiding it? Hmph, I don't know what you have seen, but I don't want you hiding it!""""I may not be your Companion yet, but I know that you should not be keeping secrets like this from us, especially to Queen Mother!" Professor Frances said as she jabbed her finger at Alina."Hey!" The professor ignored Queen Mother's shout of surprise behind her as she continued jabbing her finger at Alina."Even if you are Alex's 'lover', you should not be hiding anything regarding him, especially if it will place us in danger!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head in disappointment.".""In the long time that I ruled my world before, I only follow one rule. And that is that there must be no secrets between comrades!" The professor said as she took a deep breath. "Only when people have high understanding of people's past that they can mesh well together! I learned that lesson the hard way before""""Alina, out of everyone in this team, I already knew about your past and Queen Mother's. But I know nothing about Alex's past, not even a scrap of it!" At this point, Professor Frances was almost shouting, and she had to restrain herself from speaking louder to Alina. "Alina, do you even know anything about Alex's past?""""Hmph, from the looks of it, he also did not tell you about his past." The professor replied smugly as she let out a sigh."Alex he could have a good reason for not telling us about his past""Of course I get that. But that still does not correlate to what you are doing here!" Professor Frances said as she shook her head once more."You have seen something wrong with Alex right now, and there is a high chance that it is related to his past! Not only that, but we could be in danger because of what was happening to him now! Just look at him! It's like his bravery had been reduced!""Professor I get what you say, but-""But what? Don't tell me that you will still not tell us about what you saw with your 'All-Seeing Eyes'?" The professor shot back angrily as she gave Alina a disbelieving look. "Oh come on! Our lives are at stake here!""I don't like the way that professor is talking to you right now, but I guess that she is right" Queen Mother muttered as she appeared behind Alina."But-""No buts right now. Don't tell me that you don't trust us?" Professor Frances muttered as she glared at Alina again. "We are all tied together by a tight bond, and we are here to help each other out! That's why we are a team! If there's something wrong with one of our members, then the others should swoop in to help! That is how a team works! And right now, you should follow that responsibility too!"""Alina looked like she wanted to not speak, but under Professor Frances' and Queen Mother's continuous pestering for the following seconds, Alina had no choice in the end but to give up."You two really are persistent." Alina said with a sigh as an exhausted look appeared on her eyes. She looked at Professor Frances and Queen Mother directly, as if she wanted to impart them with an important message."You twowhat I am going to tell you now must not be known by others, especially by Alex!" Alina said as she huddled closer with Queen Mother and Professor Frances. "Can you promise me that you two can keep your mouth shut?""I get the secrecy thing, but why should we not tell anything to Alex?" Queen Mother asked Alina as she gave her a confused look. "Shouldn't Alex also know about it, since it's related to him?""There is no way that we can tell the truth to Mr. Alex right now." Out of nowhere, Astria, who was sitting on a wheelchair, suddenly butted in on their conversation, with her melodious voice interrupting them. "I rarely agree with the glutton swordswoman, but right now, I fully understand why Mr. Alex must be kept out of this.""Wait, should you even be here?" The professor asked Astria with incredulity as her eyes roved all over her wheel-chaired body. "This is a private talk between our team, so outsiders must not be here! Shoo! Shoo!""Let this b**ch stay here, professor." Alina unexpectedly said as she let out an irritated sigh. "I'm sure that with her special nose, she had also detected what had happened with Alex earlier. Since she already knows about it, there's no sense if we chase her out now. Besides, her insights could be of great help to us here!""Hmph, if you say so. But if this brat tries to make a sly move against us, I will be the first one to cut her down!" The professor unwillingly replied as she crossed her arms. "Remember brat, I'm watching you!"""Astria seemed to have ignored what the professor said as her attention was focused on Alex alone."Hey, hey ,hey! From the looks of it, Alex is still busy on his internal monologue" Astria playfully said as she looked at Alex, who was actually conversing with Asteria. "That means we still have enough time to talk about him before he notices that something is wrong!"It was quite obvious from what Astria was saying that she wanted to start the talk already, which was showcased by the impatience on her voice."Hey, don't just ignore me!" Professor Frances growled as she started to walk towards Astria menacingly. From the looks of it, Professor Frances was also pissed by Astria already, which was no surprise to anyone at all."Sigh" Seeing that another fight was about to happen, Queen Mother was left with no choice but to intervene already.Queen Mother grabbed the professor with one of her green arms as she forced the professor to stay still.This was an effective move, as the professor's rage had seemingly abated from what Queen Mother did."Ok, ok, now that we are done setting the boundaries here, let's go talk about the important thing already." Queen Mother hurriedly said as she tried to defuse the somewhat tense atmosphere."""