Chapter 381: Let’s Be Friends
"Okay, so..." I awkwardly stared at Vexa, who sat in front of me with her legs crossed, a sword resting on her lap. I, on the other hand, had a dumb-looking cat lounging in mine.
’Ay!’ Blaze took offense, but all I heard was a purr.
"I always thought it was weird for you to have such an adorable familiar," Vexa said, striking an odd topic.
I looked down at Blaze, who—being all smug after the compliment—jumped off my lap and onto my head.
"Is that so... I don’t find this one adorable at all. At most, he’s just annoying to have around," I muttered, grabbing him by the neck and tossing him lightly in the direction of where Aron was sitting. The prince flinched in a strangely dramatic way.
Aron was already boring holes into us with his stare, and so were the others—but Mary’s gaze was the most evident.
From the moment Vexa approached me until now, it had only been a few minutes, and Mary was still standing where she had stopped. Her expression was... hard to read.
I met her eyes once or twice. Each time, it looked like she was waiting for me to approach her.
Maybe it was nothing. Maybe I was just overthinking.
But one thing I was sure of—Mary had been walking toward me with the intent to say something, and Vexa’s sudden presence made her stop.
"Anyway, what were you saying?" I asked, glancing at Vexa to catch any flicker of emotion.
Instead, she just looked at me, sighed, and leaned back on her hands against the cold floor. Her gaze drifted up toward the sky... which I knew by now was just an illusion.
"It’s weird, isn’t it?" Vexa muttered, her eyes glued to the illusion above. Then she let her gaze move around the surroundings until it stopped in a specific direction—one that had caught my curiosity as well.
Far beyond, where the walls met the hazy horizon, a murky smoke curled thickly. The closer it got to the walls, the denser it became. But within that haze, something small and golden shimmered—like a self-illuminated speck of light flickering in and out.
"What is?" I asked, though I was sure she wasn’t talking about the glint.
Vexa sat upright and adjusted her posture.
"How real this illusion is," she said. "I’ve seen illusions crafted by the greatest mages, and nothing—I mean nothing—comes close to the one above our heads."
"Well, of course," I replied. "We’re in Ellora’s Veil... the place of the goddess herself. I’d be disappointed if it was anything less."
Vexa smiled, but it was the kind of smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
"You’re right. It would be a shame if mere humans like us could see through the god’s plans." She emphasized humans in a strange way—enough to make me pause.
"Certainly—"
Vexa cut me off. "What do you think is going to happen now?"
"We’ll have to fight another monster," I replied with the first thing that came to mind. But that clearly wasn’t the answer she was looking for—she scrunched her nose slightly in response.
"No, I meant demons," she clarified. "They attacked Nexus Academy... and now, after returning, we’re here. I don’t even know how much time has passed since we entered this place."
She tried to suppress it, but I could hear something in her voice—urgency, maybe. Or hesitation.
It wasn’t fear exactly. It was that feeling you get when the ground beneath you starts to feel unfamiliar—uncertain.
"So what?"
It all boiled down to that one question.
After that, silence.
There are times when I ask myself, What the fuck is happening around me?
I don’t know.
And I don’t think I can know—because the world has strayed way too far from its original plotline.
There’s more than one Chosen One.
The gods’ motives are unclear.
And my mind... it’s occupied with the same question over and over: What happens to me now?
The gods got what they wanted from me—and cursed me.
Unlike the others, I don’t have a patron god to guide me. The only thing I have left to cling to is that one conversation with Ignisara.
And even that gave me just one directive: Go back to Nightshade Sanctum.
To be honest, I didn’t have any reason to go back. I went there once—to change my bloodline potential. It worked. That was it.
But now?
I followed the others here because I wanted to be at the heart of the chaos. Running away from it wasn’t working anymore.
"I don’t know," Vexa whispered.
"Yeah... It feels like we’re all just waiting for something to happen."
Like the silence before a storm. Everything felt too blurry. Too suspicious.
It’s not like I don’t have anything to talk about with Vexa—but I can’t. Not here. Not now.
Everyone’s eyes are still on us.
And I hope that Vexa understands that too because she was also refraining from asking anything weird like- why do I know about multiple gods or who my patron God is?
"Anyway, have you thought about what I proposed?" I asked, changing the subject. As I spoke, I glanced past Vexa’s shoulder and spotted Adam.
He was talking to Falco—his attention wasn’t on us.
Vexa looked at me, confused, but to my surprise, she seemed to understand what I was saying and made an expression like she was thinking about it.
"Why not—let’s do it. Even though I know it’s nothing but a greedy idea, where you’re thinking about how to use me for your own benefit," she smiled a little.
"Is that not what you were thinking of doing too?" I shrugged, which earned a chuckle from her. I liked how quickly we were able to change the topic.
I extended my right hand toward her, and she did the same, giving me a light handshake. Her slender fingers were cold as she wrapped her thumb and index finger around my wrist.
"Let’s be friends from now on," she smiled—but all it meant was, for some reason, she’d found a reason to believe in me.