Chapter 134: Trust Issues

Soon, everyone was in the courtyard.

The courtyard was a patchwork of cracked stone and salvaged barricades. Faces looked tired in a way the Tower didn’t erase, that hollow-eyed readiness of people who knew the day might be the one that ended them.

Some had weapons. Most had junk. A few had that desperate look of men hoping today’s gamble would fix everything.

“Be sure to take a good look at this base. Because it might be the last time we come back here.” The boss said as he turned, “We’ll head to the shop. Get our shit and get done with this hunt. Don’t get caught in the Snake’s trap when we meet them, Capeesh?”

He spoke like he owned the air. Like the base was a real fortress and not a pile of walls, the Ifrit’s zone would eventually swallow. Still, the speech did what it was meant to do. It focused them. It made them feel like a plan existed. Plans were comforting, even when they were lies.

“Yes, sir!” everyone replied as if they were soldiers in the military.

Kael watched them shout and felt nothing but mild disgust.

Soldiers got paid. Soldiers had supply lines. Soldiers had a concept of honor that was backed by structure. These people were starving animals pretending to be an army because it felt better than admitting they were terrified.

The boss’s eyes traced everyone until they landed on Kael. “Ah, Kael, come over, don’t be shy.”

Kael moved without rushing, because rushing looked eager, and eager looked like weakness. He stepped through the cluster of bodies and stopped where the boss could see him clearly.

“Yeah, boss,” Kael said.

He hated the word leaving his mouth. It tasted like submission. He kept his face flat anyway. You didn’t pick fights with leaders in front of crowds unless you wanted to spend the day getting stabbed “accidentally.”

“We’ll need that nose of yours, all our members are here besides the couple who are staking the entrance to the metro tunnel. We can’t get ambushed, so you’ll be our radar.”

Kael nodded once. His “nose” was a lie, but it was a useful lie. It gave him value without forcing him to reveal the map. Value meant the boss hesitated to throw him away. Kael would take that hesitation.

“Sure thing,” Kael replied.

The boss’s eyes landed on Kael’s arms. “New toys?” he asked.

His gaze lingered longer than it should have, measuring the gauntlets, the chain, the fit. Kael kept his arms relaxed at his sides so it didn’t look like he was guarding them. Guarding made people curious.

“Yes.”

“Function?” the boss asked.

“Same as before, Rune projectors…”

Kael kept it vague on purpose. Not a lie. Not the truth. Just enough to end the conversation without giving the boss a reason to demand a demonstration.

“Useless,” he shook his head, “You really need to get rid of that cursed thing. Anyways, let’s go now!”

Kael didn’t respond. The boss was wrong, but wrong leaders were still leaders. Arguing would only invite questions. Questions invited inspection. Inspection invited theft. Kael preferred the boss to think he was handicapped. Underestimating him was safer than admiring him.

The boss headed first, injured and still not fully recovered, he was still prideful in his walk as he moved ahead of the group.

His gait was that of a man who wanted everyone to see he was still standing. Cuts showed on his arms. The vest he wore sat tight over old bandages. Yet the grin remained, and Kael knew that grin. The grin was what people wore when pain became a badge.

Peter moved closer to Kael, “Got some sleep?” he asked.

Peter sounded almost jealous. His eyes were a little bloodshot, his face drawn. Even dead, the mind still carried its own fatigue.

“Yeah.”

“Lucky you, couldn’t sleep a wink, I don’t know if it’s the tower, or what we’re about to do, or the fact that I’m dead. But man, I wish I could sleep.”

Kael didn’t bother comforting him. Comfort was wasted breath. Peter’s nerves were his own problem. If Peter wanted to survive, he’d learn to function while tired.

“Don’t yap too much,” Kael said, “It’s early morning, and monsters can still hear you even if they’re hidden.”

Peter nodded.

Kael sniffed at the air a couple of times, a useless gesture to him, but that meant that he was scanning the area for the others.

He did it because eyes were always watching. He did it because the clan needed to believe in the myth. A man who looked like he relied on a nose looked harmless. A man who relied on a map that saw everything looked like a threat to anyone who wanted power.

They don’t know that he didn’t need a fake sense of smell; they didn’t need to know.

Once he checked the content of the map, seeing nothing but a few grayed-out red dots here and there, he turned to the boss, who was waiting for him attentively and expectantly so.

“Nothing dangerous yet, a couple of monsters in the buildings up ahead, they’re breathing slow, must be asleep.”

He kept his tone casual, as if he were merely confirming the weather. Inside, he tracked the dots by distance and density, noting where the streets narrowed, where cover existed, and where a sudden rush could trap them.

“You can tell all that from your nose?” someone behind Kael asked.

Kael didn’t turn fully. Turning gave the speaker attention. Attention made people bold.

“Yeah, I can smell their breaths, and yours too. Got a problem?”

He let the threat sit in the last three words. Not loud. Not dramatic. Just enough to make the man think twice before speaking again.

“Boss, I can’t fully trust that…” another one said.

“Then go check it out,” the boss said. And turned to Kael, “Which building?”

“That one,” Kael said, somewhere central, I don’t think it’s high up, the smell is too damp, must be the entrance floor…”

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