The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 30: Another Gift?

Chapter 30: Another Gift?

After Nadia managed to calm down, she looked towards Callum, with the thought of the fight from earlier still fresh in her mind.

"Could you tell me how you went invisible earlier?"

"Went invisible?" Callum repeated, then realised what she meant, "Oh, that. I suppose I haven’t told you about my Gift yet."

Nadia widened her eyes.

’Gift?!’

She then watched as Callum rapidly turned transparent mid-step and reappeared a second later.

"My Gift, {Cloaking}, allows me to turn anything I touch, including myself, invisible. With the downside being that the rate of Vitality usage correlates with what I’m touching." Callum rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly, "Because of that, I use my Gift rather sparingly..."

"That’s... an extremely useful ability..." Nadia muttered, deeply impressed, "It’s much more practical in a fight compared to mine..."

Callum immediately perked up.

With stars shimmering in his eyes, he beamed at Nadia.

"You have a Gift too?!" He asked, excitedly, "I believe you’re the first person I came across with a Gift, what does yours do, may I ask?"

Nadia opened her mouth to answer, but instantly closed it when she sensed a familiar gaze on her.

Looking down, she found Hilda staring at her with an interested look in her eyes.

"Pfft, just imagine I’m not here!" Hilda snickered, "Go on, go on! Tell him what it is~"

She snorted and looked back at Callum.

"I’ll tell you when we’re alone."

At this, Hilda let out a disappointed moan.

"Ehhhh?! Meine Dame, this is discrimination!"

"There’s absolutely no way I would let you in on it!" Nadia argued back.

Seraphine stared as the two bickered, then focused her gaze on Nadia and furrowed her brows slightly.

’{Truth Finder}...’

This was the name of Nadia’s Gift and was one of her most valuable assets in the story. It simply allowed the Heroine to detect falsehood in a person’s words, which, in some Routes, allowed her to pick trustworthy allies to join her cause.

But just like she stated, it wasn’t that useful in a fight... at this point in time.

Seraphine soon returned her focus back to reality.

And when she did...

"Hmph, fine, whatever!"

She was met with the sight of Hilda pouting at Nadia.

"Hmph!" The German huffed once more before returning to face the road, feigning a look of betrayal on her face.

Nadia’s face twitched irritably when she saw this.

’Why’s she making this out to be so important?’

After Nadia thought that, she heard a chuckle escape Hilda’s lips.

"Pfft, to think I would encounter two Vitalists with Gifts... how lucky."

Hilda turned back to face, then smiled teasingly.

"You still haven’t thanked the two yet for saving you, by the way. If it wasn’t for Mister Ashby’s two-step plan und Miss Halloway’s impressive aim, you would’ve come out a lot more injured than you already are."

Nadia widened her eyes slightly.

’Two-step plan?’

She hadn’t expected there was a plan involved in the fight, so to be told there was one made, she was left rather surprised.

The Heroine turned to the handsome man, who was scratching the side of his cheek rather shyly. It was obvious that he was embarrassed by the way he behaved.

"Oh, please... that plan can hardly be called two-steps." Callum chuckled wryly, "Having Seraphine shoot into the Scoundrel’s ear to stun it was only just a backup plan if I didn’t manage to kill it. In the end, it was all because of Miss Nadia that it was put down in the end—"

"Don’t put yourself down like that." Nadia shook her head as she showed both him and Seraphine an appreciative smile, "Even if it didn’t work out initially, your plan still worked... thank you for saving me, you two, I’ll definitely pay it back. And sorry that I didn’t say it sooner."

After she said that, a gentle breeze passed through their group, lifting the Heroine’s gorgeous blonde hair and causing it to flutter. Following that was a soft ray of light that shone on the woman’s face, making her beautiful blue eyes twinkle like stars.

Callum’s mind immediately went blank at Nadia’s immense beauty. In his entire life, he hadn’t met anyone quite so beautiful as she was...

Witnessing the man beside him fall for the Heroine’s beauty, Seraphine’s face became deadpan as an inexplicable amount of jealousy swelled inside her Heart.

She needed to divert their attention away from each other!

"A-ahem!" She faked a cough, "S-shouldn’t you also be thanking Hilda too? You know, if it wasn’t for her guiding me on how to use a gun, I wouldn’t have made that shot. She deserves some credit, too!"

Nadia immediately flinched in surprise.

After averting her gaze to Seraphine, who seemed rather smug, for some reason, Nadia glanced down at Hilda with pursed lips. And just like her, the woman was also stunned by Seraphine’s comment, as evidenced by her raised eyebrow.

She then watched as Hilda looked back at her with a smug smile, as though she had planned for this to happen and that she knew she was getting a ’thank you’ as well.

The Heroine now felt even more reluctant about thanking the woman.

Eventually, though, with her lips pressed tightly together, she let out a deep sigh.

"Thank you... too..."

"Aww~ you don’t have to go on und say that~" Hilda cooed, while acting bashfully, "But if you wanna pay me back for carrying you as well, how about letting me sleep on your lap—"

"As if!" Nadia shouted in disbelief as she widened her eyes.

She was absolutely speechless! What sort of request was that!? Was this woman actually being serious?!

Hilda watched as Nadia parted her lips; amusement flickered inside her eyes as she noticed the absolute look of disbelief the woman had on her face.

She then laughed.

"I’m joking~ I’m joking~... or am I?" Hilda snickered, adding the last bit a second later. "Me sleeping on your lap isn’t that unreasonable of a request, is it?"

Then she asked:

"It’s either that or letting me take care of you."

Nadia was speechless.

Before she could even articulate a response to Hilda’s nonsense—

CRASH!

—The building to their left suddenly exploded towards them.

A wave of dust rushed towards, along with a rain of shattered bricks and half-broken furniture.

Callum quickly moved to shield Seraphine from the dust wave, while Nadia instinctively lifted her arm to shield her head from the falling rubble.

But their actions were proven needless when Hilda decided to take action.

"Hoh?"

After the dust wave washed over them and finally settled, everyone found themselves without a single speck of dust on their body. They were also without scratches or injuries. Did every single rubble that fell from the sky miss them?

Had they gotten lucky?

Once they opened their eyes to check, they found themselves encased in a solid, semi-transparent grey dome that was roughly two metres in diameter, which made the space inside very tight.

Staring at the inside of the dome, Nadia instantly realised what it was, having experienced it first hand.

’It’s a Vitality Barrier!’

A moment after she realised this, she watched as the dome sizzled out of existence. Then, she heard a deep sigh from under her.

"Haa... now this isn’t something you see everyday."

Nadia glanced down and found Hilda looking straight ahead of them.

Intrigued by what Hilda meant, she looked in the direction she was looking and immediately widened her eyes at what she saw.

"KREEEEH!" x2

Locked in a fierce battle were two Scoundrels, duking it out with their lives on the line.