Chapter 45: Warning

"....." Glynne is feeling bothered for a while now. Ever since he got to school this morning, he has been receiving multiple stares from his fellow students. He didn't know why, but when he would ask the reason, they would just dodge the question and excuse themselves away.

Letting out a huge sigh, he walked down the hallways while heads would turn into his direction. Since he don't know why this his happening, he can't really do much about it.

As he turned around the corner, his path was suddenly blocked by a girl with a certain strawberry blonde hair with drills. "Hey, can I talk to you for a second." she said in an imposing manner while both of her hands are on her hips.

Whispers begun to erupt from the surroundings. Glynne could tell that this will troublesome but her eyes seems like she will not accept 'no' for an answer. Sighing once again, he scratched the back of his head and say, "...Sure,"

@@@@@

He followed the girl inside an empty classroom. It seems like she really didn't want for their conversation to be heard as he watches her close the door behind them.

Elena turned around, her eyes are glaring at the boy. He really don't understand why the hostility but he decided to hear what she will say as he leaned on the teacher's table.

"Let me ask you, do you know why people have been starting at you lately?" she interrogated.

"Nope," Glynne shrugged his shoulders to signal that he has no clue about it.

"Sigh, why are all men so insensitive...." she muttered under her breath while shaking her head. "Just checking, but you will be teaming up with the Trio and Ms. Fu Hua, right?"

"Eh, how did you know?" Glynne asked, surprised by how news spread so fast. Although it really isn't a secret, but the agreement was only made yesterday.

"So it is true..." Elena muttered nodding her head in confirmation. She glared at Glynne once again and walk closer to him, well at least two steps closer. The boy furrowed his eyebrows as he is getting glared quite a lot. "I'm telling this as a warning but you should leave that team."

Glynne's eyes sharpened as it was his turn to glare at the girl. He didn't really like the words that she spouted but he manage to hold himself back from just walking away. "I'll give you one minute to explain yourself."

He noticed how fear flashed in her eyes but she quickly hide it by closing her eyes and crossing her arms to look like she doesn't care. "You should know this by now, but the four of them is considered as the prodigy in our year."

Glynne nodded in agreement but he still stood silently to let Elena to continue.

"With the coming exam, it is obvious how everyone wanted to team up with them. However, it isn't like it is without a catch. Whether you like it or not, people will treat you some sort of a parasite that is just leeching to them, much more towards a man like you." she said as she points at the boy.

Glynne closes his eyes to process Elena's words. The nature of human jealousy, if they can't get it, they will make sure no one would either. It is a very selfish reason but humans are very selfish to begin with.

"You understand it right? If you don't want to stand out, then it better if you leave and join some other group." Elena suggested.

Maybe she was right.... It's true that Glynne doesn't want to get unnecessary attention. It is just too troublesome to deal with and frankly, he would undoubtedly choose to do anything just to not get any. Not to mention, he don't like to be drag into the underground again because he may get discovered.

However, even if that was the case, Glynne has a reason to stay with them. That alone was able to make him throw his reason out of the window and would face anything whatever it may be. "Sorry but I won't."

"Why?! People would look down on you at this rate!" Elena was shocked by the boy's words. He smiled in response as his head had cleared up a bit to see the girl is just worried about him. Despite having a reputation as a man-hater and would sometimes spout some harsh words, she seems to value her acquaintances in her own way.

"Well, I only need to show them right?" Glynne said as he pump his fist as if he is preparing for a fight.

"Did you perhaps hit your head or something? Although it is impressive that you have manage to beat Ms. Rita in a spar, it is to say that she is not even using at least five percent of her total combat prowess." Elena furrowed her eyebrows as she thinks that the boy's ego might have been bloated.

"Even if I were to leave, it isn't like there would be anyone who would let me join them." Glynne pointed a flaw in her argument making her quickly close her mouth. He smiles as he find it cute at how Elena is flustered that she forgot about this crucial information.

He is quite aware of the situation of the boys here at the academy. Due to most of them being less compatible with stigmata, they have a reputation of being weaker compared to the opposite sex. This leads to a lot of discrimination against them and Glynne was not excluded to that. The only reason why he isn't put in any troublesome situation until now is because he is actively doing his best to dodge the flags.

*(A/N: for those who happen to don't know, "Flags" are those events that triggers a certain scenario. This is most commonly found in Visual Novels.)

"Well you shouldn't worry though," Glynne said while shrugging his shoulders. "I still have quite a lot of trick under my sleeves."

"That..." Elena begun to mutter as she put her hand on her chin. Remember his past battles, he was indeed kept opening trump cards to gain a upper hand

Expert marksmanship against Kiana;

Explosive bullets against the the Templar level honkai beast;

And lastly, his unconventional use of his battlesuit against Rita.

