Getting Stronger By Marrying And Investing In Abandoned Villainesses

Theo stood like a helpless sheep. There was nothing he could do at this point, so he did what he had been doing since they put him in the middle of the floor. He stood there and let the machines have their way with him. Funnily, he heard the woman speak again.

"Run it again!"

His head snapped towards her direction with betrayal and disbelief. Even the technician looked unsure, one hand hovering over the console without settling on anything.

Lance was closer to her now. He stood straight and whispered, and there was no confidence in it at all.

"Ma, we’ve never run such a high number, are you sure?"

There was a look in the eyes of the examiner, something that made even Lance, who was the president’s aide, quiet down and watch.

The technician looked at the boy standing in the center of the room, and what he felt was respect sitting on top of dread.

’How strong does he have to be, stronger than Chainsmoke?’

Thinking about anyone stronger than the only SS-rank they had gotten around here was terrifying, and that naturally put so much fear into his heart the more he stared at Theo. The boy was not even watching the machine. He was watching the door, the way a man watches a door when he has somewhere else to be.

But he ran it again. This time though, a number did not come. What came was an overload.

The entire machine in the room sparked viciously and lights flew around, running up the housing in bright crooked lines before the panel glass went white and burst outward across the floor.

Aide Lance quickly covered the woman from it, dragging his suit jacket off and throwing it over her head, while the people in the gallery watched the entire machine go down immediately.

Theo stood amidst all of that, and slowly came out of the smoke, coughing, waving one hand in front of his face like a man clearing steam off a pot.

He approached Aide Lance and said:

"So, are we done, does this mean I can get my license?"

Lance had put off his suit to protect her, and the shock stayed sitting on his face when Theo came and asked that question.

He straightened slowly. The smokescreen was also clearing out. He looked at Theo, over and over again, from the scorched hem of his trousers to his face, as though checking whether some part of him had been left behind inside the machine.

But he was not the one that spoke.

It was the examiner instead.

"Can I ask you a few questions?"

Theo turned to her and nodded.

She still held out her tablet in such a situation, and asked:

"What’s your speciality?"

"I believe it’s close combat..."

Theo answered based on the strongest skill he had, which was the Shadow Sword. It seemed the honest answer, and honest answers had been carrying him fine all morning.

The woman was scribbling on her tablet for a while, and Theo was standing. Lance at some point held her hand and drew her to the corner, past the blackened housing and out of the gallery’s line of sight.

He asked, with a low whisper.

"What’s going on?"

She gave him a pale and bewildered look.

"This is insane Lance, where did you find this boy?"

Lance folded his hands and straightened slightly, glancing at Theo in between.

"I wouldn’t say we found him. Please can you go straight to the point. Are the readings really dependable or something is wrong?"

The lady’s hands trembled around the tablet until she had to press it flat against her chest to hold it still.

"We must keep this guy a secret from the Tower, we must keep his identity a secret too. Do you know what having an SSS-rank potential means?"

Lance still had his hands folded, and now his gaze was stern.

"Of course, I do. The true rankings... the one that only people in the tower know about. Having an SSS-rank potential means you have the potential to reach the Realm of Divinity. One can become a Divine being, no different from being a God."

The examiner nodded.

"Good, and do you know that those that already exist of them are very watchful of people with SSS-rank potential? Don’t you know there’s a reason why we don’t see any SSS-rank potential around anymore, and why they never reach half their potential."

Lance sighed.

"The potential rank is one thing, this discussion about becoming a God is another, the guy I see right now, is just some married man, trying to find a cure for his wife, please."

She glared at Lance, very seriously.

"Then this is your cue to keep him that way. If you value him any bit, then lie about his rank! Control those that know and never let it get past that. SS is enough. In fact if you can make him S, so they don’t look at him."

The man paused and thought deeply about it, unable to give the woman an answer immediately. Across the room, Theo had crouched down to pick up a fallen panel cover and was turning it over, trying to work out which way round it went back on.

Eventually he said plainly.

"It’s all up to him."

The examiner gave him a hostile frown.

"Aide Lance!"

He shook his head.

"I have heard your warning, but at the end of the day, Mr Theo is the one that gets to make such a decision for himself."

The examiner, kind of agreeing with Lance Frost, sighed and walked away.

"Whatever you say, but do not say you were not warned."

After this, Aide Lance escorted Theo to his office, where Theo rested for a moment. His gaze though kept jumping around the man’s office.

There was something similar between Aide Lance’s office and the hospital ward for rich people, and it had to do with the immense space that they had to offer. Space that nobody was using. Space that was there to be looked at rather than filled.

The desk and table were on one side, but towards the center of the room sat a gathering of a rectangular table and even more comfortable chairs. All of them sat there, and on one of them, Theo sat. To the side of the wall there was a library, shelved from the floor up to a height no man reached without help, and to the other wall was a plain wood that looked prehistoric and expensive, proof of an exquisite taste.

"Are you okay, Mr Theo?"

Aide Lance said as he settled down on the opposite chair to Theo. The chair took his weight without making a sound.

Theo nodded.

"Yes, I am. So, can I ask what is the conclusion and the way forward?"

After Theo’s question, the atmosphere carried a very strange silence, and he almost felt scared for himself.