"Why did you betray me?" the girl asked Skelra whose blade had pierced her heart.
"Why…"the girl muttered weakly as she died.
Skelra looked at her with a pale expression, his face and body covered with blood and numerous injuries.
He stared directly into the beautiful blue eyes of the blonde girl, a sigh leaving his mouth, "Sorry, it had to be done."
He said in a low voice as he went to the boat he had put on stand, containing a large stone covered in cloth.
— ✦ —
"Hey! Hey! Why are you daydreaming?" Rosese exclaimed in Skelra's ears bringing him back into the present.
"Ah, right…my bad" Skelra replied as he stopped his reflection on the past.
"So can we begin our march to the kingdom already, I'm so sick sleeping on such a humid land, it ruins my sleep" Rose spoke, lifting her hammer and resting it on her shoulder as she began to walk ahead."
"Hey at least wait for the other membe-"
"Don't care, just tell them to walk faster or something" Rose said, turning around and walking.
Another sigh left Skelra's mouth as he spoke to Rena, "Get ready to head back."
"I understand Sir.Skelra." Rena said as she began to group the scouts up.
"Yeah…. it's odd" Skelra muttered quietly to himself as he walked.
— ✦ —
"I see" sky muttered looking at the info on the paper.
He had long finished the classification since he had learnt a habit of reading quickly in the past, the reports were easily read and classified which led to him having an immense amount of free time.
So he began to read any paper he could find and he found a couple things.
Nesther had written a letter to IGS to allow me any general information and the guards guarding the storage to allow me to look and take some things as long as they weren't too important or in large amounts which was why they were willing to let me check the inventory earlier.
The coin system that was used in the kingdom of using copper, silver and gold coins were not being used anymore, instead they were replaced by a new unit of currency called gleam which were just specially crafted wooden chips or tokens which were modified to glow in certain cases using an unspecified method.
The place that Sky had come from was called the broken wall by the people of this kingdom and the wall in the opposite direction was a place where the scouts were mainly located and was the place that was closest to shore from the kingdom where the investigation of the world's throat is ongoing.
'Though I don't think I should be going through any documents without any permission.' Sky thought to himself as he organised the papers he took out.
[Hey, but we managed to confirm that Gill's thing about him having multiple souls is true.] The shadow spoke appearing on the wall with the silhouette of a man on a chair resting calmly.
"I guess that's true" Sky agreed with his shadow as he glanced back at the paper talking about Gill in detail or at least the information that Nester wrote on the paper about him, talking about finding him helping a small group which was soon incorporated into the main group that would establish a new kingdom and how Gill would have multiple emotional outbursts or odd moments.
"Hm…I feel like I should put all these back now." Sky said, grabbing one piece of paper among the many and putting it back into its own place.
[You sure you don't have more info?]
No.Want more.Informationt the voice behind him spoke, speaking Sky's true thoughts.
'It's not like I haven't thought about doing it, I just thought somebody would be back by now' Sky thought replying back.
[So? Just keep researching and say that you already finished your shit and you are bored so you just looked through the info to be aware of the situation you were in so you could help them. You were part of the old kingdom and Nester is aware of you so why can't you do that? Even if they are suspicious of you after a while, let's say 1 or 2 iconic moments of our interactions with others, we will probably be able to converse properly and then slowly melt that suspicion like a block of ice in a pot over a fire.] The shadow spoke standing up and walking round the room, the lantern making his silhouette disappear or look odd at times.
A sigh left Sky's mouth as he listened to his shadow's words.
[Hey don't sigh at me! My idea is not that bad and my reasoning is decent and also I would like to add that it would probably be more suspicious if they find out that you secretly looked for info like this and I think even you'll agree.]
Sky looked at his shadow in thought for a minute then stood up from his kneeling position that he had taken to keep the paper away.
"You're probably right…" Sky said as he looked at the paper that contained Gill's info, deep in thought.
Soon a footstep was heard and Sky turned there and then the door was open as Nesther appeared, looking at Sky who was looking at paper and a couple of papers near him, making him look like a thief stealing documents.
"Hey, it's not what it seems, I just finished doing you told me and I got bored and I just saw these at the corner of my eyes and took them since I wanted to have more information to help yo-"
"Ah, it's fine no need to explain your situation, but I will need your help now." Nester interjected, ignoring Sky's suspicious behavior.
"Huh? Uh…okay" Sky spoke a bit confused at her lack of suspicion and level of acceptance.
"Call Gill and some of the veteran scouts, at least 12, I'll get Verrith." Nester spoke, approaching the desk and writing something in the paper.
"Could I ask wh-"
"I'll tell you all later, just gather them now." She interrupted Sky again, "look you'll also need this probably to gain their trust."
She handed him a paper saying, "Gather outside the building of the main building or my office." -Nester
It also had a signature and a fingerprint that was made from blood in her hands, which seemed to not be hers.
Seeing this, Sky knew this was urgent and took the paper and headed out.
