How do you gain someone’s trust?

By spending time with them, observing what they do, and learning what kind of person they are.

I thought something like that would happen when Chris Laergas told me, ‘You have to earn my trust first.’

However… the reality was a little different from what I had imagined.

A week would be enough, he said.

And there was a reason for that.

Recalling the past few days, I took a deep breath.

I set the tea I had brewed aside and glanced out of the cabin I was in, even if only out of the corner of my eye.

Just like the day I arrived here, Chris Laergas was sitting in a chair, basking in the sun.

The only difference was that this time there were three more people with him.

One was his daughter, Claire Laergas.

She was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl with hair the same color as her father’s, but eyes that were most likely her mother’s golden yellow. She possessed a healing skill so powerful I couldn’t even comprehend it.

Like her father, she was sitting on the chair next to him, basking in the sun.

It was quite obvious that they were father and daughter.

Besides them, there was another child, around ten years old, sitting cross-legged in an area filled with painting tools all over the place, busy drawing a picture on a canvas. He had curly, brown hair. Like his father, he had ocean-blue eyes.

At first glance, he seemed like a child who loved drawing more than necessary, and indeed he did.

The only problem was… the paintings he drew were overly significant.

They weren’t random.

Well… maybe most of them were random.

But some of them were usually a scene from the future, the present, or the past.

He seemed like a seer to me, to be honest. But he wasn’t one. At least that was what his father said. He was… a strange kid. Just strange.

And he was one of the two factors that would determine whether Chris would trust me or not.

If this child, Tom Laergas, who seemed like a seer but in reality was not, drew a ‘problematic’ picture related to me, Chris wouldn’t trust me. On the contrary, if he drew ‘good’ things, he would trust me.

My eyes slowly shifted to the fourth person.

He seemed to be telling his father something, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying from where I was standing. Considering the smile and excitement on his face, it was probably something childish, though…

Chris Laergas’s youngest child, a seven-year-old boy named Matthew Laergas.

He was the spitting image of his father. His hair, his eyes, his facial features… everything was his father’s.

However, like all the other members of this family, he possessed an abnormal skill.

Something much simpler than the others, actually, but just as different.

Matthew paused for a moment as I continued to watch him.

His eyes left his father and turned toward me. Then his smile widened, and he began waving at me.

I did the same, then began placing the teas I had set aside onto a tray and sighed.

Absolute Instinct.

I know Celine has a skill called Sixth Sense, but what this child has… is something else entirely.

This skill is many times more powerful, sensitive, and profound than what Celine has.

It’s a completely broken skill that not only allows him to sense things, but also enables him to instinctively and quickly do the things he’s trying to learn.

And Chris’s ‘trust test’ is this child’s skill.

At the end of the week we spent together, he’ll ask Matthew, ‘Should we trust Adrian?’

If he says yes, he’ll trust me.

If he says no, he’ll probably… kill me.

It’s that simple.

It’s not that I don’t understand it. If I had such a skill at my disposal, I would probably do the same thing. It would be much more accurate and faster than anything else I would do.

What he was doing was very logical, really.

The only problem…

“WHERE ARE THE FUCKING TEAS, DAMN IT! WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR AGES!”

…

Why… are they using me like a servant?

I have no idea…

Ah, actually, I do.

“I’M COMING!”

Because I have nothing to resist with, and this damn guy enjoys messing with me.

When I stepped out of the cottage with the tea tray in my hand, I looked up at the sky and took a deep breath.

Almost there… just a few more days to endure.

Just a few more days…

*******

A bright, white light behind my eyelids entered my eyes first.

Then I felt an unusual coolness, a coolness that enveloped my entire body.

It was not uncomfortable, but rather perfectly refreshing.

As always, when I encountered situations like this, a white ceiling was staring back at me.

‘Sith, where am I?’

‘You’re in the hospital. Or something like that.’

‘Was there any problem?’

‘No, nothing went wrong.’

I tried to sit up slowly and managed to do so.

I was in a typical hospital room. A large bed that could be adjusted from head to toe, a holographic screen directly across from me, another screen next to me displaying my medical data…

Classic.

The only thing missing…

~knock ~knock!

Heh, I was just wondering where the doctor was, who would burst in the moment he realized I was awake.

My thought hadn’t even finished when the door slowly opened. As usual, an elderly doctor in a white coat entered with a single nurse behind him.

