Playing The Cards.

Lucian spat out his meal. "You kissed the queen?!"

Michael's eyes rolled. How was he just getting the news now? Hadn't he been hearing the gossips, the quiet grudges that was soon to explode?

Silence was his reply.

"Wait. Why?!" Lucian asked. Now that Michael thought about it, this was the first time he had seen him acting so curious about something.

And he wasn't doing a great job asking why he kissed Lena. Because why did he kiss Lena? Was it because he wanted to comply to the dare, which he could've just drank up on? Was it because the system asked him to do it, which he could've just declined?

Or was it because of the way his emotions piqued at the idea...?

No! That couldn't be it. It shouldn't be it. As far as he knew, Lena was a part of the Hierachy, which also made her a potential enemy of his. And besides, he was supposed to be heartless after his reawakening, like every other main characters were in the books he read.

There is no way I'm having feelings for any person.

"It was... Just a thing of the moment I guess." Michael rephrased.

But that kiss. That kiss had been more than just a thing of the moment, it had also gone deeper than just an excuse to escape Reyy.

The way Lena had added passion to it had been more than just a mere excuse. He could feel her warmth, could taste her tongue, the excessive smeather of her lipstick in his. It was like she instead had been charmed than he was.

Maybe... Just maybe she was trying to pass a tiny message to him?

Somehow, he hoped that was it.

"Is this seat occupied?" Someone slammed a food tray atop the table where he and Lucian had been seating.

Reyy.

The school's cafeteria was a sanctuary to every student because of how it maintained privacy. Students sat in however manner they wanted to, some in cheap groups and others in solicitation.

For Michael and Lucian, they were tagged outcasts/bully's victim/school's current biggest hate, so it was only normal that no one would want to seat with them. Not that Michael cared.

But when the king of Wisteria approaches a bunch of nobodies and randomly asks to sit with them, then you know something's about to go wrong.

"What do you want?" Michael demanded before he could even sit.

"What do you mean? I want to have a peaceful lunch." Reyy replied.

"Speak of peaceful."

"Look Michael, I'm not sure why you're beefing me—obviously—but you need to understand that I'm not playing your games." Reyy said, throwing a chunk of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"If you're gonna eat, then do it quietly." Michael replied coldly.

By now, everyone in the cafeteria had eyes on the duo, their minds probably seering with hope that the king would break his own rules.

After all, after that which happened the other day, everyone wanted nothing but to give Michael a good beating.

"In essence Michael, what I'm saying is..." Reyy closed his eyes, his hands clenching against the table edge. "I forgive you."

Everyone gasped.

"I don't remember asking for your forgiveness." Michael issued Reyy a questioning look. "And who ever said I'm not going to do it again?"

"Alright then, have it your way." Reyy stood. "At least I tried my best."

He wanted to leave, but he stopped in his tracks and turned to face Michael, his face as expressionless as ever.

"I know you probably have a lot of schemes against me now." He started. "But if you're feeling that confident about revenge, then how about you come to the Arena tonight... Let's talk about it."

"Wait, what?" A random student exclaimed.

"King is challenging a cripple?"

Michael ignored him, he just kept on eating regardless of what the king said.

"If you win, you'd automatically become the one who runs things around here." Reyy continued. "Don't you want to banish bullying so bad in Wisteria high?"

With that, he left.

Of course, another temptation.

Not that Michael had been ever interested in that position of leader of the school. In fact, he hated positions. With them, he earned unnecessary attention and recognition where he wanted his peace.

But the only way he could dominantly discourage bullying in the school was to become the leader of the Hierachy. And Reyy had given him that chance, leaving the seat open and dusted up for him.

But could he win? Judging from the king's last statement, he sounded really sure that Michael was going to lose to him. Besides, there must've been a reason why someone as shabby as him remained the king for so long.

Reyy's talent was simply fire control, and he had seen him use the power in a few fights, but that was it. There was no special aspect about the talent, and he was only an A-Rank who hadn't unlocked every skill within the talent.