As Sky went out, Nester took a deep breath before heading to the private training grounds in the opposite direction of where Sky was going.
'Ah…shit.' she thought walking, her arms trembling, 'I already feel scared just talking to people and now I have to announce something important again? Yeah I feel that I will die at this rate'
She thought a tear leaving her eye internally, for Nesther was quite anti-social and had been using a mask to hide it.
As her concern consumed her, she soon saw the training place and went in, her face now calm, and her muscles slowly turned back into a serious face as she walked in and saw Verrith training a bit with some soldiers.
"Verrith, I need your presence now." Nesther spoke to Verrith as he turned around, meeting Nesther's cold gaze.
"Give me a min-" as verrith was about to finish speaking, he stopped as he once again looked back at her gaze which was stirring directly into his soul, making him drop all his things and take off his training weights and pick up his sword and light armour as he walked towards Nesther.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise your seriousness, please tell me why you need me." Verrith spoke a bit scared of Nesther's cold gaze.
"For now follow me," Nesther replied, turning her back as she began to walk at a quick pace, her mouth beginning to twitch as she shook with anxiety.
'I knew it was a good idea to keep a cold stare, to make him think it was a serious situation…but, man why is his presence so scary.' Nesther thought, a bit afraid of what was happening.
She walked even faster as a result of her anxiety and moved through and reached back to her office building where she saw Sky who was there and the scouts running there to keep up with Sky's and Gill's pace.
"So would you mind explaining why you called us?" Gill asked Nester, smiling.
"Sure, let me announce it quickly." Nester replied, her face now having a serious expression.
'Too quick! I have no time to think of the exact words I was gonna say to announce this, I'm so cooked…what should I do??? Maybe I start off with a joke or comment to lighten the mood? No! That's stupid, I just need to speak well and to speak well you need to speak loudly, without stopping and at a decent pace and I should have a cold and serious expression since this is a serious thing and an announcement.' Neither thought, internally conflicting with herself before mustering the courage to speak.
"Respect warriors, I have gathered you here at once to announce a grave sin that someone or something has done to our kingdom and that is to harm the innocent citizens, the children and the young soldiers! They have poisoned the water supply that we have connected to the river, yes they have invaded and went even past our filter method and mocked us to attack them, and attack them we will! May it be a poisonous beast or a cunning person, I Nester, one the core members of the founders of this still recent and developing kingdom command you to form a group and head out to the river which we source our water from and not only fix the water problem but also command you to smite any thing that has dared to bear its fang towards the kingdom!" Nesther spoke making the soldiers silent as they heard her spoke, her mind in fear internally.
"Verrith and Gill will be the leaders for this expedition, and the sounds here will be its participants and now get ready in 45 mins and head out immediately!" Nesther spoke loudly as the scouts quickly moved to pack up the necessary things and so did Gill and Verrith.
"Sky, I've heard you are experienced in some medical things from how you managed to heal Verrith when you guys met first and knocked him out and if that stays true to other fields of medicine and health like poisons, I want you to head to where Luminar is and help her, with the victims!" Nesther spoke as she walked ahead, "I will go to the IGS to manage the water supply temporarily and what methods to use while the water is still unsafe to drink."
Nesther spoke, heading out immediately.
Hearing this Sky was a bit stunned at her presence, which he hadn't expected especially due to how casual she seemed when he talked to her before.
[So in the end when you got caught you ended up using my advice and my words didn't you?]
'Oh, shut up would you?' Sky thought irritated.
[Probably should move shouldn't we?]
"Yeah I guess." Sky said as he moved to the Luminar's location.
— ✦ —
Sweat began to drop as Nester was stressed, her hands now trembling.
'That was scary' she thought, swallowing her saliva.
'I thought Sky would be able to see through me since from what I've heard he can read people's micro expressions and from how my father explained it to me, a micro expression is an involuntary, fleeting facial expressions lasting only 1/25th to 1/2 of a second, revealing true, concealed emotions. These rapid movements represent subconscious "emotional leakage," often contradicting a person's spoken words or masked "poker face". Yet they failed to help Sky see though mine since I don't think he would have such an expression or give such a stiff feeling. I guess my soul's interpretation must be much stronger than I thought.' Nesther thought a bit surprised at her own power
Nester's soul's interpretation enforces a physical "poker face." Even if she is screaming internally, her facial muscles, pupil dilation, and sweat glands are locked into whatever persona she is currently projecting.
This ability also has the other advantage of being able to feel how much her mask or persona has cracked or been seen though so if Sky had seen though her as a coward, she would have felt an itchy sensation or a sting but the fact she didn't feel anything proved that her ability surpassed her expectation.
'I just wanted to keep up my hardworking persona and take some fresh air but my shitty luck led me to trouble and it's not like i could just delay this since Luminar begged me so much and the citizens looked at me with such high expectations' Nesther thought recalling her encounter with one of the sick person who had couched blood alongside with Luminar asking for help. She soon calmed down and moved as she had arrived at the IGS and went in.