Chapter 27: Awakening

After Lake had left the commercial street, he led Evelyn and Lilia to a family dinner where they sat down at one of the tables.

Evelyn and Lilia were slightly panting as they were out of breath. Feeling slightly guilty, Lake apologized to them for suddenly dragging them away like that.

Lilia, who had finally caught her breath, looked at Lake with a slightly confused expression.

"It's fine. It was better to get out of there fast anyway after having caused such a big commotion."

Hearing Lilia's words, Evelyn also nodded along to show her agreement.

Seeing that the two were fine and didn't blame him, Lake released a small sigh in relief.

"More importantly, what the heck was that aura back there?" Lilia asked as she frowned.

Evelyn also looked over inquisitively at Lake, awaiting his answer.

Seeing that the two of them were looking at him, Lake quickly came up with a random explanation. Lake had thought about it for a long time and had ultimately decided to keep the existence of The System a secret.

Right now he is extremely weak compared to any advanced hunter and if he were to expose the existence of the system, he may risk getting himself into some major trouble.

Although he trusted his sister, and knew that Evelyn wouldn't leak the existence of the system, he didn't want to risk letting them know, in case they got dragged into it. After all, who's to say that there isn't someone out there who could read people's memories like Lake could.

"It's a unique talent that I awakened during the Entrance Exam."

"You awakened a talent?!"

Hearing his words, Lilia shot up from her chair as she stared at Lake with wide open eyes

Noticing that people were staring at her after her sudden outburst, she blushed in embarrassment as she quickly sat back down.

Seeing her reaction, Lake wasn't surprised because he knew exactly what it meant for him to say he had awakened, as it's one of the rarest phenomena to occur in the hunter world.

Evelyn stared confusingly at Lilia as she asked a question, "What is awakening?"

Hearing her question, Lilia was slightly surprised that Evelyn didn't know what awakening was, but then she remembered that Evelyn is a normal civilian. The chances of her coming into information regarding awakening isn't high.

Looking at Evelyn, Lilia slightly composed herself as she began to explain, "Awakening is a unique phenomenon that rarely occurs among hunters and even rarer among civilians. When a person awakens it is said to be a form of unlocking something that was previously hidden in the body, something akin to unlocking a secret talent or skill. These skills are usually extremely powerful and have a wide range of uses. For example, a few years ago there was a hunter who was in the Martial Apprentice High Rank who awoke a skill that granted him a unique sword energy that allowed him to create various sword shadows that could be used to attack. Back then that hunter used his awakened talent to defeat opponents of a higher realm, becoming a genius that was able to fight people in the Martial Warrior Realm while only being in the Martial Apprentice Realm."

Evelyn gasped slightly in surprise. Although she doesn't know much about hunters and their world, she still knew about the huge difference that existed between each of the martial realms. It isn't an exaggeration to say that the difference was akin to the difference between heaven and earth. If awakening a talent was truly capable of allowing one to cross that difference, even Evelyn could understand how astonishing are the words that Lake just said.

Turning to look at Lake, Lilia stared with slightly excited yet concerned eyes.

"D-Did you really awaken?"

Seeing her concerned eyes, Lake felt his cold heart warm slightly as he happily lied with a straight face.

"Yes, I had awakened right after I had killed Goblin King during the test. The aura you felt earlier was the awakened energy that was released from my body. I can't tell you the details but it is true that I have awakened a talent."

Hearing Lake's answer, Lilia tried hard to contain her excitement as she repeated the words Lake said in her mind. It was at that moment however, that she suddenly realized a small detail in his words that immediately caught her attention.

Looking up with distrustful eyes, she stared at Lake questioningly.

"Did you just say that you killed a Goblin King?"

At that point Evelyn looked over to Lilia, "Hmm, didn't you watch Lake's candidate video?"

"Huh? I didn't have time to check yet. Is there something I should see?"

