The Extra's Odyssey

After the test ended and they were brought back, the examinee remained on her mind.

"Nathan"

From how he acted and did things, two things were clear: He had a goal and he knew the Island.

The Headmaster herself has prepared everything for this exam. The only other person who knew about this was the leader of Aegis, as his permission was required to use Byzander Island.

Susan is a top-level priority along with Irregulars and Goliath Unit in Aegis. But even she didn't know what the exam was going to be.

Yet that examinee acted as if he had a clear goal since the beginning. The way he navigated on the island and used the terrain to his advantage showed that he knew about the Island from before.

'He knew about the content exam and he knew something that is hidden on Byzander Island.'

Only a proper organization can have this much information. This greatly excited her. Why?

The examinee knew something that even she didn't know. So, he at least did not belong to Aegis.

As said, Susan was the weapon created to fight to protect Earth. Aegis made sure to cram information about almost all known organizations in her head.

So, the examinee who used the exam to take that 'something' and entered Ward didn't belong to any Aegis affiliated organization. If he was, he would have requested Aegis' permission to enter Byzander Island in the normal way and take that something.

'He is the one! He can help me escape my cage!'

Susan didn't give a damn if the examinee belonged to Illis or something worse. As long as she can be free, she will do anything.

The next few days only proved her hypothesis.

After a brief investigation, she found that when that examinee passed the exam, he was completely covered in blood.

Officially, it was recorded that he gained heavy injuries in a fight. Fortunately, he awakened his stigma and won. Using the stat points he gained by 'coincidentally' leveling at the exact moment he increased his constitution and survived.

But Susan begged to differ.

She had seen that his eyes were already red even before she lost his track and till then he never lost so much blood.

This meant the blood was from something else.

'Body Reconstruction'

Susan was regularly made to undergo some minor and a few times major operations to improve her body. Her condition was always similar to the examinee after every major operation.

On the day of the first demonstration, she saw the examinee using a flying sword. But he never used it during the exam even though he barely won against the blood boar.

If the flying sword 'stigma' was so important that he didn't use it against the blood boar. Then why was he using it openly now?

Susan understood it as this: Nathan completed his mission on the island. The reward for the success was the skill that created that flying sword.

'A Legendary-grade skill as a reward…'

It meant that the organization was recourse rich if they can award a legendary skill for a mission.

From there, she started following Nathan wherever she could to find a chance to talk to him. But no matter what, she never got a chance to meet him.

Unknown to her, Nathan was purposely avoiding everyone from the main cast.

Susan was losing her patience when she finally got a chance.

'He challenged me to a duel? Does he want to see the extent of my capabilities?'

From her perspective, it did make sense. If Nathan's organization knew about the location of the exam, which only the Headmaster and leader of Aegis knew, then they must know about her too.

'If they find my performance satisfactory, will they recruit me?'

Thinking so, Susan decided to perform the best of her abilities in the duel.

The result was, for better or worse, unexpected.

Nathan was down with one punch even though Susan pulled back it at the last second, seeing Nathan wasn't going to dodge.

'He lost so easily?! No, he must be acting to fit his persona of a low-ranking cadet.'

His acting skills made her raise his evaluation by another notch in her mind.

After that, whenever their eyes met, Nathan would ignore her and treat her as air. No matter how much she stared at him, he would never respond.

'Was my performance not up to par?'

Susan started getting anxious.

Then came Dungeon of Trials. When she got to know Nathan was on her team, Susan thought the heavens were rooting for her success.

Sadly, for her, the 0th floor was her worst nightmare. A maze.

By the time she managed to reach the central room, where Nathan was, everything had long ended.

Inside the room, she found Leon, Lilith, Anna, and Cadmus unconscious along with a dead Royal Demon.

Outside, she found Nathan facing outward, and in front of him, a horde of minions burnt alive.

'Did he do this?!'

Susan was dumfounded.

'I knew it. He was posing as weak during the duel.'

She was capable of doing the same, but that was only because she was a 'weapon' and her stigma was an area type.

She couldn't measure the depths of Nathan's abilities.

Later, when the investigation started, abnormal energy signatures were detected in the burnt horde.

Susan, thinking that Nathan must have had to use his abilities because of an emergency, stated that she was the one to take care of the horde.

As the energy signature from the burnt horde contained signatures of mana, aura, and others. The investigators believed that it was done by a stigma ability and believed Susan.

On the other hand, Nathan thought that the investigation never found anything and ultimately gave up. When in truth Susan took care of the issue.

Though even if Susan didn't do anything, everything would have worked out as Nathan thought.

Later, Nathan was found in critical condition and the problem regarding his arm came up.

Thinking that something might happen to him before she could get in contact with his organization, Susan finally moved first.

She left a note.

||I know your secret. Meet me on Sunday if you don't want to be exposed.||

Since Nathan seemed to have an excellent intelligence network, she thought that he will easily find the sender, herself, after a little digging.

So, she waited for the entirety of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and more in the Public Training center of low-ranking students but he never came.

Later she found after listening to Leon and Lilith that Nathan had gone out of Ward.

'He ignored me? That's it. I'll meet him directly when he comes back. There is no way any organization wouldn't want me.'

When Nathan came back, he directly tried to rank up, and the condition of his arm deteriorated.

When she heard that he might die if Nether went out of control, it shook the entirety of Susan.

She felt as if the ray of light she could finally see in the darkness of her cage was about to be blown off.

Losing her cool, Susan did something she was banned from. Using her physique's abilities.

With her [Mana Blessed Physique] she used the mana to suppress Nathan's core itself and calm the raging energy inside his body.

She knew that the consequences of her actions would be great, but she didn't want to let Nathan die. The only way out of her cage.

Fortunately for her, Aegis was too cautious. Despite the headmaster's warning, Aegis hadn't removed all her restrictions and tracking devices on her.

These restrictions were the reason the magic circle appeared behind her while helping Nathan and suppressed her.

This time, Aegis, not wanting to anger the headmaster, truly removed everything.

It took several days, and she was absent from Ward for this entire duration.

After coming back, she had a newfound confidence.

Why wouldn't she? Even though there should have been some consequences, fearing the headmaster's wrath, Aegis didn't do anything to her.

She thought she was getting a lifetime's worth of luck at once.

With her newfound confidence, she decided to face Nathan directly.

-TRING

'I need to make sure I set the first impression properly. He obviously looks down at me. I need to make sure he doesn't look down on me anymore.

CLICK-

"Susan?"

'His eyes are still like that?'

Thinking as such, she entered and closed the door behind herself.

CLACK-

'Remember. Strong impression'

"Should I bring coffee or te-"

Swosh-

Bam-!

She grabbed him by the neck and smashed him against the wall.

"W-what are you d-cough doing?"