The Incubus System-Novel

93 Chapter 91. Mysterious Person

"He's your ex?" said Mia in shock. Our feet stepped towards the cashier at a slow pace.

Celia nodded slowly with a regretful face. She did not think her decision to date Bern would bring disaster.

"Celia has never dated before, so I think she just chose the wrong person," I tried to comfort her. Celia started dating Bern a few months after our father died, so I thought she was just looking for someone who could comfort her, but unfortunately, Bern only gave her trouble.

Mia sighed as her eyes turned soft.

"I understand how you feel. Sometimes we can't judge someone by their appearance." Even though Bern was annoying, he did have a warm face that made everyone think of him as a good person. Then she frowned.

"If one of them is your ex, but who is the other?" she asked.

"I don't know," Celia replied.

"Oh, he's Bern's brother, Franz." Celia had never met Franz before, so she didn't recognize him.

Celia turned towards me with a confused expression.

"How do you know him?" While Mia also looked at me with the same expression, since she knew I was the kind of person who avoided making trouble and didn't want to deal with people like them.

"I've met him in Nighthallow City before," I said with an innocent face as if I had no problem with him.

"When? Why didn't you tell me?" Celia asked me impatiently.

I couldn't possibly tell her since she would have been worried if she found out that they ganged up on me in their fighting studio.

"I think it's unnecessary. It's just a brief encounter anyway," I decided to say nothing.

Mia looked at me suspiciously.

"Is that true?" Her disbelief was clear in her voice.

"Then why did they attack you earlier?" Well, it was weird if we only met briefly but now they attacked me like sworn enemies.

"Brother, could it be that he asked Franz to beat you up for revenge?" Celia guessed.

Hearing the words 'revenge', Mia turned to Celia.

"Has Ethan fought with your ex before?" she asked in a half-shocked tone. It seemed like she couldn't believe I could beat Bern who was so much bigger than me.

"Yes. And he beat Bern and made him scamper away," she emphasized.

They turned to me at the same time.

"Ethan, what did they do to you?" asked Mia again.

Even though I didn't want to answer then but seeing their serious glances at me, I let out a surrendering sigh. Besides, admitting this wouldn't have too much effect on me either.

"Okay, I confess. I did fight with him a few days ago. But not because of Celia but because Franz was also disturbing my friend." I deliberately mentioned this so Celia wouldn't feel guilty.

"Then what happened? Did they beat you?" Mia asked curiously. Seeing their big muscular bodies, she could guess they managed to beat me up.

Celia smiled proudly.

"As expected from my brother!"

Mia sighed in regret.

"Hahhh ~ If I knew this I should have let you beat both of them," she pouted regretfully.

"Why?" asked Celia.

Mia turned to me with a mischievous smirk.

"I want to see how Ethan beat them."

I only replied with an awkward grin, since I was only planning to knock them out from a distance rather than duelling them like before.

We arrived at the cashier. The cashier scanned our purchases one by one while we continued chatting.

"How do you know a jerk like him?" Mia asked Celia.

"It's my best friend who introduced me to Bern. I thought he was a good person and --" Celia took a glance at me before continuing.

"I thought it was time for me to be more independent. I didn't want to depend on my brother anymore."

"Both of you only have each other now. Of course, you will depend on each other. Why should you be afraid of things like that?" Mia said. While I finished the payment and took our groceries. Although our shopping bags were quite a lot, but with my strength, I could carry everything easily with just one hand.

Celia took a glance at me again.

"That time... We just lost dad, my mind was in a mess. All I thought was I just wanted to be more independent as soon as possible."

Even though she said that, but I knew the real reason was because she wanted to suppress her feelings for me. I hugged Celia's shoulder, pulled her and gave her a gentle poke to her forehead.

"I know you want to be independent, but that doesn't mean you can make a random person like him as your boyfriend," I scolded her. My eyes on her.

"Brother," she pouted in a spoiled tone. Her hand rubbed her forehead where I poked her earlier.

"If I knew it, I wouldn't date him either," she continued.

"Ehem ... Why are these siblings starting to make me jealous?" Mia said, her eyes staring at us as she waited for the cashier to finish scanning her purchases.

We exchanged glances briefly and smiled together. As if we understood to keep our mouths shut regarding our little secret.

Mia sighed and smiled at us. I could tell she was relieved that my relationship with Celia had improved.

After Mia finished the payment, we walked out of the supermarket and decided to get home together. The automatic door in front of us opened. Celia and Mia walked side by side as they chatted about what dishes they would cook today. A few minutes later, a loud noise came from a nearby alley.

- Prang - Prang --- Trrrrwrrr --- wrrr - wrrr ...

Our steps stopped, at the same time a trash can lid came out of there and rolled in front of us. We exchanged glances in confusion and turned carefully to the dark alley.

Again, Celia immediately hid behind me.

"What's that?" she asked in a scared tone.

"Wait here," I said as I gave our groceries to Celia. And she almost fell as soon as I took my hand off it.

As I walked closer, vaguely, I could see three shadows in the alley. One of them was slamming, punching and kicking the other two brutally. But even though I had focused my attention but my vision skill was not active yet because they hadn't entered my skill range. Apart from that, some large trash bins lined up horizontally were also blocking my view. As if it had been prepared to cover them.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" My feet stepped slowly towards them. Even though I was sure they weren't demons, but I still had to be careful.

Hearing my voice, two of them who were badly beaten turned around and ran towards me.

"Haa- hah-hah --haaaaaa!" Bern and Franz ran in shuffled steps at me.

"We are sorry... We are sorry..." they said in fear as they hid behind me. Their faces were battered and covered with bruises and wounds. I looked at them alternately in confusion. I still remembered clearly, they weren't this scared when I defeated them in Nighthallow City a few days ago, but now they were hiding behind me like cowards.

'Whoever their opponent is I'm sure he's not just an ordinary person.' I shifted my gaze to where they fought earlier but found no one there.

My eyes swept around me, checking it again, but I still couldn't find anyone.

'How could he disappear that fast?'

My attention returned to Bern and Franz, who were ducking in fear behind me. Their hands grabbed my jeans and sweater. I glanced at their status above their heads.

[Name: Franz Fullhorn]

[Level 5]

[HP: 41/148]

[MP: 25/30]

[Name: Bern Fullhorn]

[Level 3]

[HP: 32/100]

[MP: 23/23]

I remembered their HP was still full when I met them in the supermarket earlier.

"What happened?" I asked.

They shook their heads.

"It's okay, we - we're all right," Franz replied quickly. And Bern nodded in response.

"All right? Don't joke with me," I remembered when they lost to me, they tried to cheat by threatening to report me to the police, but this time they didn't say that. It was clear they wanted to let this slide.

"We - we just fell," said Bern in a stammering voice.

"That's not a fall wound. I know someone else is there. Who is he? What have you done with him?" Even though it could be that person who started the fight but because of their attitude earlier I deliberately concluded that they were the one who was looking for trouble first.

"The - there's no one beside us. We only fought with each other. Yo - You know sibling fight," Franz added with an awkward smile, but his fear was still clearly visible on his face.

"Yeah. Tha - That's right!" added Bern.

"That's impossible. I saw ---"

"N-no, there is no one but us," Franz interrupted me.

"Franz, I know ---"

Before I finished my sentence, Bern tugged at my jeans and I could feel his shaking hands clearly.

"Let's go," he said in a stammering voice.

Seeing them so terrified, I sighed and swept my gaze once more into the alley, before turning and leaving followed by Bern and Franz.