I Reject Quests

Zelic and Bianca made their way through the crowd and approached Rewen who was standing on his spot without saying a word.

"We…" Zelic tried saying something but was blocked off when she saw Rewen raise his hand.

"Let's get out of here…" Bianca whispered in a soft voice.

Rewen shook his head and responded. "Let's wait for a while…"

"Wait!? Do you want to get dogpiled by the mob?" Bianca couldn't understand his train of thought.

"Dogpiling might be good once in a while…" Rewen gave a strange answer. Of course, no normal human being would want to get dogpiled by a group of people. Not only is it humiliating, it is mentally burdening. 

"What? Ah, I can't deal with you anymore. Zelic---"

"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Weren't you speaking like bullets when you sat opposite to me?" The live-streaming woman kept filming him.

If it wasn't for the fact that Rewen was in such a situation, he would have laughed out loud. 'She really knows how to joke.'

"Say it!"

"Say it!"

"Say it!"

The live-streaming woman had a contented look on her face. She prepared to wrap it off. "So you don't have anything to say now? Were you just harassing m---"

"Since you want me to say it, I'll just say it. There." Rewen interrupted her and pointed to her purse lying on the floor. "I wanted to let you know that your purse was on the floor. I called you out but…"

All of a sudden, the noisy atmosphere turned quiet.

The live-streaming woman was visibly confused. She looked at her purse, then looked at him again. "You have got this nice excuse…" While saying so, she went ahead and picked up her purse.

"Haha! This one is your fault, lady. You should have listened to what the guy said."

"What did you expect? Women are strange creatures."

"Imagine what would have happened if she filed a harassment file against him? He looks young and his life would have been destroyed."

"How does talking to someone be counted as harassment?"

With a single sentence, the mob turned against the woman. 

Rewen didn't linger on and left the bar with Zelic and Bianca.

"Damn! That was really cool!" Zelic admired the way her cousin handled the situation.

Rewen rubbed his nose. "It was a no-brainer for me."

"It wasn't anything much though. The purse just happened to be there. Had it not been there, you would have been wrecked." Bianca tried to think of the scene where he failed.

"Sure." Rewen accepted her explanation. Even if he did have other alternatives, it would be too weird and complicated if he were to explain. "By the way…"

"What?" Zelic asked when she saw Rewen looking at the two of them with a thoughtful expression.

"How about my reward?" 

Zelic tilted her head with a confused expression. "Reward? What… oh..."

Bianca: "Didn't you, like, technically fail?"

Rewen showed a deeply hurt look. "I see. It's funny that I thought of you two as my friends… let's go then."

Even though they knew that he was being emotionally manipulative, they felt a little bad.

Zelic hesitantly opened her mouth. "What do you want? Don't be unreasonable."

Rewen's face took a total turn and smiled. "Well… I… what do I want?" Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really think of something that he wanted. After a few seconds, a matter came to his mind. "I want to know - what the heck did you and your friends have in plan for me on the first day of my academy?"

"Oh, that…" Zelic showed a conflicted expression. 

Bianca had an even more troubled face.

"What? Why are you two this quiet?" Rewen was suddenly very interested in the matter. 

"It's… just, forget it." Zelic backed off.

Just then, Bianca's smartphone rang.

Bianca picked up. "Hello? Ah, I'm outside… okay… I'm coming right now."

Shortly after, she hung up and apologetically looked at the two other people. "Apparently, Dad is just around here. Mom called me and told me to come home with him. Do you guys want to come? I could drop you off."

Zelic waved her hands. "No, it's fine. Let's meet tomorrow."

Rewen gave a subtle nod and watched Bianca walk away.

"Well then… let's get going." Pulling his hand, Zelic started walking. A few steps later, Rewen came to a halt.

"Tell me." Rewen's voice was low and serious.

"Tell you wha…" Zelic initially planned to act dumb but when she saw the chilling look on his face, she gulped back her words. As light fell on his crimson eyes, it shimmered and shined with brilliance. Even so, the glint in those eyes is terrifyingly cold. At least, that's how she perceived him currently.

"W-we were planning to…" Zelic inhaled and exhaled deep breaths, then continued. "We were planning to have you participate in the Welcoming Ceremony Second Choir Group…"

"..." Initially, Rewen felt that he was making a mountain out of a river but when he ventured deep, he found that there were some irregularities. "Wait, Second Choir Group? Wasn't it exclusively girls-only?"

Zelic nodded nervously. 

Rewen didn't say anything for a while, then laid out his guesses. "Was I supposed to be a central or instrumental member of the choir group?"

Zelic shook her head.

"A singer perhaps?"

Zelic nodded her head vertically.

Rewen's eyes showed clarity. "Was the whole 'fun' element was me singing with the other girls? Or wait… is it crossdressing?"

Zelic was quiet for a while, then stuck out her tongue. "Teehee, sorry."

Never had Rewen cringed as hard as he did right now.

***

Sending Zelic back home, Rewen walked in the dark empty streets to reach home. 

For some reason, he felt the urge to look back and see how much he had changed with regards to relationships.

On the first day of his academy, he was very angry and irritated. He did what he wanted to. Cursed whomever he wanted to. At the same time, a part of his anger was directed towards Bianca, Zelic, Denny, Evans, and some others. 

From the beginning, he knew that these people cooked up something.

With regards to his predecessor, he was bullied. However, in a "fun" way. Not that it made any difference but the bullying wasn't done with harmful intentions. His predecessor, being a victim of the worst case of interference, found it hard to distinguish and therefore, hated them. 

When Rewen recently transmigrated over, he was heavily influenced by his predecessor's thoughts. He decided that if they were to try anything funny, he would go all-out and use violence. Back then, he didn't know why he was so angry at them.

Now he knows.

But he wished he could get angry at them.

He was his own person. He didn't want to direct someone else's anger onto himself. With that being said, it didn't mean he had forgotten about what Denny and the others did to his predecessor. He just didn't want to act self-righteous and take it upon himself and deliver justice.

At this point, it could be said that he was making everything an issue. He couldn't choose not to let it bother him. Emotions and thoughts could be controlled to a great extent but perception couldn't. It can only change over time. Ironically, the slight change in perception is also one of the main reasons he is the way he is right now - depressed.

Reasons adding on to the depression kept adding up. It had never stopped. 

'Every day, I wake up to find new things to lament about.' Rewen wryly smiled and shook his head. 'Let's see… who else is left? Salica, Kesha, Evans, and maybe Alfred… Unfortunately, it's too late now.'

The moment he entered his home, he saw Denny watching the television.

"Where's Cal?" He asked.

"He isn't coming tonight." Denny looked at the new figure and answered.

"Oh." Rewen appeared a little disappointed. After that, he had dinner in his room. Usually, he would have watched anime at this time but he was in no mood to do so currently.

Soon after having his dinner, he fell asleep.

***

Klofar Residence. 5:30 p.m.

In the bathroom, Rewen was shaving his rough beard while looking at the mirror. For a nineteen-year-old, he had a fairly high amount of testosterone. He didn't usually shave clean because he likes his beard and he felt that his face would look too skinny but this time, he went all-out.

He looked surprisingly decent upon seeing his naked face.

"Hm…" After a small nod, he took a shower.

Denny was still asleep at this time. Not bothering to wake her up, he wore his uniform and then went to the garage. Taking a single item he made over the past few days, he got out of the garage. 

The device he made was a blue wristband-like thing connected with an extremely small injection filled with red liquid. He injected the small needle slightly above his wrist roughly and wrapped the wristband around his right hand.

"Let's get started." 

He said in an exhausted voice, before stepping out of his house.