Academy, Teleportation Area.
Rio and Liam, who both arrived early, were now standing while leaning their backs against the wall.
Liam glanced at Rio and said,
"Er... Say something, bruh... We have been standing here awkwardly like idiots!"
Rio tilted his head in confusion and said,
"Awkwardly? Didn't we just say good morning to each other, though?"
Rio, being the type of guy who doesn't talk much, was fine standing still without talking after just doing a casual greeting, but Liam was dying from awkwardness as he couldn't stand still without talking.
The two of them have nothing much in common, so they don't have many topics to talk about, and awkward silence happens between them quite often.
"Ugh... Forget it; I am the one who's just too self-conscious... There is no point talking to a stone statue..."
Rio rolled his eyes and said,
"Not my fault; that's just how I am. By the way, why are you so early today?"
Usually it's Rio who is the only one who comes early, as he has the habit of arriving at least fifteen minutes or even half an hour early.
And when it comes to a date with Lia, he arrives an hour before the agreed-upon time; he has never known what it means to be late.
But it was quite rare to see Liam arrive early, too.
"Well, I was nervous and ended up having a lot of anxiety... I have de-summoned Ellie, but I am still not sure about it..."
Rio nodded his head at those words and said,
"Yeah... other dragons might not notice, but... the Dragon King will likely notice her..."
Liam sighed at those words and said,
"Yeah... and I am worried that he will do something to her... ugh... but I still don't want to miss this opportunity to go to the Dragon valley... I want to see what dragons usually eat and do in their free time!"
"I want to know everything about dragons!!"
Rio, with his usual expressionless face, glanced at Liam and spoke.
"You seem quite interested in dragons..."
Liam scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment and said,
"I-it's nothing much... I just want to know more about dragons and what they like... for research purposes, of course..."
Rio didn't pry further into Liam's business and stopped asking about it.
"Well, sometimes you need to take risks to gain something... And if the dragon king really did try to attack you... how about I block an attack for you?"
Liam rolled his eyes at those words and said,
"What are you talking about, bruh?... That's the dragon king! Not a random hooligan on the street! You can't possibly be thinking that you can take an attack from a peak SS-ranker, right?"
Rio shrugged his shoulders at those words and said,
"Who knows.... Maybe I can parry it if it's a random casual move..."
Although Rio himself knew that he wasn't a match for the SS ranker as of yet, he has the confidence that he can reach that level one day.
"Well, I am just joking; I wouldn't want to anger the dragon king on his home turf..."
Liam suddenly thought of something and said,
"Ah, talking about home turf... I just remembered that I actually succeeded in improving my field attack type ability that I used on you at the last moment in our match back in the tournament..."
"Now I am quite sure I will be able to restrain your speed further... You better be ready for it..."
Upon hearing those words, Rio sighed and spoke.
"Man... You are such a talented guy; I kind of feel envious of you... You can just order your summoned beasts around to do all the work..."
"I mean, you wouldn't even need to get up from the couch to grab the TV remote; you can just ask them to grab it for you..."
Liam rolled his eyes at those words and said,
"You are saying it as if grabbing a TV remote is a very overpowered ability or something..."
"You don't know; all the summoned beasts have a personality of their own, and not each one of them is as calm-minded as Ellie and Kazto..."
"Quite a few of them are troublemakers... I have a shark-type summoned beast that destroyed my bathroom... I had to apologize to Principal Raji over and over to finally get it repaired..."
Liam couldn't help but shake his head and sigh while saying those words.
"But well... despite their weaknesses and personalities, each one of them is dear to me... I wouldn't want to lose any of them-"
Just when Liam was about to finish his sentence, a certain purple-haired man appeared out of nowhere and said,
"And that's what you are wrong about! You shouldn't attach yourself too much with your tools like that; tools are meant to be used; if you fawn over them too much, those tools will lose their purpose..."
Liam's expression immediately turned irritated after hearing Neo's words.
"What do you want now?"
Neo ignored Liam's irritated tone and said,
"Of course I came by to say good-bye to my son as he is leaving on an amazing journey..."
Rio glanced at Neo and immediately noticed that what had come was just a mimic beast, not the real body. With the help of his 'Imperfect Sword Heart' and 'True Immunity', he could easily see through these small details.
Even an SS-rank illusion isn't enough to confuse Rio, as both of these abilities are truly overpowered.
"Hmm, you say that, but... You didn't even come here in your real body; can it still be considered a genuine good-bye then?"
Hearing Rio's words, both Liam and Neo were shocked.
This is the first time anyone has figured out Neo's secret so easily; not even Ashtel can tell the
real body of him apart from the fake one so easily; even he will need to use some effort.
But Rio did it effortlessly; he just took a look and figured it out.
Neo glanced at Rio and said in a surprised tone,
"Hoho, this is the first time someone has caught my trick so easily... You really are an
interesting kid, Rio Flash..."
Neo nodded his head repeatedly, and a look of satisfaction appeared on his face, as if he were
happy that Rio was able to see through his disguise.
"You are more impressive than the rumors say about you... I have no doubts about you being
the 'champion' of the supreme tournament..."
Liam ignored Neo's sweet talk and gritted his teeth before asking,
"Tell me truthfully, what do you want?"
Neo shrugged his shoulders and said,
"Nothing; like I said, I am just hanging around..."
Seeing that Neo still refused to admit his motive, Liam stopped talking to him and started
ignoring his very existence there.
"Forget it, I don't care..."
Soon, Riya and Link arrived at the scene too.
Neo glanced at the two and said,
"Ah, nice meeting you two. I came to see Liam off. How's Ashtel doing these days?"
Link tilted his head in confusion and said,
"Hmm, didn't he tell you that he was going into seclusion... Even I have no idea where he is or
how he is doing..."
Neo nodded his head and said,
"I see... By the way, Riya... Can you show me that token for a moment? I just want to check
something about it. There have been some incidents in the past, so how about you let me
check it once..."
Riya frowned a bit at his words and said,
"But my sister already checked it, though; she said it was okay..."
Neo shook his head and said,
"Haha, Raji is still a bit inexperienced after all; let me check it for you..."
Although Riya and the other didn't want to give the token to Neo, they had no other choice
when pressured by an SS-ranker.
Raji didn't come to see them off; Jin and Ashtel are not present, so they have no choice but to
agree to Neo's coercing words.
Riya handed over the token to Neo, and he glanced at it for a moment. He narrowed his eyes
and looked at it carefully, then smiled and returned the token to Riya with a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Okay, this is a genuine item; you can use it safely; there is no need to worry about it..."
Neo nodded his head repeatedly and then immediately flew away without hesitation.
Rio and the others looked at this scene with a look of bewilderment.
"Uh, what did he come here for if he wasn't interested in taking the token? Also, he said he
wanted to see Liam off, but he just flew away before even doing that...."
Hearing Link's words, Rio shook his head and glanced at Liam before saying,
"Your father is a weird person, isn't he?"
Black lines appeared all over Liam's face as he heard that question,
"Y-yeah.. kind of... He's the most weird person I know... He sends his mimics even when they
are celebrating some great occasions at home..."
"I don't even know if I have ever met his real body before... I guess his real body only comes home when he spends time with my mom..."
Liam noticed that Rio and Link were giving him weird stares, and he said in an annoyed voice,
"What!? You think I am the son of a mimic, or something!? That's not possible! I wouldn't have inherited such amazing talents if I wasn't his genuine kid..." "Although I don't want to acknowledge it, Neo is my father, not his mimic beast... So stop giving me those weird stares!"
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day:
Don't you think that Neo has been deceiving Liam a bit too much?
(Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story.
Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.