But why did he sound so certain about his win? And he wasn't even being adamant about it. At first he had come to settle whatever disputes existed, and then he was willing to call it all off with a fight in the Arena.

Even putting in kingship on the line?!

What are you up to Reyy...?

* * *

_VELMORE CITY_

_EMPIRE STATE BUILDING_

"The meeting of the Board shall now commence."

"Where's the President?" Asked Rheece, the minister of Affairs.

"He's going to be late due to the unexpected schedule, but he asks us to proceed without him." The chief manager replied.

The meeting room of the Board had five respected entities present; the minister of Affairs, the minister of Security, the Chief of Police, the leader of the Hero Association and finally...

Kieran Ferrante, the hero of the void.

"Why is he even here?" The minister of security, General Martins asked, nodding at Kieran. "Isn't he just a hero?"

"The President requested for someone who could supervise the coming assignment, he did not want me to do it this time." The Leader of the Hero Association, Akane Wilma replied.

"What assignment—?"

"Is this incessant discussion what is required of us now?" Rheece suddenly butt in with a question. "We all know why we're gathered here, don't we?"

"The gates..." General Martins replied. "They have been reappearing."

Silence eluded the room, the news pitching worry on the faces of everyone present.

"A purple gate first appeared on the outskirts of Kansas, and we gathered a troupe as quickly as possible to raid it, but up until now they haven't returned, and more gates have been appearing around that area."

"A B-rank gate in the very first reappearance?" Akane Wilma creased her chin in thoughts. "We should more worried than we are now."

She wasn't wrong, gates were realms that harbored inhuman creatures, these creatures had just enough potential to start an apocalypse if they were unleashed into the real world.

The gates kept them confined, and each gates were seperated into ranks depending on how powerful they were. These ranks were commonly classified into colors as they appeared.

*Blue= D-rank gate.

Yellow= C-rank gate.

Purple= B-rank gate.

Green= A-rank gate.

Red= S-rank gate.

White= SS-rank gate.

Black= SSS-rank gate.*

"If we're not careful, these gates might revolve overtime and restablish the incident of a century ago." Akane continued.

"And we can't be too reckless to send all of our forces to stop these gates." General Martins pointed out. "For it's sudden appearance, I can tell that there's an orchestrator behind it."

A B-rank gate was powerful, not just from within, but it also had the capability to attract gates from other realms. It didn't seem to normal that a gate would just appear out of the blue.

It seemed all part of a scheme against the government.

"Martins, what in the world are you talking about?" Rheece challenged. "We need as many raiders as possible to put a stop to the appearance of the gates—if temporary at least."

"We can't risk playing all our cards in one place!"

"And we can't risk putting citizens' lives in potential danger!" Rheece yelled back. "Don't you people understand what is impending before us?"

Rio, the Chief of Police spoke. "We've stationed defense officers everywhere around the gates. In case anything happens—"

"We did not ask for your opinion Rio." Rheece cut her off with an exasperated sigh, he then turned to face General Martins. "You fail to understand what we're losing here."

"What we're losing? This makes me question whether you're doing this just for the raid or because you find it an opportunity to monetize."

"Martins! How dare you speak of such nonsense?!" Rheece stood, slamming his hands against the long desk. "My intentions and that of the Affairs are purely driven for the world's safety."

"So tell me, why haven't you indulged any of the Horsemen yet?" General Martins had a curious look on his face. After all, Rheece was the minister of affairs, and if anyone was to see to that, it was him.

"I... I think we can all tell what their answer is going to be." Rheece's voice was now calmer. "Those SSS-ranks would be too adamant to challenge a bunch of C and B rank gates."

"There's no point arguing about this." Someone spoke, the large doors of the office coming to an opening to reveal a man with shaven white hair and beards and a white suit dress to complement it.

It was the President.

"Recruit some damn rookies. That's the second card we can play."