Chapter 46: Questions Questions Questions

Aden’s eyes opened slowly. They felt heavy, like pounds of lead were piled upon them. His vision blurred and focused on the view above.

It was a ceiling of jagged, dripping limestone, reinforced by rusted iron beams.

He was lying on a stone slab draped in tattered silver silk. The Fox mask was gone, left somewhere in the mud of the forest, leaving his silver hair splayed out like a spilled ink on the grey stone.

“You’re awake,” Lorelei’s voice drifted from the shadows.

She was standing by a basin of dark, iridescent water, her hood down. In the flickering torchlight, the scar on her collarbone seemed to pulse.

Aden attempted to pull himself upwards, but his muscles proved unresponsive. With heavy breaths, he turned his head to face her back.

“Where is this place?”

Lorelei didn’t answer, instead she stripped herself of her robes.

Slowly, she peeled off every swath of fabric with pronounced movements. Every sway of her hips was hypnotizing, and every brush of her fingers against her skin sent jolts of electricity through Aden’s body. The last piece of clothing fell to the floor slowly, and Aden found himself watching the piece of fabric flutter downwards as if in a trance.

“Fufu~ stop looking, I’ll get embarrassed~”

A smirk formed on her lips as she changed into an adventurer’s outfit that left just enough to make your mind run wild.

The click of her boots snapped Aden out of his daze and left him with confusion boldly written in his eyes.

’I’m alot of things, but I’m not lustful,’ his eyes narrowed. ’This woman…’

The hunger of the Void made his body shudder and his fingers automatically brushed against the storage ring on his thumb.

His heart skipped a beat.

It was empty. Even the Vial.

Lorelei chuckled and strutted forward, the rhythmic clicking of her boots echoing endlessly in the empty space.

Her hands dipped into her pockets and brought out the golden vial, it’s head still uncorked.

A smile pulled at her lips as she leaned forward, subtly swaying her chest and the vial above Aden.

“Looking for this? Don’t worry, you’ll have it back soon enough.”

Anger flamed his unresponsive muscles to life. His fists curved tightly and swung upwards.

Sadly, his speed was not as expected and Lorelei easily escaped.

“There we go. First problem solved,” Lorelei spoke as she turned backwards and sat on a broken pillar.

Aden clenched his teeth and forced himself upwards. The burning sensation of his muscles persisted, but his pride didn’t allow him to show any sign of weakness.

His eyes fixed on Lorelei’s figure shrouded in the shadows. Her relaxed position caused another wave of annoyance to burn through him, and if not for the restrictions imposed on him, he would’ve sliced her head off.

“You better have a good explanation for all of this,” Aden gestured. “For all I know, this is no way to treat your god.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, the only sound the rhythmic drip-drop of limestone water hitting the floor. Lorelei didn’t flinch. She just watched him with those amber eyes that seemed to see right through his fierce expression.

“That ring of yours,” she started. “Can you tell me about it?”

Aden’s eyes followed hers and landed on the Redwyn ring that’d been on his finger since his reincarnation.

“There’s nothing to it. It’s merely an emblem of the Redwyn’s—”

Aden’s eyes widened.

He’d made a mental note not to respond to any question Lorelei asked that would somehow give her a deeper understanding of his existence, yet, he didn’t know when he blurted the basic knowledge concerning the ring.

“Oh? So you’re a Redwyn after all. That means the bartender was correct.”

A satisfied hum left Lorelei’s lips. She tossed the vial upwards and caught it leisurely.

Strength slowly returned to Aden’s body courtesy of his Adaptive abilities, but he wasn’t joyed in the slightest.

’Why can’t I adapt to the Mental attacks?This is annoying…’

“Now, onto the next question. Does the name, Silas Redwyn, ring any bells?”

Aden opened his lips, but shut it immediately. Not because he consciously decided not to respond to her question, but because there was simply no memory of the person in question.

Lorelei’s eyebrows furrowed visibly. Her amber eyes shone a little brighter as she repeated her question.

