Affinity:Chaos

"What?!" The young man exclaimed with eyes almost bulging out.

"I'm not interested. What's so hard about understanding that?" Grey said with a wave of his hand.

He rested his back on his seat before raising his leg and putting it on the empty seat by his side. After he got into a comfortable position, he started picking his nose.

His nonchalant attitude about the challenge sent the young man hysteria, he almost pulled his hair out from frustration. Just when he thought he was about to have his revenge, Grey rejected the challenge without a second thought.

"You… you… you coward!" He stuttered while pointing at Grey.

Grey removed his finger from his nose, after looking at it, he flicked it repeatedly before looking at the young man on the platform.

"I'm not interested, go play with someone else." He repeated.

The young man looked at Grey speechless. The crowd was just as surprised as he was, not expecting Grey to ignore the young man so blatantly.

Sasha, the Earl sisters as well as Randel looked at him in shock. Of all the people here, they were the ones who could say they had come in contact with him, and he didn't show such an attitude.

Gerald chuckled seeing how Grey was handling the issue, "He's doing better than I thought,"

"He's literally doing nothing," The young lady who was previously accompanying him at the pavilion said.

"Well, what did you expect him to do? You see, I also feel his choice of not fighting is the correct one." Gerald stated calmly.

"Huh! Why do you say so?" The young lady asked, a little confused.

"Do you think this will be the only battle he would fight if he agrees?" Gerald asked.

The young lady looked at the young man standing on the platform, then at the crowd. She could see there were a few who were eager to see the young man fight against Grey. If Grey were to accept this battle, it meant he was paving the way for the others to challenge him as well.

"He is such an interesting and calculative individual, only a few people his age can match that," Gerald praised.

The group who were accompanying him all nodded in approval of his remark towards Grey.

Grey on the other hand didn't think of anything when he rejected the young man's challenge, he just didn't want to go through the hassle of fighting him. Even if he didn't have any issues with the young man previously, he would've still rejected the challenge.

"You're not a man, how can a real man reject a challenge so easily?" The young man continued taunting, but this time, he was met with deaf ears.

Grey didn't even bother to spare him a glance anymore, rather, he changed his attention to the Earl sisters and started talking about something else. Elda felt a little awkward, but Aldreda immediately started speaking with him.

One minute went by with Grey not responding to the young man who was standing on the platform. With nothing left to do, the young man left the platform with his head dropped low. For the second time in little over five minutes, Grey had disgraced him once again.

The entire place fell into an awkward silence due to Grey not fighting.

The next challenger stepped onto the platform a few seconds later after the young man left and challenged someone from one of the three big families. They were both in the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane.

After they fought for almost ten minutes, the young man from one of the big families won by a small margin. Their battle managed to quell the awkwardness that Grey's refusal to battle caused.

The next battle started immediately right after, with two people in the Early stages of the Origin Plane battling.

Grey watched all the battles with little to no interest, he spoke with Aldreda almost during the entire time these battles were going on.

Thirty minutes later.

"I challenge Zeke Hoover!" A young lady announced as she stepped on the platform.

Grey, who was in the middle of speaking with Aldreda totally forgot that was his name, so he continued speaking.

"I challenge Zeke Hoover!" The young lady said again, this time, heading in Grey's direction.

"Huh!" Grey exclaimed slightly when he saw someone standing in front of him.

He looked at the face of the young lady, she had flawless skin, fiery amber eyes, black hair that was tied in two ponytails. Looking at her, he felt she looked a little familiar, he just couldn't figure out where he saw her.

"Uhmm… can I help you?" He asked while looking around. He felt a little strange when he realized everyone was staring at him.

'Why are they staring?' He asked internally.

"I challenge Zeke Hoover," The lady said while staring straight into his eyes.

Grey thought after refusing the young man, no one else would challenge him, but to his surprise, he was challenged. The only thing he found good about it was that he wasn't challenged by a man, at least this showed the lady truly wanted to battle him and not because of any grudges.

"As much as I'd like to accept your challenge, I'll have to decline." He refused her politely.

"Fine, I challenge Aldreda Earl," The young lady shifted her gaze to Aldreda.

She was in the Early stages of the Origin Plane, just like Aldreda, but she is two stages above her.

Grey looked at her, before shifting his gaze to Aldreda. He had the intuition of not interfering, but he couldn't bring himself to allow Aldreda to fight against the young lady. The young lady was clearly targeting her because he refused to fight against her.

"I…" Aldreda tried speaking but was instantly cut short by the young lady.

"What? You want to refuse like this spineless guy right here?" The young lady jested while pointing at Grey, looking at him in disgust.

Grey shook his head wryly, if he were alone, he wouldn't be bothered with being called spineless. But letting it affect Aldreda was something he couldn't stand.

"You know what, I accept your challenge. But I have to warn you, I don't spar with people I don't like, I fight." He said coldly.

"What's the difference?" The young lady asked mockingly.

"It means one of us will most likely die" Grey slowly, with a cold smile on his face.

He was naturally unafraid of anyone here, except for those in the Overlord Plane. There were only eight people in the Sixth stage of the Origin Plane, and three in the Seventh stage; these were all people he was confident he would be able to defeat easily one on one.

The young lady didn't back down when she heard, instead, she pushed on, "Just what I wanted,"

"If I may ask, do you have anything against me?" Grey asked.

The young lady snorted before heading to the platform.

Given the level of everyone here, they didn't have any problems overhearing Grey and the young lady's conversation. Grey agreeing to fight came as a surprise to them, but they were taken aback when he said one of them would die.

"She's the sister of William," Aldreda said to Grey who was about to head to the platform.

"William? Who's William?" Grey asked with a questioning look.

"The guy who challenged you,"

"Oh! No wonder I thought she looked so familiar." Grey nodded before adding, "I'll be back."