A Talk in Need of Trust: Chapter 76

As he exited the stage, he could feel the stares from the students that watched the fight unfold make his way. he feels that after this, his life might be more of a hassle in the coming days. Most of them were pretty shocked to see that he was this strong, others cheered for how great the fight was to a point that some came and asked if they too could spar with him, but since class was about to end, he just went and rejected their request.

When he walked out of the class, he was instantly approached by Mr. Hoffman. Hoffman stood in front of him with his arms crossed.

"Hmm? Is there something you want Mr. Hoffman?" he asked as Mr. Hoffman stood with a menacing aura around him.

"Follow me into my office." he said as he turns his back on him and walks down the hall.

As they made it into his office, he offered Hamil a jar full of candy and made him sit down in front of a desk.

"I want you to be honest with me." said Mr. Hoffman.

"...Okay, what is it?"

"What do you think about joining the Student Counsel Committee."

The Student Counsel Committee. A group of major skilled and smart students that are formed under the authority of the school. Their authority holds importance in maintaining a balanced system in the school as they mostly stop conflicts that erupts throughout student who have it against each other. This especially works with Social groups that tend to cause a ruckus inside the school.

If one student wanted to be accepted as a counsel of the academy, a lot of things can be considered to appeal to the current counsel. Some are picked, some are voted for in higher positions and some are recommended. And if one was recommended, they have to have procedural background check and an interview just like all higher forms of positions.

One of the people that currently leads the student counsel was none other than Ethea Vel Fraleworth who holds the position of student counsel president. She was a noble born with a sense of justice and equity through all of the students. Her position alone stands to have a slightly higher authority than that of a teacher of the academy

"A student counsel?" Hamil asked as he pretended not to know of what the student counsel was in the school.

"A lot of students dream of becoming one since the benefits of becoming a student counsel member usually has things like a private dorm in the school, a sense of authority and most of all, Money." said Mr. Hoffman as he looks smirking over his flaunting of its position.

"Are you trying to lure me in?" Hamil asked.

"No, I just want you to consider since your pretty different than most kids of this year." said Mr. Hoffman.

"What do you mean?" Hamil asked.

"Look, your pretty strong despite being a first year and I can bet that you're capable of stopping kids from the second year as well."

"Hmm, that's flattering but I'm not really interested. There's a lot of second years just as strong as me, maybe you can try asking them to becoming a student counsel member. You said it yourself that a lot of students dream of becoming a member because of the benefits." said Hamil.

"You don't seem to get it. A lot of them are just as strong as you but their already second years and their actions don't really compliment the counsel's image. The people wanting to join the counsel needs to have a specific character within them and you have a sense of right in you that most kids don't have nowadays. I saw it in the fight you had with your classmates. You didn't fight them because you just wanted to fight them, no, you fought them because you wanted them to be better. It wasn't a selfish action of reckless beating. Your just what the counsel needs." said Mr. Hoffman.

"That's nice to hear but again, I'm not really interested right now." said Hamil as he stood from the seat.

"What will it take then to make you join?"

"...What?" questioned Hamil.

"What will it take for you to join the student counsel?"

"I don't know, but you seem pretty desperate…Why?" Hamil asked

"*Sigh*…I'll be honest with you. The student counsel is lacking a lot of man power to handle the kids that causes ruckus in the school. A lot of us teachers are actually looking into students who are just right, so that we can recommend them into joining the counsel."

"Mr. Hoffman, I'm pretty sure your well aware of how many security this place has. The guards are almost in every inch of the school halls, its like a fortress in this place."

"it may seem like it's a perfect school with perfect security to you, but a lot of the guards themselves are pretty corrupted. One rich kid can easily buy out the guards and well…you know what happens then."

"Okay, I get it." Hamil said while seemingly acting like he was intrigued by the position.

"So you'll join?" said Mr. Hoffman, seemingly excited to hear Hamil's response.

"...I'll think about it." said Hamil while he stood from the chair and started to make his way out of Hoffman's office.

"Hamil." suddenly Mr. Hoffman called out to Hamil before he could reach for the doorknob.

"What?"

"Hundreds of children gets bullied everyday thanks to the bullies that pay out the guards…it's pretty bad how these things happen. Those kids…those poor poor kids." he said with a sad look in his eyes.

".…Are you trying to guilt trip me?"

"...yes, is it working?"

"No Mr. Hoffman, it is not." I said while I opened the door and exited the room.

"Damn it!…*Sigh* I should really work on my puppy-eye tactic more these days."

