How Do I Know You Won't Sell Me Out?

The duo walked into the cave Aiden had come from, with Aiden in front and Jonathan following behind as he replied clumsily, "My kind dubbed me, an infected human, this refers to humans who have grown accustomed to hell energy without the help of demon's."

"What?" Aiden exclaimed as he looked towards Jonathan with shock-filled eyes.

Startled by Aiden's abrupt moment, Jonathan took a few steps back in fear but Aiden didn't have time for that.

Moving his tail, Aiden launched it at Jonathan, who shuddered as he watched Aiden's tail wrap itself around his waist.

Panicking, Jonathan waved his hands in the air, his eyes widening in surprise as he was pulled violently towards Aiden.

Jonathan discovered that his feet were off the ground as Aiden's tail supported his body weight, keeping him afloat with ease.

"Explain," Aiden growled at Jonathan's face, his curiosity mixed with an aggression visible in his actions.

Badly startled, Jonathan's face went pale as he stuttered, "I-It's not common knowledge, in fact, normal humans in my shelter have no knowledge of infected humans, only veteran contractors are aware of this."

Feeling Jonathan's sincerity, Aiden dropped him back on the ground, his voice returning to normal as he asked, "So all infected humans are immune to hell energy shock?".

"Yes," Jonathan replied, his voice stabilizing as he darted in, "infected humans don't just have the ability to withstand hell energy, they are even more sensitive to hell energy than Contractor's."

With rising excitement, Jonathan continued his eyes laced with vigor, "Only infected humans can become Detritus inscribers and because of this we are even more valuable than Contractors."

After Jonathan's little speech, there was a strange silence in the air as Aiden stroked his chin.

"Can you heal people?" Aiden asked changing the topic.

It was Jonathan's turn to be silent, as he gave Aiden an odd look, "What kind of demon would want to know that?"Jonathan asked himself before saying."W-why would you want to know that m-mister demon sir?"

Hearing the way Jonathan addressed, him made Aiden frown, but he put up with it and said, "Answer me, can you do it or not."

"I have a recovery shot back in my tent, it's an improved version of the recovery pill, but it's way more effective, and way more expensive, are you injured? I can give it to you but I don't know if it'll work on demons" Jonathan replied.

With a short sigh, Aiden chuckled, "That's good, and I'm not a demon, I'm a Contractor just like the guys I killed."

"What did you say?" Jonathan suddenly yelled, pausing as he observed Aiden for a while.

By the time he'd come back to his senses, Aiden had already walked a distance, prompting Jonathan to follow behind him.

With a shocked gaze, Jonathan's voice sounded out behind Aiden, "I-I don't believe you, you have a tail."

"Is a tail that big of a deal in the world of Contractor's?" Aiden retorted, before darting in, "I'm participating in the last trail of the Silence, apparently we have to make it back to the shelter."

Hearing Aiden's words Jonathan raised a brow, "You're one of the suicide recruits?" His voice sounded out, clearly unconvinced.

But Aiden didn't care about that, he was more focused on what Jonathan referred to him as, "Did you just call me a suicide recruit?"

"Sorry about that sir," Jonathan replied, before adding, "It's just that, the recruits for this year's match as well as last year's match, were just sent here to die."

Aiden wanted to ask what Jonathan meant but discovered that they had already reached their destination.

"You're all right," a female voice suddenly sounded out, the person who spoke was Mai and by the sound of her voice, one could tell that she was relieved.

"Let's get you out of here," Aiden muttered as he picked up the rope, which he had tied to Mai's mattress.

"Who's he?" Mai asked, her eyes narrowing as she noticed Jonathan.

Noticing Mai for the first time as well, Jonathan muttered, "You're a Contractor."

Turning to Aiden, Jonathan suddenly asked, "Is she your teammate?"

"Hmm!"

Aiden hummed as he nodded prompting Jonathan to look towards her again as he muttered, "She's a low-level Contractor, she should have no business here, but if she's really a candidate then it's understandable, this man on the other hand-"

"You're Jonathan I assume?" Mai's voice suddenly sounded out again as she said, "You should be the one responsible for the Detritus Marks, do you know a way out of this place?"

"I-"

"He does," Aiden interrupted Jonathan before he could even speak, his lips curling as he added, "but first we have to get you treated."

With that Aiden waved his hand, prompting Jonathan to move forward with him dragging Mai from behind.

During this short walk, Jonathan gradually became freer, bombarding Aiden and Mai with question after question.

Before long they had reached the tent, "you're really not a demon," Jonathan muttered as he gazed at Aiden.

"Even I find it hard to believe," Mai darted in from the side, looking towards Aiden, as she continued, "and I also find it hard to believe he's a Contractor."

"Ohh he's certainly not a Contractor," Jonathan quipped as he went into his tent.

"What do you mean?" Aiden suddenly asked as he narrowed his eyes.

From within the tent, Jonathan's muffled voice sounded out, "At first I was overwhelmed by fear, thinking that you wanted to kill me like you did with the rest of my old team, but now that I know that you need me to escape I'm able to think much more clearly."

Tilting her head at Jonathan's words Mai asked, "And how does your state of mind prove that Aiden is not a Contractor?"

Sensing the genuine curiosity in Aiden and Mai's voices, Jonathan responded, "Infected humans like me can see hell energy once we reach a certain level, all Contractors emit hell energy, even the high-level ones like Gold or Three Face, Aiden on the other hand doesn't emit hell energy, he absorbs it like an uncontacted demon, but at the same time I can tell he isn't a demon."

"Wow!"

Mai exclaimed, as she turned to Aiden, "I knew something wasn't right about you, why don't you just spill the beans on what you really are."

