Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 28- The Ghost of a Rival

Ashley and Calvin walked side by side through the streets, with Ashley still pulling him along by the hand, as she said, “I really did want to try one of their desserts, though. It was a special, but thanks to a certain group of people, I didn’t exactly feel like eating it anymore.”

When she said that, Calvin silently slipped his arm out of her grip, slid his hand into his pocket, and replied, “The restaurant is still going to be there another time. You can just come back and have the dessert on another day.”

Ashley paused when she heard his words, blinking lightly as she turned toward him.

“Me? Just me? You’re not gonna come along?”

At that, Calvin’s expression changed slightly, a look of confusion appearing on his face.

“Why are you surprised by that? You’re the one who wants to eat the dessert. You can go whenever you want. Why do I have to come along?”

His words made it clear he didn’t understand why Ashley wanted him to come with her, and seeing this, Ashley couldn’t help but sigh softly.

“This guy…”

She turned around and continued walking forward, crossing her arms with displeasure as she said,

“Yes, fine, I will come ALONE to eat MY desserts another day, ON MY OWN.”

She placed emphasis on certain words, her speech slightly redundant as well.

Noticing this, Calvin’s expression turned incredulous.

‘She obviously wants me to come with her. But why should I go out of my way for that?’

But just as he had that thought, he paused, thinking about everything that had happened earlier before they got to the restaurant, and then he sped up to catch up to Ashley, who was stomping ahead in annoyance.

“Maybe if I have time, I might decide to join you and see what this dessert is about.”

Hearing him, Ashley blinked in surprise and immediately turned toward him.

“Huh? Really?”

Seeing her doubt him, Calvin narrowed his eyes slightly and said, “What? If you don’t want me to come along, I won’t.”

“Huh? No! You’re coming along.”

She said it like it was already decided, her expression lighting up, and Calvin merely shrugged.

His thoughts went back to Isaac, Florence, and the rest of their group, and he clicked his tongue faintly as he muttered, “It would be nice if that is the last I would see of them, but something tells me that this is far from the end.”

For a moment, Ashley looked confused about what he was talking about, then she remembered Calvin Carter’s bullies and nodded.

“Yeah, those guys were persistent enough that they kept on with their antics even after I had repeatedly tried to stop them and even gotten teachers to scold them. There’s no way they’re going to give up with just you talking back to them once.”

She then looked toward Calvin, an amused smile on her face, as she said, “I like the way you shut down Isaac, though. His shocked expression was quite a fun sight to see. I’m looking forward to seeing you shut him down again.”

Then, with a chuckle, she added, “Maybe test a few punches on his face. It will be quite interesting to watch.”

The moment she said that, Calvin glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

“Interesting? Is that the reason for everything you’ve done over the past few days?” he asked.

“Huh? Everything I’ve done?”

“Yes. For example, today, you had absolutely no reason to come all the way over to my house to call me out, to come with you to this auction, where items that would benefit me in the long run were being sold.”

Calvin raised his hand, showing her the two bracelets around his wrists, as he continued, “These gloves I bought are a lot more valuable than the guild that sold them must have realised, because otherwise there’s no way they would have sold these gloves for a measly 1.3 million.

I can use these all the way up to when I’m C-rank, and they will still work just fine, even better than some base C-rank equipment. The strength amplification on these things seems to be percentage-based and not a fixed value.”

Ashley was surprised to hear that last part.

“Percentage-based?! You sure about that? Lucky you!”

She seemed genuinely envious of him, but Calvin didn’t dwell on the gloves and continued what he was saying earlier.

“There are also your actions on Thursday, especially when you tried to give me all of the money from those elemental beasts’ corpses.

There’s a huge difference in the way you’ve treated me over the past few days.

Is it because you’ve now discovered that I’m an elementalist and possibly want to recruit me into your family’s ranks, or simply because you find me interesting?”

Calvin’s direct question made Ashley stop in her tracks and stare at him silently. Calvin also came to a stop, and the two of them just looked at each other, ignoring the people around them who were giving them strange looks, wondering why they had suddenly stopped in the middle of the street.

After a moment, Ashley crossed her arms behind her back, smiled lightly, and responded, “Yes, it’s because I find you interesting. This new you. I mean, I didn’t see you for five days, and all of a sudden, you’ve gained elemental powers and have changed so much. You’re practically a new person.”

Despite this being the answer Calvin had expected, he still felt there was something else, something Ashley wasn’t saying. So he asked, “That’s not all, is it?”

Ashley didn’t respond immediately. Her eyes darted around, as if she were deciding whether to truly answer, before she eventually exhaled.

“Yeah, that’s not all of it. Truth be told, you remind me of someone I used to know.”

She continued walking forward, and Calvin resumed walking as well, listening closely as Ashley spoke.

“He was... well, I’m not even sure I can call him a friend. In fact, we might not even be acquaintances. I could call him a rival, but that was rather one-sided on my end.

He helped me when I was younger, and when I met him again many years later, he didn’t seem to recognise that I was the person he had helped all that time ago. That’s understandable, though. He met a lot of people every day. There was no way he was going to just remember me, but I remembered him.

“I was envious of his strength. I wanted to be as strong an elementalist as he was, so I always measured myself against him. I tried to become stronger, tried to catch up to him.

“Over the years, there were times when I interacted with him normally, where I wasn’t trying to pit myself against him, and, uh, well, he seemed like a fun person to be around. His attitude was a lot like yours right now.”

Calvin nodded afterwards and murmured, “I see, so I remind you of this guy. And you said you used to know him. What happened to him?”

At Calvin’s question, Ashley responded in a sad voice.

“He died. I’d only just barely managed to finally match up to him, and then I heard he died.”

Her voice was slightly strained, her emotions bleeding into her tone, and she paused, taking a deep breath to calm herself before she continued speaking.

“Truth be told, I’d only just found out about his death mere minutes before I noticed you in that street on Thursday. I was heading home after having dropped everything I came to the markets for that day when I received the news of his death.

Then I spotted you in that alley and noticed your change.

“Taking you with me to the mall to get a haircut and all that, that was just me trying to distract myself from the news of his death.

Then, somehow, the way you acted throughout that day just reminded me of him. And yeah, I guess that’s why I did find you interesting, and that’s why I... want to, well, continue sticking around you.”

When she finished speaking, Calvin thought over her words, and after a few moments, he replied.

“I still owe you a little bit of money, so I guess you do have to stick around for a little bit until I pay you back.”

After saying that, he picked up his pace and moved ahead of her, and Ashley, staring at his back with wide eyes, burst into laughter and shook her head.

“Yeah, you really are far too similar.”

With those words, she moved forward to catch up to Calvin, pointed at the nearby restaurant, grabbed him by the hand and pulled him toward it.