Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

Chapter 166 Future Friends

"So, you were tasked to visit her and keep her up to date with the school. Weeks passed by and Rias suddenly started to come back to school every day. And you had also gotten a lot closer to her. But then stopped coming one day, and she hasn't returned since."

Rudy pondered for a while and said, "Do you have a picture of her?"

"Why would I have a picture of her?" Janet asked with a confused look on her face.

"Don't girls take selfies and pictures all the time? So I assumed if you ever took a picture of her, accidentally on purpose," Rudy acted natural and responded with a shoulder shrug.

"You have become weird…"

"Ouch. So now you have started verbally bullying others, huh?"

"I didn't!" Janet frowned her face and said, "Are you trying to take revenge on me by mentioning the word 'bully' again and again?"

"What? Of course, not." Rudy scoffed softly. "I am a kind and innocent boy, remember?"

However, Rudy was indeed trying to take revenge on Janet by making her feel guilty.

While it was true that they became good friends in the future, but that was in his past life. In this life, they were still only classmates and close to strangers as they didn't know anything about each other, or at least, Janet didn't.

Janet bit her lips and hugged herself. She glanced repeatedly at Rudy from the corner of her eyes and slowly opened her mouth to say, "Look, I know I did the wrong thing, okay? I am extremely sorry for it."

"Do you realize how bullying someone can change their entire life? Some even get trauma and develop social anxiety. They get communication disorders and many more things. Their life becomes hell. And you think a simple 'sorry' is going to cut it? You are wrong. Only if it was that easy," Rudy uttered in a disdainful tone.

Janet lowered her gaze because she didn't have the courage to look into Rudy's eyes. Her guilt was over the roof, and she truly wanted to atone for her sins, but there was nothing she could do.

Rudy's words hit her hard as she knew he told the truth. A sorry was but a mere word; without any emotions behind it, it was nothing.

"What… what should I do to make you forgive me?" Janet asked in a low voice, seemingly afraid to know the consequences of her sentence.

"Hmm~" Rudy hummed in amusement as he pondered for a while and said, "What can you do?"

"Anything…? As long as I can repay my sins…"

"Oh? Anything?" Rudy inspected Janet's body from head to toe with a seductive gaze in his eyes.

Upon noticing that, Janet covered her body by placing her hand on her visible cleavage and said, "You are not thinking of anything indecent, right?"

"Who knows?" Rudy said while licking his lips.

Janet backed some steps and made some distance between them.

"Heh!" Rudy smiled at Janet and said, "Don't worry. I was joking."

"Jokes like that are not funny!"

Rudy shrugged his shoulders and said, "And bullying someone is not funny either. Listen, I am not trying to make you feel more guilty. I am just trying to make you realize that the world won't work the way you want. Just because you think you have changed doesn't mean the world thinks you have changed. You will have to prove them wrong."

"I am trying…"

"And if you truly want to do something to make me forgive you for bullying me in the past, then just be yourself," Rudy stated in a neutral tone.

"Huh?" Janet couldn't be more confused than she already was. She was just a teenager, while Rudy was giving her adult talk that required a decent amount of maturity to understand.

Janet was experiencing puberty, and she was going through a rebellious phase, so it was highly unlikely that she would take other's opinions into consideration. But Rudy wanted to change that. He was trying to save Janet from the fate awaiting her.

"You are honestly fine just the way you are. Stop trying to look pretty, you are plenty pretty. And if someone dares to say you are not, just let me know, I will show them what 'not' pretty means," Rudy said with a gentle smile on his face.

"...!" Janet's face flushed a little after hearing that. 'It's my first time someone has told me that…'

Janet forgot that her mother was telling her the same thing not long ago.

"Do you…" Janet looked into Rudy's eyes and asked, "Do you really find me pretty?"

"Regardless of your personality, yes," Rudy nodded in response.

"Am I prettier than Alice?!" she asked with a curious look on her face.

"Of course not," Rudy scoffed out loud and said, "You are ten years too early to be compared to her."

Janet puffed her cheeks and left.

"..." Rudy watched her walk into the dark and muttered, "She is surprisingly tamer than I thought."

Rudy was about to leave as well, but Janet returned from the dark and squirmed in front of Rudy.

"What?" Rudy asked.

"I don't know, but for some reason, all the streetlights are off, and it's really dark. Can you… can you accompany me to my house?" she asked with a flushed face.

"Oh? Are you inviting me to your house at night when no one is at home and your mother is working the night shift? You are too bold," Rudy remarked with a grin.

Janet looked at Rudy with teary eyes and muttered, "Who is being the bully now?"

Rudy grabbed the bag from Janet's hand and said, "I will drop you off."

Unbeknownst to either of them, they were being watched from above the clouds, by a feminine winged figure that was small enough to go unnoticed by Rudy's radar, or was it?

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Thanks, @Exoloty, and @Ok_Two, for the gift!