A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 43: Confrontation

An hour later, Shu was out of Crimson Forest with the mission finally over. He was already hurrying home, the bat resting on one shoulder while the ruined streets blurred past.

’Just let me get back before anything else happens,’ he thought, jaw tight. ’I am so done with today.’

He was a fair distance from the dungeon when something shifted behind him, and his body moved before his mind caught up. The bat ripped off his shoulder in a hard swing, fast enough to take a head clean off if it landed the way it should have, then stopped inches from Raniel’s face.

A thin line of sweat slid down her temple while her eyes stayed locked on the bat. For once, she looked properly shaken.

"Woah there," she said, holding very still.

He kept the bat there for one more second, then drew it back just enough to stop looking like he might finish the swing. His eyes stayed on her face while his shoulders stayed tight.

’Huh, Raniel?’ he thought, ’what’s she doing here? Don’t tell she actually recognized earlier?’

Raniel let out a slow breath and glanced from the bat to him, "haha, you almost took my head off," she said nervously. "sorry if I surprised you, didn’t mean to scare you."

He stared at her for a second longer, then pulled the bat back fully, "why are you here?" He asked, turning back around and walking away.

She stepped in step beside him, smiling a little, "I had my suspicions, guess I was right," she said, elbowing him a little, "so it really was you back in the dungeon, wasn’t it?"

He kept walking, ignoring her question but that just made her even more sure it was him. "You nearly killed me just now by the way," she said with a small laugh, waiting for a reaction but she still got none. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

After looking at his annoyed face, she went silent and looked ahead, her face softening a bit, "hey," he looked over after hearing the tone of her voice, "do you hate me?"

He blinked at her, caught off guard by that question more than he wanted to admit. "What?" he asked, his brows pulling together a little. "Why would you even think that?"

She looked down the road instead of at him, and the hand swinging at her side slowed a bit. "Because every time we talk, you always look annoyed," she said quietly. "So I figured maybe you just don’t like me."

He stared at her for a second, then looked away with his jaw tightening a little. ’Raniel...’ he thought, remembering the early parts of her arc in the novel.

Even before things got worse in the story, people around her kept treating her differently. She was young, strong, pretty, and way too easy to misread, so plenty of people looked at her once and decided she was just some arrogant little genius with no depth.

Others talked down to her because of her age, or because she was only C-Rank back then, and some just made up their mind about her without ever bothering to know her properly.

’Don’t tell me she thinks I am doing that too,’ he thought, clicking his tongue softly. ’Is that why she asked me that out of nowhere?’

He rubbed the back of his neck and kept walking, with his earlier edge dropping just a little. "No," he said after a moment. "It’s not like that."

She looked at him properly after that, like she was trying to decide if he was just saying something nice to end the conversation. "Then what is it?" she asked. "Because your face really doesn’t help your case."

He let out a dry breath and looked ahead again, ’what am I even supposed to say here?’ he thought, tightening his grip on the bat a little.

’Getting involved with the main cast could be annoying but talking this once should be fine right?’ He thought, looking at her before looking away.

"It’s nothing to do with you, it’s just you timing," he said, his tone more friendly.

"My timing, what does that mean?" She asked, tilting her head sideways, "I don’t think I have bad timing though."

He ran his hand through his hair and exhaled, "from your point of view it may appear that way but for me, each time you show up is always when I am not in the mood."

She looked at him for a second, then her brows slowly pulled together. "That sounds kind of mean when you say it like that," she said, though there was more confusion than anger in her voice.

He shrugged a little and kept walking. "I am not saying you do it on purpose," he said. "I am just saying your timing always sucks for me."

She opened her mouth, then closed it again while thinking back. The first time they met, he had just turned on the lights in his apartment and was clearly on edge, then at the hunter hall she walked into a mess and made it worse in a completely different way.

After that came the dungeon, where she found him in the middle of a terrible fight and nearly exposed him right after. The more she thought about it, the less she could even argue.

"...Wow," she muttered, folding her arms. "When you put it like that, I sound like some bad luck charm."

He gave her a look from the side. "You said it, not me."

That made her giggle and lightly bump his arm with her elbow. "You are really bad at making people feel better."

"I was not trying to make you feel better," he said, sounding too tired to lie about it.

She stared at him, then suddenly giggled again.

’At least she stopped looking at me like I kicked a puppy,’ he thought, exhaling, his exhaustion really getting to him. ’That question actually caught me off guard though.’

She glanced at him again, "so you don’t hate me," she said, more like she was confirming it for herself. "You are just always exhausted when I show up."

"Pretty much."

"That is still rude."

"I guess so," he looked at the building closer by, annoyed a little again. ’I really just want to go home and sleep.’

She looked at his face, waiting for him to say something after that, but he didn’t. After a few seconds, she let out a breath and shook her head.

"You know," she said, stepping over a crack in the road, "most people would try harder to smooth things over after saying all that."

Shu adjusted the bat on his shoulder and looked ahead, "by the way, you still didn’t answer me why you are following me."

She stared at him, her cheeks puffed since he was dodging the conversation, "meanie," she said, crossing her arms and looking away.

’was she always this... childish in the novel?’ He thought, using the bat to tap his head a bit, ’dammit, I don’t remember much since she died so early.’

The thought didn’t last long before Raniel suddenly stopped walking.

He looked over, only to see the childish look on her face disappear. Her mood turned serious in an instant, and a sharp aura rolled off her body right after.

"Now then," she said, stepping right into his personal space, "what were you doing in a dungeon like that?" she asked, staring straight at his face. "Unauthorized too."