Chapter 697 (1/2)

“It was an accident,” The man coughed.

Naffur looked at the man with disbelief.

“An accident,” The woman said icily. In the darkness, her eyes flashed different colors: one blue and one yellow.

“That’s seriously the best you could come up with?!?” Naffur blurted out. Immediately he regretted it because both pairs of eyes turned to him. Holding up his hands, Naffur did his best to convey that he was a third party that wasn’t involved in the affair at all.

From the hard gazes of both, it seemed neither truly believed him.

“Pah!” The man spat on the ground at the woman’s feet, even as he edged away. The roof was ultimately not very large, so he could not retreat much further before crossing to another roof. Which, Naffur knew, could be done very quickly. “What use have you for a Lottery ticket? I can tell by your dress you are not of the Orchard.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose marginally. “Do you think you have a right to steal from humans who grew up elsewhere? If you believe you are better than others-”

“You cannot enter the lottery,” The man hissed. His eyes were bright and strangely fragile, like candy from a gumball machine. “Look at you! You undoubtedly have a Class to wield magic such as that. Yet you want to monopolize the resources? If I could, I would-”

Without any flourish, the man turned and dropped off the roof. With the dexterity of a monkey, the man sprung off the wall to another building and scuttled along the sides to a thin alley and slipped into it. Within four seconds, he was no longer visible, leaving Naffur with the strange woman. But immediately after the man left, the woman’s gaze lost a lot of its hostility and instead turned thoughtful.

She still held her magic in her hands, although she lowered them as her piercing gaze focused Naffur. “Speak. Tell me why this man felt so emboldened to steal from me.”

Although he was sweating, Naffur did his best to lay out the function of the Lottery, and how covetously the people of the Orchard viewed the chance. It was their chance to be put into the view of people who could afford to give them resources to gain a Class. In a way, Naffur could understand how a desperate man could be infuriated by witnessing someone who didn’t need the Lottery discovering a ticket.

Not that crime wasn’t a problem, especially in this district of the Orchard. But with the arrival of the System, usually, people who looked rich were also powerful. It wasn’t an easy thing for a criminal to get the jump on someone like this woman.

Clicking her teeth, the woman let the magic drop after he gave an explanation. Then, she seemed to intuit Naffur’s thoughts as she stated, “The fault is partially mine. I laughed at the idea of a Lottery when a shop owner explained it to me. But perhaps I remembered the foolish hysteria of lotteries before the System. It is not my place to mock.”

Naffur nodded seriously, feeling the beginnings of elation in his chest. Now he just needed to make his own casual escape. “Well, since the misunderstanding is cleared up, I suppose I’ll be on my way…”

“Ah, wait.” The woman said, holding up a hand. “My name is Sydney. You must be quite unlucky to be standing in the exact spot where someone leapt up to the roof. Please, let me make this up to you. And I would like to hear more about the Lottery system here. You stated you are familiar with it?”

“Yes, but…” Naffur fidgeted. The threat of Skills was gone, but Naffur didn’t forget how quickly she had brought out the threat of violence. Being around such an obviously powerful and unbalanced woman was exactly the wrong sort of thing for him to have a peaceful day. His Devil’s Luck for Entrances would probably have a field day if he was accompanied by a woman like that.

“Please,” The woman said. But her voice was surprisingly insincere for someone who said please. Instantly, Naffur recognized her type. Although she was a young woman, it reminded Naffur quite a lot of those sort of attractive women or powerful men who were so used to getting their way that they didn’t expect you to reject them even as you were doing it. No matter how perfunctory their imitation of manners was, they assumed that would be enough to sway you.

With a frown, Naffur opened his mouth to refuse. But then he had a thought.

Blinking, Naffur instead asked, “How old are you?”

Sydney pursed her lips. “Is that really relevant? I am… 25.”