256 [BONUS] The Fate of Twin Moon Axe Clan 1
Ren was walking in Orakh and Sharina's direction with a blank face. Saya telling him what he wanted to hear years in the past was stomach-churning now.
It would have been better if she just wanted to be friends or even acquaintances. He could have accepted it because he wasn't blaming her that much. He had to admit that he was also at fault. Saya wouldn't have taken advantage of him if he didn't let her. So in that department, he had faults.
And now . . . he just wanted a life away from her and Mike.
Ren took a long breath and blasted it into the sky.
Romance wasn't even his priority right now.
He forced their conversation out of his mind and focused on the mission ahead.
On the way, Ren could see Sharina's face was crumpled and couldn't be painted, while Draki's eyes never left the ground.
But Ren wasn't interested in their conversation and how Sharina would enact her punishment for Draki.
When Ren was at least ten meters from them, the Orcs finished their talk.
At the sight of him, Orakh's face brightened before dread follow suit. He then went to Ren with all haste.
"Ren, do you have a second? I have something to tell you," Orakh said, voice hushed, but his face was turning grim by the second.
"Yeah. What's wrong?" asked Ren, resisting a smile.
Orakh didn't say much and only spoke a few words. "Come with me first."
The two then went towards the secluded part of the camp. Since everyone was already huddling at the clan fire, Ren and Orakh had the space to themselves.
Before they could start, Orakh showed Ren the necklace.
To trigger the event with Orakh, Ren's relationship level with the Orc should be intimate first. And the way for Ren to do that fast was by saving Orakh.
It was hard because he needed to save a combatant type NPC which was near impossible to do since one, the combatant NPCs were stronger, and two, the danger situation must be enough to kill the NPC, and that meant that the danger level for them, the players, was extremely high.
There were only a few scenarios in which that could happen, and one was exactly with the Old Hag.
"What is it?" Ren pretended to ask.
"Men in the tribe crafted accessories for the women they liked. This . . ." Orakh paused, hesitating to continue.
"This?" Ren urged.
Orakh continued after another breath, "I made this for . . . for Shurna."
"She must have dropped it."
"In the Old Hag's lair?" Orakh questioned. Even he wanted to believe that he was wrong.
Ren shrugged. "She must have lost it, and some beast took it there?"
Orakh shook his head. "The Old Hag's domain isn't something that can be accessed by beast. It's different if it's the inhabitants because he lured them to be her experiments."
"So you're suggesting that Shurna went to the Old Hag?"
Orakh was quiet, and there was a short silence before he nodded with a grim face.
"To do what exactly?" asked Ren.
Orakh took all the air he could. "I don't know. But there's nothing good coming to the Old Hag. Whatever it is that she wishes. . . nothing good would come out of it. She knew that. Everyone knows that."
". . ."
When Ren didn't answer, Orakh continued.
"I'll . . . I'll confront Shurna about this. I have to know the truth."
"Did you tell Sharina about this?"
Orakh shook his head. "No. I have to make sure first that Shurna didn't deal with the witch. Or that would be trouble . . . The clan rules are absolute. Dealing with the Old Hag meant banishment. Even Sharina couldn't save her daughter from the rules."
". . . Is that so? Do you want me to come with you?"
"No. I'll . . . I'll do it alone."
[New Information Acquired!]
After their talk, Orakh went to find Shurna while Ren went back to the clan fire.
Sitting beside Evie, Ren didn't know why the atmosphere was heavy all of a sudden.
"Did something happen?"
For some reason, Evie refused to look at him while Ragnar pretended that he was eating and amused at the dancing fire.
Ren was met with silence, and for the first time, he didn't know what to do.
He scratched his head and was really baffled by this. There was heaviness between them, and Ren was more worried about his carefully built relationship with Evie than anything else right now.
He wanted to know what had happened.
"What's going on?" Ren asked again, but Evie's eyes were on the side while her mouth was clamped tight.
"I don't know, too," Ragnar said. "Ask your girlfriend over there."
Ragnar pointed in Saya's direction, and Ren's heart thudded hard against his chest.
"Did she say something?" he asked Evie, voice concerned. "And she's not my girlfriend." He batted an eyelid at Ragnar while the latter only smirked.
Finally, Evie looked at Ren and said, "No." her voice was indifferent as her expression.
So there is . . . Ren took a deep breath and ran his teeth over his bottom lip.
He knew Saya to be overprotective of the man she had eyes on, as evident in how she followed Mike to the game just to keep an eye on him.
But she had gone too far.
"Sorry about that. I'll talk to her."
Evie opened her mouth but closed it again. She stopped herself from asking what Ren's real relationship with Saya was since the woman was so concerned and seemed possessive towards him, as evidenced by her voice before.
But she chose not to speak and looked ahead. It was not something that she would butt her nose into. She and Ren were merely classmates and nothing more.
Evie bit her lip, and her scowl remained on her face. She didn't even know why she was angry in the first place.
Meanwhile, Ren's face darkened, and when his and Saya's eyes met, the later beamed and looked away, face full of innocence.
Ren didn't know what Saya said to Evie, but he planned to find out and remedy his relationship with the latter.
If he knew this would happen, he should had push Saya out of her life. But the thing was . . . he couldn't control her. Whatever she did was out of his hands. The only thing he could do was ask her not to pester Evie anymore.
However, even that was up to Saya whether to heed that or not.
Ren suddenly had a headache, and the pounding in his head intensified at the roars that shook the night.
"Orakh is dead!"