Hamil didn't really think much of the idea, but it was intriguing. Thinking of the events that was to come in the future, he thought of the possibilities that gave chance for change for the better. If he were to become a part of the student counsel, there were some benefits that could help him…but at the same time becoming a student counsel might hinder something that he was not aware of…he might involve himself into the story even deeper and it'll ruin it for sure.

Choosing between the two, to join or not to join, he pondered for what was for the best.

As he walked away, he notice that when he exited the school building, the sun was already setting and the sky was slowly getting dark.

he looked at the time and noticed that it was already 6:30.

"Hmm, I should start making my way to this place." he said as he look into the card that was handed by Rebertha which was given by Evangeline.

In the card, information was written specifically about a D-rank gate in the hunters association. It was the same place where they first meet each other. It was written in the card that she would wait inside the gate.

"I already gave her my number, why did she have to show this card to my friends." Hamil said, knowing that the fact that if she had just texted him, he could easily just text back his answer…but this card giving act is pretty weird since it feels like a more important matter than anything.

"..." Hamil quickly got on the train and made his way to the hunter's association.

A few minutes passes by and soon he arrived at the association.

When Hamil went in the building, he immediately saw a person who seemed pretty familiar. That person was none other than Eric, the sniper. They both immediately saw each other eye to eye and Eric immediately made his way to meet Hamil.

Hamil didn't expect him to be here though.

"Hey, why are you here so early?" asked Eric as he stood confuse over Hamil's appearance in the building.

"What do you mean?" he asked him.

"It was written in your card that you would meet my boss in here at around 10:00 pm, it's still 6:48, so what are you doing here so early?" he asked.

"Oh, so this is the place where I should meet him?" Hamil asked as he realized Eric's confusion towards Hamil being here.

"No, he's at the top floor. There's a five star restaurant up there where you should meet the boss." he explained

"I see." Hamil said as he fully understood what Eric meant. he completely forgot that the address on that card was only written by the restaurant's name, it didn't said anything about it being above the Hunter Association's building.

"So why are you here?" Eric asked.

"...I'm trying to meet someone in one of the gates." Hamil said.

"I see, but I don't think my boss would be too pleased with you smelling like sweat in a restaurant after coming back from a gate." he said.

"Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure there's a Hotel around here where I can use to shower on." Hamil said.

"...Okay." as soon they made their selves clear, they went on their own paths. Eric walked out of the building while Hamil went into changing area to change his uniform with an all black shirt since he didn't have any armor to put on like usual.

As he wore his shirt, he then proceeded to go to the D-rank gate where he encountered Evangeline.

****HAMIL'S POV

I was genuinely curious as to why she called out to me by handing me a card. But if I were to ignore it, then she might make things worse for me. If I stood her up, then she might just kill me in class then and there, since she had a similar situation back in the previous volumes of the novel. (AKA the time when Arthur stood her up on a date.)

As I went in , I started making my way to the same place where we fought an Orc guard together. It was written in the card that I should go to the same place where we first met.

So for a while, I ran to that direction. Not long after, I saw her standing from a distance under a tree.

"Hey" I said as I called out to her.

"...Hey." she in turn greeted back with a soft smile on her face.

As what I could see from her attire, she wore a completely different attire than what she wore from our last encounter. She wasn't wearing any camouflage suit, as she simply wore a set of clothes that seemed a bit to cute to be used in a gate.

"W-What did you call me here for?" I asked to her as she went and slowly approached me little by little.

"We will be hunting." she said

"What?" I asked.

"I just wanted to hunt with you. You said that the last time we meet was that if I called for you, we can hunt." she said.

"...Okay, I guess we can hunt. But I don't think I have that much time to hunt today, I'm supposed to meet with someone around 10:00 pm." I said as I looked to her with a nervous expression.

"I see…then we can just hunt for around two hours then." she said as she brought out her sniper out from her storage ring.

"Oh, I guess it's fine." I said while I was nervous of seeing her carry a gun.

"And while we hunt for some orcs, I wanted to ask you a few questions about yourself." she added as she prepared herself for the hunt.

"What?"

"Lets head north of here. Most of the orcs live out north, so we should make our way there." she said as she ignored my reaction her reason.

"How should I hunt then if you wanted to talk?" I asked.

"It's easy…just don't leave my side." she side as she looks to me with a smile.

"Oh…Okay. I guess I can protect you when theirs monsters close by. You can deal with the orcs from a distance and I can just handle those who get close by." I said as I tried to assign a position for myself.

"That would be reassuring." she said.

As we made our way north, she started off the "Talk".

"So, I saw you in the Class Rumble yesterday." she said.

"Oh, I see." I responded surprised since I completely forgot of the chance of her being there yesterday.

"Why didn't you used a sword when you fought against the Orc guard, just like what we did the first time we encountered one another?" asked Evangeline.

