Chapter 16: Secrecy

“You… piece of shit..”

With a heavy thud, Byrn fell back onto the deck. His soul had already started to leave his body before he connected with the wood.

Solomon looked down at his clothes and sword with a disgusted look.

Trolls really did bleed a lot. This was something he hadn’t quite considered before he insisted on taking down the leader.

Solomon turned to look for any enemies still around.

There were bodies everywhere. It was policy of the Olethros knights not to leave enemies alive, and Solomon and Raizel liked to think they were at least moderately obedient in that regard.

The drug addicted passengers had all crawled away from the fighting, and huddled together in tightly packed groups.

They stared at Solomon like he was a monster in the shape of a man.

Seeing him cut through fledglings on his path to get to the boss was something that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Solomon didn’t spare the sick people a glance. He wasn’t good at comforting others, and even if he was, he wasn’t sure how good he would look doing it while covered in blood.

’Red would probably find this hilarious…’

Solomon saw Raizel heading below deck. He naturally followed, surprised that his brother didn’t rush over to complain about not being the one who got to take down the troll.

Solomon moved down a set of rickety wooden steps.

Deep within the belly of the ship, he was surprised to find all sorts of crates, coffins, and even cages.

Behind the metal bars, there were a slew of different people bound in chains.

Some were human children. The others were exotic otherworlders.

Fairies from the pixie realm, were-people from the beast men realm, there was even a siren in a large glass dome filled with water.

“I can’t believe anyone was actually confident enough to ride through our channels with something like this on board…” Solomon muttered unconsciously.

“Indeed. Damn smugglers knew they had a pretty good gimmick.”

Solomon followed Raizel’s voice deeper into the cargo hold.

He expected to find his brother helping some of the people who were in the cages. Instead, he found him rummaging through wooden crates.

Raizel wasn’t exactly a saint, but he was usually a compassionate person. Seeing him ignoring all of the suffering people had really irked Solomon’s nerves.

“What the fuck is going on with you..?”

Raizel stopped rummaging through the crates for a brief moment. “Brother, look-”

“Did you know this ship would be here ahead of time?? And what could you possibly be looking for that’s so damned important?!”

Raizel glanced anywhere but at his brother’s face. “Look, I know none of this makes sense right now, but this is one of those times where I just need you to trus-”

“Trust you, right? Yes, I’ve heard it before. But how do you expect me to just keep trusting you when you consistently keep the important shit to yourself? As if I am not putting my life on the line right beside yours!”

Raizel held his hands up in surrender.

“Look… I know I’ve kept some things from you in the past, but I promise you that I’m doing it for the good of everyone. For all of Komen, and every realm connected to it.”

Solomon stared at his brother hard. “You can’t just say something like that with no further explanation.”

“…I can’t. It’s just not the time yet, but I promise that I’ll tell you everything as soon as it’s necessary to-”

Solomon turned around. He had already started to walk away even before his brother finished speaking.

“Come on, you’re being unreasonable-” Raizel reached out for his brother again, but at that moment, a small item whizzed past his vision.

Solomon felt something strike the back of his head.

He turned around to curse his brother again when he suddenly heard an ominous voice in his head and noticed a strange glow coming from around his neck.

Delicious…

“What the fuck…” Solomon gasped.

He looked down at his chest and found a small black amulet that he definitely didn’t put on this morning.

“…The hell is this… Did you hear that just now?”

Raizel looked deeply horrified. In ten years of friendship, Solomon couldn’t name a single time he had ever seen him this disturbed.

“..t-take it off.”

“What?”

“Take it off! It’s not a prank, it’s imperative that you be able to take that off!” Raizel said in a panic.

Solomon, not understanding why his brother was freaking out, tried his best to rip off the necklace.

…And it didn’t budge.

Solomon was strong for a human. With his body reinforced since he was young, he could even go blow for blow with that troll earlier if he felt like it.

But for some reason, he couldn’t rip off this single, old, unimpressive necklace.

Solomon let out a low curse under his breath as he resorted to cutting the string with his sword.

Even his weapon had no effect on it. The loose, decaying string became like steel against the edge of his blade.

“Come on, you have to be doing something wrong..!” Raizel panicked.

He made his own attempts on getting the necklace to come off. Even going as far as trying to yank it over Solomon’s head.

Nothing worked.

“I’m tired of asking you, Raizel. What is this necklace and why are you losing your mind over it??”

Raizel opened and closed his mouth, but no sound came out.

Eventually, all he could do was hold his head in his hands and walk away.

Solomon’s jaw set in place. He clenched his fists until his knuckles popped.

“More secrets. Wonderful.”

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