"I don't know what you mean," Aiden responded before turning to Jonathan who just emerged from the tent with a syringe in hand, "and what does hell energy look like?"

Walking up to Mai, Jonathan squatted and stretched out his palm, a signal for Mai to give him her arm which she did.

As he injected her, he spoke again, his brows furrowed in concentration, "hell energy kinda looks like smoke, really dark smoke... hmm, imagine that thin line of smoke you see at a freshly lit cigarette, but darker and a bit shadowy."

After Jonathan finished explaining, Aiden didn't ask any questions, instead, he walked right into Jonathan's tent.

Soon Jonathan was done with injecting Mai, so he stood up and threw the syringe aside, "how do you feel?" He asked.

Pausing a bit to close her eyes Mai responded, "I feel fuzzy, and the pain is reducing, quickly."

"It's working then, it'll take a few minutes to heal completely so just rest up," Jonathan mused.

Saying this he walked into his tent again but this time, he found Aiden sitting on his table reading a book.

"Ohh you're reading the introduction to Detritus inscribing, that's a really good book for beginners," Jonathan said with a smile.

Upon hearing Jonathan's voice, Aiden gently closed the book and put it aside, "It's a nice book indeed, but that's not what's bothering me."

Hearing Aiden's tone somehow gave Jonathan a very bad feeling, as his smile slowly disappeared, keeping his distance, Jonathan said, "Y-you don't trust me."

"Yes, I do not trust you," Aiden said, pausing a bit as he stood up and walked up to Jonathan, "I don't know your motives, I don't know why you're here, and most of all I don't know were you come from."

Letting in a long breath, Jonathan's muttered, "I'm from the Silence, just like yo-"

"Whoosh!"

Aiden's tail suddenly moved curling itself around Jonathan's neck, effortlessly lifting him into the air.

"I don't like being lied to," Aiden muttered in a hushed tone.

With a red face, Jonathan grabbed Aiden's tail, trying to break free, but discovered to his absolute horror, that the metal-like tail didn't budge.

Looking Aiden dead in the eyes, he forced a few words through, selected breaths, "I'm not li-"

"Bam!"

Aiden suddenly let go of Jonathan leaving him to fall to the ground, with a small thud.

"Ahh!"

Jonathan let out a short gasp for air before hurriedly explaining to Aiden, "I'm really from the Silence, if you check Blood Pact's armor you would notice that it has similarities with the ones you guys were provided."

"How does that have anything to do with you," Aiden asked, still unconvinced.

Seeing Aiden's expression, Jonathan hurriedly explained himself, "You see as a Detritus inscriber that kind of armor isn't available to me, since it's meant for Contractors only, what I do have access to, is the armor I'm wearing now."

Frowning, Aiden muttered, "What about the other Contractors? Were you all from the Silence?"

"Those guys were all from the same organization, Blood Pact promised to give them a portion of our returns from mining hell energy crystals, unfortunately, when we arrived we discovered that all these Crystals were not even up to stage one and needed a few years to mature, if we mined them, and any of original families find them in the market, they will trace it to us. With no choice left, we decided to use energy transferring Detritus Marks to transfer the energy from fifty unmatured hell stones into one, creating mature hell stones, a wasteful but effective choice." Jonathan explained.

Upon hearing, Jonathan's words Aiden said, confusion evident on his face, "You said there was a risk of offending the ten original families, like the overlords of the ten shelter's why take such a risk? Are Hell stones that valuable?"

At the dawn of Aiden's question, Jonathan looked confused for a moment as well before his eyes widened, "your strength made me overlook the fact that you're a newbie, you'll get this information in the briefing, but it's important to note that a single stage one hell stone is worth one million Creda's, we've managed to create 56, hell stones which is 56 million Creda's."

Feeling shocked by such an amount, Aiden suddenly said, "So you mean if we can excavate all these shiny crystals on the walls we could become millionaires?"

"Not anymore," Jonathan replied shaking his head before darting in, "I'm not at the level where I can draw a Detritus Mark to transfer the violent energy of a hell stone, I could only sustain it for as long as possible with my skills, we made the last stone before you arrived, and don't suggest mining the stones again and taking it along because if the Silence catches us with premature hell stone, we're dead."

Nodding at Jonathan's words Aiden asked, "were are all the hell stones you mined?"

"Binder, the woman with a mask, she took them, but if you promise not to kill me, I can track her, plus, I can help you blend in with Contractors, once you join the Silence, you'll meet people that will notice that you're different, I can also design dresses that'll help you hide your tail, I can be your inside man," Jonathan suggested.

Jonathan was beginning to sound all too appealing, and Aiden didn't like that.

Stroking his temples, he genuinely mused on the pros and cons of taking this offer, "What do you think Landon?"

At the sound of Aiden's thoughts, Landon replied, "It's a really solid offer, but ask him this, what's to stop him from ratting on you? Judging by the reactions of humans so far, the small difference of a tail made them tag you as a monster, if you're exposed, it could cause serious problems."

Hearing Landon's advice, Aiden nodded as he walked closer to Jonathan who took a few steps back, "I have two questions for you," Aiden muttered before darting in.

"First you said that you didn't know the other Contractors. So in preparation for this whole mining event, you and Blood Pact went through the trouble of contacting this unknown organization and even got some humans involved, it didn't make sense that you would bring the energy-transferring mark if you didn't know that the crystals weren't mature enough."

Saying this Aiden paused a bit before asking, "My first question is, why didn't you bring more energy transferring Detritus Marks, and my second question is concerning your offer actually, how can I trust you? How do I know that you won't sell me out?"