...""In that case, let me start this meeting." Alina said as she let out a deep breath.Alina's atmosphere then turned solemn as she opened her mouth."Right before we entered the portal to the Blue Moon, my eyes saw something inside Alex's body." Alina said as her eyes narrowed. "Along his chest area I saw a small blob of white light, residing right at the middle of his heart. At first I thought nothing of that white blob, as I thought that maybe that was just one of the effects that appeared when Alex made himself stronger earlier. So I just let that white blob stay there.""As for me, I did not see anything weird inside Mr. Alex." Astria said as she interrupted Alina. "However, I definitely smelled something delicious inside Alex's heart. It smelled like chiffon cake, and it actually made me drool earlier"Alina looked somewhat pissed that Astria interrupted her, but she managed to rein in her irritation as she continued talking."That white blob stayed the same way that it is after we arrived at the arena. At that point, I started to think that this white blob could actually be safe after all. But all of that changed when the Celestials and the Devourers arrived.""Yes! At the moment that those two factions arrived, something had changed regarding that thing inside Mr. Alex's heart!" Astria enthusiastically said as she interrupted Alina once more. "The smell coming from it became stronger, and its smell became more delectable!""As for me, I noticed that the white blob of light tripled in size." Alina said as she gritted her teeth. "Of course I panicked once I saw that, and I hurriedly tried to tell Alex about it. But when I tried to tell Alex about that white blob of light, I saw that white blob doing something that made me stop.""" Both Queen Mother and Professor Frances then leaned in as they tried to hear more about what Alina was talking about."Before I could say to Alex that he has a white blob of light inside him, that white blob suddenly turned red!" Alina hissed as a pissed expression appeared on her face. "At the moment that I saw that red color, I had to stop, as I knew that that color was a warning signal made by that while blob of light! And then, once I stopped trying to tell Alex about that blob, its color returned back to white"Astria then chimed in, as she talked with a pale pallor on her face. "As for me, I also tried telling Alex about the white blob, but just like Alina, right before I could say anything, the smell coming from that white blob changed. From smelling delectable, its smell changed to that of rotting flesh! I have no choice at that time but to back away, as I realized that there is something wrong with that thing!""Wait, so let me get this straight." Professor Frances said as she scratched the back of her had. "Both of you detected an object appearing inside Alex's heart, and when you tried to tell Alex about this object, that object suddenly gave you two a warning, as if it does not want you two to tell about its existence to Alex. That's the gist of it?""Exactly." Alina replied as she let out a sigh. "And at the moment that that object tripled in size, Alex's behavior had started to change""""At the moment that I realized that his behavior changed, I already knew that the object in his heart was that culprit of it." Alina said with a sigh. "I did not feel happy at all once I had realized what was going on""So that white blob is the reason for Alex becoming like this? Huh, now that's interesting." The professor muttered as she cupped her chin. "Very interesting"After seeing that the professor was engrossed in the conversation, Alina's tense expression loosened up as she continued talking."It does not want me to tell Alex about its existence, and obviously, I will not just disregard its warnings. As for physically destroying that blob, I do not know if I can even attack it right now, especially now that it was inside Alex's body. As for telling the truth to you two""You are not sure if you are even allowed to talk about the object's existence to us." Professor Frances said as she finished Alina's statement. "Since you are not sure if you can even talk about what you discovered to others, you had no choice but to refrain telling about that object to us.""That's right" Alina replied as she bowed her head. "With that kind of limitation, I was planning on just keeping what I saw to myself. But after you pestered me for quite some time, I decided to take the risk and tell everything to you. And just like what you can see, I succeeded on that endeavor.""And that brings us to this dilemma." Queen Mother said as she crossed her arms. "Now that we know that there is something that is affecting Alex right now, what should we do about it? Should we deal with this peacefully, or do we have to resort to violence?""""Come on, we need to think quickly now! If we let this go on for longer, something worse could happen to Alex! We don't want that happening to him, right?"
