Chapter 45: A Strange Follower

Aden pulled the cracked Fox mask over his face, the ceramic edge biting into his cheek. The internal hunger was a screaming white noise in the back of his brain, but his focus was pinned on the shifting shadows thirty paces ahead.

The forest here, on the outskirts of the Green-Glass District, was thick with Purification Mist— a byproduct of the Baron’s estate that made the air taste like ozone and metal.

“I said come out. I already know where you are,” Aden rasped, his hand dropping to the storage ring, ready to pull a weapon or the vial if he had to.

For a long moment, there was only the sound of dripping water and the distant, rhythmic tolling of the town’s morning bell.

Then, a branch snapped.

A figure stepped out from behind a chipped oak.

It wasn’t a noble, knight or a scummy assassin like Aden predicted.

It was a woman dressed in simple, tattered robes. The hems were tailored in silver and Aden’s mind flashed back to when the kids spoke to him about the bartender’s efforts for a ’congregation.’

’Is she a Silver God Worshipper?’ Aden thought with tightened lips.

There was a high possibility of this happening, but as he observed her, he discarded that idea.

Her posture was all wrong. She stood with the relaxed, predatory grace of a high-tier combatant. Her face was partially hidden by a hood, but her eyes—a startling, piercing amber, glowed with a light that wasn’t Resonance.

“The Baron is a loud-mouthed pig,” she said, her voice surprisingly melodic. “But he was right about one thing. You move like a ghost.”

Aden barely stopped his expression from turning from a neutral to shock.

’How does she know about the Baron? Am I missing something?’ Aden shook his head. ’No, we’re close to the same realm, so she’s not like those bar attendants who’d fall to their knees over a low–level cultivator like me.’

She tilted her head, her gaze dropping to the mud-stained fox mask. “The Silver God doesn’t usually bleed or crash into trees, Aden.”

Aden’s blood went cold.

’Aden? Nobody knows my name…my real name’

“Who are you?” he demanded, his Void energy flickering at his fingertips. The thought of annihilation already solid in his mind.

The woman pulled back her hood. She was young, with a jagged scar running across her collarbone. “My name is Lorelei. You might have seen my name in a certain iron-bound ledger.”

She stepped closer, ignoring his defensive stance. “The bartender told me you were special. He didn’t tell me you were starving. That vial in your ring… if you drink it here, you’ll light up like a flare on the Princess’s map. She’s already begun the Ceremony, Aden. The air is thinning.”

Aden’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he took two steps backwards. Something was wrong, so very wrong.

The air twisted around his fingers. “I will ask this again. Who are you? And how do you know me?”

Aden didn’t dare repeat his real name to her, he didn’t know why, but he felt like he would be satisfying the woman’s knowledge if he did so.

Lorelei’s expression remained unchanged as she leaned against a tree with her arms crossed.

“Like I said, Aden, I’m merely a servant sent to fulfill your desires.”

“You never said that,” Aden said, tight-lipped.

Her head cocked to the side, with a confused expression. “Oh? But I clearly remember doing so.”

Their eyes locked.

“…Yeah, I think you did…” Aden muttered with a distant gaze.

But in the next moment, his eyes regained their shine and was swiftly replaced by coldness so intense it caused Lorelei’s expression to change.

Aden pulled out a Chain Blade from the Redwyn storage ring, causing Lorelei to take two steps backwards with hidden nervousness.

“You’re too much of a threat to my life, I’ll have to kill you.”

Lorelei clenched her fists. Her mouth opened to speak but a whizzing blade thick with the scent of blood brushed so close it nearly cut her tongue.

Cold sweat drenched her back as she skidded backwards in a backflip.

“Wait!” She hastily called out after dodging another blade aimed for her neck.

She was only met with the whizzing blade of the Chained Scythe.

The metal links groaned as Aden whipped the weapon in a low arc, shredding the Purification Mist and the chipped bark of the oak trees. Lorelei moved agilely, her robes fluttering as she danced between the lethal strikes, but the panic in her amber eyes was real. She hadn’t expected the Sickly Master to be this feral.

“I said WAIT!” she hissed, her amber eyes flashing. She clapped her hands together, and a pulse of silver, stagnant energy erupted from her palms, clashing against the chain and sending a shower of sparks into the mud.

“You somehow know a name that has never left my lips and try to rewrite my memory,” Aden rasped, the Fox mask rattling with his heavy, jagged breaths. “In my book, that’s an execution.”

He didn’t give her room to breathe. He retracted the chain with a sharp jerk, the bladed end snapping back into his palm before he launched it again, this time aimed at her feet to trip her.

“The Ledger!” Lorelei screamed, barely leaping over the chain. “The Bartender didn’t just give you the names of enemies, you fool! He gave you the names of the Vassals! I am the third seat of the Silver Salvation! I am bound to the ring you wear!”

Aden paused, the chain hovering in the air like a metallic serpent. The Ring on his finger thrummed, a cold, rhythmic vibration that seemed to synchronize with Lorelei’s heartbeat.

“Bound?” Aden spat, his head throbbing as the hunger for the Essence spiked again. “I don’t remember signing any contracts.”

“You didn’t have to,” Lorelei panted, leaning against a tree, her tattered robes torn at the shoulder. “The letter you sent to the bartender contained your energy, and that crazy man decided to bound us to the source of that energy. The Ring is the anchor, and we… we are the lucky ones who were grafted into its frequency. If you kill me, you tear a hole in your own soul.”

Aden stared at her, the Fox mask hiding his grimace. He felt the logic of her words tugging at the Void in his chest. It felt like a trap, but a trap built with truth.

“I still don’t understand alot of things. From what you’re saying, the bartender isn’t just a fanatic bartender and you’re not just a fool?”

Lorelei cleaned a cut on her shoulder with a grimace. “I promise I’ll explain everything to you.”

“Then prove it,” Aden commanded, his voice cold. “The Princess is coming and the air is annoying to breath in. If you’re my servant, give me a reason not to let this chain finish what it started.”

Lorelei looked toward the horizon, where a faint, golden glow began to bleed into the sky which signified the start of Elara’s Ceremony.

“Your temple, although it’s not in the best state at the moment, it wields the ability to protect you from her.”

’Since when did I have a temple? Am I being mistaken for someone else?’

Aden could confidently say that this moment was his highest peak of confusion, but the grating hunger that continually assaulted him didn’t give him much chance to fall into his thoughts.

His grip on the Chained Scythe tightened as he stylishly rested against a chipped tree, his eyes never leaving her figure.

“Very well. I will trust you for now, but know this,” the air went cold again. “If you try whatever foolish act you did moments ago, I will put my life on the line to kill you and the Vassals.”

The woman nodded with a solemn expression and knelt on one knee. “I ask that the Silver God forgives our sins and trusts this foolish follower.”

Aden wasn’t moved by the religious act and instead took three steps forward before he nearly fell.

The ground grew closer to his face. He tried to twist his body and land on his back, but a sickening wave of weakness flowed through him and restricted any form of movement.

He closed his eyes to avoid the soil entering his eyes, but in the next moment, a soft body wrapped behind his and pulled him upwards.

Her melodic voice sounded in his ears, causing eerie jolts of pleasure to pass through him.

“Don’t worry, Master. I’ll always be here to take care of you and fulfill your wishes…any of your deepest, darkest desires…”

Her words sounded like a spell to his ears and every shred of resistance he managed to built against her grip slowly melted away like butter to a flame.

“Now, sleep, Master…”

Aden tried to force his eyes open, but the darkness that crept at the edges of his vision mocked his efforts.

’It’s just one thing after another…’ he thought as he lost consciousness.

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