However, this still didn't seem to sit quite right for Elena. She was about to ask a second time if he is sure about his decision but decided against it as she sees the unbending will in his eyes. "Hmph, just do not forget I warned you about this." she said while crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I appreciate that." Glynne gave his gratitude with a sincere smile.... Andddd there it is, it was fortunate how Elena was still scared of males so she really doesn't fell for that trick. Though she still tried to hold back her blush.

Incidentally, if Rita would have seen this, she would undoubtedly comment how a natural the boy is.

"Ah right," Glynne put a fist on his palm as he remembered something, "Since we are on the topic, would you like to join us?" he invited.

Their numbers are still five at the moment, the requirements said that a team must consist of five to six members so inviting one doesn't pose much of a problem. However, he was surprised when Elena shakes her head in response.

"It is a very tempting offer but I have to decline. I have already formed a group with the girls so leaving now would be a betrayal to them." Elena said while putting a hand over her chest.

"Oh..." Glynne narrowed his eyes as he stared at the girl. She isn't as selfish like some others who would just discard everything and grabbed the opportunity whenever it presented itself. Her words has somewhat made him change his opinion about her and now see her in a brand new light. "... And yet, you're the one would suggested me to leave my team."

"Ah," Elena blushed in embarrassment when he reminded her of her words earlier. "Hmph, this and that are different things." She tried to hide it but it is useless as the boy could still clearly see how bothered she was.

"Anyways, it was nice talking to you." Glynne offered a handshake but quickly realized his mistake. He was about to pull back his hand when he saw her beautiful smooth hand trying to get close. He chuckled as he noticed how visibly shaking it is. "You know, you shouldn't force it if you're afraid."

"W-who says I'm afraid?! I'm only reluctant if I should shake that filthy hands of yours." perhaps misunderstanding as a taunt, Elena quickly grabbed his hand and shook it, her eyes are closed while doing so. It didn't even last a second and she has retracted her hand but Glynne was still impressed how she is starting to face her fears.

@@@@@@@@

Waving goodbye at each other, they both walk in different directions. As Glynne still has some worked to do, he need to quickly get to the weapons development facility before Bronya might get angry about him getting late.

As he was about to turned around the corner, he once again bumped into a familiar girl. This time, she has a long dark hair that reach until her waist. They stared for a few seconds before Glynne opened his mouth. "Mei, what are you doing here?"

"A-ah, w-well I was on my way to the library." she replied while stuttering. From what the boy could tell, she seems to be flustered about finding her.

"You know the library is on the first floor, right?" Glynne pointed out. The school is arrange to have the important facilities on the lower floors while classroom are on the higher floors. Because of this, he was confused by Mei's words as it seems like she is just making some excuses.

He stared at the girl suspiciously as she groans about her lie being quickly found out. It took him a few moments before he heaved a huge sigh "Well, let just leave it just that....." and shrugged his shoulders.

"Eh?" Mei was dumbfounded when the boy tapped her shoulders and walked past by her. He turned around to see his emerald eyes staring at her.

"What are you waiting for? Should we go?" he asked, seems like he is intending to escort Mei. He didn't wait for long though as he turned around and started walking.

The girl snapped from her trance and quickly followed Glynne.

.......................

................

...........

It's been a few minutes since they both started walking together. By the passing second, Mei seems to be fidgeting as if she wanted to ask something.

As for Glynne, he has both of his hands in the back of his head while he walk ahead.

When they reach the staircase leading to the second floor, Mei can't hold it any longer and opened her mouth. "...Uhm, Elena didn't do anything to you, did she?"

"Why do you asked?" Glynne replied with a question. He glance to his side to see Mei staring at him with worried eyes.

The girl stared down to the floor as she walks. "I saw her making you follow her to a classroom. She's a nice girl but...."

Glynne barely heard the last words in her sentence. He let out a sigh as he knows that the girl doesn't like talking bad to others. 'That drill blonde seriously need to fix her image.' - he thought.

"Well, there's no need to worry. She just warned me about something." Glynne reassured.

"...That's all?"

"Yeah, that's all."

Mei tilted her head as she is in doubt that they needed to talk alone just to give some warning. Then again, she noticed when they got out of the classroom that they don't seem to have any thorny atmosphere between them.

"If you say so, then I won't pry any further." Mei said as she felt a bit relieved. She pick up her pace and walked ahead of the boy. "Anyway, we should hurry. The Fu Hua and Bronya might be waiting for us now."

"Ah, I forgot." Glynne said as he scratched his cheek. He checked his phone for the time to see it was already passed their meeting time. Bronya would surely cling to him as a punishment again. Letting out a sigh of defeat, he too had pick up his pace and head over to their destination..

=======

Thanks for reading!!!!