Chapter 136- Top 10-Ranker Appeared? (Part 2)
The sound of wet innards just getting stirred inside the empty carcass of what was a human not long ago was like a cursed melody to the ear. Each note of it was capable of sending shivers down the spine of listeners.
A hollow, mind-numbing silence took over the place. The girl was occupied with the teddy bear and the dead corpse so she didn't even glance at the guards standing not that far away.
After a crucially long time, one of the guards finally woke up from his trance and hesitatingly asked with a meek voice.
"W-WHo are you?!"
Even though he tried to sound intimidating and strong, his voice would betray him completely. He couldn't even say the words without stuttering.
However, the small girl didn't respond at all as she shoved the teddy bear deeper and deeper into the corpse's chest, threatening to pierce it from the other side.
"H-Hey, I'm talking to you! Who are you and what are you doing here?!" The guard was already on the verge of losing his composure from the fear and stress he was feeling. The situation was just too absurd in the first place to even be properly dealt with by anyone.
*Swish*
Suddenly, the girl's body blurred and vanished completely in front of their eyes.
"Is he also tasty, Silika?" The girl asked.
All the guards present flinched as fear dawned on them. Turning around quickly, they found the girl standing there, looking at them with her hollow yet extremely beautiful eyes. The guards could swear they couldn't see a single emotion inside her pupils.
In this field, meeting cold, cunning, and evil people was something they had to experience so they grew quite sensitive to detecting emotions through the eyes. The eyes are the mirrors of the soul, after all.
However, looking at her eyes they sensed nothing from them… The emptiness inside of them was just inhuman. Hell, even insects don't have that lifeless eyes.
"Woah!!"
Realizing the horrible danger they were in, they retreated behind in fear and pulled out their swords. However, their shaky hands didn't make their stances any more threatening than that of a domestic cat.
The girl didn't even bother checking their swords as she shifted her gaze to her teddy bear she named Silika.
"Hmm, so no?" She murmured to herself.
Then, as if she lost interest, she started walking away, ignoring the guards completely. Her small steps made what she did a second ago seem like nothing but an illusion created by their stressed mind.
"Hey wait!!" They shouted but the girl continued walking away. None of them even thought about trying to chase her or fight her as they had already classified that girl as imminent death. Instead, they contacted the only person they can report that stuff to, the floor master.
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Rin, who was oblivious to all of this, waited for Elise to finish. He had searched for her all around the student queue with his eyes and found her right in front.
'I don't get why she's confident with the appraisal when her element is as rare as mine?' Rin thought to himself.
He had thought that Elise might be troubled to reveal her element. However, for better or worse, she didn't seem to be bothered about the matter for several reasons.
The main and arguably the most important one was that her powers weren't something 'forbidden' like Rin's powers are. Even if the academy was to discover that she can manipulate gravity, they will most likely only consider it as an extremely rare and amazing talent. They might even try to nurture it.
But, that would only be the case if the second reason didn't exist. The reason for it Elise seemed to be completely relaxed about the matter as if it wouldn't be trouble.
Watching as she approached the orb and put her hand on it, he waited for the result curiously.
Then, the woman spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Earth element." She said.
'Hmm?' Rin's eyebrows rose with a surprised look.
Was there a mistake? Or did Elise do something he didn't know of?
When Elise nodded her head and approached him, he asked her curiously.
"I didn't do anything." She replied.
"Huh?"
"I had experimented with my element before coming here and for some odd reason… Gravity appears as an earth element on every appraisal orb. I have no idea why or whether it was intended or not. Maybe because gravity and earth elements are similar or share a similar effect?" Elise analyzed the matter from her point of view.
The earth and gravity elements are mostly similar in their effects on the earth. But, while gravity is extremely strong and very volatile, earth element was way more restricted and lackluster compared to gravity.
"Well, that's most likely the case. It's honestly better than getting caught with a rare element like that."
"It still is foreign to me. I tried researching further but I couldn't find any trace of any human capable of using gravity in all the history of Divine Sapphire."
"Maybe it isn't from this world? Didn't you ask your system?"
"I didn't get a clear answer at all. It's as if the question is being avoided and I don't know the reason for that."
"What abo-" Before Rin could finish his words, his eyes caught something.
There, not that far away from them, a small girl was walking across the street, playing with her teddy bear as she continued jumping from one place to another.
"A small girl?" Rin murmured as he pointed at her for Elise to look too.
The two were confused by the appearance of a small child in such a place.
"Could she be…?" Rin asked.
"Let's go."
"Wait, where are you going, Elise?" Rin asked her as he quickly hid his body from the girl's view.
"She's clearly not someone normal. Let's leave before she sees us."
"I know… But, if she's what we think she is…"
*Swish*
Suddenly, the girl vanished and reappeared behind them, startling the duo as they jumped back warily. The hair on their skin stood up from the sheer tension they felt from the girl. But, even though they tried to sense her presence or even a speck of her aura, they couldn't at all.
There were only two possible answers to that: either she was so stronger than them that they simply can't feel her aura at all or she had an extremely high-mastery over mana camouflage that it made it impossible to detect her.
Either way, seeing that they were exposed before they could even run away, the situation became from bad to horrible in less than a second.
The girl, on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by their clearly unfriendly reactions. Instead, she assessed both of them, taking more time looking at Rin more than Elise.
After that, she lifted her teddy bear and showed it to Rin.
"Silika says… she likes you."
Rin looked at Elise with clear confusion.
"Like me?"
"Silika… wants a hug." The girl added, making Rin even more lost.
'Why is she acting like this? Is she crazy?' Rin assumed in his head that this girl who he assumed was one of the infamous Top-10 Rankers was somewhat not sane.
'I mean, what sane person would meet someone and then say that their teddy bear wants a hu-... Wait…' Rin's head froze as he realized something. Then, he tapped his face with a sigh.
'There is indeed some type of sane creatures that would say something like that… Children.' Rin thought.
He had thought that since she was a top-10 ranker she would be a mature and more level-headed person. But, for her to actually be a child through and through, in and out was something so obviously visible yet also hard to see.
"Silika… Wants a hug." She said as she shook her teddy bear a few times.
"Isn't that blood?" Elise murmured.
The brown teddy bear had a dark color covering its fur. The color was apparent to be red and Elise had seen that color more than enough times to identify it with one simple look as clotted blood. She could also see that the girl's hands were coated in that same sticky liquid.
'She killed someone or something?' The idea was horrifying but also not that surprising. The person they were dealing with wasn't normal.
"Silika… Ate food and now she wants a hug to sleep." The girl explained apathetically.
"Wait a moment, girl…"
"Hug." She cut him off.
Rin felt his face twitch for a moment before he regained composure. He had no idea if he was dealing with one of the strongest people he had ever met or a mere child.
"Hug… Now." Her voice was growing faintly impatient as if she was getting angry.
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