Alaric's First Retribution
The night before:
Alaric sat at the entrance of the room, guarding his friends against any possible hostile cultivators that might enter. His legs were crossed, and his eyes closed, not because he was sleeping during his shift, but because he got used to sitting this way in his long meditations as he nurtured his core and in his other cultivation sessions.
His mind was frequently disturbed by intrusive thoughts about killing others ever since he was saved. He attributed it to the trauma he had endured, first at the hands of Clarissa and later at the abuse of the evil cultivators.
He was very sensitive to sound, something to be expected given the fact he was cultivating Sound Qi, so he didn't miss the change in Ken's breathing when the latter woke up.
'Team Leader is awake, but it's still my turn to guard. Maybe he will come to talk to me.'