Chapter 48: Cut the bullshit

The silence was deafening as Anastasia and I walked our way back to the city. The good news was that she had reigned in her urge to hurt me, and also left Jayden alone. In her words, she couldn’t care less about the so called heretic. So we left my brand new sleeper cell in the middle of nowhere.

Though, the bad news was that I had my reputation plunged further down the drain. Anastasia thought I was assaulting an unconscious woman. All attempts at proving otherwise were ignored. Muttered something about having caught me in the act.

How did me subduing Jayden translate to sexual assault? I mean sure I had her pinned to the ground with her arms behind her back, but that didn’t constitute to sexual assault, did it?

“My fucking reputation.” I muttered barely audibly. But it seemed the lady walking a few meters before me heard it.

“Did you say something little brother?” Anastasia turned to me with her fake smile.

I scowled.

“You know what, it’s not even funny anymore. For all you know, I could be older than you by a month or two.”

“Do you remember calling me thirty or forty back when we escaped the ashen deadland? This is the payback for that.” countered.

“Oh, so we’re talking paybacks?” I asked. “I remember making a deal with you to help you save captain bald- whatever, in exchange for money, resources, and whatnot. But all I got in the end was betrayal. Mira almost killed me, and when I turned the tables, you were trying to stop me.” I all but ranted.

“Really?” She brought a finger to her chin after a moment. “Did I say all that? I don’t remember.” She shrugged.

’The audacity of this bitch.’ I scowled. Perhaps because I knew her true face, she was back to being the insufferable woman I met on black sands island.

“Which even is your actual personality?” I asked. “The insufferable Ms present, or the cold and laid back Anastasia?” I was mostly leaning towards the former, mainly because most people tend to be their actual selves when they don a mask.

But then again, she was bat shit crazy, so who knows? Maybe she even had a split personality.

“That’s none of your business little brother. Though, I can see your spiteful personality is still the same, whether with a mask or not.” She replied.

“Hard to not be spiteful when I’m constantly being infuriated.” I retorted. “And like I said, stop calling me that name, especially not in front of the others.” What would people think if they heard her calling me that? Oh the horror!

“Fufufu!” she chuckled. “So you’re okay with it when I call you that in private? Good to know.”

I scowled.

“You know I hate you right?”

She donned her fake smile.

“I know that. But you can rest assured, the feeling is requited.”

I nodded.

“I know, just saying.”

*********

Meanwhile, while Anastasia and I were making our feelings clear, the main cast had regathered, standing in the middle of the destruction wrought area, including Dion and yours truly.

Only Alistair who had yet to come back from his childhood friend saving voyage, and Anastasia who was still enroute with with my reflection remained.

“I still don’t get why they would suddenly attack us in the middle of the night.” Delilah voiced.

“Yeah, no one gets it.” I muttered. I guessed she had completely forgotten about me saying I fought a heretic the day before.

“What I’m worried about is Alistair though, he was fighting the leader, I sure hope he is okay.” The white haired bitch muttered in a somewhat helpless tone.

Make no mistake, she wasn’t saying that because she genuinely cared about Alistair. What she actually cared about was her new chess piece. A useless prince with no potential, she might not care about, but what about a man with arguably the highest potential in the world? Now that was a man she wanted.

Unfortunately for her sorry ass, Alistair wasn’t a one woman man. Though, compared to the more absurd harems I’ve seen, Alistair’s wasn’t that big, with only seven members. Still stupid though, in my opinion.

“Relax, if it’s that guy, he’ll be fine.” Delilah consoled. Just as she said that, I spotted a handsome golden haired young man coming towards us from afar.

“Speak of the devil!” I gestured at the direction.

Everyone turned as the young man raced over.

“I’m sorry everyone, the leader managed to escape.” Alistair mentioned with a downcast expression. I had to give it to him, his acting was really convincing. Even I, will without no doubt believe him if I didn’t know the actual story.

“Hmph!” Fabian grumbled, turning away.

“It’s okay, all that matters is that you’re fine!” Elsa heaved a sigh of relief.

“I guess.” Alistair muttered. “How many casualties are there?, and where is miss Necron?, don’t tell me…” he paused letting the implications go around in everyone’s head.

“Relax, she’s fine.” I muttered after a moment of relishing all of their expressions.

Delilah turned to me.

“And how do you know that?” she asked with clear skepticism.

“I know that because she’s with my reflection. And owing to the fact that I can still feel that my reflection isn’t dead yet, that means she’s fine.” I replied.

“I see.” Alistair nodded. I could tell what he was thinking, If something or someone could kill Anastasia, how could my reflection escape?

But Delilah’s skepticism didn’t disappear.

“And why is she with your reflection?, I haven’t seen her since the attack began.”

I scowled.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I don’t trust your words.” She stopped playing the long game and laid it flat.

“And that matters to me how?” I retorted. Who did this bitch think she was? I’ve been staying quiet to a lot of shit these main cast have been saying to me for a while. But that didn’t mean I was afraid of them.

“Okay calm down you two, what matters is that we know she’s fine.” Alistair interjected smoothly.

“Another thing is finding a solution to this mess!” he gestured to our surrounding. Especially to the corpses that stood out most.

“Where are the authorities in this city supposed to be?” Rose poised a question. “With this much commotion and damage, they should have since been here.” she frowned.

What I was wondering though, was how the city lord was going to turn up, after all I had clearly seen him with that blond man. His cover of thanks and praise for helping this city get rid of the problems plaguing it won’t work this time.

Before, I had wanted to tell Delilah that the city lord was part of the heretics’ scheme since this was her empire’s territory, but she just had to go upset me by asking me stupid questions.

’Since you’re so smart, you can figure it out for yourself.’ I inwardly said.

Just as I thought about that, in the distance we saw numerous figures in blue vests, exactly the same type worn by the guards at the entrance of the city. And behind them, in an open carriage, sat the city lord.

The nerve of this bastard to still come here. My eyes met his as they came closer. He flinched, but quickly masked it.

I hated to admit it, but our battle had caused quite the casualties, even amongst the civilians, not to mention the properties. Several building blocks were destroyed.

The bastard would get what was coming to him, but that’ll be after I see what he’s playing at. Plus, the guards and civilians wouldn’t readily believe that their city lord would do that, just because a stranger said so.

I would need evidence, which I didn’t quite have, so the next best thing,… Is to let thim have his way, then later secretly assassinate the motherfucker.

Yeah, I see that most likely happening.

“Greetings young heroes.” The obese man began with a bootlicking smile. “I don’t have enough thanks to give you for what you did for this city.”

“What do you mean?” Alistair asked shifting backwards, perhaps caught off guard by the man’s enthusiasm.

“Our children have been disappearing for quite a while now, but we didn’t know the cause.” The city lord continued. “All our investigations yielded nothing. But now I can see that it’s the doing of these damn bastards.”

“You’re quite right.” Alistair nodded. “They have a base at the outskirts of the city, that’s where the children are.”

“You… you’ve found the children?” The city lord made a surprised expression.

“Affirmative.” Delilah nodded. I scoffed. She was said to be the smartest in the main cast, but couldn’t even call out this low level acting.

“From today onwards, all of you will be celebrated as the heroes of this city.” The city lord announced.

“Oh, cut the bullshit!” A bored voice stilled the atmosphere. Everyone turned towards where it originated drom. Everyone except me. That was because I was also standing where everyone were looking at.

My reflection tactily stepped away from Anastasia. Since she spoke, she could keep the attention all to herself.

***********

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