Chapter 264: Fun
Asher asked with a confused expression,
"Do you not know who else is coming? Didn’t you guys plan this?"
Aria replied,
"You didn’t tell me if anyone else was coming either, and those two are quite busy right now, so I thought they wouldn’t come. I didn’t talk with them before coming, so I don’t know. As for coming late, I just did this so maybe you will start coming on time from this point onward, though I don’t think it had any effect."
Asher looked at her for a moment before replying calmly,
"I see. Well, Noah is coming with us, and as for Adam, he just said that he is busy, so he can’t join us."
Aria heard this and then said in a slightly surprised tone,
"That’s surprising."
Asher also nodded at her words before saying in a slightly confused tone,
"Yeah, I can’t even imagine what kind of important work a teenager, and on top of that, a useless Noble like him, can have."
Aria heard this and simply sighed before saying,
"I meant Noah. I didn’t think he would actually join you on whatever you planned for today. I thought he would refuse."
Asher looked at her with a slightly surprised expression before replying,
"He agreed as soon as I said it would be my treat. That guy is smart when it comes to food."
Asher stopped for a moment and looked toward the path leading to the Academy, trying to find any sign of Noah. However, he couldn’t see him anywhere.
"But now I feel like I might have to give him a lesson in washing utensils at the restaurant. It might come in handy for him."
Aria laughed for a moment at his words, but Asher simply remained calm as if he hadn’t said anything unusual.
She then asked in a slightly serious tone,
"You’re joking, right? You aren’t really going to make him wash utensils at the restaurant?"
Asher replied calmly,
"Of course I am joking. It’s not like we have anything particularly important to do right now, so waiting for a little while won’t really matter."
Asher then summoned two juices out of his subspace and handed one to Aria before taking the other for himself.
He took a sip and continued waiting for Noah to arrive.
For a while, neither of them said anything.
The two simply stood near the Academy Gate, drinking their juices while waiting.
After some time, Aria finally broke the silence.
"Asher, what do you think about the whole thing with the Church and their experiments? Do you think that’s really true?"
Asher remained calm as he looked ahead.
"It doesn’t matter whether it is true or not. I don’t care about that."
He took another sip of his juice before continuing.
"And of course, it’s true. You know that well enough. There isn’t even anything surprising about it. I don’t understand why people can’t believe something like that."
Aria knew it was probably true, but she still looked at Asher for a moment before saying,
"I wonder where you got that weird logic of yours that says there is nothing surprising about this. You said it as if this is an everyday thing, not something forbidden."
Asher replied calmly without any change in his expression,
"Humans experimented on animals and plants to make them better and change certain things about them. So, what is so surprising about them performing those experiments on humans now that they have probably run out of ways to improve those other things? Maybe they were trying to improve humans or something. It doesn’t really matter to us."
Aria stared at him for a moment, clearly unsure whether she should be impressed by his reasoning or annoyed by how casually he was talking about the whole situation.
Asher paused for a moment before a small smile appeared on his face.
"So, you should just stop thinking about this nonsense and instead focus on getting stronger. That way, sometime in the future, if you ever find yourself on an experiment table, you might actually be strong enough to escape."
Aria listened to Asher and remained silent for a moment.
Then she looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression.
"That wasn’t really a good joke, you know. Who makes a joke about someone becoming an experiment subject?"
Asher’s expression became slightly more serious.
"But I wasn’t really joking. I was actually serious about that. You should really stay alert."
Aria looked at him for a moment.
She could tell from his expression that he wasn’t trying to scare her this time. He genuinely believed that she should be prepared for such a possibility.
"Thanks for the warning, then. I’ll be sure to be careful."
Asher nodded casually.
"You’re welcome. But an ice cream would be better than a thanks if you’re really thankful."
Aria stared at him for a second before sighing.
"Of course. You had to bring food into it somehow."
Asher simply smiled.
"Of course. I’m not going to waste a perfectly good opportunity."
And then, finally, Noah arrived.
After reaching the Academy Gate, he immediately noticed that the mood between Asher and Aria felt a little weird. He looked at both of them for a moment before asking,
"What were you guys talking about?"
Aria replied casually,
"Nothing."
Asher ignored her answer and instead looked toward Noah before asking,
"Why are you so late?"
Noah replied,
"Well, I was a little busy, so it took me more time to come than I expected. Sorry about that. So, where are you guys planning to go to have fun today?"
Aria also looked at Asher for an answer, since it was Asher who would be deciding where they would go for fun today.
Asher thought for a moment before replying calmly,
"Since it’s about to be winter, let’s go to a water park for fun today. Of course, we can also go somewhere else if you guys have any good ideas."