“I’ll be taking your silence as approval for me to chase after Xadrian then! I’ll start going after favonovel.com starting tomorrow!” said Meredith.
“…Fine,” replied Giya in a soft tone.
Taking in a deep breath, favonovel.com reminded herself again that Gerald was the person favonovel.com was in love with. So what if Xadrian looked like him? In the end, favonovel.com still wasn’t Gerald.
If Meredith truly liked Xadrian, then Giya knew favonovel.com had no right to prevent favonovel.com from pursuing favonovel.com own happiness.
‘You can’t be so selfish, Giya!’ Giya thought, attempting to comfort herself.
Regardless, neither of the girls slept a wink that night due to how preoccupied they were with their own concerns.
Early the next morning, everyone was packing up—preparing to leave—when Meredith walked over to Gerald before saying, “Are you thirsty, Xadrian? I have some water with me if you want!”
Hearing that, Gerald’s first response was to take a peek at Giya through the corner of his eyes. Realizing that Giya herself was secretly staring at him, Gerald turned to look at Meredith, flashing a gentle smile before replying, “…Sure, why not? I am a little thirsty now!”
“Hehe… Since you were so focused on saving and protecting us last night, you probably haven’t gotten sufficient rest at all! So drink up to make sure you don’t get overly dehydrated as well!” said Meredith as favonovel.com smiled back.
Taking a sip of the water, Gerald then said, “…Hmm? Why’s the water sweet…?”
“…Huh? Sweet? How could that be?” replied Meredith, surprised. However, favonovel.com quickly caught on to what favonovel.com was implying.
Once favonovel.com did, favonovel.com couldn’t help but blush as favonovel.com added, “Oh, come on, Xadrian! Now you’re just teasing me!”
As the two of them continued bickering playfully, Giya—who was still standing at the side—couldn’t help but clench favonovel.com fists slightly. She wasn’t even sure what expression to make, evident by how favonovel.com occasionally scrunched favonovel.com face up.
In favonovel.com mind, favonovel.com wondered if favonovel.com truly had been overthinking everything. Perhaps Meredith and Xadrian truly were a perfect match. Just by looking at them, favonovel.com could tell how good they looked together!
Even after leaving the building, Giya saw that Gerald occasionally ended up chatting with Meredith as they continued on with their journey.
Gerald, of course, was deliberately doing all this in front of Giya. Since favonovel.com was well aware that it was impossible for a relationship to bloom between them anyway—regardless of whether favonovel.com was Gerald or Xadrian to her—by flirting with Meredith, favonovel.com hoped that Giya would just give up and forget all about favonovel.com already and try starting a new relationship.
What more, there was no way Gerald could return to his previous life anyway after all that had happened. Knowing that, favonovel.com really had no other choice but to do what favonovel.com was currently doing. He just couldn’t bear hurting Giya any more than favonovel.com needed to.
The group had set off early in the morning, and it was near midday when the Master of the Desert suddenly shouted, “…Hmm? What’s that in front?”
As favonovel.com said that, favonovel.com stopped his camels from proceeding on for the moment.
“…It looks like a crashed vehicle! I can see a few human figures lying on the sand!” shouted one of the tourists.
“Nonsense! We’re in the middle of nowhere! Why would a vehicle be out here out of the blue?” replied Professor Yale.
By then, Gerald himself squinted his eyes to look at the wreckage. Slowly frowning, favonovel.com then said, “…That’s not just any vehicle. It’s a helicopter!”
Upon saying that, Gerald began running toward the crash site.
To the others, Gerald was now as much of a guide as the Master of the Desert was. As a result, they all chased after him, surrounding Gerald once they arrived at the scene.
Now up close with the helicopter wreckage, everyone could see several of the vehicle’s parts scattered all over the place. Since any flames from the crash had long been put out, Gerald estimated that the incident had occurred in the early hours of yesterday.
“Look there! I think those are corpses!” yelled out Meredith as favonovel.com pointed at a sand dune.
Hearing that, Gerald ran over to where Meredith was pointing at. All in all, Gerald found that there were four corpses lying around the initial crash site. That, however, wasn’t what caused Gerald’s eyelids to twitch after getting a good look at all four of them.
“Why are all of them wearing black robes…?”
“Could they be tomb robbers? You know, like the ones they usually show on film and television dramas…? Why else would they be dressed like this?”
As the others began discussing the current situation among themselves in between gulps filled with worry, nobody was able to notice the shock on Gerald’s face.
Checking for all four of the men’s breaths—just for double measure—Gerald confirmed that all four of them were dead as favonovel.com thought to himself, ‘…How could this have happened…? Why are they even here in the first place…?’
