[BONUS]
“Have it your way! Don’t blame us if you die!”
Roz’s stony face didn’t change as the air beside him warped and turned dark.
The dark particles quickly formed into limbs, then into a dark-skinned woman with a maid uniform and black buttons as eyes. Her mouth was sealed in stitches in black thread.
It was one of the special monsters in the Mad Lab, the creepy maid of the mansion.
When Roz signaled the monster to attack, she smiled widely, causing the stitches on her lips to break. The corners of her lips reached her ears, revealing her full set of sharp jagged teeth and multiple blades erupted from her hands and body.
The other players screamed at the sudden appearance of a monster while Lira blanked out as the memory of the monster kid who summoned another monster back in The Mad Lab popped into her mind.
Could they be the same? Lira thought.
That was impossible since that kid back then was a monster serving the mad doctor.
Lira didn’t want to recall that encounter, for it was that event that made her lose her millions of fans.
The others took a step back, and their attacks stopped mid-way at the sight of the monster maid.
Within a blink, the maid sprinted forward so fast that no naked eye could follow. Her movements were so swift that they ripped the air and her victim’s body all at once with a single swing of her blades.
p
When one of the players burst into particles, screams followed, and they panicked, forgetting their formation as they scrambled to follow the monster’s maid movement.
Their failure could be heard, for another wave of screams percolated in the room as the monster claimed another player.
Even the DPS with the fastest movement speed couldn’t follow the monster maid’s movement.
She moved too fast, and her momentum couldn’t be stopped. Just like a tornado feasting on their flesh, there was nothing they could do but defend their best.
The Mages were too slow for them to hit the monster, and the DPS players couldn’t follow its movement, so they could only rely on their instinct to block some of its attacks.
Seeing that they were unable to do anything against the monster maid, the other players’ faces went pale. If this kept up, they would be annihilated.
They thought that they could finally whip Lira’s ass for what she did, yet they got their asses whipped instead due to the appearance of an unknown kid.
They thought that the kid was a nobody, so who would have thought that he had this strange class that could create monsters, taking out the five of them all at once?
“Y-you!” A man pointed a finger at Lira and Roz, face warped in anger. “You will pay for this!”
“This isn’t over!” The remaining players screamed and ran away.
. . .
Roz released a big sigh, and the monster maid’s body turned static before gradually dissolving into thin air.
“You okay?” Roz asked after the silence that lingered between them.
Lira wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. “Why did you help me?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t help you . . . ,” said Roz and stared at Lira straight in her eyes. “It’s just that . . . I know more than anyone how it feels when everyone is angry and throwing hurtful words at you.”
“. . .” Lira bit her lower lip in an attempt to prevent her tears from falling but failed. When the first tear fell, the rest followed until she could no longer hold herself back. She fell to her knees and sobbed.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked.
“. . .”
Staring at Lira on the floor, asking for forgiveness, weak, frail, and sobbing, Roz suddenly realized that she was still human.
She was just a girl who also made mistakes. He should condemn the act but not the person. If God could forgive then who was he not too?
Now, seeking revenge on her seemed so pitiful.
Roz sighed and pulled her by the arm. “Get up. I’m getting hives watching you like that. I prefer it if you’re bitchy.”
Lira sniffled and wiped her tears while she spoke incoherent words.
“It’s not my fault. I just wanted them to like me.”
“Be fine with people not liking you — most don’t even like themselves,” said Roz with a matter-of-fact tone, but Lira seemed not to hear him.
“I wanted to be famous, but my manager said that my personality was a hindrance,” she told Roz between hiccupping and sniffing. “It’s so exhausting to keep your true personality inside, you know? It made me irritable, and I just . . . just wanted to explode.”
“It’s okay,” Roz said gently and pulled her along. Her wails were already attracting a lot of attention from both players and monsters alike. “Stop pretending if you don’t want to.”
“B-but . . . but . . . I wouldn’t have any more followers if I didn’t pretend to be likable,” Lira choked and cried again, remembering the millions of fans who abandoned her.
“I’ll follow you.”
“. . .” Lira paused, stunned at what Roz said. “R-really?”
Roz stopped when Lira paused. He looked at her and nodded. “Yeah.”
He then pulled her again and added, “Besides, if they’re really your true fans, they wouldn’t abandon you just because you’ve suddenly show your true personality.”
Lira’s chin trembled, and she cried even more.
Seeing this, Roz’s temple throbbed, and he grumbled to himself, thinking about what had caused her to cry again.
Who knew that the rude lady was such a cry baby?
“Why are you crying again?”
“I-it’s because . . . you’re being so nice to me.”
“Should I stop being nice? I could do that too.”
Lira tightened her hand on Roz and shook her head while wiping her tears.
“T-thank you . . . and I . . . I’m really sorry.”
“. . .” Roz briefly closed his eyes.
That was all he needed to hear for his anger to simmer.
Roz sighed and weakly smiled.
His mother was right . . . A woman’s tears were a man’s weakness.
