Chapter 174: [174] Actions Have Consequences

Ark heaved a breath as he tried to come up with the best possible lie he could think of. He had a lot of good ideas, he was a natural when it came to lying after all, but Ark could not bring himself to say them.

Because there was evidence that disproved his lies...!

Videos of his fight with Cain had likely gone viral already. They may not have seen it, but it was only a matter of time until they did.

’How do I get out of this mess?’

"Olivia, please let go of the guild master. I don’t think he is going to try to run any longer."

"But—!" Olivia huffed before she got off his body.

Ark felt his chest cavity throb with joy. The moment he sat up, his gaze drifted to the source of the voice. Thalia was standing by the doorpost, leaning against it, her hands folded underneath her chest as she stared at him.

Their eyes met...

’Thalia, my saviour!’ Even if everyone in the world were to run against him, even if everyone decided he was a plague that needed to be eradicated, Ark was sure that Thalia would still be by his side!

"Thank you, Thalia—"

"Tch." She clicked her tongue and averted her gaze. Olivia smiled at the response, already warming up her knuckles as she moved closer to him.

’Huh? Heh??’ It seemed he had managed to offend even Thalia, who was never angry with him, no matter what he did.

Behind her, two heads popped into the door frame, their eyes scanning the room. But when the salamanders sensed the crackling tension in the space, they turned tail and ran.

Ark wished he could switch places with them...

A few minutes later, he found himself on his knees apologising for his actions. He went over everything that had happened, leaving nothing out of the story.

"So you were with Soo-jin, training." Olivia’s eyes narrowed slightly. Since he had been training instead of wasting time away playing games, her anger seemed to soften a little.

It would have been good... if it was not replaced with a new type of anger. Thankfully, she did not dwell on it.

"Do you know how worried we were? We called you over twenty times. You didn’t answer once!" Olivia complained.

’They called?’

If they called, then he should have seen the notification in front of him. No matter how busy he was, he would have seen it.

Ark discreetly summoned his system, only for a tingling feeling to course through his body.

— Fifty missed calls.

Olivia had even toned down the number. Thirty of those calls were hers, while twenty were from Thalia.

Now he knew why they were that angry. They had tried every method to reach him and had been unable to. It must have been torture. Even he would be more than worried if he couldn’t reach either of them for so long.

’How did I not get the call—’ Ark’s thoughts suddenly trailed off as he remembered a particular scene from the past.

So the time he had ended a call and put his system on silent, the person who had been calling was Olivia?

’Shit.’

"Ehehe." He scratched his head. "I’m sorry..."

Olivia looked in the other direction, avoiding meeting his eyes. It seemed she was not too eager to forgive him.

Thalia, on the other hand, still had a scowl on her face, but Ark could tell that she had long forgiven him.

"I’ve missed you guys so much." He said in the most endearing voice he could summon.

Both women twitched. But they kept looking away.

"You two are very dear to my heart, you know that, right? We have gone through so much together, I would never purposely ignore you."

Olivia’s cheeks tinged red, while Thalia rubbed her elbows, unable to hide the smile that was creeping onto her face.

"P-please stand up, guildmaster." She said in a lighter tone. "It is unbecoming for you to be on your knees." She nudged Olivia’s side. "Right, O-olivia?"

"R-right... it’s not that we forgive you, okay! It’s just... just stand up already!"

’Yeah boi, hehe.’ Ark mused as he made a show of standing up. This old trick worked on Bronya every time. Cracker had taught him well.

"By the way." Thalia’s tone was a little more serious. "Are you serious about going? Back to that place..."

One of the things Ark had explained was why he had the key.

He told them that it was time to fulfil his end of the deal he made more than a month back.

Tristan had given them extra time so that his dive would not affect the dungeon dive (guild test) they were scheduled to take that week, so there should have been no problems.

And yet—

"..."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Thalia had not been in the tutorial herself, but by now, there was no awakened who had not heard the news, the story about how over two hundred skilled awakened were massacred in a tutorial.

Ark had managed to escape that place, and yet he was going back? Thalia’s face turned solemn, and she felt her stomach twist with worry as she nervously scratched the floor with her tail.

It was all her fault.

If not for her crimes, if not that he had been forced to bargain for her life, then he would not be in this mess in the first place.

Olivia looked equally concerned. The horrors of the tutorial still haunted her up till this very day.

There were times she would stay up at night, unable to go to sleep for fear of being haunted by their faces, the faces of those that they had failed to save.

She wanted to stop Ark. To hold him, beg him not to go. But Thalia’s life was on the line, and when she thought about it, she felt weak, conflicted...

"Why the long faces?" Ark sighed as he scratched his head. "First of all, don’t act like it is your fault, Thalia." Ark spoke as though he could read her mind.

"I lost basically nothing in this deal. I was going to go back to that place even if I didn’t make a deal with Tristan."

He turned to Olivia. "You worry too much. Do you really think that tower is enough to hold me back?"

She shook her head slowly. "No."

Ark placed his hand on her shoulder. "Then don’t worry about me, I’ll be back before you know it."

She tried to harden her face, to look confident. But all she managed to do was puff out her cheeks.

"Don’t die in there, and make sure you pay them back for what they did to us!" Olivia raised her fist.

"Please stay safe." Thalia added with a courteous bow.

Ark nodded. "I will."

He took out the key and pushed it into thin air. The air crackled with intensity as reality tore open before their very eyes, revealing a large, bright fissure.

Ark summoned the skill tome to absorb the skill before he left, but the moment he opened it, a white paper slipped out and fell onto the floor...