Northern and Ellis were already upon the mansion, although they were coming from behind so they had to make a turn to the front.
Ellis suddenly stopped and said to Northern.
"There's someone... someones..."
Northern raised an inquisitive brow at him and looked front, then he cautiously took his steps and peeped before revealing himself.
'Eh? What is she doing here?' As he expressed his shock internally, he revealed himself and waved his hand to Ellis to also do the same.
Both of them trekked to the front of the mansion where four 'someones' were standing opposite each other, armed and ready to go at each other.
Only one of them wasn't... Theafy with fiery vermillion hair.
Annette turned her head to see Northern, immediately she let out a sigh and slapped her face.
"Master, what is going on right now..." the brown-skinned lady beside her asked.
She was standing with her hands fisted in front of her face, metallic gauntlets of no really impressive design adorned her fists.
Immediately Northern laid his eyes on her, even he couldn't resist what they provoke in every man.
She had a big stature, not anything concerning but it made her womanly features to be quite prominent, especially when she was dressed like that — tight tank top and jean shorts that revealed too much of her thighs.
Although the jeans seemed to have lost their qualification to even be called 'jeans'.
But that was beside the matter, the point was...
'Damn, her thighs...'
Northern found himself gawking for a moment.
Before Annette interfered.
"Ah! Caught you staring at my student!"
Immediately, the dark lady threw her face back at Northern, with a scowl etched upon her face.
But immediately she returned her eyes to the front, her scowl just now crumbling to a puzzled expression.
In front of her were two... perhaps beings.
One was a beast she had seen. The other was a young man, an exact copy of the one standing behind them but in a different armor.
"Master, is he a twin?"
Annette looked at the lady beside her, noticing her confused frown she leaked a small smile and replied:
"No Vee, he's not. That's his talent ability I presume." Annette shifted her gaze to Northern.
"But everyone is saying he's a tamer... which really makes him a gem already, are you saying he has two talent abilities."
Annette scratched her head.
"See, I don't even know myself... this guy is the one thing that doesn't seem to make any sense."
Northern came closer, and stole a glance at her thighs...
They were thick and brown, with the reflection of the sun falling on her form, her skin was glowing, and her thighs too.
"What the heck are you gawking at?" She snarled at Northern.
Immediately he retracted his eyes and shifted them to Annette then cleared his throat.
"A-hem, Instructor Anne, what brings you here?"
"Well, I just wanted to check up on you... so..."
Northern interrupted, "And you brought along your student?" Northern gave a stern look at the lady then returned his eyes to Annette, frowning.
"I don't think so, what do you want Instructor Anne?"
"What? Can't an instructor come say hello to her favorite student?"
"Drop it, I wasn't even your student, you just conducted my exam for a day and that's it..."
Annette frowned for a fraction of a second, then sighed, touching her chest, her face dubiously contorting into a sorrowful front.
"Oh seriously, Northboy, you are a very bad boy, do you know how worried this instructor was about you when you were not around?"
She moved her finger to wipe a 'tear' off her eyes.
"Mean... Northboy, you are so mean."
Immediately the brown-skinned lady -- Vida, turned and frowned at him.
Northern exhaled, now he had been caught in a bind, Annette's deceptive bind. With the way the lady was glaring at him, she's probably going to think he's just being cruel.
Ellis was there too, he didn't want the guy to start having ideas in his head.
But the truth was he and Annette weren't that close. Indeed, he did feel relieved when he saw her but it didn't count as anything.
He had been alone for months, finally he comes back to the outside world to meet someone that was maybe nice to him in the past, not to forget, in a crowd of many unfamiliar people.
That didn't necessarily mean they were close before... or she deserved any special attention from him.
It also didn't mean she had any privilege to come to his house unannounced.
Besides... they weren't that close but he could guess enough of her character, this drunkard wouldn't come here to just check up on him.
'I bet she needs something.'
Northern's voice invaded the silence.
"I know you want something from me, how about you just drop the act and say what you want?"
"Speaking to my master like that is disrespectful." Vida snarled at him with a furious glare, she looked like she could rip anything to shreds with the scowl on her grey eyes.
But Northern ignored her and turned to Annette.
Annette heaved a sigh and intoned:
"Seriously, you brat. What world did you live in to be suspicious of everyone around you? Listen, I sincerely came here to see how you are doing, while doing that I wanted you to spar with my student, her name is Vida."
Northern looked at her then looked at her student, not sparing a glance at her thighs this time around before his gaze went back to Annette.
"So in a word, you also came here to gauge my abilities, you wanted to see what I'm capable of?"
A frown settled tensely on Annette's brow.
"What nonsense is that? I told you, I came here to make her train with you. To be particular, I wanted three of us to work together and clean up the forest since it's teeming with monsters, I thought you might need some help and it's a good opportunity for her to grow."
Her frown slowly dissipated then she added.
"I don't even know what to feel right now. There's the shock of finding a pile of burnt bodies around, there's this... you being suspicious of me. I know we weren't close in the past but for six good months in this realm, I was the only person that cared about your existence in all the people that knew you. This feels wrong to me."
Northern was silent for a couple of seconds, 'did I make a mistake? But there's no reason, she doesn't even know me, why will she care about helping me to clear the forest, what if she got hurt in the process then she'd be resenting me, or at the end she'd expect that I give her the soul cores or some sort of reward?'
Northern sighed, "I really do not understand you guys..."
He might have been someone who gave everything because of love in his past life, it didn't mean he was someone who would do it anytime to random people at the expense of his own wellbeing.
Northern used to be a somewhat meticulous and logical person.
Although that logic was rendered useless when he fell in love.
And then he got played.
Maybe subconsciously, Northern had already stopped seeing the genuineness in human actions, and thus, started suspecting goodwill.
If that was the case, it was quite understandable why he saw Raven's plan to be insane and unreasonable.
But did this make him better as a human? Or worse?
Was he advancing or receding?