Chapter 174: Courage and Trust

Not giving the trio time to recover, Adryan continued.

"'He' is a God of a forgotten time, of a time lost in the mists of history."

"'He' fell into a deep sleep and stayed that way for a long, long time. He only recently woke up." Adryan said seriously.

"'He' would give me the strength to escape my despair and in exchange for that I would have to become his believer."

"That was the easiest decision I ever made in my life." he said and silence filled the training ground.

"Wow..." Sasha muttered under her breath and Hazel nodded at her partner's words.

Looking around him and seeing that his story had the expected impact, Adryan felt proud of himself.

'This is a story I've been planning for quite some time. Originally it was shorter but when Flora appeared I had no choice but to lengthen it. Any hole in the story she would have detected instantly...'

Adryan had just told Flora this story a few days ago and thanks to her reaction he knew that Sasha and the rest would buy it.

"Boss, I have a question." Charlotte's young but old voice broke the silence.

Turning to see the purple-eyed man, Adryan smiled.

"Sure Charlotte, I'll try to solve your doubts the best I can." the redhead said with a soft nod.

Charlotte's expression was serious.

"What happened to the rest of the people who were with you? Were they also saved or did something else happen?"

Sasha and Hazel's expressions broke into realization.

'Right! The boss never said what happened to the people who were with him! How did I not notice before? I was so excited that I ignored such an important detail...' Sasha thought heavily but didn't move from her spot.

She just looked at her leader waiting for an explanation.

'Why wouldn't Teacher mention something so important? He's not one to leave those details out... Is there something he doesn't want to say?' Hazel thought feeling hurt as she looked at her teacher waiting for an explanation as well.

Adryan's expression remained the same, there was no change. His smile remained the same, with the corners of his lips slightly raised. His relaxed brow and calm gaze. Nothing changed.

'Attentive Charlotte, very attentive' the redhead thought quite satisfied with Charlotte.

'It's obvious that he is so observant. That is a necessity to be able to live in the East Borough.'

Nodding, Adryan responded.

"It was about to come to that."

At such an answer Charlotte frowned slightly but he didn't have time to protest because Adryan continued.

"My Lord did not give me strength in the sense of the word, he did not give me power but courage. 'He' told me that I already had the necessary strength to escape and that I just lacked the courage to do it."

At that, Adryan chuckled.

"This infuriated me and I claimed that courage was not what I needed. Don't you think that's crazy? Claiming a God?"

Sasha, Hazel, and Charlotte's expressions were stupefied.

This guy claimed a God and was still alive!

Charlotte put his hand to his forehead and scratched it to try to ease his brain which was working overtime.

'Is my sense failing me? Nothing he's said is a lie but if everything he's said is true... How the fuck is he still alive?'

Seeing what Charlotte was doing, made the corners of Adryan's lips rise slightly.

This was the Gaslighting of a Pyromaniac!

Only a Spectator would notice the lies that dance in every syllable, word, and sentence that comes out of Adryan's mouth.

A little 9 sequence like Charlotte would never notice this.

But Adryan did not prepare such simple and complex lies just to fool a sequence 9.

No.

He had prepared them to fool a demigod!

And one of a Pathway known for its tricks and master lies.

Adryan's story had many parts of truth and a few small parts of lies. In those small parts, he had made sure that there was nothing strange that might arouse Flora's attention.

Looking at the trio's faces, Adryan chuckled again.

"Every time I think about that moment, I prayed to my Lord and asked why 'He' didn't send me a bolt of divine lightning to punish me for such blasphemy. Do you know what 'He' told me?"

Not waiting for an answer, the redhead continued.

"<That he thought it was funny.>"

"I thought about 'His' words for a long time and after meditating on them I also found them funny since I couldn't help but imagine a story."

"I imagined that an ant asked me for some sugar but instead of giving her some, I told her where it was and she just had to go get it. This annoyed the ant who insulted me for that, I laughed a lot that day."

"The mere fact that an ant insulted me, someone whose size was not even comparable to her and could kill her in so many different ways that the puny little ant brain would never be able to comprehend, was ridiculous."

"At that moment I realized what my Lord was referring to, I was that ant to 'Him'." Adrian said with a smile.

He shook his head slightly and continued.

"I'm getting off-topic. My Lord said that while 'He' could give me the power to split a mountain in half if I wanted, what had I done to deserve it? I was nothing at the time and 'He' had no reason to help me."

"'He' then told me something that marked me for the rest of my life."

"<People who aren't willing to save themselves don't deserve to be saved.>"

These words shocked the trio.

Especially to Sasha and Charlotte who felt identified with those words.

Adryan continued.

"Our conversation didn't last long, the only thing 'He' told me is that there was a Werewolf on the ship, his powers and abilities, and that I would have to fight him if I wanted to escape, that if I managed to escape the ship 'He' would make sure I got to land. After that, I started my escape with this new courage given by my Lord."

"The first thing I did was, despite my disgust, take a bone from the pile of human flesh and use it to break my chains but when I freed myself I didn't escape yet."

"There were an unknown number of guards outside the room and I couldn't take them all alone, I needed someone else, a partner."

