Chapter 242: Shady buisness

Chloe’s grip tightened on Vlad’s arm until her knuckles turned white. If not for the Black God Armor protecting him, she might have blocked the blood flow to his arm.

"Snap out of it," she muttered, pinching him.

Vlad blinked. He turned to Seraphina, who was still savoring the taste of victory with a smug smile.

A flick landed on her forehead.

"Aan!" she groaned, holding her forehead with both hands, the smug expression vanishing from her face.

"You can’t suddenly do things like that," Vlad nagged, his face still tinted with a mild blush.

"Why can’t I?" she demanded with a sulk, rubbing her stinging forehead.

"It’s dangerous," Vlad hissed.

"But I already covered us before doing it."

She pointed at the flaming sphere surrounding them.

"You..." Vlad raised his fingers again, but she immediately created some distance between them to save herself.

If only she knew that he wasn’t talking about the danger of someone seeing them, but about his own heart that had barely survived that attack.

Seeing Vlad so flustered, Seraphina felt even more satisfied with what she had done. She could take a few more flicks if it meant seeing more of this side of her boyfriend.

Her eyes were already glinting with mischief as she planned her ambush for the next time they met.

As for Chloe, seeing Seraphina getting punished somewhat reduced the raging fury inside her, but a flick was far from enough to cool it down.

She tugged at Vlad’s blazer. "She doesn’t look like she’s repenting," Chloe said, pointing at Seraphina’s cheeky face. "Give her the spanking like old times to turn her into a good girl."

Seraphina’s brows furrowed, clearly hearing Chloe’s absurd suggestion. "As if!"

"Hmm, that seems like a good idea," Vlad agreed with Chloe, his expression far too serious to be joking. "She is really being a bad girl."

He slowly walked toward her, making Seraphina instantly flinch. "Y-you can’t be serious," she exclaimed, her face turning red. "You can’t do that to a young lady."

As Vlad drew closer, she blurted out while closing her eyes, "How dare you team up with her to bully me? I will remember this."

Contrary to her words, she didn’t move an inch from her place.

"I’m a grown woman. I will never take spankings. No! Never..." Her words stopped as she realized it had become suspiciously quiet.

She opened one eye, seeing Vlad looking at her with a playful smile.

"You know, you could simply remove this sphere, and he won’t lay a finger on you," Chloe mentioned the obvious peaking from Vlad’s behind.

Her hand rose to her lips in a small gasp, her expression as unreadable as ever. "Or did you secretly want to get punished by him?"

The blush on Seraphina’s cheeks spread to her ears, her eyes rolling in shame. "Chloe, you will regret messing with me!" she shouted, tightening her fists at her sides.

She immediately canceled the flaming sphere and strolled away from them.

"She is so adorable when she is flustered," Vlad chuckled, shaking his head, his eyes fixed on her retreating figure. "But really, why was she just standing there when I approached her?"

Chloe pulled his cape from behind. He turned to see her looking at him with a deadpan expression.

"Now why are you sulking?" Vlad asked with a sigh.

"Today is the Chloe day," she muttered. "Focus on Chloe only!"

He reached beside her and offered his arm. "Do you have any plans for Chloe’s day?"

She immediately grabbed his arm with one hand and said as she walked forward, "So many."

---

Seraphina looked back over her shoulder at the duo with a warm smile before turning her gaze forward. She stopped for a moment as she reached beside Ravenna.

"I will be reporting you to the academy for trying to assault a student," she declared, her tone cold as she glared at Ravenna as if looking at an ant.

"L-Lady Seraphina—"

"Shut it," Seraphina cut her mid-sentence and walked away.

Ravenna fell to her knees, her face completely pale. "I-I’m finished."

Later that evening, Ravenna received an expulsion letter for multiple events of assaulting male students.

---

After a few minutes of walking arm in arm, Chloe and Vlad reached the main building. The duo unwillingly became the center of attention for every boy and girl.

Students wearing aristocratic attire were quite normal in the academy. But the way these two carried themselves made everyone look at them at least twice.

Naturally, Chloe, who was wearing a knee-length skirt for the first time, kept squirming under the people’s gazes, her fingers tightly holding onto Vlad’s arm.

"Are you uncomfortable in these clothes?" Vlad asked, noticing her discomfort.

She really was. She was fine as long as Vlad was the only one seeing her in these clothes that felt too bold for her innocent mind.

She gave a mild nod.

Vlad drew his long crimson coat, the exclusive coat of the Crownbearer, from his storage ring and placed it over her shoulders.

They entered the main building and walked through the central hall. Vlad couldn’t help but notice that Chloe looked even more troubled now.

’I can’t build the confidence to wear these clothes in public,’ she muttered inwardly. ’How will I muster the courage to do the things that Seraphina told me? He must be thinking that I’m still a child.’

Thankfully, Vlad didn’t nag her about wearing something that clearly made her uncomfortable. Even the tiniest bit of her confidence would have shattered.

Vlad stopped before a male student at the main entrance of the academy. The young man with long, untamed auburn hair that covered his shadowy face was standing while leaning against the massive wooden door.

"Vlad?" he asked without lifting his head.

Vlad nodded, his expression unreadable. Chloe’s stance tensed as she noticed both of them taking something out of their pockets.

It was their phones. They touched the heads of their phones together.

Ding...

---

1000 credits have been debited from your account.

---

The message popped up on Vlad’s phone. The shady boy threw a hand-sized pouch toward Vlad.

"Pleasure doing business with you," the boy said, slightly lifting his head. His slightly cracked lips were revealed beneath his hair.

Vlad merely nodded before moving out of the building.

They had only reached the iron gates of the academy when Chloe stopped.

"Vlad, are you being a bad boy?"

Her mind was still fixed on the exchange between Vlad and that shady boy. The whole meeting was too suspicious, as if Vlad had involved himself in something very bad.

"Of course not," Vlad chuckled, knowing why she asked that.

"What did that scary boy give you?" Chloe asked.

Vlad handed her the pouch. "Look at it yourself."

Chloe opened the pouch. It contained coins... golden coins. Nearly a hundred of them.

"There is a really nice restaurant in the city that serves delicious food," Vlad revealed, scratching his temple. "So I exchanged credits for some real money."

"But these are still too much for just food," Chloe murmured, her eyes fixed on the pouch in her hand, which suddenly felt too heavy. She had never seen such an amount of money before.

Vlad patted her head with a soft chuckle. "Well, eating isn’t the only thing we will be doing, right?"

A faint smile appeared on Chloe’s face. She handed the pouch back and rubbed her cheek against his arm again. "Let’s go quickly. I can’t wait."