chapter 31: Is glory all that great ?

max went to seat next to sophie after a while of speaking to wayne and henry about what it meant to be the butler for evelyn

" do you think we are gonna make it out alive ?" max asked, he couldn't think of anything else to break the ice and expand the conversation so he just threw out this question

" we? " wayne asked suspiciously

" you mean us, you on the other hand are fine as long as you stay next to your lady "

" wayne stop it, we get it your jealous he found a huge backing " sophie said quickly as she felt that wayne was dragging the topic of max being Evelyn's butler into everything now, she understood his jealousy after all except Henry's clan which was relatively well off and powerful the rest of their clans were smaller.

when they brought max in it felt as if there was finally someone to boss about and use as a pawn that can be easily be thrown away and at the same time they could feel superior because of their higher strength and better clans than max's small unknown clan

but now the person they brought in just to use as a pawn and used to look down on, suddenly found a huge backing and they can no longer treat max the same as before. this always leaves one a little bit bitter and jealous especially wayne who always tries to lean on a big tree.

" okay okay im not jealous of his huge backing, im just jealous of his hot and sexy lady, my god if i could marry her my life would be complete "

" am i not beautiful too ? " sophie asked back quickly, she did not really care too much about what wayne thought but it is always uncomfortable to hear another girl being praised as beautiful so brazenly in front of her, she was a beautiful lady too and beautiful ladies always secretly like to compare and compete against other beautiful ladies.

" no, you are but...."

"but? "

" but she is on a whole other level, yes you are good looking but that's evelyn we are speaking about, evelyn Alexandria for gods sake. imagine just all the things i could and want to do to her.

fucking the daughter of a great clan ahhh a dream come true " wayne said a little bit intoxicated by his imagination

max fist clenched briefly, he did not like how he spoke about evelyn

for what ever reason he kind of felt like she was his, even if he had yet to make much progress but he had kind of already claimed dibs on her heart

" your ridiculous wayne " sophie said rolling her eyes " and to think that you have a graceful and beautiful lady waiting for you outside "

" yea, you right Annabel is not bad too "

" not bad ? she is beautiful "

" i know she is but she is too proper and graceful, i always feel like i am sinning when ever i have dirty thoughts about her, even if i get hard i might need to pray for forgiveness because it's blasphemous to get hard at such a proper and pure lady " wayne said exaggeratedly

the conversation went on a tangent for a while, but max learned useful information that he would try and use for his revenge after all wayne spoke about wanting to fuck his self claimed girl but now max actually wants to fuck his Annabel.

he learned that Wayne's clan and Annabel's clan want to form a closer alliance for both their fathers decided to pair the two up as a political marriage to further stabilize the alliance, however as it is a political marriage wayne is somewhat reluctant not because Annabel is not beautiful but because he feels that it has been forced on him.

and Annabel on the other hand is too pure, proper and graceful to initiate the relationship and believes that men should take the lead so their relationship as not progressed by much in the time they have been paired up.

after a while the conversation finally made full circle back to the question max asked

" if you don't live you die " white said concisely

wtf ?

max just thought what on earth is white on about but yea thanks white for the obvious statement of the year

" if you die you don't live " grey said in agreement

okay then..... max was speechless by the duo's combo punches

" honestly it is hard to truly believe that the chances of survival are high " wayne said honestly

" i want to believe that we make it out alive, and that we will achieve our goal of both glory and wealth beyond measure but seeing things like that beam that wiped out half of us as soon as we stepped into the valley makes me a bit hopeless,

i mean imagine if we had been among those people who first stepped into the valley ?

all of us would have died" wayne spoke out

sophie chipped in " General Claus said fear not death for there is glory within, but.." she paused as if recalling before continuing

" but when those shadow creatures attacked our camp and one of them came so close to taking my life, it's sharp hands were so close to me to the point i could count the hairs on them and when my weapon cooled down and stopped working and i was left defenseless

my death so close at hand, at that moment the glory within my death did not seem so glorious, all i could think was is this where my life ends

is what i have done as of far, is that all that i am gonna leave behind,

i could not see the greatness in it" her voice trembled at every sentence as she knew how cowardly and weak she sounded, being fearless of death, is what is emphasis by everyone around her but at this moment she could help but show a little bit of her fragile nature.

max felt it, maybe like many they too are scared and might doubt how worthy is this so called glory to die over but in an environment were that glory is all that is supposed to matter then they can only pretend to be brave, pretend to have no fear, pretend like dying in this unknown place with no burial is worth it

but really deep down it might not be,

max felt her will shake and start to question herself after all there is nothing to fear in death before you are face to face with it, only then will many shake

max reached out his hand and took her delicate hand into his, he felt her body shudder and then she tried to pull it back before anyone notice.

however max held it tight, after trying twice to no avail and unwilling to make a big scene she looked around once again with a blush on her face before noticing that no one is watching

then she calmed down slightly and gave in, letting make intertwine his hands with hers

" Sophie what´s wrong " lily asked from the side after nothing her red cheeks

Sophie's mind instantly went blank, have i been found out ?