Chapter 708: The Issue Of Trust 1
Chapter 708: The Issue Of Trust 1
Chapter 708: The Issue Of Trust 1
“NNNNGGHHHH.”
A slight groan of pain rang through the cave walls, followed by the sound of a stick being ripped out of flesh.
“Tch,” an irritated murmur left Zeras’s lips as he looked at the bloody arrow end lying in his arms before he flung it outside the cave in anger.
He had also sustained grievous wounds from battling those idiots. Only if he had his cultivation, a mere release of his aura would have been enough to crush them into nothing completely and erase them out of existence.
To get injured by those pieces of trash only annoyed him even more.
“Are you okay? You’re bleeding a lot…” The worried voice of Felicie rang out as she brought out a cloth for him, but Zeras waved her off.
“I’ll be fine in five minutes. I can heal…” he said, and after he quickly took out the arrow ends. Felicie watched dazedly as he shut his eyes and laid on his back, and in the next instant, the smallest blood droplets around the cave all began rising up and floating back into Zeras’s body. She watched as his skin rearranged and patched itself back up, as if reverting back to what it once was.
In literal seconds, all of his wounds had already closed up, and his once again glassy smooth skin was revealed.
“That’s magical…” she muttered absentmindedly but noticed Zeras wasn’t standing up even after healing.“Zeras, are you okay?”
“I am. While I can heal the wound, I can’t heal the exhaustion. So, I’m just going to remain like this for a while, to stretch my back…” Zeras replied, but in truth, he was currently unable to move an inch, and the majority of his muscles were paralyzed from the strange venom put into those arrows.
“Stop looking at me, I can still feel it…” he called out suddenly as Felicie removed her gaze before sliding down on the igloo wall.
“Are you angry at me?” The voice resounded through the cave walls as Zeras struggled to raise an eyebrow and turned to look at her, huddled up into a ball at the far side of the wall.
“If I were you, I would be happy that I am still breathing…” Zeras replied to her with a slight scoff. He had noticed Felicie was too self-conscious of everything, always wanting to know if he was angry or happy with her at all times.
That wasn’t something Zeras would even consider for anyone at all, and he would be glad as long as he kept breathing if he was in her shoes.
“I thought the Murialias were really as my uncle described. I never thought they would still shoot an arrow straight at my face, and try to…”
“Drill a hole straight through your brain…” Zeras replied, perfectly describing what those big idiots were really up to.
Noticing Felicie had her attention diverted, by them appearing to only be targeting Zeras at the last second, they had thought they had lowered their guards, and Felicie really had, but not Zeras at all.
“How did you even know they would still target me, even though it was clear their intent shifted towards you at the last second? It was like you could see into the future…” Felicie mused, not understanding how he had still been able to stop the arrow just an inch from her forehead.
It was like two people held in the middle by ten warriors and one of them had all ten swords pointed straight at his nose.
Right then and there, it would be clear that all attention was definitely on him and not the other, and the same could also be said of the one who had blades on his nose.
Right then, all he would be thinking about would be how he would protect himself, and he would give zero care to his companion who was obviously out of danger.
In such a situation, if the men all suddenly changed their intent and attacked his companion, it would have been too late to notice as they both already thought the men were only attacking him and had taken their attention off his companion. But yet, the arrow had still been blocked at the very last second. It was nothing short of a miracle.
“You are easy to fool, Felicie…” Zeras began as Felicie sighed.
“I know. Maybe because I’m a naive girl?” she responded.
“No! You’re easy to fool because you trust people, perhaps a bit too easily. You believed the enemy whose intent to kill you was shown just seconds ago, were good people and only tried to do harm to you because they didn’t know you. You think they wouldn’t harm you anymore once you reveal to them you’re one of them. Or maybe because you have been told tales by your uncle that the Masials or whatever their name is, are a good tribe that just don’t like their sanctuaries to be invaded.
In the end, your act of easily giving up can be summed to one thing. You trusted them, that they wouldn’t harm you once you made your intent clear and you also trusted your uncle who said that they were a good warrior race. That’s how you were fooled.
So, you know why I was able to save your life, don’t you?” Zeras asked curiously as Felicie’s head buzzed and it quickly dawned on her.
“You don’t trust them. Wait, that’s not everything…” Felicie said, correcting herself as Zeras’s evil grin widened and he opened both eyes, turning to look at her face which held surprise and feelings of betrayal.
“You also don’t trust me too…” Felicie finally said as Zeras nodded.
“Yes. I don’t trust you, Felicie. You said the Masia were good people. Assuming I trusted you, I would have also knelt along with you, believing your words that they are good people and we would have surrendered, essentially becoming captives. But I not only didn’t trust them, Felicie. I don’t trust your words either. That’s why I didn’t fall into the trap like you did. And I was more than prepared for it to be a lie at any second. That’s why I could still save your life…”
“How can you not trust me? I’ve never lied to you before, have I? I have never shown that I couldn’t be trusted, have I?” Felicie whispered, her hurt as clear as day, but Zeras only found the subject more amusing.
“You’re still too young, Felicie. You can’t understand…” Zeras replied, closing his eyes once more, but it only fueled Felicie’s stubbornness as she walked over to him.
“Tell me why you don’t trust me…” she said, her voice showing determination to never leave him alone unless he answered her.
“Trust, huh? You feel hurt to hear that, don’t you? That the second young man you have been with for close to a week now, still doesn’t trust you at all. It must have really hurt?” Zeras replied as Felicie kept quiet, but she couldn’t really refute it.
If she expected anyone in the world to trust her, she would count Zeras among them. He was right.
Never had she been this close to a person. Never had she trusted a person so much.
But to hear they can’t repay back that trust or don’t even feel the same way was something that really hurt.
“There was something that you said before that was right, Felicie. That time when you said it’s like I don’t even value the gift of life, like all otherworlders don’t.
You were right, Felicie.
I really don’t value the gift of life anymore. I no longer think if the people I killed have families or wives, or goals or aspirations or dreams, or loving children.
I take life without any consideration at all. You were right, Felicie…” Zeras suddenly said as Felicie turned her attention to him.
“I used to care before too, years and years ago. But then there is the curse called growth.
You will get betrayed, Felicie. You will move on from it, the scars of the betrayal will heal, but then something never heals. Still, getting hurt by others isn’t an excuse for hurting people, is it?
But then there is this curse called growth. A curse constant in all of otherworlders. A curse called growth in strength.
When you grow in strength more, Felicie, the more people’s words lack value, and the more the value of life diminishes in your eyes. Because life becomes more easy to take. I can kill a thousand of those warriors if I have my full cultivation, and I wouldn’t even blink.
It’s just too easy.
Perhaps, easiness isn’t necessarily a good thing. It might actually be a curse as well.
It isn’t only you that I don’t trust, Felicie. I don’t trust many people too. People can just change really fast.
One moment we’re laughing together and the next moment your blood will be raining down off their hands. I have met thousands of people, but right now I only trust two souls.
One of them is dead and the other is a cat.
I can kill anyone else within a blink if it calls for it, and I wouldn’t even look back at all.” Zeras said with a chuckle as Felicie’s eyes dulled a little.
“Would you kill me too, without even blinking? Tell me…”