Chapter 42: The Restaurant Rendezvous
"Damn it, Tracy, where have you been?" Castor’s voice carried across the restaurant as Tracy stepped into the building and approached a table with ten seats, filled with familiar faces.
Leon sat beside an empty seat—presumably reserved for her—his expression one of barely contained irritation. He glanced at her once, scoffed, then pointedly looked away.
This jealous idiot almost spoiled my chances with Asher with his stupid tantrum, Tracy thought, maintaining her normal smile while sinister plots swirled in her head. I’ll make sure he learns his lesson.
Of course, she was well aware that out of her five team members, both Leon and Andrew were hopelessly crushing on her. But that wasn’t much of a surprise—she knew exactly how effective her looks and charisma were. She could always tell when someone was interested: the looks, the constant glances, the telling actions. She knew everyone who was fawning over her.
However, she’d never felt... interested in any of them. As much as she wanted a relationship—to have a boyfriend like most of her friends—she wasn’t that desperate. After all, her mother’s words had always stuck with her: "It takes just a glance to know the right one." She’d never really understood that until today.
Now she finally did.
"I was busy," she replied to Castor, who was clearly annoyed by her tardiness and lackadaisical attitude. Well, it wasn’t really new—she was always this way. But her annoying personality aside, she was quite competent. Her blessing and spellcasting abilities were no joke. She was an elite, after all.
"Fine," Castor said curtly. He didn’t really care about her excuse. All he had on his mind was tomorrow’s test—the one that would be used to reshuffle team members who had been together since first year. This was a crucial moment. If he performed too badly, he’d end up with incompetent teammates.
The only reason he’d maintained his elite ranking was because of his competent members. Well, Azalea and Leon aside, that is. Actually, Leon was far better than Azalea when it came to combat prowess. Hell, Azalea didn’t even know how to use ether! His only saving grace had been his exceptional intelligence, something Castor had utilized quite well while the young man was still a group member—before everything went to hell.