Chapter 85: Rage
(A.N: Please read the note on the first paragraph.)
His jaw was clenched so tight during the entire journey, that it ached. He kept replaying the ambush, the focused look in the attackers’ eyes. They hadn’t been aiming for Lena or Jorik, despite them being forced to attack them given they were in the battle. Every projectile, every spell, had been meant for him.
<Why?>
Rage was mounting.
He’d come to this town to help them fight monsters, to do something good during his own journey. Now he was mired in a human conflict he didn’t understand, forced to kill nearly a hundred people.
The survival points he got felt like a sick joke, a bitter prize for all that killing. Every one meant a life he’d taken, another weight on his soul. He’d become a weapon turned against his own kind, and the taste of it was nothing but ash.
The fury wasn’t just about the killing. It was the manipulation, the realization that he’d been a pawn in someone else’s game. Martin Vance hadn’t just asked for his help; he did much more.
This one quest, for example, he said that it was so that Reidar could get something back for helping them at the end of the week in clearing the nests attacking Havenwood. But it really wasn’t. The quarry quest was one of those Lena and the others couldn’t complete; it was one of the quests meant to give Martin the settlement creator token.
This wasn’t a problem in itself. The rewards were still enough for Reidar to have done it regardless, but why the lie?
Then, the second problem was that Martin said nothing about human enemies. In that case, Reidar would have actually decided to leave and not get tangled in this mess.
Then there was the fact that Lena and the others came with him to not only see how strong he really was but also to understand if he was part of these people, and while Reidar could understand why Martin did this, him being the subject of distrust and scrutiny irked him to no end.
That was unfortunately what million of innocent people throughout history had to go through when they were accused of something. The idea of being a suspect, of not being believed — it was a heavy burden.
It wasn’t just that. The man had sent Lena and her team along to the quarry quest hoping that after sharing danger, fighting side-by-side against monsters, Reidar would form a connection with them. Even if minimal.
Because if Reidar wasn’t an enemy, he might have decided to stay, or at least help them more.
It took two days to complete the quest, three considering the return journey, and even if that was not a lot of time, the amount of monsters encountered was staggering.
That forged camaraderie would then be the lever Martin would have used to get him to turn his summons against human enemies when the time came and the expedition departed. He was being groomed to be Martin’s personal attack dog.
The cold, careful planning of it all gave him chills. He never thought he’d see such ruthless politics in the middle of an apocalypse, and that someone would try to take advantage of him after one day he came to Havenwood.
<Nothing really changed. Humans are the same shitty beasts they always were. I thought that the apocalypse would have united us, but instead, we fell into the same shitty habits...>
Luckily, the plan had backfired spectacularly, but for a twist of luck.
<I should thank these guys.>
The Church’s attack had thrown a wrench into Martin’s careful scripting. Now, instead of a united front against a common human enemy, the situation was a tangled mess of suspicion.
The church’s motives for attacking him were a complete mystery, though. Did they genuinely want him dead, seeing his power as a threat to their own plans?
Or was the ambush itself a performance designed to make Lena and the others believe Reidar wasn’t a church member? There weren’t multiple possibilities, that even Reidar wasn’t able to see them all. Everything was possible, and all were utterly insane.
<I get we literally fight to death every day, but is society and morality really gone to shit in less than two months?>
But the answer was that these two were never there to begin with, especially the latter.
The idea that anyone would still want to kill each other made him sick—especially when the cataclysm had already wiped out most of humanity. There couldn’t be many people left.
The result of the attack was another unexpected twist because it didn’t make Lena think Reidar was actually against the church, but she now suspected him being one of them even more. At least that was what Reidar would have thought in the same situation.
The attack was too suspicious. Why attack a seemingly random dude, if not to make him look like an ally to Martin? But since Reidar knew he was not with the church, the attack only unveiled what was really going on here.
<She probably thinks that whole mess was a setup,> Reidar thought. <That my so-called church friends staged it to make me look like a victim, to plant me deeper here as their spy.>
Reidar was stuck in a fight he never asked for. He’d only come here for a map and gear, not to get dragged into someone else’s power game. The whole thing was just stupid.
He was done. Finished with Havenwood, finished with Martin’s schemes, finished with the paranoid glares thrown by Lena. This wasn’t his war. His family was waiting in Creamont and Kingsgate, and every second spent in this den of snakes was a second stolen from them.
The charade was over.
"I’m leaving."
Lena’s icy calm didn’t break. Torren’s went still. Lysa’s usually blank eyes flickered with something Reidar couldn’t read before she looked away. It was Jorik who spoke up first, his bushy grey brows scrunching together in confusion.
"Leaving? Now? After what just happened? Reidar, you can’t be serious."
"I am," Reidar said, his gaze sweeping over them. "A hundred people just tried to kill me. Not you. Not Havenwood. Me. They were aiming at me. I don’t know why, and frankly, I don’t care to stick around to find out. This isn’t my fight, and you guys threw me in without my consent."
"If you are resolved to run, you will tell Martin yourself. I will not be your messenger."
"Run? Wh — How fucking dare you?"
"Excuse me?"
"Excuse these balls, Lena! I came here just to rest for a couple of hours and restock, and I got thrown into a war against other humans, not monsters. I got played with, you all got sent on this quest just to spy on me, and I got tricked into taking a quest that had a completely different purpose than Martin stated. Why the lies, Lena? I got almost killed because of your and Martin’s lies, you dumb bitch!"
"What did you just say?!"
"Calm down, you two!" Jorik and Torren interjected. Lysa was, instead, on Lena’s side already, and he, well, his Primal Pack was already baring its teeth.
"Do you think I care about what is happening in fucking Havenwood? NO! I was sorry for you and wanted to help you since I could, but this attack made me realize everything was just manipulation from you and Martin!" Reidar shot back, a bitter edge to his words.
Jorik stepped forward, placing a heavy, calming hand on Reidar’s shoulder. "Lad, listen. I understand the anger. I do. But walking out without a word... Remember that it is not only Martin who is counting on you but also the men, women and kids who saw you fight that day at the entrance."
He paused.
"Besides, it would confirm every suspicion Lena’s already nursing. You go to Martin. You look him in the eye and you tell him you’re leaving because you were attacked and whatever is pushing you to leave. You do it clean. For your own sake."
Reidar met Jorik’s steady look, and the man’s calm reasoning sliced right through his anger. A clean break, no loose ends for anyone to follow. He nodded once.
"Fine. I’ll tell him."