Aden stared at her blankly before his eyes refocused again. “You do that again, and I’ll risk my life with you.”

Lorelei shifted in her position. That predatory gaze that sent shivers down her spine resurfaced and she realized she’d pushed too far.

’He has a short fuse and has no qualms shedding blood at the slightest discomfort. This makes things a little difficult.’

Lorelei frowned as she fell deep in thought, her eyes left Aden’s figure and rested on the broken cement below.

In the next second, a wave of energy blasted through her senses and caused her to jolt upwards. Aden was no longer on the sitting position she left him in.

Lorelei’s instincts screamed. Her amber eyes darted to the side, but Aden was already a ghost in her blind spot.

“What in the—!”

A low whiz sounded above her and she looked upwards to find the source of the sound. Her eyes widened in horror as a large fist rapidly enlarged in her vision.

Her body escaped a little too late and Aden’s fist buried itself in her stomach. She spat a mouthful of saliva and other contents as she rolled on the ground awkwardly.

Lorelei’s breath left her in a violent spray of saliva. Her body folded like a broken fan, and the force of the blow sent her skidding across the damp limestone, her back colliding with the broken cement pillar she had been sitting on moments ago.

Aden landed in a crouch, his chest heaving, his silver hair falling over his face in a wild, unkempt mess. The golden vial was clamped firmly in his left hand.

He hadn’t drunk it yet. He had used the last of his Void reserves to take it.

“Quite a dumb girl you are.”

Lorelei groaned, clutching her stomach as she tried to pull oxygen back into her lungs. Her adventurers outfit was stained with the grime of the floor, and the predatory grace she’d carried was gone, replaced by the trembling of a cornered animal.

“You… you monster,” she wheezed, her amber eyes wide with a mix of pain and genuine shock. “I was… trying to save you.”

Aden stood and cocked his head to the side in mock confusion. “Quite a cliché line isn’t it?”

Before she could grasp the meaning of his words, Aden appeared before her, his hands wrapped around Lorelei’s neck and pinned her to the ground.

Choking sounds filled the room, but Aden’s eyes remained cold. “The only reason you’re still alive is because you’re supposedly bound to my soul.”

His grip tightened, causing a hue of purple to form on her forehead. “But I promise you, if you don’t give me the answers I want, I will disregard my health to end yours.”

Saliva ran down the corner of her lips, and with a pained expression, she nodded.

Despite her agreement, his grip didn’t loosen for a moment. Her eyes widened in shock and confusion as she mouthed to say:

“I’ve agreed to your demands, then why?”

After a moment, his grip loosened a little, but just enough to give her little movement in her neck region and ability to speak.

His hands pointed to a stone wall adjacent to them. “Who are those behind that wall?”

Her eyes followed his hands. She choked a little before responding. “Those…are the rest of the Vassals.”

“And how many are the Vassals?”

Lorelei gulped. “Twenty…”

His grip tightened and the purple hue returned.

“Twenty fools bound to my soul on the premise that I’m a god,” Aden had a disturbing expression. “Tell me. What would happen if I killed all of you at the same time?”

Lorelei’s choked. “T–then.. you’d lose your life before the Fifteenth dies.”

Aden eyes narrowed. He knew he couldn’t trust this woman’s words and everything up to this point were instinctual actions that could’ve lead to worse outcomes had he messed it up.

In reality, he was no different from a man in a fog concerning all of this.

When he’d first stepped foot in that bar, he’d assumed the worship he received was as a result of his vast cultivation level in comparison to theirs, but giving it more thought, it was quite far–fetched. After all, the people who gave him his mask looked at him like trash most of the time.

Another faint observation crossed his mind. ’Why do I keep having this feeling of predetermination?’

Looking down at the woman once again, endless questions popped in his head. How did she know his Earthen name? Who was the bartender in reality? Who was Silas Redwyn and how did this man relate to this strange situation?

With a strained sigh, Aden whispered. “You have a whole lot of questions to answer, Lorelei.”

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