"Oh, Hmm…I-."

"You wouldn't have gotten yourself hurt if you used your sword." said Evangeline worryingly.

It felt like she was actually being sincere in this moment. I was surprised to see her look so worried for me, I didn't know how to act towards her kindness; except I do know that she would at least deserve the truth.

"Hmm…I planned to use the shield since the moment I saw that orc arrived to fight against them."

"Why?" she said as she looks to me with a furrowed look of concern.

"Hmm, it's probably because I wanted to cover for them while they tried to go against a monster that was way more stronger than they could handle. I wanted them to grow stronger in situations like those while at the same time keeping them safe."

".!?" Evangeline was surprised to hear his answer…it was honest…by his words, he just wanted to assist them to be stronger. Her eyes remained engross on him and his words.

"...I see. I guess we can move on to the second question."

"What is it?"

"How many weapon's can you normally use proficiently?"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw you use a spear in the first event of the class rumble, a shield at the second event and when we fought the orc guard together, I saw you use a sword."

"Hmm, three…that's it." since she hasn't seen me use a bow, I can just say that beyond anything else, those three weapons were what I could handle properly. Hiding a skill I use today well help me along the future.

"Hmm, I see."

"Can I ask you a question?" I said.

"...Okay sure."

"Why are you asking me these question?"

i asked

"What do you mean?"

"I'm obligated to answer your questions, but at the same time I'm willing not to answer them. So I wanna know what you intend to do with these answers I'm giving back."

"...I just wanted to know you better." said Evangeline.

"Why?"

"Because I want to."

".…This is only the second time we've meet each other and you seems like you wanted to interrogate me." I said while I stopped in my tracks.

"...I see, I must have put you off." she said.

"I…I'm not really mad at you, It's just that I'm not sure where this will all end in." I say as I tried not to cause conflict with our words.

"..."

"..."

We both stayed silent. With me waiting for her reasons and her who seems to be thinking of whether or not she will tell her truth.

Seconds passed and all she did was look to me as if she was scared.

"Hamil, have you ever been betrayed before? Have you been beaten and humiliated so much that you seemed to have lost both your trust in the people you care for and the people who you thought were trusting enough?"

"..."

"I did, and for a time I didn't want to involve myself with people…not until I meet you."

"..."

"You were kind enough to help me…to help the people in need…"

"..."

"You reminded me of a person who I used to admire…but he too betrayed me." she said as she walked forward, talking throughout the woods.

"..."

"...I don't want you to betray me."

"..."

"...I want to trust you…and I want you to trust me back."

"…I see."

She was sincere with her words.

The word 'Villainess' was never depicted in my mind as I look to her with reason and understanding. I only saw a girl who wanted to trust people again.

In the book, she may have problems…she may have caused a situation that depicted her as an awful person, but through it all in my mind, I thought of the reasons why she could have done those things...the reason why she was depicted as she is in the books. In the end, the book only showed her to be what she was.

But change was possible…and if she wanted me to help her change back to who she wanted to be, then it's no problem for me to trust her. If it helps her to better herself, than I will help her regain her trust in people.

The book hasn't played out to her worst deeds yet, and seeing as how she feels so honest with her words, to help her I can only respond to her request with trust.

So I stopped in my tracks and called out her name.

"...Evangeline."

"...?" she turned back to me and saw that I held out my hand.

"...I trust you."

"...Are you normally this kind?" she asked with a look of doubt in her mind.

She walked a bit faster now and I soon followed.

"What do you mean?"

"If a girl was in a situation where she couldn't protect herself and you were there to have the chance to save her even at the strong risk of losing your hands, your legs or maybe even your life…will you save her?"

"Sure, I guess I would." this question was a bit weird since it seemed like it was a personality test.

"Then you'll just save any girl that's in danger?"

"I guess if I had the chance to save them, I guess I would. Be it a man, an old person or even a dog, I'll save them."

"And what if I was in danger?"

We both halted from our walk and we stood silently staring at each other.

"..." I turned to look her in the eye since the question was a bit weird again. But when I saw her expression, it seemed like she was serious.

She was red like a tomato from the embarrassing question, but her eyes didn't falter from looking away from me.

"I…I'll save you."I said as I smiled at her with a pure genuineness.

"..." She turned back to look forward and we continued to walk on ahead.

She was silent for the whole walk, and when we finally saw the first orc after those twenty minutes of walking, that's when she started to talk again.

"...Hamil." she called out to me while she was fixing her aim at the Orc's head from a distance.

"Yeah?"

"...Thanks." she said as she fired her first headshot of the day.

I don't know where this path of trust would lead me, but I do know that I can trust her as she does with me. I'm satisfied with that.