"Do you want to sell coins too, Halon?" Lisa asked, turning to the Slime.
Lohan thought about how many coins he had; adding today’s 8.12 Silver Coins to the 25 he had in the Guild chest brought the total to 33.12 Silver Coins.
Thinking about how much money he needed in the real world, Lohan decided to sell 20 Silver Coins to Lisa.
That would be the equivalent of $2,000 credits, which would be more than enough for him to buy more food and maybe even improve his lifestyle a little, even if things in the Lower Zone were limited.
"Yeah, I’ll sell 20 Silver Coins then," he said.
Lisa flashed a mischievous smile and agreed, making a mental note of the amount but saying nothing else.
The trio then began moving along one of Thalendor’s suspended walkways.
The intertwined vines forming the path glowed with a soft luminescence, reacting to the ambient Mana.
Alice, who until then had kept a respectful distance while the two "leaders" discussed finances, could no longer bear the silence.
She took a light leap, stopping right in front of the white fox and the blue slime, walking backward with great ease, showing that she had been doing this for a long time.
"So Halon, how did you and Bella meet? She told me she’d been watching you for a while before reaching out to you, but she never went into details about it..." She asked, staring at the Slime with curiosity.
Hearing this question, Lisa felt a little embarrassed, even looking away, but she didn’t say anything.
Remembering how their first meeting went, Lohan laughed. "If I told you she brought an enraged Goblin to me, would you believe it?"
"A Goblin... are you talking about the monster?! She brought an enraged monster to you on your first date?!" Alice asked, shocked and with her lips curled up as she struggled not to laugh at the situation. "No way! Bella, so that’s how the invitation happened? With you first putting him in a life-or-death situation and then showing up like a prince charming?!"
Hearing it put that way, Lohan was shocked to realize that if he hadn’t been able to handle the Goblin, that really could have happened! Either Lisa would have let him die, or she would have appeared at the last moment to save him.
Curious, he also focused on Lisa, wanting to see what her response would be.
Seeing the Slime looking at her like that, with his artificial eyes "staring" at her as they blinked slowly, the fox’s face beneath the fur turned even redder.
"No... that wasn’t my intention. Actually, I really wanted to test his strength..." she said, her voice growing lower and lower.
"HAHAHA, I can’t believe it, Bella! That’s SO you! Definitely something Isab..." Alice was laughing at the situation when suddenly a scream echoed in her mind.
"ALICE!!!" Lisa screamed upon realizing that Alice had almost said her full name in front of Halon.
Honestly, at that point she didn’t even know how much he knew, if he really knew, or if he was just ignoring it, and for her, keeping it that way would be perfect! But if Alice said "Isabella," even though no one had spoken "Vance" aloud near Halon, he would surely confirm her identity...
At Lisa’s shout, Alice quickly fell silent and lowered her head, not daring to say another word.
Glancing at the Slime, its eyes were still as expressionless as before, blinking slowly and out of sync in a cute way as if it hadn’t heard a thing.
But inside, Lohan analyzed the two girls’ reactions and understood something.
’Although Lisa’s reaction was somewhat normal, it’s something that would easily happen between two true friends, Alice’s reaction of fear and submission was quite abnormal... perhaps because of Lisa’s true identity?’
After Lisa’s scolding, he noticed that Alice became much more sulky, not even trying to ask more about him, just walking with her head down beside them, and at the same time, Lisa looked at her with regret, but not quite knowing how to resolve and deal with it.
Unfortunately for both of them, Lohan was also someone who didn’t have much experience with relationships like this.
Having spent his entire life in a hospital bed, situations like these were things he only saw on TV.
Seeing that it was already late and the relaxed atmosphere had ended, Lohan decided to sign off first.
"Alice, it was a pleasure to finally meet you. I hope we have a great relationship and that maybe you’ll become my friend too." He said, the eyes on his face curving into a smile, and held out his little hand to her.
Alice looked at the Slime in surprise, and a smile returned to her face as she reached out and held Halon’s tiny hand.
"Thank you, Halon. I loved meeting you too, and I hope we become friends as well." She replied.
Turning to Lisa, Lohan also smiled and said goodbye.
"Good night, Bella."
He said only that before turning into particles of light and disappearing into the sky, leaving the girl in shock staring after him, even more confused about what he knew of her identity.
Seeing Lisa’s reaction, Alice had to control herself again to keep from bursting out laughing.
-xXx-
In the real world, Lohan looked at the dark apartment and felt a little discouraged.
Fortunately, tomorrow was Friday, so he could take advantage of the weekend off to buy a few things to improve his lifestyle here.
’Maybe I can even plan to move to a better place?’ he thought. ’Maybe I can even choose between a better place in the Lower Zone, or one of the cheaper places in the Upper Zone!’
The thought of leaving the Lower Zone was a constant in his mind. But the idea that he’d be surrounded by people like the college kids in the Upper Zone was a major holdback on that thought.
Although the people in the Lower Zone were dangerous, as long as he was strong enough to handle it, that wouldn’t even be a problem for him.
Meanwhile, in the Upper Zone, even if he were physically powerful, without relying on outside connections, he would be easily intimidated there.
Lost in thoughts about this, while gulping down a nutritional shake, a notification popped up on his phone.
[Atlas Bank]
[Transfer Received from Alice Muller: $6,000.00]
[Note: Lisa specifically asked me to pay you at a 3:1 rate and that if you tried to reverse the transaction, I should double the amount and send it back to you. If you don’t want your account investigated for receiving a transfer of a million credits, you’d better accept these six thousand! 😝]
Reading that message, Lohan felt a mix of shock, gratitude, and found the situation amusing.
He had expected Lisa to transfer the funds to him at the 1:1 rate they had previously agreed upon. Even if the other Guild members were receiving a better rate, he didn’t mind that his rate was lower.
But with this message from Alice, Lohan knew he couldn’t ask her to reverse the transfer, or even argue with the girl who was just following orders.
So he had to open Syn and talk to Lisa.
Even though she wouldn’t take the money back, he felt he should use this to annoy her a little.