Now, that's just rude. I am only 17 … and a half.

"Your race or my race?" She questions and points at her to give her answer. She then says with a disgusted expression, "Old, mean looking guys are the half of Rania."

Well, that backfired.

"Alright, then, of my race, have you seen a guy with the stature a little shorter than me and a birdlike face?" I ask, hoping Cartel would be here as well if Niviks is.

"Yeah, he just bought a room upstairs an hour ago." She says with eyes that tell me she is recalling some incident related to him and her expression soon turns more disgusted than before. She quickly adds, "He was with an old, mean looking guy as well. He could be your man."

Nope, I am heteros.e.xual. But anyway, "I see. Which room is he in?"

"The first room you'll see on the first floor if you go up these stairs." She points at one of the two stairs that seem to be accessible from the lobby. Well, I better get going then.

*****

"He's here."

"Irium?"

"No, the G.o.dd.a.m.ned Lucifer." I sarcastically answer and tell him to hurry up. As I do so, Niviks arranges the chairs in a way that, combined with the rest of the room, gives off an appearance of a room being used by two people to rest, instead of being used to wait for him – as it actually was.

The two of us sits comfortably and wait for Irium to knock on our doors.

"Cartel Hopkins?" A feminine voice asks from outside.

I look at Niviks to make sense of who it could be but he gives a 'no idea' expression. And so, "Y-yes!" I decide to answer truthfully.

Then,

CREAK! BOOM!

After the wooden door moves a little, it blasts away and the fragments fall on the two of us. We try to evade to the best of our abilities but still get showered by a lot of the fragments. Luckily, we don't get much hurt by them.

And as we look back at where our door was supposed to be, a young man with a devil's charm stands there and asks, "So, how was my voice acting? Do you think I could become a Seiyuu?"

It's Irium, alright. It's Irium.

"Ah, well," I look at Niviks and we both nod back at him saying, "it was great!"

"You could make a star in the Seiyuu world."

"Oh, really?" Irium asks with a smile and without waiting for the response, he says, "Then here's another bit."

With … a bit of … an aggressive look in his eyes, he says in a psychotic voice, "I am gonna freaking kill you!"

"…"

"…"

"What's wrong?" He asks in a normal voice.

I stand up and say, "Look, Irium, whatever you have heard, it's-"

"Oh, by the way, did I tell you that I learned, or took, or stole, whatever you'd like to call it; the point is – I gained an ability recently that allows me to detect lies. Did you guys know that?"

"…" Holy s.h.i.+t!

"…" Niviks probably thought the same just now.

With the best of my smiles, I try to control his anger, "Irium, the thing is-"

"Did you send mercenaries after me?" He interrupts me before I finish yet again.

Well, since he can detect lies anyway, "Yes. B-but-"

"I lied." He interrupts me yet again, but this time it isn't a question not meant to be question like the previous two times.

"W-what!?" I ask with (probably) a stupid look on my face. Niviks (definitely) has a stupid look on his face too.

"I have no ability that can detect lies." He says as he looks at me with a complex barrage of emotions, form pitying to contempt.

"Well … well … well played." I say with a smile. He smiles back and then trips my foot; making me fall back into the chair I had gotten out of.

"Listen, Cartel and Niviks," He looks at the both of us as he continues, "I am going to count to 10 for you to give me a good reason why I should make you an ICU-ready material. And no BS!"

Alright Cartel, think; you need to think,

"1"

Think, d.a.m.nit, think!

"2��

Think, Cartel, think of something that will-

"You know what, this is boring. 10." He says and my alt.i.tude suddenly starts seeming like it is lowering. As I look down, I see that the chair is being sucked into the ground.

"W-what the h.e.l.l!?"

I don't even know what I am cursing about; the fact that he directly left out 3 to 9 or the fact that he totally destroyed all my manipulation strategies I had run a million times in my head.

"Listen, Irium, there's a reason we did that, okay?" Niviks gets on the bed to save himself from directly being sucked into the ground and then says, "We … we were … we were trying to test you."

You old fart! That's the best thing you could come up with!?

I mean, I WAS actually trying to test him but couldn't you, like, twist the words a little to make it sound better.

"Well, did I pa.s.s the test?" He looks mockingly at Niviks and soon, his bed starts being sucked into the ground as well.

"Irium, you don't understand, we were just-"

���What!?" Seeing his glare, I can't help but stiffen up a bit. That said though, if I wanna live, I have to continue,

"We were just trying to make you stronger. I mean, wasn't fighting those idiots beneficial for you … uh, power-wise?"

"Oh!" He scoffs and says, "It was beneficial for me power-wise. None of those idiots knew a single decent move so I just stole their potential – and look at the results, I don't even need to bat an eyelash anymore to use this ability called Earth Authority."

Earth Authority! It makes sense now how he is making stuff being sucked into the ground now but d.a.m.n, this guy stole Earth Authority! That's too powerful! But, maybe I can use that.

"W-wow! Isn't that great?"

"Yes, but not great enough."

Oh G.o.d!!!

Think of something, Cartel Hopkins, think; or you are going to end up in a lot of horror movies shortly.

*****