The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 281: Clara vs Lane, Verbal Duel

"So." They barely all managed to sit down and scoop some food onto their plates, before Clara focused her attention on Lane, challenging him again. "Lane, right? What do you do for a living?"

She was much calmer this time, with her hostility greatly toned down, but still with the same sharpness. Asking questions, and waiting for Lane to slip up and show just how useless he was.

Unfortunately for her, her opponent was Lane, who was more than used to faking different identities. He wouldn’t slip up so easily under pressure (well, maybe unless it was Damien), not to mention, he wasn’t afraid of her judgment. She wouldn’t be the first one to consider him useless or just a problem, so it was just whatever. Pretty as she was, Lane had absolutely no intention of ever flirting with her. He was dating her brother, and Damien already knew how he was (aside from a few ’little’ details about his ’extracurricular’ activities).

So, what was there to worry about? He swallowed a piece of a chicken Kiev and smiled, before answering, "I’m an investor, you could say."

"Investor?" Clara quirked her brows, unconvinced. "What do you invest in?"

"Just some companies, whatever’s profitable."

Mainly the secret organization and illegal companies within the Forbidden Zone, and he didn’t start investing in them because of the potential financial profit, but that was just a tiny little detail. There was no need for Clara to know all of that.

And she didn’t pry, instead picking a different thing to focus on. "Investing, alright. But where did you get the money for that? From your parents?"

"Maybe?" Lane shrugged his shoulders.

"Hah! As expected! You’re nothing but a spoiled rich kid!"

"Clara," Damien tried to hush her down, but Clara wouldn’t be silenced so easily.

"What? Am I wrong?" she scoffed, giving Lane a challenging look.

If she was hoping to rile him up, though, then she had failed miserably. Lane just had a bite of the potato casserole, then sliced off another piece of the Kiev, and only then bothered to respond, his voice perfectly calm and nonchalant, "Well, it’s true that I have received some money from my parents... But I didn’t get it all for nothing."

"Right," Clara rolled her eyes. "You got it for being their son!"

"No. We made a deal. There were certain things I had to do, and they have paid me in return."

The things he had to do were mainly staying in hiding, not getting involved with the Awakened issues, and making sure that no one knew his identity, the first two of each he had been blatantly ignoring from the very start by switching bodies to go around undetected, while the last one he recently started breaking as well, but that was not the point.

"And besides, I’ve been living on my own since before I even turned sixteen," he added.

Clara’s expression faltered slightly, but she soon recovered, and attacked again. "By living on your own, you mean with maids, assistants, and so on, no?"

"No. On my own means on my own."

Clara blinked a few times. But then, she decided that it wasn’t such a big deal - Lane’s ’on his own’ only meant that he was living alone in an apartment or somewhere, not that he had to fully support himself or anything, so it hardly counted. It wasn’t like her brother, who, while he might have still lived at home, had to quit school to pick up many odd jobs, working hard to help their mother with the bills and save money for college (not for himself, but for his younger siblings!), and then doing a lot of chores on top of all that...

"Ahem! Well, that only further shows just how incompetent you are. You’ve supposedly been independent for so many years, and you still can’t even cook a simple breakfast? Just how embarrassing is that?" she bickered back, earning herself a collective sigh from all of her three siblings (excluding potential future brother-in-law).

"Clara..."

But the person the verbal attack was aimed at remained unmoved, just shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "Why bother doing chores by myself, if I can pay to get it done for me?"

"Hah! That’s just called ’wasting money’!"

"No, that’s called creating more job opportunities for other people."

"...Are you looking down on poor people?"

"When did I say that?" Lane lifted his brows. "If I looked down on them, then I would never allow them to touch my stuff or prepare my food. It is precisely because I value their work that I’m willing to pay for it!"

Clara’s expression had completely fallen by now. She still believed that she was right in her judgment of the man... So why did she feel so defeated now?

"Excuses," she muttered.

To which Lane snapped back, "Picking up on everything I do for no reason." freewebnσvel.cøm

Damien, Eloise, and Samantha all exchanged uneasy glances. The conversation - if you could call it that - between Lane and Clara was so heated, that they could hardly cut in. Not to mention, they were reluctant to join, as they didn’t want to pick sides... Since that could only lead to the situation escalating. The best they could do was to stay on guard, and jump in to end it if either party took things too far...

Just as they were about to breathe out with relief, thinking that it was finally over, Lane spoke up again.

"Well, since you’re so disapproving of my lifestyle, you might be happy to hear that I have joined the Awakened Association recently, and will start working as a Field Agent soon! Under your brother, of course."

"...What?" Clara lifted her head, staring at Lane blankly. "You’re going to join Damien’s team?"

"Yup!"

"...When?"

"Ahem," Lane cleared his throat. "As soon as I get my Esper license, I guess?"

The knife slipped from Clara’s hand, and dropped down on the floor with a clang. But the woman didn’t seem to have even realized it, as her eyes were still glued to Lane.

"You... You don’t even have your license yet?"