“Mr. Franz, please excuse my rudeness.”

Franz…

Good, there really wasn’t a problem.

“What happened?”

The changed sound of my voice that I heard along with my question felt a little strange for a moment, but I didn’t let it show on my face. I lowered my eyes to my body.

Since I had deliberately deactivated Phoenix’s Regeneration, my body hadn’t healed itself. In short, I was seriously injured as of now. It was a necessary step for those around me to believe my fabricated story, and it seemed to have worked.

“You are at the Inferesse Mansion; we treated your wounds here.”

“I can understand that. Just tell me what happened to me.”

The person in front of me was probably just a doctor, yes… but most likely the doctor at the top of the Inferesse Family.

I’m sure he knows much more than ordinary people.

“The result of the attack, the current situation, my father, Tom Bluelet, the Rerosses… everything.”

And just as I had expected, the doctor spoke calmly.

“The Reross Family’s attack… was both successful and unsuccessful.”

I narrowed my eyes, pretending to be deep in thought. The doctor continued.

“Tom Bluelet, Harrison Reross, and…”

Yes, go on.

“Your father, Philip Inferesse’s, bodies were found dead.”

Wonderful.

“James Bluelet’s body was not found, but there is no sign of him being alive either. You are the only one left alive.”

Exactly as it should be.

“Wait, hold on…”

I wrinkled my forehead with my fingers and narrowed my eyes even more.

“My father… died? Are you… sure?”

“Yes.”

I remained silent on purpose. I stood there as if trying to remain calm in the face of the shock I was experiencing.

“An abnormal type of fire had engulfed the area where the bodies and you were located. Most of the bodies were unrecognizable as a result, but tests confirmed their identities. We are certain of the identities of the deceased.”

In such a situation, Franz would be in shock, unable to even think straight for a while.

Yes, he was someone who thought logically and had many ideas on his mind, but he could never have predicted that he would find himself in such a situation.

“W- what…?”

He trusted himself and his family too much, after all.

“H- he… died…?”

“Please stay calm, don’t let your wounds open.”

I paused, slowly fixing my eyes on him as if I were in shock.

“My wounds…”

The doctor spoke quickly as if he understood what I was trying to say.

“Most likely due to the flames, your right arm and right leg have suffered severe burning damage. Your organs are not in good condition. The mana flow in your body is also quite chaotic.”

I tried to lift my right arm with great effort, then grimaced as if in pain. The doctor interrupted me, though.

“But…”

I slowly lowered the arm I had tried to lift, my eyes twitching as I turned back to the doctor.

“What… else?”

“We’re not entirely sure. However, we believe the flames you were exposed to were ‘abnormal.’ Although most of your body has healed, your arm and leg remain burned, and no matter what we do… we can’t restore them to their original state. The same applies to your organs.”

Of course you can’t. I didn’t get those wounds from those flames, after all.

“…”

Well, they don’t need to know that.

“What… will happen now?”

“We’ll ask you to stay in the hospital until your condition stabilizes a bit more. Two days will be enough for us to do everything we can. Then… you can be discharged.”

Two days, huh.

Good, that’s enough time.

“Go, then… I want to be alone for a while.”

The doctor and the nurse behind him made a few adjustments and checks on the machines next to me, then left the room as I requested.

Like that, I was finally alone for a while.

‘Sith.’

‘Yes?’

‘You’ll have to be careful, but find Alex. Tell him the plans have changed and that he needs to disguise himself as one of the Inferes—’

I paused, sighed lightly, and corrected myself when I realized what I was thinking.

‘Actually, he must already have figured out that I’ve accelerated the plan if he’s heard about James Bluelet’s death and the existence of the blue flames.’

I have no doubt he’s still alive. In such a situation, he is someone who can conduct his own investigation without paying attention to what he hears from those around him. Thanks to the mist spirit he contracted with, he can learn things he shouldn’t know.

Most likely, he has already done what he needed to do.

‘Find out the name of the Inferesse servant he is disguised as, and tell him to continue playing the role for a few more days. When the time comes, I will call him to my side.’

‘Understood.’

Sith emerged from my chest and vanished through one of the walls in his spirit form.

I closed my eyes and lay down on my bed.

After accelerating the plans like this, there are so many things I need to rethink and replan from the beginning.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep