Life in Lowee over the past two weeks was a strange mixture of serenity and chaos.
The silence and calmness around the castle and most of the town in general made it a relaxing place as Alex genuinely enjoyed going out and helping out any people in need whether it be deliveries or simple monster exterminations as every time he went out, he'd admire the scenery along the way which was quite hard to get tired of.
The one bad thing about living in Lowee that added chaos into the mix were the twins, or Ram to be more specific.
Ever since his arrival, Alex had become the main target of Ram's pranks.
Most of the time it would be just an innocent joke like putting a line of tape in a door causing him to hit his face with it and fall to the floor or slip on a banana peel and fall painfully.
Other times it would be something a bit brutal, like putting a bucket filled with ice cold water over a slightly opened door causing it to fall on him when he opened it or just bluntly throw a book at his head whenever he came back from outside.
Rom on the other hand didn't really bother Alex, nor did she approach him or talk to him.
In fact, it was quite possible that she probably even feared him by the way she constantly tried to avoid him.
The young boy didn't really do anything in particular to cause that reaction on her but Alex suspected that Ram may have told her whatever she came up with to make her scared of him.
"Man, this week's been awful." Said Alex to himself as he sneezed while walking along a street with his head lowered along with his hands on his pockets and his eyes closed.
As a result of all the pranks Ram would play on him, Alex began to fell a little bit of a cold so he had decided to take today off.
Mina would usually scold Ram for her pranks, but that hardly had any effect on the CPU Candidate and Blanc didn't really seem interested in what was happening around her either.
She simply sat down in her room every day to read from dawn to night and whenever she wasn't reading, she was writing something on her PC.
He wasn't sure what it was, but the CPU would spend almost all of her time on it.
Either way, Alex had to figure out how to solve this situation less he risk a more severe cold or a concussion from how many blows to the head he had taken from Ram's book throws.
'I really need to do something here, but what?' He thought.
From his current point of view, Alex had three choices.
He could try withstanding the pranks for one more week and leave, but he doubted that was possible considering the fact that he mentally just couldn't put up with it any more.
He could just try to up and leave right now but that would be against the agreement he had with the CPUs.
His only choice right now was to make Ram stop somehow.
Not get along with him necessarily but just stop. Now the question was how?
While thinking how to solve this puzzle, Alex suddenly bumped into someone.
"Ow!" Said a small, young voice.
"Ah, S-Sorry! I didn't see where I-." Said Alex while turning his head and opening his eyes, but stopped as soon as he saw who he bumped into.
It was Rom who was sitting on the floor with two plastic bags on both sides and a few cans pouring out of them.
"Hm? You're, one of the twins." He said.
"Uh?" Said Rom as she raised her head and before her expression turned into slight fear after seeing Alex. "Eeek! It's the bad guy!"
Seeing she was starting to panic, the young boy placed his hands in front of him to try and show he had no intention to harm her.
"H-Hey wait calm down! I won't do anything bad!" He said.
"Y-You won't?" She asked.
"Yes I promise! Let's just, please not make a scene out in public okay?" Pleaded the boy.
After a bit of waiting, Rom's uneasiness and fear went away as Alex sighed with relief before kneeling in front of her and extending his hand towards her to help her get up.
"Come on now. The floor's too cold to sit on." He said.
Rom looked at his hand and hesitated for a moment before slowly reaching out and grabbing it as the boy helped her up.
"There we go." He said while brushing the snow off of Rom's shoulders.
Alex looked around and noticed she was alone which was quite odd considering the twins would never leave the house without the other.
"Are you, by yourself Rom?" He asked as Rom nodded.
"Mina asked me and Ram......to buy some things….and Ram didn't want to." She said.
"Why not?"
"She said something about, um............a bucket and mud."
'Mud? Jesus Christ. Just what lengths is that girl willing to go to.' Thought Alex as he closed his eyes and sweat dropped.
After opening his eyes, he saw Rom picking up some of the cans lying around and decided to help her.
Once they picked up all of them and put them back into the bags, Alex looked at her again.
"I think that's all of them." He said while counting them.
Rom looked inside the bags, counted the cans as well and nodded.
"Yes..." She said.
She then picked up the large plastic bags again and lifted them.
While standing back up, Alex saw Rom had difficulty carrying the bags and extended his hand towards her again.
"Let me carry one." He said.
"B-But..."
"It's hard carrying too many bags at once, right?" He said while keeping his hand extended out. "Besides, I was heading back too. Might as well help you while I'm at it."
Rom was slightly doubtful at first, but agreed to accept Alex's help and gave one of the bags to him. Both of them then faced the castle once again and walked towards it.
On the way there, Rom looked at Alex a few times before she finally mustered the courage to speak to him.
"Um, Mr. Alex?" Asked Rom.
"Just Alex is fine Rom." Said Alex while turning his head to look at her.
"Then, Alex?" She said.
"What's up?" Responded the boy.
"Are you, really here to help Lowee?"
This question definitely caught Alex off guard as he didn't expect Rom of all people to ask that.
"Well, yeah obviously. I'm a mercenary. It's my job to help the people out." He responded.