Seeing her reaction, Evelyn suddenly had a look of realization as she giggled softly, "You should probably watch it now then. Although be warned, it is very graphic. I almost had to question whether I should remain friends with Lake or not after watching it."

"You mean whether you should still like me or not?" Lake suddenly spoke with a light grin.

Hearing his words, Evelyn cast a disdainful gaze at Lake, "Don't make me question it again."

Seeing the two of them start flirting, Lilia rolled her eyes as she pulled out her phone to search for Lake's candidate video.

However, before she started searching she was intrigued as she spotted a certain title among the top of the trending list.

[The Martial Course Fairy List.]

[The Martial Course Heroes List.]

[The Handsome Demon That Slaughtered His Way To First Place on the Martial Course Exam!]

The first two titles didn't intrigue Lilia much, however, the third title in the list caught her attention.

First Place.

Looking up and seeing Lake's casual demeanor along with remembering Evelyn's graphic warning, Lilia suddenly had a strong feeling about what she was going to see upon clicking the link.

Clicking on the link, Lilia saw a short post speaking about the first place winner of the martial competition. At the top of the post was the name of the first place winner, Lake Egoven.

Seeing that name, Lilia knew that her premonition was spot on. Feeling a little shocked, she looked up again. However, her shock quickly dissipated upon seeing Lake teasing Evelyn.

Staring at the two for a moment caused the corner of her lips to twitch slightly as she lowered her gaze back down and continued to read through the post.

The post went on for a while as it talked about Lake's skills and thought process throughout the exam. Lilia soon found out that Lake was mostly an assassin during the match. She didn't find this too strange as she knew that Lake was always quiet and preferred to sneak up on others.

At the end of the post was a short video accompanied with a few lines of text.

[Although the candidate video provided by the association highlighted Lake's best moments, I felt that it lacked the personality and failed to showcase the essence of Lake's battle style. That's why I took it upon myself to edit the original video in order to better showcase the demon that is Lake.]

Clicking on the video, Lilia began to silently watch the video.

Soon a few minutes passed.

Lake, who was talking to Evelyn, turned his gaze to look at his sister and was slightly shocked by what he saw.

Her face was slightly pale and her hands that were holding the phone were slightly shaking.

"Sis, is something wrong?" Lake asked as he looked at his sister, however, when he spoke, Lilia acted as if she was startled as she slightly jumped back in her seat.

Lake stared dumbfounded as he wondered what happened.

Evelyn who was closer to Lilia looked over to see what was wrong and happened to spot her phone that was showing the scene of a decapitated goblin head. Immediately she knew what had happened.

She looked at Lilia with pitiful eyes as she silently thought to herself, "You poor soul. I wonder what you did to deserve a demon such as that as your little brother. Wait… If she's considered a poor soul, what does that make me? After all, I fell in love with him…"

…

Lake and Lilia eventually went home after sending Evelyn off. Lake had already looked at her fate and knew nothing bad was going to happen to her so he wasn't worried about sending her off on her own.

After Lake and Lilia returned to their small apartment, they both sat down.

Lilia stretched lazily, "Hah~ That was a fun trip. I really didn't expect you to get such a beautiful girlfriend while I was gone."

"She's not my girlfriend…"

"Yes yes, I know, you don't know how to respond to her feelings do you?" Lilia interrupted Lake as she stared into his eyes with a mischievous smile.

Lake smiled wryly in response.

Seeing his smile, Lilia chucked slightly as she gave Lake a mysterious smile, "I've known you since you were a baby, so I know that you don't exactly feel the same as her. However, you shouldn't keep up that mask around her for long, you'll only end up harming her when you eventually take it off."

Hearing her words, Lake's expression softened a bit.

"Not to mention, if you dared to harm such a cute girl like Evelyn, I would be the one coming after you."

Lake laughed a little at his sisters remark before released a small sigh as he looked at Lilia with a more serious expression.

"Sis, I want to go to a hunting field."