Chapter 240: The Calm Before The Storm
"No, this time I\'m not kidding. I\'m dead serious. The news said it themselves! They found the sixth SOVERIGN!"
"Alright, I\'ll bite, who is it?"
"They say it\'s GHOST. That new kid vigilante that recently killed a calamity class. I haven\'t gotten the exact score yet, but they say that he killed an ELDRITCH during his assessment, and he would definitely be an Undefined."
"Eh?? That\'s impossible. Are you sure you aren\'t smoking again? I told you to stay off those things, they\'re messing with your damn head. You just said he killed a calamity the other day, and now you say he killed an ELDRITCH? Are you mental?"
"Seriously! I\'m not kidding!"
"Miss me with the bullshit! You\'re always lying!"
"You just never believe me!"
…
"Hey, there\'s a new SOVERIGN. They say it\'s that new kid, GHOST."
"Yeah, I\'ve heard about that too. They said he killed an ELDRITCH!"
"Fucking hell, man, are we going to see another guild war? All the guilds are gonna want a piece of him!"
"Nah, they say he already joined the Artemis guild."
"Artemis? What guild is that?"
…
"Hey, have you heard about the new kid GHOST? They say he\'s going to be the next SOVERIGN!"
"Wait, GHOST. Do you mean Mark Vanitas? I go to school with that dude!"
"Shit, really? Bro, you\'re gonna have a fucking SOVERIGN in your school!"
…
"Ah! Ah! Yeah, right here, baby. Don\'t stop! Don\'t stop."
Slurp! Slurp! Pop!
"Holy shit! An Eldritch!"
The woman lying in bed immediately stopped moaning as her husband came out from under the sheets with his phone in his ear while talking to someone. The husband turned to her with a look of shock on his face.
"There\'s a sixth SOVERIGN, honey! They say that Mark Vanitas defeated an ELDRITCH!"
Slam!
A pillow immediately slammed into the man\'s face as the woman shouted angrily at him!
"What the hell are you doing while you\'re in bed with me!? You were answering your phone under the covers!? You bastard!"
"Shit! Honey! Honey, wait up! I\'m sorry!"
…
"And in other news, it appeared that there is a new powerhouse roaming the streets of America. The superhuman Mark Vanitas, known popularly as GHOST is rumored to have surpassed all expectations during his assessment and is being hailed as the sixth SOVERIGN…"
"Big Sis Arit! Big Bro is on TV!!"
A loud voice echoed through Mark\'s penthouse, and Arit quickly came out from the kitchen while drying her hands with an apron as she heard that Mark was on television. She smiled at Talia as Talia pointed to the television in excitement and turned to see the news anchor talking about Mark\'s recent assessment.
There was an image beside the woman speaking of Mark standing on top of a building from when he fought against the Calamity class monster a long time ago.
The newscaster continued.
"Rumors have suggested that the superhuman GHOST fought against and defeated an ELDRITCH rank monster in his assessment, and although his actual score is unknown for now, there is a high likelihood that he will be the sixth undefined."
Talia immediately jumped up on the couch and smiled up at Arit!
"Big Bro really won against an Eldritch class monster! I\'ve only heard about that kind of monster in stories! He\'s awesome!"
Arit smiled at the little girl and pet her head gently. Talia was so happy that Mark won against such a strong monster that she didn\'t even try to stop Arit from petting her head. She just accepted the action before turning back to the TV to continue watching.
Once Arit was sure that Talia was properly distracted, Arit immediately reached for her phone and called Mark as she gained a worried expression on her face. Arit had never seen or heard about what an ELDRITCH class could do before, but from how they were talking about it, she knew that it must have been something really dangerous!
Arit hoped that Mark was not injured!
Ring~! Ring~! Ring~!
The phone rang for a while without an answer, and Arit\'s worry grew when the voice of the call center echoed that there was no answer. She quickly called again, and this time, Mark picked up on the second ring.
[Babe, what\'s up?]
"Mark, oh thank god. I heard about what happened on TV. I was worried. Are you alright?"
Mark released a deep breath over the phone. Mark was currently in the gym pummeling a punching bag to oblivion, and he cleaned the sweat that accumulated on his neck while answering that he was fine, he didn\'t get injured at all during the fight. Mark went to sit down on a bench at the side and collected the water that Mary handed him with a quiet thank you.
Mark smiled at him beautifully, but Mark ignored her and focused on Arit as she started talking again.
"I\'m glad. You know, when you told me that you were going to the office, I didn\'t think you would be getting into any fights there."
Mark chuckled at Arit\'s joke, and Arit couldn\'t help but smile as well as she started walking towards the kitchen to check on the food.
"Are you going to be back soon?"
[Yeah, just need to stay for my final score. I\'ll see you soon, babe.]
"Alright. I-I love you."
Mark smiled as he heard the crack in Arit\'s voice as she talked. Even after all this time, she was still shy about things like this. This girl was really something else!
Arit had a huge blush on her face as she waited for a response from Mark. Her hand was holding her apron tightly, and she was one second away from cutting the phone in embarrassment when Mark finally spoke up.
[I love you too, babe.]
"Eep!"
Beep!
Arit quickly cut the phone when she heard that, and she bent down while holding the edge of the counter tightly! She put a hand over her face, and she could feel how hot it was because of the heavy blush that was growing on her cheeks!
\'I can\'t believe I said that! I told him I love him! Ah! This is so embarrassing! Can I even face him when he comes back home!?\'
Whineeeeee~!
The cooker started to whine loudly, and Arit quickly forgot about her embarrassment as she rushed to finish the meal.