General Malcolm stood up, clapping slowly. "Congratulations to the winner of this free-for-all."

Trevor stood silent as the crowd slowly joined in, clapping until a thunderous applause resounded throughout the underground city.

Dale was sure that the noise was bound to scare away some animals on the surface.

Without much ceremony, they quickly ended their applause and the war veteran walked onto the arena, ready to pass on more information.

Trevor walked to Sarah and Gary. The three of them walked close to Dale, standing beside Austin.

Gustav’s eyes flickered between Dale and Sarah. His face twisted into an unreadable expression but he said nothing.

General Malcolm cleared his throat and spoke calmly. "And with the battle royale concluded, one more test shall be conducted."

"I’m tired. I need to rest." Austin groaned as he twisted his neck and joints to loosen them. Dale had to agree, it would be unreasonable to expect any of them to do anything physically tiring.

The first and second assessments must have drained everyone of their energy.

’Well, not everyone is tired.’ Dake thought as he glanced at Gustav who still occasionally threw him an awkward glance.

Sarah turned her head, her eyes meeting Dale. He watched as her hair turned blue with yellow streaks.

Her eyes slowly drifted to Gustav yet her expression remained impassive. If there was any form of familiarity between them, it was one-sided... or Sarah just didn’t care.

’Knowing her, it could as well be the latter.’

Dale leaned closer to Trevor and nodded at Gustav, "Do you know him?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Gustav smiled softly. "The ’him’ has a name? And his name is Gustav."

Trevor adjusted his stance to get a better glance of the strange teenager who refused to leave Dale alone.

"Gustav Rose? Yes, I know him... or rather I know his family name. He’s a member of the Rose family." He answered after a moment of contemplation.

Everyone had different reactions. Gustav seemed indifferent to his family identity being revealed.

Sarah seemed to briefly remember something but didn’t vividly react.

Gary nodded and shrugged it off, focusing his attention on the words being said by General Malcolm.

Austin just nodded, clearly not understanding the statement.

The sentence primarily revealed one major fact; There was more than one family with vassals in the military.

Dale’s eyes widened but he quickly regained composure. ’It makes perfect sense. The knowledge of my martial art, the air of ease around him, and that terrible piercing and jewelry choice. He knows his strategic value.’

’More importantly, though, it certainly explains why he reacted like that when he saw Sarah. Certainly, he must have recognized her as a member of the Song family.’

Gustav must have been trying to see if he had any ties with the Song family. The question now left unanswered was why a member of one of the many influential families within the nation seemed to be interested in him.

’The interest seemed to only spur up during our face-off. Did I charm him with my good looks?’ He smiled internally at his own joke. There was only one way to find out and that was to ask.

So he did.

"Why do you like me?" He asked with the grace of falling rock.

His friends went pale and Gustav’s cheeks seemed to burn bright red. For a split second, Dale was worried the latter was about to burst into flames.

Austin jabbed Dale in his side, "Dale, wrong word choice. Use something else instead of ’like’."

The latter nodded, understanding. At least he thought he did because there wasn’t any problem with the first problem.

He opened his mouth. "Okay... new question. Why do you have an interest in me?"

A couple of girls a few seats higher squealed, pointing at them erratically. Their faces turned red when they noticed him staring and they quickly hid their faces.

Dale couldn’t comprehend what was in the air that was making everyone act strangely. He even started to think if there was some inside joke.

’No, that doesn’t make sense. I’ve been here for a long time, I’m sure Austin would have told me about a joke.’ Whatever it was didn’t matter.

Gustav ran a hand through his hair and chuckled, throwing a backwards glance at those girls.

He inhaled sharply. "I never thought the first relationship rumors about me would start so soon."

At first, Dale was confused. What did relationship rumors have to do with anything?

Then it hit him. What he had asked and how it sounded.

His skin lost all redness as he paled.

He slapped the back of Austin’s head, "Why didn’t you tell me how I sounded?!"

The redhead shrugged. "I tried, didn’t I? It’s not my fault you can be dense at times."

Dale shook his head. It wasn’t like he could go around trying to explain the situation. Even if he could, it would do nothing but help the rumor spread faster and last longer.

Gustav shifted slightly in his seat. "In truth, I was only slightly curious about you because of your rank and the people you are associated with."

"Despite being Dormant, not only did you manage to befriend four Awakened, but you lasted far longer than any other Dormant recruit in our year."

There was truth in his words. Aside from him, every other Dormant recruit was in a tightly knit friend group.

Truly, from an outsider’s standpoint, it was a curious case.

Gustav smiled a little as he turned his focus to Sarah, "Plus it didn’t hurt that you were associated with the daughter of Michael Song."

She turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "You know my father? Painful that I don’t know you. Perhaps our parents haven’t had the pleasure of meeting... though my dad only has meetings with important people."

He ignored her insult, his eyes finally leaving her and turning back to Dale.

"Then that all changed when you managed to surprise me with your lightning attack. I finally understood how you got to be friends with them, you are certainly capable."

Dale’s eyes squinted.

’Did he think I somehow bribed or wormed my way into their midst?’ Sure, he had certainly wormed his way into advantageous positions so he didn’t mind that being said.

But the situation was different when he had actually put in effort and someone suggested otherwise.

Not only was it demeaning but it undermined his accomplishments and that ticked him off.

The corners of Dale’s lips curled up in a snarl, "Yes, I’m capable. Not all of us were born into families who could spoil us." He spoke slowly.

A sudden tension filled the air as a heavy silence fell on them.

Gustav glared at him from the corner of his eye. Dale could feel Austin’s muscles clenching as all of them prepared for a possible attack.

Suddenly, he burst out laughing. "You’re funny. I like that." Then he stood up and walked away without any hurry.