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260. Reinforcements, Part Two
🕑 Added 2024-12-26 15:00:08 +0000 UTCScar’s men jumped to the moment she gave the order. In a matter of seconds, they’d gathered everything they owned and regrouped on the battlements. Scar gave the order, and they followed Ike, all of them trooping after him. Behind them, the monsters smashed into the wall. The walls cracked, crumbling to the floor. Bare seconds later, the monsters crashed into the castle. Stone dust filled the air. The towers crumbled, smashing into one another as they slammed down.
“I really hope you’re right.”
“I’m right. Don’t worry,” Ike reassured her. Now wasn’t the time to voice his doubts. He had to convey confidence.
“As long as you’re giving me kingship,” Scar said with a shrug.
“Now that, I’m absolutely sure about,” Ike said.
Scar snorted. “Then you’re not absolutely sure about being right, huh?”
Ike gave her a look.
She shrugged. “I can’t help but notice the obvious connotations.”
“I’m sure that this is the only way for us to pass the trials. In fact, I’m even sure that this is the reason everyone else has failed up until now—that they didn’t attempt to cooperate properly. What I’m not sure of, is that even coordinating and cooperating, we’ll be strong enough to beat the trial,” Ike said. He was confident in his own strength, and in Wisp’s, but he needed everyone on his team to be relatively close to their power to survive this. Scar seemed strong enough, and her men were adequate. His problems laid in Rufus, with his injured man and weak underlings, and Vi, who was a total unknown. The fact that she hadn’t lost or asked for help yet meant she was strong enough for the team-up, but to be honest, that wasn’t his biggest hesitation with the assassin team.
Someone had manipulated Mag to be here. Someone had wanted both halves of the skill orb present. With the old man dead, he was pretty sure he could take Rufus off the list of suspects. Rufus didn’t seem like a schemer. If anyone on his team had been scheming, it would have been the old man. Which meant it was either Scar or Vi. Vi, rumored to be an assassin heiress, from an assassin clan, when assassins were known to be skilled at subterfuge and manipulation.
Or it could be Scar, who’s been surprisingly willing to go along with me this whole time. Because she has her eyes on the prize? He side-eyed Scar, only to shake his head at himself and dismiss his worries. Suspicions were for later. They needed to come together and get through this now. Later, once they’d escaped the trial and had the rewards in hand, then he could worry about who was coming after him.
It was always possible that it was the old man who’d schemed up this whole plan to get Rufus on the throne with the skill as fast as possible, and that with the old man dead, the scheme was over. Still, Ike didn’t want to assume that. If that turned out to be the case, he’d be happy, but better to assume it wasn’t, plan for someone to scheme against him, and be prepared for a betrayal.
Still, the fact that the scheme required the other half of the skill orb meant that whoever it was, they were unlikely to show their tail until the trial was over. Their whole scheme was meaningless if they didn’t get the other half of the skill orb, and that wouldn’t show up until the trial was over. During the most critical segment of the ongoing battle, he could rely on all his allies—even Rufus. After all, they all wanted to survive and beat the trial. It was afterward that he had to watch out.
There was one critical detail that no one knew but him and his team. And that detail, he intended to keep to himself until the very end. It might be the difference between keeping the skill orb, and getting it sniped by the schemer.
In summary, I’ll keep my eyes open, but the time to worry about getting skill-sniped isn’t now. I shouldn’t ignore the possibility of a schemer, but I shouldn’t let it color my actions just yet. In fact, better that he didn’t. If the schemer didn’t know that he was aware of them, they’d be less careful with their actions.
“You’ve been quiet,” Scar commented.
Ike glanced at her. “Do you usually chat while you run?”
“You don’t?”
He considered, then shrugged. “Guess I do.”
“It’s just that you’ve got nothing to say to me, huh?”
“Not really. Is there something you want to hear from me?”
She shrugged. “I’m not used to men getting quiet around me. Is that how you respond to pretty ladies?”
Ike frowned. He looked her up and down. She looked fine, but it was nothing to write home about, all told. Back when Rosamund still had a body, she’d been far prettier, her features finer, her bone lines more refined, her colors more delicate. Scar was attractive, but in a soft and bold kind of way. There was nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t that exciting to him.
“Wow. Damn. ‘Not even a little bit,’ huh? What’s your type, then? That tiny spider beast?”
Ike shook his head. “I’m just not looking for love right now, I guess. But also, no. Wisp isn’t my type. I don’t think I have a type.”
“You just haven’t met her yet. You’re still young. You’re, what… two hundred?” Scar guessed.
Ike snorted. “Closer to eighteen.” He’d lost track of time a bit, but he was pretty sure he was somewhere between seventeen and nineteen.
Scar laughed. “In appearance, sure, but in age.”
“No, for real,” Ike said.
“Sure, sure. Pull the other one. You can play it coy, but you’re fooling no one.”
“I…” Ike paused. Did he really want to convince his brand-new ally that he was only eighteen? She’d probably take him less seriously if she believed him. He lowered his head and smiled, but said nothing, neither confirming nor denying it.
Shaking her head, Scar pulled ahead. Ike let her take the lead for a beat before speeding up to easily rush past her. “Let’s get back to my castle. We could use the reinforcements.”
“Roger.” Scar chased after him, and the two of them hurtled toward Ike’s castle.
