Aiden had difficulty believing that his eyes didn’t have some sort of problem. He had expected it, but seeing her once again was different.

She was right there with her eyes closed, meditating peacefully without a care in the world. Aiden didn’t say anything just yet as he kept looking at her.

He didn’t want to ruin her concentration, and he also didn’t want to act so fast. He kept looking at her. Wondering what she would be doing next. However, she did nothing special, she stayed sat with her eyes just like she had probably been doing for hours.

‘Did she get stronger?’

Aiden tried to look at what her strength was looking like by feeling the aura that she giving off. However, for some reason, he couldn’t tell. It was as if she had hidden all strength from the aura she was currently releasing.

‘Should I greet her?’

Aiden was hesitating and instead of saying something he just sat down and looked at her for a few minutes. She just looked… so… how could someone say it, beautiful? Peaceful?

There were so many words to describe her appearance, but those were the ones that would probably fit best. She was peaceful, the meditation was probably helping greatly in that regard.

A few minutes passed by, and Jake still wasn’t there.

‘It’s probably better if I talk with her alone first, considering our history. Who knows how she might react?’

‘Alright, let’s do this.’

Aiden stood up and slowly walked over to her position. She softly tapped on one of her shoulders, waiting for her to open her eyes, but she didn’t. She was focused on her current situation.

“Ava? Is that really you?”

Aiden had no other choice as he finally raised his voice, wondering what her reaction would be like.

“Ah! Who’s there?”

She jumped in place when she heard that someone had managed to get so close to her without making the slightest sound. She was almost scared that someone had come for her life.

‘Luckily Emma stayed at the top of the cave, or else, who knows what might have happened…’

Ava turned around in the direction of the voice, wondering who had started talking to her. And when she did… her eyes which had been barely open, widened instantly.

“A-Aiden… is that you?” She was shocked, as her body shook a little. “W-Wait… no, there’s… no way, right?”

She couldn’t believe her eyes as she blinked multiple times, praying that the person in front of her would disappear. However, he did not…

“N-No… don’t tell me… since you’re here, does it mean that… no please no. Please tell me I’m dreaming…”

The current situation was too much for her to handle, she was scared. She remembered very well what they had said when they had parted ways. If they ever found each other again, she would have to listen to everything that he would say…

She tried pinching herself, but it was no use… the only thing she felt was pain.

‘I’m really not dreaming. But… how did he get here? This place… really isn’t that common.’

Ava just couldn’t believe it.

Why here out of all places?

They could have met at the Inter Family Tournament since she had also been participating, but no… They didn’t.

They could have met, in a city from one of the founding families. But no, they didn’t.

They could have met, fucking anywhere else than here… Why here in the middle of nowhere?

‘Is it because of the system, did it want us to meet again? Was that why they told me that receiving that item was destiny?’

Multiple questions appeared in Ava’s mind and Aiden kept his mouth shut as he couldn’t help but find her whole reaction extremely funny.

Her mouth was wide open and she hadn’t moved her eyes since she had opened them. They were fixated on Aiden.

After a few seconds, she realized that she was still there in front of him.

“Oh… uh… I’m sorry. But is that really you? Why are you here? How?

Who?”

Aiden didn’t answer anything yet, well he told her one thing.

“Yes, it’s me… I’m Aiden. Nice to see you again, huh?”

There was a little smirk on the corner of Aiden’s smile. He was enjoying this moment a lot. In fact, he hadn’t expected to enjoy it that much. It was an incredible feeling, having someone in front of you who was so scared to see you again.

“So… uh, Aiden?”

The smile on Aiden’s face just got bigger at the question. He knew what would be coming next.

“Do you remember what we talked about… you know… before we left?”

She kept playing with her fingers and looking down when she uttered those words. It was clear that she was very nervous.

‘Please say no, please say no…’

Ava hadn’t thought about Aiden in multiple weeks. At first, she had been worried about seeing him again, but after so much time had passed, she had thought that there was no way they would be meeting again. Especially, after the Inter Family Tournament.

“I do. I do, remember. But…”

Aiden took a small pause after the “but” on purpose, wanting to see the reaction she would have.

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“But what?”

“But, we will talk about it later. Don’t worry.”

Right after Aiden uttered those words, heavy footsteps were heard coming from the hallway that Aiden had taken to arrive there.

‘Took long enough.’

It had already been a few minutes since Aiden had arrived at the bottom of the cave.

“Oh, seems like you guys met already.”

Jake who was completely oblivious to the tension between the two, just spoke his mind without minding it. Even if he had known about it, he would have probably done the exact same thing.

Jake wasn’t the type to care about a lot of things after all, not after everything that he had gone through. There was a reason that he was still in this cave, after all…

Aiden and Ava ignored it, but there was a reason that the system was sending him “students”.

Had he made a deal?

Was it something else?

“We did, hahaha…”

A weird giggle couldn’t help but escape Ava’s lips. She was just in such an awkward, especially after what Aiden had just told her. It was truly quite weird.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes, yes… everything is fine. Let’s just go back up.”

‘Go back up? Hmm, probably not the best idea with Emma there… Well, they are bound to meet at one point, right?’

Aiden who had been close to protesting to going back up, closed his mouth since he knew there was no point in protesting. Ava would at one point or another meet with Emma.

Still, there was a little bit of worry in Aiden’s mind about how Emma would react. She had quite the personality, after all.

‘Let’s hope she doesn’t get jealous or something like that…’

“Alright, let’s go.”

Jake as had just arrived was now going back up the cave. Everything he had just done was completely useless, and he seemed annoyed about it. But he didn’t say anything as he followed them upwards.

A few minutes later, they were now back at the top of it. Emma had joined them and they were now looking at one another around a small round table.

No one had spoken up yet, except for Jake who… for some strange reason couldn’t feel the tension in the room.

Emma was looking at Ava straight in the eyes. “So, how did you two meet?”

She had an arrogant tone while she spoke, as if demanding information.

“The first trial… that’s when we met for the first time, what about you? What kind of relationship do you guys have?”

“R-Relationship?”

Her face became red instantly when asked that question. The cold front she had put up disappeared instantly leaving place for her true personality.

“W-We are just… uh… friends, right? Friends, right Aiden?”

She needed validation from Aiden since even she was confused about their relationship. In her mind, they were certainly closer than friends, but she didn’t want to say anything that might fire back.

“Yes, we are friends at the moment, who knows about the future?”

Emma was even redder as Aiden pronounced those words.

‘The future?… Is he thinking about our future?’

Emma was shocked by the words Aiden had used, even if they weren’t anything special.

“And we meet in the Everheart family…”

‘The Everheart Family?’

Immediately, Ava had a lot of questions on her mind. The composure that she had lost long ago was slowly coming back. She remembered talking with Aiden about his family a couple of months ago in the first trial.

And she remembered it very well, he had said that he was part of the Nightshades.

‘Did he lie at that time… Wait this means… that maybe I won’t be obligated to listen to what he says? If he isn’t part of the Nightshade then he doesn’t have much backing. Yes! This is perfect.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep