Chapter 150: Influence

Chapter 150: Influence "How is she?"

"Stable."

"Sigh..."

Kieran asked Jake who had just stepped out of the infirmary.

The pure energy attack Orion had used on her had done more than just bring her out of the phantom state. It ran wild through her body, causing severe damage. The infirmary could help her, but it was up to her in the end.

Thankfully, she was stable just as Jake had reported.

"You still have no idea?"

Kieran asked if he might know what Orion could have offered to her to make her agree to the fight.

"No, but it could be several things and it could also be nothing. She is unpredictable when it comes to matters concerning the past after all."

"Sigh!"

’I was right to get involved then.’

Kieran sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

He understood a little more about their relationship with this. Ruby wanted revenge so badly it blinded her. Jake was there to keep her in check.

In short, he was her anchor. The only thing keeping her from exploding and doing something stupid. Her only support.

"You guys have got something special going, heh?"

Kieran said with a small chuckle.

"W-what do you.."

Jake couldn’t find the right words to say. He had gotten flustered by Kieran’s unexpected comments.

"Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. We have to do something about him though!"

Kieran patted Jake’s shoulder and said in a dark tone.

They had to make Orion pay the price for trying to kill Ruby. The camp’s system had failed terribly, turning a blind eye to the complaints they had put in.

Since the camp wasn’t going to do it, they would have to take things into their own hands.

Kieran didn’t even consider getting the support of his instructor, August. He could already forsee his rejection under the claim that he was becoming to dependent on their connection.

There were somethings that just had to be handled personally.

"Not yet!"

Jake refuted calmly.

"What do you mean??"

"You can’t just eliminate him. He definitely won’t accept a death match from you and besides, the camp won’t approve it either."

"Deathmatches are only approved under extreme situations and you don’t fit the part."

"That said, we can’t face him with potical influence too. He’s been here longer than we have and still has a few tricks up his sleeve. You must have noticed it too. We would have fallen into his trap if we attacked him back then"

Kieran’s eyes sharpened before he let out a small sigh of defeat. He couldn’t refute any of Jake’s words. They were all correct!

He had realized it back then too. Orion didn’t really plan on killing Ruby. He wanted to drag all her supporters out and exterminate them in a single go.

That plan of his would have worked if they went further than just threatening him.

They couldn’t just abandon Ruby based on this either. He might have been unable to kill her, there was nothing to be said about crippling her.

There was nothing in place other than replacing the worth of the soldier he crippled. That was why they stepped in.

"What do you plan to do then?"

"Don’t worry, leave that to me. I still have some contacts I can meet with. I’ll speak to you after that."

"...."

Kieran said nothing, but took his hand off his shoulder.

Jake was right. There was nothing he could do in this situation. Sure, he had gotten stronger physically, but when it came to the subtle tricks and plans the nobles made against each other, he was powerless.

He had no choice but to follow him and trust his decisions.

"By the way. Congratulations on your awakening. It feels strong. I’ll stay here for a while"

Jake said to Kieran with a smile before returning into the infirmary.

’Etiquette...’

Kieran nodded, noting how didn’t try to ask for the grade or name of his ability, maintaining the basic rules August had informed him of earlier.

No matter how he looked at it, the awakened world was still too strange for him to wrap his head around.

All the unspoken rules and etiquette they kept amongst themselves.

’It’s quite unnecessary. It’s basically the same old thing, just a little more dangerous!’

His thoughts were light as he returned to his dormitory.

"I should make some moves of mine too"

Kieran looked at his small room, his goal of ammasing a huge amount of military credit returning to his mind.

He had been quite distracted lately, but there wasn’t much he could do. His goal was the war the camp was currently waging.

August had informed him about how large the scale of this war was, and he had also seen a fragment of it back then.

If he was right, then the camp would surely use this a means of training their recuits. That was chance he was waiting for. It was best to clear all they could while they still had the chance to.

....

"I’m sorry, we can’t help you!"

"..."

"What’s your name?"

"Kieran"

"Oh! Sorry, we can’t help you with that!"

"You are on our blacklist!"

Kieran’s expression was rigid as he walked away from the training center after facing the nth rejection he had gotten.

It had been a few days after the incident with Orion and the Noble was finally making some moves, flexing his extensive connections and reach within the camp.

CP was the basic monetary value which dictated one’s survival within the camp.

Nothing could be done without using Contribution points. If one couldn’t gain any, their place in the camp was gone.

It was a basic need, but it was useless if it couldn’t be spent.

Kieran had been unable to use any of the camps facilities for the past few days. He couldn’t get down to the underground cavern or the infirmary with the lift(which needs CP), he couldn’t even use the training center as he had suddenly appeared on their black list.

The messaging function on his watch had been disabled and he couldn’t even contact Jake or Leora, who might have been able to help him.

The cafeteria was the only place he was untouched, at least he could get some meals there, but the head chef was still unavailable.

To make it worse. The occasional drill calls had become almost impossible to attend. Crossing mountains manually wasn’t an easy task even now that he had his ability. He always ended up late and had to face punishments.

Those said punishments had been especially hard and Kieran had no doubt that even those instructors had fallen under Orion’s influence.

At first he hadn’t thought much of it. There were still alot of services he could get access to. But now that things had gotten this extreme and he had been cornered to such a state, he couldn’t just sit back idlely and watch.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hmm? I wasn’t expecting Ethan to come to me yet. Or could something have gone wrong?"

Sabrina felt puzzled as she walked up to see the person on the other side of the door.

"Sabrina."

"Kieran?"

Her voice was filled with surprise as he was the last person she ever thought of meeting.

"You’re here why?"

"You said you wanted to catch up. I’m free now, and you look the same"

Kieran said cooly with an eyebrow raise asking if she was going to keep him outside any longer.

"Hmm, come in!"

She said, her tone collected again.

The room wasn’t exactly what he had expected from the princess of a pillar family. Even of she hated her family, this was not what he envisioned.

The room was very big, even having its own balcony which showed a scenery outside the snowy mountain. He didn’t even know there were dorms like this.

Just because the dorm was that big, he could see how empty it was, stripped down to the bone.

There was nothing besides a table and a few chairs, and the huge king sized bed.

It was pretty minimalistic, just like his own place. He definitely didn’t anticipate their similar tastes.

"How did you find here?"

She definitely didn’t remember seeing contacts with him or even speaking to him about the location of her new dorm.

They barely spoke more than a few times, so his sudden arrival was more than suspicious.

"Ah! I saw Asher on the way here!"

He said, leaving the rest for her to work out, but the temperature in the room suddenly became icy and Kieran could even see the white mist as he perspired.

No one except for Liam and Asher himself knew about their connection. Kieran approaching him specifically for that could only mean one thing

"Calm down, will you? I’m not here for a fight, I came here to talk. And yes, I know of your crazy vision and honestly I want nothing to do with it!"

"I wouldn’t have approached you if I didn’t have a choice either!"

Kieran said, dropping the previous sense of familiarity.

At those words, the chill the room reduced and Sabrina took a sit, sending a gesture for him to do the same.

"Sit, and let’s do a little catching up!"