Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!-Chapter 294: A Lonely Soul

"Look, I swear to the Supremes that I had no ulterior motives by wanting to get to know you. I wasn't looking for a target to bully or cut down, if anything, I hoped we would be friends, like actual friends." Damien pleaded as if it were his life on the line and not Aoni's.

However, the moment Damien said the word hope, Aoni unknowingly flinched.

"As for why it was you…that all comes back to my eyes. You see, I have an attribute that allows me to see the intentions or true feelings of a person, and for as long as I can remember, I've always been surrounded by a cloud of deceit and darkness."

"Yet that all changed when I spotted you trying to hide from everyone at the Bureau. In a world of darkness, you stuck out like a sore thumb. Instead of the hazy black clouds I would see around people, there was nothing, just clear, open space…and that was when I knew I could finally meet someone who didn't want to use me for my status, or my family's money."

"You have to believe me, Aoni, I didn't mean for anything to happen to you or your family…I just…I just…"

"Didn't want to be alone anymore, Sigh, I get it, Damien…" Aoni said while massaging his temples and refusing to acknowledge the fact that the young man sitting across from him was bawling his eyes out.

'Damn it, I want to hate him, I really do, especially for dragging my family into this whole thing, but he's, just like I was before meeting Glacia. A lonely person looking for someone to share his troubles with.' freēnovelkiss.com

'And for me, that didn't really start until Char went off on her own after becoming a traveler, so I get the loneliness, I understand the depression that comes along with it, and his Attribute didn't make it any easier.'

'He can literally see only the bad side of people, and here my dumb ass comes, wanting nothing to do with anyone, and zero idea about his origin and BOOM insta-target on my head.'

"Please…please believe me, Aoni…I just wanted a friend, someone I didn't have to hide my true thoughts from, someone who didn't want to use me like a tool." Damien cried while furiously wiping his face with his sleeve.

| Host, this situation isn't unsalvageable. From the beginning, your presence and that of the Thurstons were falsified, so at best, they could only acquire surface-level intelligence such as Jason Thurston's income and basic knowledge one could obtain by speaking with a neighbor |

| Add in the fact that Traveler Cheshire has been diverting attention away from prying eyes any time the Host or Thurston name appears, it would be advisable not to turn away from this friendship |

'Tsk, since when did you start caring about my personal life?' Aoni grumbled while staring long and hard at Damien.

| Personal Growth isn't limited to that of the physical, but also the mind. Progress is progress |

"Sigh, will you stop crying already?" making his decision and tossing a table cloth at Damien's face, Aoni took a deep breath to organize his thoughts before speaking.

"Damien, I don't mind being friends, but we need to get a few things straight first. I get that your background puts you in a weird position; however, I need to know EVERYTHING, like, are there spies staking out my house, or following me around everywhere I go. What about my parents and siblings?"

"No..*sniffle* When the Cheshire Intelligence gatherers came back with nothing special, you guys were pretty much kept on light surveillance, like internet browser bugs and such. However, for some reason, that didn't work often, as someone or something would stop it from gathering data…"

'Heh, nice work Archie,' Aoni thought while imagining his older brother ranting at his monitors and attacking any virus that tried to affect his pc.

"It's all been pretty basic stuff, but when something happened to that Markus guy, your name came up in the list of people he's interacted with, that's where I stepped in, and cut it off at the source, erasing your name from the files," Damien said while blowing his nose into the cloth.

"After that, I called you right away and asked to meet up…"

---

After spending some more time talking things through with Damien and ensuring him that he wouldn't toss the pitiful guy away, Aoni pressed him about how he even came out to the café and whether or not he was followed.

"Over the year's I've gotten pretty good at giving my guards the slip, so I made sure no one was following me or bugging my phone before coming to meet up."

Was the answer Aoni received making him acknowledge that Damien's sneaking/stealth abilities weren't terrible and, in fact, quite good.

In the end, the two spent some more time hanging out before going their separate ways, promising to keep in touch through texts and eventual meet-ups at this café. However, when Aoni finally made it back to the dorm, the first thing he did was call Archie and inform him of people watching the family.

The reply was, "No shit, when aren't we being watched? " which made Aoni scoff and hang up on him.

---

Lying on the floor of his dorm's living room, Aoni stared up at the ceiling in silence.

'And here I was thinking I was being clever by having Archie take down Markus with Untraceable Mercs…fucking stupid of me.'

| In the Host's defense, if it weren't for Markus's Family Status, it probably would have gone differently, but alas, that is the result of punching above your weight class |

'Yeah yeah, bit off more than a weak little 4-Star like myself could chew, still, good to know there's someone out there watching my back…'

| ... |

'Other than you, of course, how silly of me to forget there's a mysterious chatbox keeping tabs on what I do and allowing me to progress unhindered,' rolling his eyes, Aoni sat up and went to shower before heading to bed. It had been a long day for him, and while the result wasn't too bad, he knew that moving forward, safety would take precedence over his reckless whims, at least here on Terra, that is.