Rin suddenly had a new task at hand- preparing for the upcoming alliance meeting. But before that, he had another mystery to solve.

"Shelly, did you attack Miss Mellisa intentionally? You could have hurt her."

Rin showed no judgement in his voice. To say that he was disappointed in Shelly would be a lie. If anything, she had made him proud by defending him.

He was surprised at the directions his thoughts took, but he could not bring himself to fault Shelly for what happened.

"Are you disappointed in me?"

Shelly did not answer him directly, but she did look a little guilty. Whether that was a mask of her true emotions was hard to say. Nor did it matter to Rin.

"I can’t say I am disappointed at what you did, but rather at when and where you did it. Miss Mellisa had her people with her and they could have taken offense. I know you are strong, but even you can be taken out by surprise. I don’t want to see that happen."

These were Rin’s honest thoughts.

The victim this time had been Mellisa, but Rin was still more worried about Shelly and any any potential harm that might come to her

"So...you’re not disappointed in me? I’ll be more careful next time"

’What do you mean, next time?’

Rin was starting to see Shelly’s real face and he was also starting to realize that his childhood friend was not the same innocent person he had taken her to be. It also made him slowly understand why everyone had been afraid to be his friend.

And yet, Rin was sure that something even worse was wrong with him. Because instead of fleeing in fear, he found himself wanting to uncover more about Shelly.

Shelly’s face was filled with a brilliant smile at his words. He could see innocence reflecting from her eyes and her cheeks turned pink as well.

It felt wrong to see her like this so Rin turned his head to the other side. Anyway, he had a lot of work left to finish, so he did not even have time to entertain Shelly anymore.

The next day, a messenger from Girl’s Battle Frontier arrived and unlike the previous two parties, her attitude toward Rin’s settlement was positive.

"Hello. I am a messenger sent by Madam Yao. I am here to invite you to our settlement for future cooperation. Madam Yao also told me to pass this letter to you."

The messenger extended a heavily scented letter for Rin to take. It was so fragrant that Rin immediately felt his head start to hurt. Shelly had a similar reaction to him and so did Amelia and Albus.

Everyone else looked normal but concerned at their reaction. The messenger’s reaction was the most serious one Rin saw around him.

"Young Master, are you alright? You! What did you give him-"

"Collin, it’s alright. My condition is slowly getting better. The ringing in my ears is slowly going down."

Rin assured his head butler while pushing himself back to his feet But the worried looks did not ease up.

"You hear the ringing as well? That’s weird. According to Madam Yao’s divination, you should not...*cough*...I mean, this is nothing too serious. You don’t need to worry about it. It will get better soon."

Unfortunately for the messenger, the damage had already been done and the credibility of her words had already dropped.

people immediately aimed for her throat.

The messenger tried to step back, but her feet were bound in place by Teressa. Collin grabbed her shoulder, preventing her from being able to step away and he looked at her with a calm but firm expression.

"Miss, perhaps you might want to start explaining your words a little more clearly."

The messenger gave up and surrendered.

"Our leader, Madam Yao used to be a famous spiritualist before the apocalypse and the rumor is that she gained abilities similar to it. No one knows for sure since we don’t dare ask her. That letter is a way for Madam Yao to test people. Most of the time nothing happens, but sometimes, people with heightened connection to spiritualism hear a ringing sound."

Rin tried to wrap his head around the concept that was being explained, but it was a little hard for him to grasp.

He was not the only one finding it hard to adapt to this sudden information and the messenger made a strange face.

"There is an apocalypse going on with a strange system telling us what to do and you are drawing the line at spiritualism?"

She had a point. But Collin quickly defended everyone.

"Miss, we can see and feel the apocalypse. But none of us have ever experienced a ghost before in our lives. Can’t you see why it’s a little hard for us to believe in something we have no experience with?"

"What? The next thing you will tell me is that aliens are not real...you all don’t believe in aliens?"

"Ma’am, it’s not that we believe in this stuff or not, but about whether we have proof of them or not. Also, let’s not deviate from the topic."

Collin quickly pulled the situation back before it could go in another direction.

The messenger also shrugged and decided to cooperate.

"So, has your side decided when and where you want to have the meeting?"

Rin asked, bringing the conversation back to the main topic and the messenger nodded.

"We would like to hold it between our two bases. There is a small settlement on good terms with us. Since there are only 20 people in that settlement, we won’t have to worry about getting attacked. We both can bring 5 people and negotiate."

’5 people is not a lot. It will be easy for either side to bring more and shift the advantage in their favor...’

"Our leader told me that she trusts you. I don’t understand where her trust is coming from, but I won’t question her decision. Now, the decision is up to you."

An alliance was a must in order to survive the apocalypse. So unfortunately, it was a risk worth taking.

"I agree. Let’s have the meeting two days from now."

The messenger nodded and once she had a formal letter from Rin, she left shortly after. That left Rin with even more work to finish.

[Rookie, you sure are making waves in this market. And by the way, the system feels like it should tell you that Aliens are very real. Perhaps, you might even get to see them sooner than expected.]