"Yeah, but what's the point?" Kyle asked as he leaned against the doorframe. "I'm genuinely not trying to antagonize you on purpose, but my training is loud."
"Also, you're already trying to isolate me. So, why should I care?"
Tomb narrowed her eyes at Kyle.
"We are not trying to isolate you," Shore said from the side.
"You've barely even arrived," Tomb added with a snort. "Isolating you from the start wouldn't be fair."
Kyle just rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. I'm also a representative. Do you really think I'm blind?"
"Not blind, but paranoid," Tomb said with a snort. "Not everyone is out to get you, Stark."
At that moment, another door opened, and Naga walked out.
"I didn't want to get involved, but it seems I'm already involved," Naga said with a strict expression while looking at Kyle. "We are not trying to isolate you, and I would prefer not to get accused of things when I'm not present to defend myself."
"Wait, what?" Wild asked as she also came out of her room. "You think we're isolating you? Why? That makes no sense!"
Grandmasters had terrifying hearing. It wasn't difficult for them to listen to the conversation from inside their rooms.
Naturally, when they had heard that Kyle kept saying that the other representatives were isolating him, they came out to defend themselves.
Wild, Shore, Naga, and Tomb were all saying that Kyle was just imagining things.
Kyle had been quite sure that they were isolating him, but his certainty waned a bit.
It wasn't easy to hold onto a belief solely based on one's own suspicion when four talented, eloquent, experienced, and beautiful women kept giving reasons why that belief was wrong.
All four of them were representatives, and they thrived in the subtle battle for social status.
"It wouldn't be fair."
"How would we have even come to that agreement? We didn't know who you were before you arrived."
"I was just interested in your abilities as a half-dwarf. I'm sorry if you thought this was meant to hurt your status."
"We always talk like that. Larian knows that I was just joking."
"Why would we even do that? Assuming we wanted to somehow get all the attention of the Crown Prince, why would we go against you? It would make sense if you were another female representative since you would then, hypothetically, be competition, but you're not."
"I already noticed that you dropped the fishing rod on purpose on the beach to get out of the team building, but I didn't tell Larian. If I wanted to get rid of you, I would've made some kind of gesture or joke about your rod, but I didn't."
The arguments were logical and sound.
These were not just baseless rebuttals.
"You're trying to isolate him."
The others all looked at the door that had just opened.
Sky was standing there and looking at them with a neutral expression.
Kyle also looked over and covertly took a deep breath.
'Wow, I almost thought I was hallucinating,' he thought.
The other four looked at Sky like she had just slapped them in the face.
Then, Sky turned to Kyle.
"You're loud," she said. "Be quieter."
"How?" Kyle asked. "I would be quieter if I knew how."
"Go somewhere else," Sky said.
"Where? I don't know where I can train in relative privacy," Kyle answered.
"Ask for a storage room. You will be given one. Train there," Sky explained curtly.
"That would work," Kyle said with a nod. "Thanks."
Sky just looked at Kyle for a second before turning around and going back into her room.
Nobody had noticed how perfectly Sky had just solved the issue that concerned her the most.
She gave Kyle a helping hand to make him feel favorable toward her.
Then, she directly told him what she wanted.
When he said that he wanted to help but couldn't, she offered a compromise. Kyle could keep training, but not here.
Sky had built rapport with Kyle, used it to solve an issue, and left.
It barely took a couple of words.
The other representatives looked at each other for a bit, subtly conveying messages.
"Anyway, problem solved," Kyle said as he started to gather his stuff.
Surprisingly, the four representatives had completely stopped defending themselves from the accusations.
"It's just business," Shore suddenly said with a slight smile. "Don't take it to heart."
Naturally, she was referring to their attempt to isolate Kyle.
"I know," Kyle said. "No worries, I won't take it the wrong way."
Kyle grabbed a bunch of his ore and cannon before coming to the door.
Then, he casually looked at Shore.
"I'm going to take it personally," he said.
The four representatives looked at each other before chuckling awkwardly.
That was not a good joke.
"I don't know why you're laughing. That wasn't a joke," Kyle said.
That made Shore furrow her brows. "You're offended because we are doing what our jobs require us to do?"
"I don't care about your viewpoint or your reason," Kyle said. "A soldier from the Winterfire Kingdom has the job to kill me. He's just doing his job."
"And yet, he's still trying to kill me, and I don't want to be killed."
"Even if it's just his job, I would still want him to die the most pathetic death imaginable."
"I don't care if he gets killed if he doesn't attack me."
"I don't care if they are holding his entire family hostage."
"I don't care if he got conscripted into the army against his will."
"He is trying to kill me, and I hate him and want him to die for trying to kill me."
"Your case is the same but with less intensity."
"I don't give a flying fuck if your job is to mess with me."
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some training to do," Kyle said as he moved out of the room.
The four representatives just looked at Kyle with evaluating expressions.
For the first time, they felt like they had seen the real Kyle, and his conduct could be summarized with one word.
Unreasonable.
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