Chapter 291: Who else?
Chapter 291: Who else?
"There's trouble back at the garrison!"
This single report was enough to turn the relatively silent insides of the commanding truck to a perfect silence, undisturbed by even the tiniest and most fleeting noise.
"What trouble?"
After the initial shock, Makary was the first one to react.
"There are some activists swarming our gates," the soldier swiftly reported, raising up from the one knee he fell on once he realized there was no deep shit of a punishment waiting for him for breaking the chain of command.
He couldn't be blamed, though.
Given our current situation, we have yet to iron out a method to communicate across my gate. And before we would figure out how to automate the process, relying on human messengers was likely to be the only way to keep up the comms.
The soldier raised his head… and directed his eyes straight to my face.
"Apparently, they are looking for Mister Peter here. There are some that claim he was kidnapped by our group and demanding his release."
Madam raised her eyebrow while Makary simply stared at the man, struggling to decide whether to believe those ridiculous claims or not.
"Since when there were enough people on the other side that would care for me enough to organize something like this?" I asked, perfectly aware of my standing back on earth with the few people who even knew who I was. So, I shook my head. "It's an obvious bait, a disturbance. The question is, what's the goal of whoever is behind this mess?"
Makary's face tensed up before twisting in an ugly grimace.
"This is problematic indeed," Makary admitted before heaving a deep sigh and resting his back against the wall of the commanding cabin within the truck. "Can't we just bring you out, show you around, and then ignore them?"
I squinted my eyes.
"Certainly, that would be one way to stop whatever is happening over there, but…" I hesitated for a long while, turning silent even though I could tell how much everyone wanted to know what else I had to say. "I don't know why, but it just feels wrong."
That was the gist of it.
My gut was screaming out over how this sudden trouble exploding under our ass right as we needed some time to manage and stabilize our affairs and position on the other side of my gate…
It couldn't be just a coincidence. And there just so happened to be one existence that I pushed to the back of my head recently… But the existence of the importance and influence of which I couldn't underestimate.
"What if it's that dark aura piece of shit?" I muttered under my nose, too deep in my thoughts to care for Makary and Madam hearing me ramble.
"Doesn't it make sense, hon?" Fay spoke out, pushing aside all of her own doubts and hesitations, focusing on the burning problem at hand instead. "Whatever they were aiming for, I don't think your actions were in line with what they expected. So, before all will be lost, they decided to make a move, regardless of how desperate it might be."
I shook my head to wake myself up from the state of deep thought before directing my eyes to Fay's delicate and slightly concerned face.
"That… certainly makes sense," I admitted… even though I couldn't fully agree.
For how were we supposed to judge the actions of the being we knew nothing about if they likely transcended all of our imagination?
We knew nothing of that being's goal, reasons, methods, and level of commitment. In a sense, we didn't even know if they were on our side, neutral, or dead-set on bringing us down!
And in such a scenario, how were we to even begin guessing their motives and next moves?
'Still, we have to start somewhere,' I thought, gritting my teeth as the pain of knowing pretty much nothing and still trying to make things work out once again filled my soul.
'It's freaking annoying how this issue is quickly turning from an episodic pain in the ass into a chronic hurt of my butt.'
"So there's some sort of a deeper plot going on?" Makary asked out loud, forcing me to once again get my head out of my own thoughts. "Care to share some deets on it?"
I raised my eyes and gave the man a long look… before heaving a deep, exhausted sigh.
"I would do so already if we knew anything more than that there's someone messing up with me back on earth," I claimed. "Like, didn't you find the shit my aunt threw me in to be a bit… overexaggerated?"
Makary squinted his eyes a little while Madam alternated her eyes between the two of us, not exactly sure whether it was her place to speak or not.
Find your adventure at M-V-L
"Oh right, we meant to ask you about this too," I spoke, only for a sudden inspiration to flash up in my soul along with a burst of daringness exploding in my soul, "Mom."
Madam's expression sharpened up a bit… Only to mellow down into a slight smile as she looked back at me.
"Ask away."
Feeling Fay shift uncomfortably by my side, I gulped down my saliva before recalling and then organizing all I knew about the problem of the dark aura affecting my life even before I first knowingly came into contact with any sort of aura.
"First, do you remember that dark aura you must've noticed in and around me when you first saw me?" I asked.
Madam squinted her eyes a little, but only ended up nodding her head a bit.
"It's hard to forget. It was so suffocating to be around it, I made sure to clear it all out once I dropped the idea of killing you on the spot," Madam revealed, her slight smile growing into a tiny smirk.
And as bad as it sounded… I could hardly blame her for that.
In fact, learning that she actually did something to clear my aura was a new and quite important piece of information for me.
"The problem is, where that dark aura come from? Why was I so full of it? Was it the reason behind my life since the day my mom died turning irrationally bad? And how come there's someone capable of casting all this dark aura on me even before I received my ability and opened the gate to this world for the very first time?"
Not holding anything back, I revealed all the information and doubts I had regarding the topic.
"And you believe this might be related to… the trouble back at the garrison?" Makary asked while giving me quite an intense look.
"What else could be the reason?" I asked while spreading out my arms to the sides and shrugging them. "It's not like there's anyone else who could care for me enough, back on earth, to create a small riot just for my sake."