Chapter 17 – The difference between a main male lead and side leads

And with that, their eventful lunch came to its end.

As the trio made their way towards the Magcart stop again, Noah was trying to decide where to take his brother-in-law next.

“Brother-in-law, is there a place you want to visit?”

Levi shook his head, then added clarification, “Anywhere is fine.” After all, if he could have fun riding a Magcart and eating lunch, then is there even a place where the little guy can take him that wouldn’t be fun?

If Blackie could add his two cents, he would have said “Brothel,” and he would have been absolutely correct. Luckily for Levi, even though such an “unfun” place existed, taking him there definitely would never cross Noah’s mind in any shape or form.

“Brother-in-law, is there something you enjoy doing? Like a hobby?”

Levi scrunched up his eyebrows in thought. An activity he did for fun? A hobby? Did he even have such a thing?

Seeing how much Levi was struggling to answer a completely reasonable question that anyone should be able to answer, Noah tried to help “…something you occasionally do that isn’t work?”

Oh, one thing did come to mind, Levi’s eyes brightened. He didn’t know whether it could be said to be fun, but he did often go to the shooting range to practice his shooting skill.

Pleased with himself, Levi confidently turned to Noah and responded, “Shooting.”

Hearing that magical word, Noah’s entire face lit up, his eyes glittering like ambers, stunning everyone in sight. He liked shooting stuff too! He couldn’t remember his life on Cradle much, but he did remember that he used to enjoy playing FPS games.

And as a worldly man that now, after inheriting Aris’s memories, knew the city of Concordia like the back of his hand, Noah knew just the right place!

And thus Noah brought Levi to a specialized establishment where one could play various real-life shooting games, including what they’d be playing today - paintball. Or rather, a sci-fi version of it.

Of course, there were other options available too, such as laser tag and VR games, but Noah felt that Levi might appreciate something closer to reality more. Laser tag just didn't provide that impact of a physical bullet, and VR games were even further away from reality.

“Brother-in-law, what color do you like the most?” Noah’s entire face was glowing as he asked.

Looking at those beautiful eyes, Levi instinctively replied, “Amber.”

Noah looked between yellow and orange several times, and in the end, determined that yellow would look better on Levi due to the color contrast with his blue eyes. And thus, the yellow team’s paintball equipment got stuffed into Levi’s hands.

Seeing Noah handing him something, Levi naturally accepted it by instinct. Even if the little one shoved a hot potato into his hands, he’d still take it. But when Levi looked down and saw that he had been handed protective gear, extra ammunition, and a paintball gun… for a moment, he stood there frozen, not knowing what to make of this situation.

Astar Levi hadn’t wielded a gun in years.

Firearms were banned by law in most of the world, and even peacekeepers could, at most, own a stun gun. Thus, the last time Levi had wielded a gun was back when he was still attending the peacekeeper academy.

When Levi said he often practiced shooting, he meant shooting stuff with the usage of his power.

Levi was an Enforcer - he had the power to exert force on something with his mind. Putting pressure on things, in other words, an omnidirectional application of force, was very easy. However, exerting a finely controlled amount of force in a specific direction wasn’t.

The simplest way to think about his power would be to just consider it a form of telekinesis. For Enforcers, popping a balloon was easy, but controlling its movement so it flies in a certain way wasn’t.

Therefore, Levi found that one of the best excises to practice fine control of his power was to try accurately hitting a target with a projectile fired by his own power.

Hitting a target accurately with a paintball gun…uh… well, no one will know if he cheated a bit and altered the direction of the bullet mid-flight with his power? 🤔

Levi caught the excited look of his little brother-in-law with the corner of his eye, and thought: let alone shoot with a gun, he wouldn’t mind shooting bullets through his nostrils if he’d get to see that kind of excitement from the little guy. This misunderstanding might actually be a happy accident. Since the little guy likes paintball, should he make room in his schedule to play paintball with him every day?

Noah turned his attention to Trey next, “What about you, Trey? What is your favorite color?”

“Black?” Trey foolishly replied, not comprehending what he was truly being asked.

Levi couldn’t help but shoot him a sneer. How could such a dull color even be brought up in front of the stunning globes of bright golden brilliance that were the little one’s eyes? How lacking in taste are you?

Good thing he didn’t say his thoughts out loud because, hearing those words coming from a guy dressed in black from head to toe would have surely knocked everyone present off their feet with uncontrollable laughter.

And then, after having a good laugh, Blackie would feel obliged to add some second-degree burns on top of the embarrassment, “See that? That’s the difference between the main male lead and the side leads. One has brain damage in the vicinity of his crush while others still retain some semblance of integrity. 😂”

Luckily, Levi’s private thoughts remained private, and Noah’s attention was preoccupied with inspecting the gear rack. There was no such thing as the black team. Probably because a black team would have an unfair tactical advantage over the other neon colored ones.

“No black. Pick some other color.”

Trey stood there with a rather foolishly cute look on his face gazing uncomprehendingly at his young master, “Yellow?”

When Levi heard Trey’s response, a snort escaped him, ‘Now you remember to brush up the little guy’s good feelings?! How insincere! You should be ashamed of yourself!’

Noah stared at Trey speechlessly. Can’t he see that he’d already given yellow to Levi?

“How about blue? Blue will look good on you.” Noah consoled gently as if coaxing a child and pushed the blue gear into Trey’s hands. Trey stood there, dumbfounded. What just happened?

“Not as good as it would look on me...” Levi commented under his breath, so only Trey could hear him, “… would go well with my eyes.” (￢з￢)

Trey responded with an exasperated look that seemed to say, ‘what are you? Twelve?’ (눈_눈)

Meanwhile, Noah had already turned back towards the rack to pick his own team.

What to do? He had wanted to be on the blue team, but now that he had already given it to Trey, he obviously couldn’t take it back. Well, whatever, it’s just a color. Since the other two were yellow and blue… he’d just go with red. Yeah, three primary colors sounded fair.

Actually, it might have been for the best that Noah accidentally ended up on the red team. If he had worn blue, Levi would have turned into a vegetable, too preoccupied with overthinking the color choice to shoot anything.

He’d undoubtedly be thinking along the lines of: ‘My eyes are blue and I’m wearing yellow, little guy’s eyes are yellow (no, they aren’t…(◞‸ლ)) and he is wearing blue… we are a matching pair! Did the little guy do it on purpose? Is he thinking the same way as me? Are my eyes his favorite color? Or is his favorite color blue because of my eyes? If he likes my eyes that much, it must mean he likes me a lot?'
(／≧ω＼)

In short, Noah had serendipitously avoided a misunderstanding of epic proportions. And he’ll never even know about the narrow escape he’d made.

When Noah picked up the red gear, Trey finally figured out what was going on.

“Young master, I have been hired to ensure your safety, not play paintball.” Trey looked at Noah with a soft gaze and spoke cajolingly in a tone equally as soft.

“And how are you going to ensure my safety if you are not on the playing field with us?”

That question stumped Trey for a while. “No, I’ll, of course, be on the playing field protecting young master…”

“And you intend to enter the danger zone without any protective gear?” Noah interrupted.

Trey was at a loss for words.

Noah chuckled at the two silly men, “What are you two standing around in a daze for? Put it on.”