World's Best Protagonist [BL]

I spent the rest of the day training with Claude, but my mind was elsewhere.

First, Etienne. I wanted to talk to him, but whenever I glanced up in his direction, he would quickly hide his face like a child caught in the act of doing something naughty.

Second, this enigmatic, incomprehensible, humanoid poison—Claude. If Noir is bipolar, then Claude has a multiple personality disorder.

Third, what the bipolar said kept circling in my head, making it impossible to focus properly. Each time I tried to shake it off, the image of the captain giving me the chocolates—his favorite chocolates—popped right back into my mind.

He went looking for me, which I took as him getting worried about my sudden appearance. Then, he suddenly decided to be generous for once and gave me sweets, which I believed was his way of convincing me to stay in his house.

But then, he attacked me like he was going to kill me, to the point that I even wished Lexie was the one training me. At least, she doesn’t exude that much killing intent. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

I still don’t get why he lied. After all the warnings he gave me, I’m really going to consider not moving out of the house. He didn’t need to offer his favorite snacks. Now, I feel pressured. Like Noir did, I think I was bribed into staying without me knowing.

"Jade, focus," Claude’s voice cut through my thoughts, sharp as ever.

I blinked, realizing that I had been standing still for a few seconds too long, completely zoning out.

Claude was watching me with his usual unreadable expression, arms crossed, exuding authority like he always did.

"Sorry," I mumbled and got back into stance.

We were sparring—well, more like I was getting tossed around like a ragdoll. I was supposed to be learning how to counter attacks, but my reflexes were absolute garbage today. I got thrown on my back many times before I even processed what happened.

Etienne treated me a few times, but Claude insisted that I should keep training even while in pain. He’s a sadist. I’m not a masochist, but when I tried to escape training, my books in the Sanctum were threatened.

I could say that the threat did motivate me. I was able to land a few punches, but it only made the training intense.

"You’re distracted," Claude stated, looming over me as I lay flat on the ground.

Staring up at the sky through the opened roof of the dome-shaped training center, I lied shamelessly, "No, I’m not."

"You are," he insisted, offering a hand to pull me up.

See? He’s being kind again. I stretched my hand and grabbed him, but I should have known better. My poor body was treated like a baseball bat, got swung in the air, and then flown away after slipping his hand.

The jerk’s a terrible batter.

"You shouldn’t let your guard down. Don’t grab your enemy’s hand. And for the nth time, Jade Dela Torre, focus! Your reaction time is slower than before. You should not think of anything during battle except your survival!"

That horrendous training continued for hours until Etienne begged Claude to let me take a break.

"Um, Jade, is...is something on your mind?"

I thanked Etienne for helping me off the hook from my terror coach. I was about to ask him what happened with Noir, but my gaze was caught by the captain again, obviously listening to our conversation.

I hesitated to answer. Should I ask about the chocolates?

No. That would be stupid. It wasn’t like I stole them...technically. He did tell me I could have them. But if he actually liked sweets this much, why would he lie about it?

Claude must have noticed me hesitating because his eyes narrowed slightly. I quickly turned to Etienne and asked, "Nothing. By the way, thank you for healing my arm before."

"O–Oh...t–that’s...um, no problem."

Etienne scurried away after that, looking regretful and ashamed. He must have known that I was forcibly taken away by Noir.

"Nothing? Are you sure?" Claude asked, clearly unconvinced of my answer.

"I am."

"Then, you’d better do well. If you were that bad despite being serious, you’d be a dead weight in your team."

"I will."

The training continued, and I tried to focus, but my eyes kept wandering to him. Every time I glanced at Claude, I thought about those damn chocolates. Should I replace them? Gift it back to him? But they were too expensive for me!

Argh. This is driving me insane. It shouldn’t be a big deal. I should just forget about it, since the more I stared at him, the more suspicious he just became.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

Yeah, why, Jade? He’s not going to force me to do something after giving me his snacks, right?

"Who’s looking at you? I’m trying to admire the structure of the dome’s walls behind you," I denied immediately, looking away too fast to be natural.

Claude raised an eyebrow, clearly not buying it.

"You’re being weird."

Yeah, no kidding. What’s with me today? Maybe because it was my first time receiving chocolates from a guy.

"Let’s stop here."

He walked past me, and I dared another glance at him. He stopped, turning slightly, glancing over his shoulder, and giving me that look saying ’I’ll poke those eyes out if you keep staring at me’.

Ah, so he knew. I looked away in a hurry.

After we exited the training center, Claude immediately disappeared. Given that today’s training did not require my Seeker’s ability, I didn’t need to go and meet Freya.

However, as I left the NSA’s building, a car stopped before me, the window rolled down at the driver’s seat and the driver winked at me.

I pretended like I didn’t notice the car, so I swiftly pivoted to the side and walked ahead, but the madman drove his car backward instead, following my pace. People began to look, but when did I care?

Noir doesn’t know I’m the most unbothered person on Earth he could ever meet. We could reach a dead end, and see if I ever look at him.

"There will be a team meeting tomorrow at 10 am. You’re going to come."

Who is this jerk again?

"You will come, Jade."

My guard went up. Every time he calls me by that instead of dear newbie, dearest newbie, precious newbie, or whatever’s not my name, trouble follows.

"You will come to the meeting as part of the team. You will ask to participate in raiding a vortex, and convince the team to let you in no matter what."

My feet stopped moving. The car screeched as I did, and Noir smirked.

"What do you mean?"

"Don’t you want to find out what is that strange library you went into? If you keep entering vortexes, you might be able to find it again."

"I’m not that insane to try getting sucked in that place again. I told you it doesn’t have an exit or an entrance. There’s no guarantee I can enter it again, or even find it."

"You’re wrong, Jade. You wouldn’t have been there if there was no entry door, and you wouldn’t be here if there was no exit. Think properly, you must have activated something to send you back to Earth."

I’ve kept replaying that event in my head before, but I couldn’t find an answer. I’m still lost, until now.

However, the fear, the thrill, the familiarity of the place, and the mysterious presence I felt inside made me consider Noir’s words. There’s a part of me telling me to go and find out.