'She knows!'
Zayn swallowed his saliva nervously as he stared at the meek smile on Legatus Sarah's face.
She was just about to say something when the middle-aged man appeared by her side.
"Legatus. Do you know this infiltr–...I mean this esteemed young man?" He asked, rubbing his hands while maintaining a bright smile on his face. Droplets of cold sweat trickled down his temples and the corners of his lips began to twitch at the deadly glare the Legatus shot at him.
"Back off!" She ordered coldly, her authoritative voice causing the middle-aged man to step back instinctively.
Sarah didn't even think about answering the middle-aged man's question. Her attention was on Zayn, who was also trying to force a smile on his lips.
However, that didn't really work well. Jeremy and the two Blessed noticed that Zayn was uncomfortable and they chose to rush to his side. That was the least they could do after Zayn helped them so much. He didn't even know them, yet, he chose to rescue them and even offered to bring them safely back to the Silverflame Camp.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I'm sorry for bringing him into the camp, but he saved us, esteemed Legatus. He is a good guy!" Jeremy explained quickly, ignoring that he exposed that they didn't kill the Trolls by themself and that Zayn actually saved them.
"A good guy. Our lovely Zayn saved you? I see!" Legatus Sarah said while continuing to watch Zayn. She turned her head toward Jeremy only for a few seconds but the expression on her face changed completely. Her expression while looking at Zayn was warm and gentle, and cold, frightening and authoritative when staring down at others.
"And who are you?"
"I…I am Jeremy Clas, the assigned captain of the 352nd Hunting Unit, and responsible for bringing him inside the camp. Zayn and the other members of my hunting unit didn't do anything wrong. It was my decision. Please punish me!"
Jeremy saluted in front of the Legatus, accepting his fate by taking the fall for everyone. He was glad that Zayn appeared to save them when David, Leona, and Kevin were about to face death, and he didn't regret his actions in the slightest.
"Why should I punish you?" The Legatus asked, astonishing the middle-aged man, Jeremy, and the two Blessed. The 352nd Hunting unit clearly broke the rules set by the Silverflame Camp by bringing an outsider into their camp.
They deserved to be punished for breaking the rules!
"There is no need for any punishment as long as he becomes a Cadet of the Silverflame Camp, right? I can just say that I scouted him. After all, we have some history together, and I know what he is capable of!"
Sarah looked at Zayn as she spoke. Her stare felt similar to that of a predator that had found its prey.
"Or…are you unwilling to join the Silverflame Camp?"
The tone in her voice was gentle and calm, but her predator-like stare intensified. Zayn took the underlying message in her words, but he didn't say anything for quite a while.
The situation escalated quite a bit in an extremely short period.
Zayn and Sarah never really spoke with one another. He always ordered food from the Adventurer Inn's owner and didn't speak two full sentences with Sarah, if he recalled correctly.
Thus, it didn't really make sense for her to say all these things. She shouldn't know how strong he actually is, let alone that he was someone trustworthy enough to join the Silverflame Camp just like that. It was not as if Zayn had something better to do, right now, but he was pretty sure that the Silverflame Camp wouldn't be helpful for his goal.
'Wait…if I join the camp, it will be much easier to talk to the other Normies, and find out more about the Normie Union, find out more about the Gods, and trace the origin of a few things that bother me. I need to find out if Sarah was the one who sent the message from the Silverheart Legion, or if there are more people who know about the incident in the Adventurer Inn, and my Spirits.
Will she blackmail me? Wait…if Sarah is a Legatus in the Silverheart Legion, and she disappeared with the Inn Owner and his wife, are they also members of the SIlverheart Legion? Do they know about my Spirits? Did they see me kill Philip, and Jens in the Adventurer Inn? If so, why didn't they do something?'
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThere were too many things that bothered him about his ignorance of the truth. He figured that the Silverflame Camp might not be as useless for him as he initially thought.
Joining the camp would be a little bit bothersome but it was not as if he couldn't just run away when he didn't want to stay any longer. He could just depart once it was time to leave. That shouldn't be too difficult with his strength.
Thinking about his strength, Zayn's mind momentarily froze.
'Why is she not asking me how I created my first and second Soulring so quickly? It has been less than a year and I am already more than halfway through the third Soulring. My progress should shock her. She can clearly perceive the difference, so why…'
Zayn didn't want to ask her directly because that would lead to more trouble. After all, she may just ask 'If you're already asking about it, how did you suddenly grow stronger?'. He would have to keep silent about that because he didn't want to expose that he could see Soul Wisps.
It was not impossible for someone's strength to increase that quickly, but for a Normie who had yet to finish his first Soulring at the age of 13? Advancing as much as he did within a year was not something a Normie could possibly do, not under normal circumstances.
Normies didn't have missions through which they could get a sudden influx of soul particles.
That meant, either Zayn's talent was at the top, the cream of the crop, or he ate some special heavenly treasure for which people would kill.
Both should attract Sarah's interest, yet, she didn't ask any questions like that. This confused Zayn.
"I already have artifacts and enough training resources. So…what can the Silverflame Camp offer to someone like me?"