"I talked to the rest of the people trapped there and told them that if they were willing to help me escape, I would free them."

"Of all the people there, only 2 accepted, a woman and a girl. Alice and Sarah respectively."

The words from before and what Adryan said answered Charlotte's question.

'Isn't that a bit unfair?' Sasha thought heavily but did not express her dissatisfaction with this as she understood why her boss did it.

The words from before echoed again and she considered how those people could have become a burden during the escape.

'The boss did the right thing...' All three of them though.

"I already knew what the escape plan was. Getting to the deck was suicide, we would never make it. Fighting the guards much less. So, I came to the best plan, blowing the ship to pieces." Adryan said with a dangerous smile that surprised the trio.

"The ship we were on was a pirate ship and where they took us was the lowest part of it. When they transported us they didn't cover our faces so I could see all the way."

"Thanks to that I was able to see which floor the cannons were and according to that the plan was born. Get to the gunpowder store on the third floor and blow up the ship. We were already at sea for a long time and very far from Bayam so our only hope was to swim to one of the islands."

Adryan told how they carefully climbed floor by floor, killing two guards and making it to the third floor.

"Just when we finished spreading the gunpowder on the floor, Werewolf James appeared, with the broken body of one of his men and a crazy look. He told us that he had killed all his men and that after us he would go for the ones that were downstairs. I didn't know it at the time but the guy was losing control." he said seriously and the trio nodded, totally focused on the story.

"I don't know why but James focused on me from the first moment. Because he was losing control his movements became tense and clumsy which allowed me to dodge. Alice and Sarah took advantage of the fact that James was focused on me to escape to the next floor."

Sasha and Hazel frowned at this.

"What bad companions." Hazel commented and Sasha nodded.

"We will never do that to you Boss. We will always be by your side, no matter what." The giant said seriously and Adryan looked at the woman in genuine surprise.

Sasha's green eyes sparkled with bravery and Hazel's brown eyes sparkled with truth.

Adryan chuckled at this.

'I seriously underestimated them!' the redhead thought with a warmth growing in his chest.

'I don't regret trusting you.' the redhead thought with a sweet smile, a real one this time.

Ever since what happened with Robert at the party, he had been closed off and didn't trust people anymore.

Now it could be said that he did not trust any stranger and even considered them a threat.

That didn't change and Adryan doubts it will.

The only ones that you could say he trusts are Sasha, Nathan, Detective Isengar Stanton, Xio, Maric and Sharron, Klein, Audrey, and Alger...

....

....

Maybe a little Fors...

And only recently has he started to trust more people with only Hazel and Flora being the new additions.

There was still a bit of mistrust with Flora because of who she was but maybe with time that will change.

Shaking his head, Adryan looked at Sasha and Hazel.

"I'm sure of that but please don't blame them. I asked them to run away, besides, that was the last time I saw them alive." he said calmly.

"..." Upon hearing about the possible fate of the women who abandoned their boss/teacher, Sasha and Hazel fell silent.

Shaking his head, Adryan continued.

"After that, I managed to shoot him a few times, once in the head but nothing, the only thing I managed was to make him lose control completely."

"I wish I could show you, the guy turned into a huge malnourished, bald, malformed, ugly dog, he was horrible!" the redhead joked and the trio looked at him flat.

Ignoring the look, Adryan continued.

"After James lost control I knew I was almost totally doomed, I had nothing to harm him and now that he was completely gone he would be much faster and deadlier. I had nothing to do."

"With no other option, I did what I still consider to be the best option."

"I grabbed one of the lamps from there and threw it into the gunpowder we had thrown earlier, I barely managed to launch myself down the stairs to the floor below when everything exploded."

"To be honest I don't remember much, just a loud ringing in my ears, my body hitting something many times and swallowing a lot of salted water. I don't know how I didn't drown." Saying the last thing, Adryan laughed.

"That's a lie, I know why I didn't drown, it was because my Lord protected me from the explosion, the sinking of the ship and the three hours it took me to swim to the nearest island."

"Since that day I have been a faithful believer in my Lord and I will follow him until the day of battle." Adryan finished his story by closing his eyes and with a small smile.

His chest felt lighter after talking about what happened, this was the second time he had told someone about it, and even though there were lies there and a lot of information was missing, this was liberating for him.

'Talking about your problems from time to time is not bad.' the redhead reminisced a bit.

Charlotte who had listened to all of Adryan's story was surprised and a little incredulous.

'Everything he told me sounds like an epic story from a fairy tale. From being kidnapped by pirates, being taken on a ship, and escaping by blowing that damn ship to pieces...' Sighing, Charlotte looked up and purple collided with red.

"I have one last question, Boss. Won't that be a problem?"

Adryan smirked mischievously and raised an eyebrow.

"Is that the question?"

Charlotte's eye twitched but controlling himself he released a breath and shook his head.

"My question is, what does the Scarlet Monarch seek? What does he seek to achieve?"

Adryan smiled mysteriously and looked up at the ceiling.

"It is quite simple. My Lord seeks to spread 'His' belief and prepare 'His' believers for the Apocalypse."