Chapter 271 - Reasons Sufficing

"I don't need to answer to you."

Crimson dismissed Rynold's accusations and looked away. It wouldn't take an empath to realize that he was hiding something. And while Rynold wasn't the most sensitive guy, he saw Crimson's reaction to his statement.

"Yeah?" Rynold scoffed as he stared straight forward, looking directly at the barren wall. And, after a brief pause, he said, "You should."

"What?"

"Look, okay," Rynold sighed and shook his head in frustration. "The way I see it, you probably have your own reasons to save yourself. And, really, I don't even blame you for acting on self-preservation. But, I'll be damned if you don't think that what you did made any sense."

Rynold wasn't sure how to phrase it, and what he said was the best he could think of at the moment. Whatever reasons Crimson had, Rynold had no right to question them whatsoever.

However, Rynold's ridiculous and near-crippling need to make sense of everything took precedence over the morally right thing to do. It was absurd, but Rynold couldn't move on without knowing why.

"What I did? What do you even know about what I did?"

"I don't know enough," Rynold admitted. "I'm grateful for you helping me out when I was not in the right headspace. The whole thing that had happened to me was just plain weird. It was something straight out of some fucked up fairytale. But, the most confusing part out of all of it was, why did you bother helping me when you didn't know me at all?"

At that moment, Crimson looked away from Rynold, choosing instead to stare at the floor. He couldn't bring himself to say anything or, at the very least, answer Rynold's question.

"Whatever happened between those gods aside, you and I are the only humans here," Rynold shook his head as he confronted Crimson, "And, from the way I see it, I'm the only one who should be in this mess, not you. Just tell me why you chose to come along."

Rynold didn't want to blame Crimson for anything, but it sure sounded a lot like it.

He knew that Crimson wasn't responsible for anything that had happened. Rynold had more sense than to accuse someone of something they didn't do. He was ultimately grateful for what Crimson had done, even though Rynold's questioning made it seem otherwise.

"Why are you asking me this now?"

Crimson's expression showed signs of confusion and outright distraught. Rynold could guess what was going on inside his head and was almost sure he could get it right.

"Gee, I dunno," Rynold chuckled as he answered, "Maybe because I nearly died not too long ago. Look, man, I don't blame you for what happened. Believe me. Blaming is not going to take us anywhere. But you basically left me to die. You helped me back then; how is now any different?"

"Because now it's your own doing."

Immediately after Crimson said that, Rynold looked over to him, eyebrows furrowed. And, a second later, he realized what Crimson meant and relaxed his expression. Rynold couldn't believe that this was the conclusion Crimson had drawn up.

"That's what you think? That I'm the one at fault for having that metal monstrosity attack? That's why you didn't help me?"

At that moment, Rynold was in disbelief. He wanted to believe that Crimson had more sense than that. That he had more sensibility in him than to think the Mech God had sent out punishment because he entered the main building uninvited.

"Tsk," Rynold clicked his tongue in disappointment. "You have no clue what's actually going on out there. But, fine. Whatever. Just tell me why you chose to follow me in the first place."

Then, there was silence.

Whatever reason Crimson had, he wasn't willing to say it. There might've been a million things going on in his head, a million reasons why Crimson followed Rynold.

But none of it ever made it out of Crimson's mouth. Thus, Rynold just sat there, unknowing.

After a few more minutes of silence, Rynold shook his head and got up from his seat. Without saying a word, Rynold walked up to X. All this time; the Mech Knight had just been standing idly by. And, now, Rynold moved the Mech Knight into his workspace and started working on repairs.

Pulling out his hammer from his Inventory, Rynold started by putting some ores in the forge. Carefully studying the Mech Knight, Rynold looked to see that some of the injuries had already mended. They weren't much, but the self-repair function X had had already kicked in.

It was only now that Rynold realized that he had no idea how to fix up X. While X had sustained multiple injuries and damages in the past, Rynold never had the need to fix it. For the most part, X fixed himself up.

That said, Rynold decided to give it a shot still. He pulled the metal ingot from the forge and started hammering it down, turning it into a flat sheet with a particular shape. He then put it over a damaged spot the Mech Knight had and started to form it into place.

But, boy, was it difficult.

Whatever it was that Rynold did to help the repairs did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

No matter how hard he hammered on it, welded the metal to X's body, or even used his Mana to combine the pieces together, nothing happened. All Rynold really did was waste his time.

Throwing his hammer on the table, Rynold sighed and looked to the Mech Knight. Never mind the fact that Crimson was still there sitting, conflicted. Rynold fell deep in thought, coming up with ways to help X.

After a few minutes of silence, Rynold looked to the side of his workspace. Realizing that he was doing all about it all wrong, his eyes landed on a few pieces of paper lying around his desk.

"Tsk."

Moving for the stairs, Rynold couldn't believe how long it took for him to realize that there was a solution to his problems. Unfortunately, it required him to step outside for a bit. Well, not that anyone could have stopped him anyway.

"I'm meant to be like this."

Rynold stopped, his foot already up the first step, as Crimson spoke weakly about something obscure. Rynold couldn't hear it quite clearly, but he knew that Crimson had finally started to open up. Or, well, at least that was what Rynold was hoping to happen.

"What did you say?" Rynold turned around, moving his foot away from the stairs.

And, there it was, hesitation and silence once more. Rynold thought it was exhausting having to deal with the silence. But he soon became patient as he realized Crimson couldn't explain it.

Crimson sighed as he looked at Rynold's concerned expression. He then stood up from his seat, feeling a heavy burden on his shoulders, "It has to be like this."

Eyebrows furrowed, Rynold couldn't hold his confusion back. He just looked at Crimson weirdly, bewildered by what he had just said.

"Where I'm from," Crimson explained somewhat hesitantly, "Our culture had a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation."

"Uh-huh."

Letting out a deep breath, Crimson continued.

"For every newborn, there will be a ceremony, holding it any time someone's near to birth. And, in this ceremony, the elders of the village ask for the wisdom of the stars, seeking divine clairvoyance. Throughout the ceremony, the elders will determine the fate of the child. And it always comes true."

"What bullshit," Rynold calmly said as his eyebrows furrowed even further in confusion and disbelief, "It took you that long to come up with that stupid of a lie?"

"I assure you, it's true. This whole thing is why we don't have names. We're defined by the fates that were given to us. All the people in the village live this way."

"Right, right," Rynold nodded, expressing his doubts by the tone of his voice, "Okay. If that's true, what the hell is yours then?"

"Hunter."

Rynold promptly turned around as soon as he heard Crimson's response. He wanted to leave again, having enough of Crimson's rather odd lie. There were better ways of pushing Rynold away, and Crimson had used the dumbest way possible.

"Whether you believe me or not, it's entirely up to you," Crimson spoke in a straight and determined voice, causing Rynold to stop again, "I told you the truth. I gave you an answer."

"That wasn't my question," Rynold slammed the wall to his side, causing a hole, "I asked you why you chose to help me. You told me your life story. How the hell does that answer my question?!"

"Because I'm meant to put my life on the line no matter what!!"

At that moment, Crimson shouted, catching even Rynold off-guard. His anger subsided, turning around to see Crimson straight in the eye.

"Explain. Now."

"The elders. They said my fate is to put everything on the line when the moment is right. To risk even my life for the lives of many others. That, at that very moment, it will decide whether the entire world would live or die."