"..."

Well, I somehow managed to recover from the mental damage I received earlier

...but as if the fact that my little sister couldn't pronounce my name was enoughI suddenly found myself on the same train as Emma.

Yeah.

Emma Roshfield, one of the main protagonists and daughter of the Mayor of Ashton city.

Sigh.

To make things worse, she was now sitting next to me with both of her eyes closed. Seemingly asleep.

It felt as if I was sitting on needles.

"...Huuuuuam"

"shut up"

An hour into the train ride, I couldn't help but yawn. But to Emma, who was sitting next to me, my seemingly quiet yawn instantly caused a reaction from her

The reason for her outburst was most likely due to the fact that she was looking for an excuse to pick a fight with me from the very beginning.

...and as soon as she saw the opportunity, she shot back at me.

I guess she still held a grudge against me for what I did to Jin...couldn't blame her though. I'd show a similar reaction if I found one of my friends suddenly being held by the throat. Not that I had any...mhhh maybe Smallsnake, but in all honesty I'd probably laugh first.

Briefly glancing at her, rolling my eyes I retorted.

"What?"

"That's your eighth yawn"

"You counted?"

Who in the world would count how many times someone yawned? That's not normal.

"I can tell what you're thinking. No. I don't have the habit of counting when someone yawns...but it's different when every time you yawn you stretch and nudge all the way over to my side"

Ah.

Make sense.

That indeed sounded like something I would do.

"Sorry"

"...you should be"

Since I was in the wrong, I rightfully apologized. But after hearing her response, I started regretting it.

In the end, I didn't say anything else and just leaned back on my chair. Wasn't worth the hassle...that was my original train of thought, however, as the train ride continued, I couldn't help but frown.

Noticing my change in attitude, Emma angrily asked

"...what?"

I had originally planned to ignore her and wait for the train to smoothly arrive at the Lock after noticing her grumpy mood, but a thought suddenly occurred to me. Glancing at her, I asked.

"Hey, why are you taking the train?"

"How's that any of your concern?"

Smiling, unbothered by her sharp response, I said

"You didn't forget, did you?"

"Forget what?"

As she spoke, each of her words was covered in thorns. Almost as if she was suppressing herself from lashing out at me. Pretending to be oblivious to it, I lazily said.

"That you owe me one"

""

Though she still looked angry, her mouth couldn't help but shut. She was at a loss for words. No matter how much she wanted to rebuke, no words came out of her mouth. She knew I was right.

"That's that and this is"

"Ah, I guess your life is only worth that much...fair enough"

"Ghhh...fine!"

Backed into the corner, Emma could only angrily stomp her feet on the ground.

She like Amanda didn't like to owe others favors, and thus after I reminded her of the fact that I had saved her life, she could only lower her head in defeat. Sulking, she said

"What do you want to know?"

Smiling inwardly, once again, I asked

"Why are you taking the train?"

Though my question seemed random and intrusive, there was a very specific reason why I asked her this.

Emma was rich.

Let me rephrase. Emma Roshfield was filthy rich. So rich that she could probably buy my parent's guild a hundred times over with her allowance alone.

...this meant that she didn't have to take the train to get to the Lock.

No, in fact. Considering how doting her father was, there was no way that she would be allowed to take a train to the Lock. Moreover, as I looked around her, she didn't have any bodyguards around protecting her.

...this was something that her father would normally never allow.

...and if my hunch was correct, this meant one thing

"...in short, my father is currently not in Ashton city and my uncle told me to take the train back to the Lock."

."I see..."

As I suspected.

Though I ignored most of what she said, my ears picked up an important piece of information.

'Father not in Ashton city' and 'Uncle told me to take the train back to the Lock'

Though she didn't go into detail, I already knew who her uncle was.

Theodore Roshfield.

The second in command in the Roshfield household, and Emma's illegitimate uncle.

Also the main antagonist of the Emma route. The route which causes her to fall in love with Kevin.

...problem was, this event, according to my calculations, shouldn't have started till a further two months from now. A month after the mid-terms.

This meant that the timeline has changed...

Frowning, I couldn't help but once again realize that the plotline had been distorted.

The real question this time was...

Was it my fault or was something beyond my grasp manipulating the story from the dark?

...could it perhaps be the one who sent me to this world?

If so, what was their goal, and why me?

In the end, for the remainder of the train ride, I sat in my seat immersed in my own thoughts. Completely forgetting about the fact that Emma was sitting next to me.

...

"Ryan, why are you looking at those files?"

"Nothing, I was just curious"

inside a rundown apartment, a young boy was carefully looking through a stack of files. As he read through the files, his eyes couldn't help but wander towards the TV.

The news channel was on.

[Currently, talking about the Northern district, Sword of Light and Luxious, two major gold-graded guilds, have officially declared a guild war against Bull's Wrath. Although the reason for the sudden war is unknown, sources say that it has to do with the heirs of both respective gu...]

"so it was you"

despite his features looking like that of a twelve-year-old, his eyes and expression had no resemblance to that of a twelve-year-old child.

As his eyes alternated between the TV and the files in his hand, a faint smile appeared on his lips.

Recalling the events that had happened a couple of days prior, Ryan couldn't help but think back at the moment where the youth with blue eyes and black hair had come over and got rid of the two people sent from Luxious.

...He didn't think much back then because he was too preoccupied with his mother. But after news of Luxious suddenly declaring a guild war reached his ears, Ryan couldn't help but notice that something didn't add up.

The timing...

It was exactly a couple of days after he saw the black-haired youth taking those two guys from Luxious back with him.

Ryan's initial impression of the black-haired youth wasn't all that great.

That's because of what he saw on his sleeve.

...regardless of what was happening, Ryan was still paying attention to every little detail around him.

At first, Ryan did in fact, just like the two guys from Luxious, also think that the black-haired youth was from Bull's Wrath, primarily due to how he was able to see the insignia hidden beneath his sleeves

...but as he read through the papers regarding his mercenary group, Ryan instantly understood everything that had happened. Moreover, as he looked at the TV, Ryan could more or less determine that everything had been that youth's doing. Or at least he played a part in it.

'Interesting'

It didn't take long for him to get a clear picture of what he did. From how he instigated Luxious and Sword of Light to fight, to how he was able to pin all of the blame on Bull's Wrath.

Ryan too came up with a similar plan, in fact, he had many more complicated plans which took less time and were more efficient...but all of his plans carried a couple of critical flaws disabling him from carrying them out.

His inability to fight...and his mother.

With those two factors holding him back, he couldn't find any way to get rid of the troubles that had been coming his way.

No matter how much he wanted to put them into action, with his not even <G> ranked stats, his plans would never work. He was simply too weak.

Thus he could only give up and helplessly be put into situations that stressed his mother. He hated that.

he hated his own powerlessness

He would always wake up at night cursing at god for giving him a smart brain but no abilities to go along with his brain. Especially since this was a world where strength meant everything. His intelligence and brilliance was hence often overlooked.

Flip! Flip! Flip!

Looking through the ridiculous offer that was presented before him, Ryan couldn't help but be tempted.

The deal was much better compared to the one offered to him by Luxious. In fact, it was leagues better.

Free housing, good salary, short working hours...it was the ideal job. Moreover, remembering how hard his mother was working every day to feed him, Ryan found himself on the verge of signing this paper.

...However, he stopped himself halfway through.

He was too impulsive.

He needed to observe more...He needed to understand more...and thus after a short while of thinking Ryan decided that he wouldn't sign the papers.

At least not until he determined whether they were trustworthy or not.

He couldn't take any chances...

"Ryan time for dinner!"

Hearing his mother calling for him, as if a switch had been flipped, a childish expression appeared on his face. Happily smiling he shouted

"I'm coming, mom"