"Then, why are you helping people? You're a kid like me and Ram right?"
Alex was unsure of how to respond to that question since the reasoning behind him becoming a mercenary was rather personal.
"Yeah I'm kid. Admittedly, it is tough sometimes handling all this responsibility at a young age. Even so, there has to be someone out there looking out for the little guy. For all the civilians while the CPUs are busy. I just, find enjoyment in doing my part." He said, though he was a little worried that he went a little to deep in his explanation.
"Hm, Alex. Are you, friends with big sister?" Asked Rom.
After hearing that new question, Alex looked at her again for a moment before turned his head to look forward.
"Friends? Uh, not really. This is my first time in Lowee and I've only met Blanc recently so, I'd say we're more like, acquaintances." He said.
"Acquaintances?"
"It's kind of like knowing someone, but not knowing them well enough to be friends with them."
Rom lowered her head and thought about what he told her as she kept thinking about all the way back to the castle.
Once there, both entered and headed towards the kitchen where Alex helped Rom store the cans and separate them properly.
"There. That was the last one." Said Alex as he put the last item in the upper shelf.
"Alex." said the CPU Candidate while looking at him as Alex then lowered his head to look at her.
"Yeah what is it?" He said.
"Why…did you help me?" She asked.
"Why? Well, why not? I don't need a reason to help someone out." He said with a smile before turning back to face the upper self as he closed it.
"Alex."
After a moment of silence, Rom said Alex's name again which made him look back down at her.
"Thank you, for helping me." She said with a smile.
Seeing Rom's warm and innocent smile made his eyes widen but before he could say anything, the door suddenly bursted open.
Both of them nearly jumped before turning their heads to look at the doorway but when they did, their expressions paled.
Mina was standing in the entrance, completely covered in mud from head to waist, with a shadow covering the upper part of her face.
Despite having her eyes closed and wearing a large smile, Alex could tell there was immeasurable rage hiding behind it.
"Rom…there you are" She said with a completely calm tone however even her tone was filled with a silent rage.
"Mi-Mina?" Said Rom with obvious fear in her voice.
This sign of strong fear made it clear that not even the CPU Candidate had seen the oracle this angry before.
"I see you bought the groceries like I asked you to. Where, is Ram?" She asked.
"I-I don't know…S-She didn't come with me." Said Rom on immense fear.
"I see............." She said with the same amount of calmness in her voice. "If you find her, please tell her I'm looking for her.................We need to talk."
Alex could have sworn that as she spoke, a vein mark popped on her forehead.
Not a usual comical popping vein symbol, but a real vein popping so hard it could be seen marking the skin.
"U-Um, Ms. Mina?" He called out to try and get some of the tension away from poor Rom, though admittedly even Alex himself was even nervous from just trying to speak at the moment.
The oracle then moved her head slightly and seemed to be looking at Alex now.
It was hard to tell, considering her eyes were closed or at least seemed closed from his perspective.
"Ah, Alex. What are you doing here?" She asked.
The question was a weird one but it was probably because Mina was so focused on Rom and finding Ram, that she completely ignored Alex's prescence until he called out to her.
Unfortunately, now everything she was holding within her could easily explode on him if he wasn't careful with his words.
"I-I was just, u-uh...................."
Alex was struggling on what to even say but then Rom suddenly chimed in.
"He helped me...........with the groceries." She said.
The young boy looked at Rom for a moment before looking at Mina again.
"Is that so?" Replied Mina, sounding somewhat thankful. "Thank you for your assistance...I appreciate it."
"I-It's nothing really." He answered while breaking into a cold sweat again. "A-Anyway um, what happened?"
Alex immediately regretted his choice of words as it was blatantly obvious what happened just from looking at her.
"You mean, this?" She said while grabbing a part of her muddy coat with her hand. "Well, that's what I want to know myself. You see, I was just taking a few documents to an office tending to my own business, but when I opened a door to go to another hallway, a bucket filled with mud fell over me."
"I-I see..............."
"My old clothes were getting weary, so I ordered these a few weeks ago." She said while holding onto the frame of the doorway "These clothes were brand new...and now they're ruined......with mud…............."
With every word, the sound of creaking wood coming from the doorway increased.
Even after all the monsters Alex has faced in his days as a mercenary, nothing has ever made him as scared as he was right now just witnessing Mina's pent up rage.
"W-Well then, I should be on my way now. H-Have a good day." He said hesitantly.
"Y-You too............."
With that said, Mina quietly left as fast as she arrived.
After a few minutes passed, Alex sighed and sweat dropped.
Whatever the oracle was planning to do, Ram sure was in for a heck of a punishment now.
"Well, I think I'll go back to my room for now. Rom If you see your sister, tell her to hide, or run, or both." Said Alex while walking towards the door.
"Alex."
Alex turned his head around and looked at Rom.
"I, don't think you're a bad guy........." She said while smiling again. "I hope you and big sister can be friends soon."
Alex took a moment to respond before smiling back at Rom as he nodded.
"Yeah. I hope so too." He replied as he walked away.
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Chapter 13: Complete