The hospital room fell into a brief silence, save for Silvia’s steady and gentle breathing.
Victoria zipped up her backpack and, as if remembering something, looked up at Greg again, her gray-blue eyes tinged with a hint of inquiry.
"By the way, there's something... Did you offend someone in the academy before? Or did you have some kind of special... contact with anyone?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Greg’s heart skipped a beat, though he maintained a confused expression.
"You know a girl in the second year named Catherine Roman, right?"
Victoria observed his reaction.
"She posted a commission on the academy’s task board in her own name, offering a reward of 50 Gold Coins. The content is simple: find Greg Sass in the dungeon and pass him a message."
"What?! Catherine is looking for me?! And she even posted a commission?!"
Greg’s heart jumped, and he nearly bolted upright in bed.
He thought he had already moved past that incident over the last few days, but he hadn't expected to still be targeted.
Could it be... that those three upperclassmen eventually failed to keep their mouths shut and leaked his identity?
But cooling down and thinking about it, with Catherine Roman’s intellect and methods, even if those three had remained tight-lipped, she could probably rely on her own sharp intuition and information network to deduce that he might be involved.
"What a pain... I guess I can't hide from it after all..."
Greg felt a headache coming on.
Being targeted by this deep-thinking, calculating Fourth Heroine was definitely not a pleasant experience.
But since things had come to this, simply running away was clearly not the solution.
The other party had already publicly offered a reward to find him, making her stance clear.
If he continued to hide, it would only make him look guilty, potentially drawing more unnecessary speculation and attention, or even prompting Catherine to take more aggressive measures.
It seemed... he couldn't just passively avoid her anymore.
He needed to find an appropriate time to proactively meet this merchant's daughter... At the very least, he had to figure out what she wanted and try to seize back a bit of the initiative.
Greg asked, "Since you’ve passed the message to me now, does that mean you can go collect the reward? How about you throw a little something my way when you do?"
While Greg was rapidly calculating how to deal with Catherine in his head, Victoria had already shouldered her canvas bag.
"Too late. That commission was canceled yesterday. If I’d known earlier, I would’ve been willing to crawl into the dungeon just to find you."
Greg sighed. "Ugh, this damn luck of mine. Could it just give me a break for once?"
Victoria walked over to her original bed and looked at the sleeping Silvia. Her gaze softened for a moment as she spoke to Greg in a low voice.
"She watched over you all day and hardly closed her eyes. She only fell asleep just before dawn when she couldn't hold out anymore. I moved her to my bed so she could sleep more comfortably. For now... try not to disturb her. Let her get some proper rest."
Hearing this, Greg felt a slight warmth in his heart, and his gaze toward Silvia softened considerably.
This kind and somewhat silly girl must have been so worried about him that she forced herself to stay awake... even though she had just gone through such a terrifying ordeal herself and was exhausted both physically and mentally.
"Yeah, I understand. No problem."
He immediately nodded and lowered his voice.
"And one more thing, it’s about..."
Victoria suddenly hesitated, her gaze drifting between Greg and the sleeping Silvia. Her gray hair slid over her shoulder as she tilted her head slightly.
She seemed conflicted; her lips moved, but no sound came out. Finally, she just raised her hand and ruffled her hair in slight frustration.
"Hmm? What else?" Greg asked proactively, seeing her like this.
Was there more trouble?
"No, never mind. It’s nothing."
In the end, Victoria shook her head and swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.
She had originally wanted to ask why, when she woke up this morning, she saw Silvia tightly holding Greg’s hand, sleeping while slumped against his bedside.
That posture, that defenseless sense of reliance... Based on her knowledge of Silvia, this shy and introverted friend who always kept her distance from men had never had such intimate contact with any member of the opposite sex since they were children.
But the words felt blocked by something.
A subtle emotion, one she couldn't even explain to herself, made her instinctively not want to ask.
It was as if a voice deep in her heart was faintly resisting, not wanting her to look too deeply into the meaning behind that scene... or perhaps, not wanting to receive a definitive answer from Greg.
Greg looked at her conflicted state as she eventually gave up, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes, habitually muttering, "Hey, you're stopping halfway? NMSL?"
He felt like the people around him lately all had a tendency to become riddlers, always liking to speak in circles or getting stuck right at the crucial point.
This feeling was absolutely maddening, like finally finding some long-awaited, high-quality 'study materials' and getting all excited to dive deep into research, only for your parents to suddenly burst into the room without warning.
That kind of stifled, helpless feeling was truly the worst.
Victoria obviously didn't fully understand his complaint, which was laced with otherworldly slang, but she understood he was grumbling about her leaving things unsaid.
An unnatural flicker crossed her face, and she didn't pick up that thread.
Finally, she carried her luggage to the ward door and placed her hand on the handle, but then she stopped again.
Her back was toward Greg, and she seemed to struggle for a few more seconds before turning around somewhat awkwardly. Her gray eyes met his, and her speech was a bit faster than usual.
"I saw it in the Academy Daily News. Thank you... for saving Silvia while I wasn't there."
She paused for a moment, her voice dropping lower, but still clear.
"Anyway... that’s all I wanted to say. Goodbye."
With that, as if afraid Greg would respond or she would say something else, she quickly pulled the door open and walked out without looking back, gently closing the door behind her.
"Whoa!"
Greg was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head. "She actually knows how to say thank you to her nanny now? What an... interesting change."
It seemed the recent events had indeed significantly improved this tsundere gray-haired Hero's opinion of him.
That was an unexpected harvest...
However, the smile lasted less than two seconds before Greg suddenly reacted to another key piece of information in Victoria's words.
"Wait! What do you mean you saw it in the Academy Daily News?!"
His eyes widened as a premonition of impending doom washed over him.
Rate on N.U.
