From Trash to Lord of Thunder: The Rise of the Cursed Extra-Chapter 60: A Deal

The atmosphere in the locker room was heavy.

Everyone stayed quiet, as if waiting for one of them to strike first, but...

Charles and the girl just kept staring at each other, neither looking away.

For those few seconds, all the murmurs vanished completely.

Only the faint hum of the ceiling lamps and distant footsteps from the stadium could be heard.

Charles was getting ready to defend himself until, finally, the girl made the first move.

"You’re a Cole?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

Charles tilted his head slightly, caught off guard by the question.

"Yeah... how’d you know?"

She pointed with her chin.

"Those blue eyes. You don’t see many of those in the clan. Only the Coles have them."

Charles nodded slowly, giving a small smile.

"Then yeah. I’m Rian Cole."

That simple fact was enough to make the guys nearby flinch a bit.

"He’s a Cole...?" one of them murmured.

"But he never said his last name," exclaimed another—since Coles usually made sure everyone knew their surname.

"He’s really from that family...?"

The girl ignored the stir and took another step forward.

"Wait, you’re Rian? You’re really him?"

"Yeah," Charles repeated. He didn’t feel the need to hide it.

She looked at him more carefully, especially his hands.

"But... weren’t you injured? I heard your hands were practically useless."

"More or less," Charles replied with a casual tone.

Truth was, he was completely healed. Not even a twinge of pain or stiffness remained. But he couldn’t exactly go around saying a lightning bolt magically fixed him.

The girl narrowed her eyes, suspicious.

"Pretty relaxed for someone who supposedly couldn’t even make a fist until recently."

Charles shrugged, still holding her gaze.

"Wanna test it?"

She stared for a few seconds, then crossed her arms.

"Wait... hear me out," she said. "We’ve been given the same match setup as you. Two opponents. Both at Master level. What do you say we split them—one for you, one for me?"

Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn’t seen that coming.

"You want to divide the fights?"

"Exactly. You go first. If you can’t handle the second guy, just give me a signal and I’ll step in."

The idea was simple—and tempting. So tempting that Charles seriously considered accepting.

The thing was, he hadn’t yet tested his new ability.

The system had told him he could now control the intensity of his hand explosions in percentages.

Charles assumed the range went from zero to one hundred percent.

But since he had no clue how much energy each blast would consume, it was hard to gauge this new power.

"I’ll think about it," Charles finally said, calmly.

That answer surprised the girl.

"You seriously think you can beat two Master-level guys by yourself?"

Charles lowered his gaze slightly, but his tone remained steady.

"I’ll find out once the fight starts."

The answer was so direct that she took a moment to process it.

For the first time, the tension between them seemed to crack a little.

She looked at Charles with a small sideways smile. But it wasn’t mocking—it was... intrigued.

There was something about him. And it wasn’t just his attitude.

She subtly inhaled, barely parting her lips.

’That smell...?’ she thought, catching the scent of something burnt on Charles’s clothes.

Not like someone who’d been near a campfire—stronger than that.

Without a word, she leaned in slightly, like she needed a better look at his face.

But what she really wanted... was to smell it again.

The scent of smoke pulled at her curiosity.

What had this guy done before getting here?

She suddenly remembered what Lira had told her—she had to fight tonight to keep her stepbrother out of trouble.

But now... she was genuinely curious to see what this guy could do.

"By the way," Charles said, "what’s your name?"

"Kaira."

Charles blinked, surprised. He’d heard that name before.

"Your name’s Kaira? Seriously?" he asked with disbelief.

Despite how close they’d come to fighting just minutes ago, he found her kind of cute—the way her black hair fell over her face.

Kaira raised an eyebrow.

"Got a problem with my name?"

"No, no," he replied quickly. "It’s just... someone mentioned it earlier."

"Who?" Kaira asked, tilting her head slightly.

Charles gave a half-smile.

"Nora. She said she had a weird friend with that name."

At that, Kaira’s eyes narrowed a little—not annoyed, more... thoughtful.

"So you know Nora..." she murmured to herself.

"Let’s just say we’ve trained together a few times. I’ve also taken a few hits from her," Charles added with a wry grin.

Kaira let out a short nasal laugh.

"Yeah, that sounds like Nora."

Charles took that chance to extend his hand in a polite gesture.

"Nice to meet you then, Kaira."

Kaira stared at his hand for a moment.

It was rare for someone of a lower rank to greet a superior like that, but she took it as a sign of respect.

She thought about it for two seconds, then shook his hand firmly.

"I have to admit—you’re a pretty brave guy," Kaira said, looking him straight in the eyes.

Charles raised an eyebrow.

"Brave? Why’s that?"

"For not flinching in front of a room full of Custodians and for not looking away from me," she said honestly. "That’s not common for someone your rank."

Charles gave a soft chuckle but didn’t add anything else.

Around them, the other guys were still watching.

Some looked disappointed and started chatting again.

Clearly, they’d been hoping for a fight, a clash of egos—or at least an argument.

But the tension had fizzled out. And one look from Kaira was enough to make everyone lower their voices.

"Guess there won’t be blood today," someone muttered.

"Keep talking and there might be," another replied, cracking his neck.

They tried to act casual, but most couldn’t stop sneaking glances at Charles and Kaira.

Just then, the locker room door opened again.

The same servant in a white robe entered, walking briskly with a clipboard in hand.

"Salwen Tyr, get ready! You’re up next!"

A fair-haired boy who’d been sitting against the wall groaned.

"Great. I’m saved..."

As he stood and adjusted his belt, Salwen looked around at the others.

"Good luck surviving, guys."

The tension in the room eased just a bit.

Kaira nodded toward a bench in the corner and looked at Charles.

"Can we talk for a second? Before they call you in."

Charles nodded.

"Sure."