When Connor exited the forest, arriving at the center of Solace, he quickly noticed that something was wrong. Taking a moment to carefully observe the scene before him, he quickly noticed the oddity that had bugged him. It was the weird way that some of the people from labs were moving.
“It’s already odd that they still pretend to be in charge of security,” Connor said in a low voice, narrowing his eyes as he continued to observe their odd movements.
During the time that Eric and his friends were missing, Lydia and Stella had made an effort to establish a proper security force, basically dismissing most of the people from labs from their self-appointed jobs.
Many of them were reluctant, and even now, they tried to maintain their previous position. They always stood around, as if they were actually keeping the peace and not just doing whatever they wanted.
The reason they had been replaced was because, according to witnesses, some of the people from labs that were protecting the cooks, and the supply storage had actually made a deliberate effort to avoid the madman during his attack.
One of them kept looking everywhere except toward the exact location where the madman was. Others were beyond hesitant to engage him, turning their attention to their injured comrades as an excuse.
While some of this behavior could simply be explained as them being bad at their jobs or being afraid, instead of it being something sinister, through continued investigation they discovered that it wasn’t the case.
Both Connor and Lydia had managed to observe more and more oddities from those that had been singled out. But it didn’t just end with them, the others, who appeared to just be doing their jobs, also behaved oddly at times.
One of those oddities was occurring right now. It was also the most prominent one. Those that were singled out had an unnatural interest in the friend group that ran Solace. To the point where they were always being watched.
At first, since only Marcus and Stella were here, they thought that their interest was only toward them.
They would constantly look at whatever building they were in. Some would follow behind them in shifts. It was never the same person, but there was always someone there.
However, earlier today, when Anna arrived, Connor saw it. The same patterns that they used to keep an eye on the other two, they used on her.
He already had doubts on whether their behavior was exclusive to the couple. So, seeing them do the same to Anna was all the confirmation he needed to be sure that it was the friend group that was special to them.
The only thing they had never found out was why they were doing it. If it was to take over the zone, then there was no better opportunity than when their main fighters were gone. Sure, Stella and Marcus were strong, but they weren’t fighters. They also weren't strong enough to take on the entire security force, even if he and Lydia helped.
Connor walked directly toward one of the labs' people that refused to stop doing what they were doing, and with a completely calm expression, began speaking to him.
“Why are you watching Stella’s office?” Connor asked as he sat down right beside him. “Don’t deny it, and just tell me who told you to do it.”
Connor and Lydia had come to the conclusion that not all of them knew the reason why they did what they did. Most of them were just doing what they thought was their job, essentially, they were just following orders.
“Protective detail,” the young man answered, some nervousness in his voice. His voice was shaky, but it was clear that he would not answer Connor's second question.
Connor found the seriousness with which he responded to be amusing, but he didn’t have time. “Why are the rest of you so agitated?” Connor asked, getting straight to the point and asking about his companions’ strange movements.
The young man, knowing that Connor was part of the inner circle of those in charge of this place, saw nothing wrong with answering. His superiors told him it was a secret and not to trust anyone, but in this moment, he felt comfortable enough to answer.
We should cooperate in such a dangerous situation, the young man thought.
He looked around, making sure that nobody was watching or near enough to hear. After a moment of carefully observing his surroundings, he confirmed that nobody was nearby and got closer to Connor.
“We have reason to believe that Eric is in danger. We just want to make sure he and everyone else is safe,” the young man whispered to Connor.
“Eric?!” Connor asked, surprise evident on his face.
“Yes. You saw how he was during the madman incident and what he said. Someone might not have liked it and decided to take matters into their own hands. We’re just making sure nothing happens to the others.”
Connor gave a small nod toward the young man. “Thanks for the information,” he said and got up. Once he was far enough, his usual expression disappeared, and a frown took over.
“Eric was right. He is the target,” Connor said as he began to pick up the pace.
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Behind the supply storage, a small eating area had been made. It looked directly at the cooking area, and it was made entirely out of wood.
The flooring was built at a certain elevation. The roof was made with a slope toward the forest, which was directly behind it. It, like basically everything else that was made of wood, was constantly having everything about it replaced or remodeled.
Every single aspect of the eating area was constantly being enhanced or changed in some way. While tables were constantly being improved, the improvement of chairs was completely different.
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It wasn’t unusual for two or three different chairs to be made in a single day, each trying to improve on a single aspect of their predecessor. Sometimes it was the backrest, while at other times it was the leg length.
It didn’t matter, the chairs were all different, with each having achieved their real purpose just by being created, leveling up the carpenters.
Lydia was currently in the middle of evaluating the new chairs. Every day at noon, while she waited for her dinner to be made, she took a moment to evaluate the new chairs that had been brought.
She sat on one and took a mental note that her back was not resting properly. She went to another and took note that her feet weren’t completely touching the ground. Finally, she moved toward the last chair, and as she touched the armrest, her calm was disturbed.
It was the voice, it had returned. The same voice that pushed and helped her to aid other people began speaking to her once more.
“Ignore… Let it happen... It’s for the best…” Each word sounded ethereal, like the smoothest of hands caressed her ears, then her face, and finally, she was entranced.
The voice was the same as the one who had guided her to help others. Lydia felt nothing different from it. In fact, she was completely sure that it was the exact same and that nothing had happened to it.
So, it made her curious as to why it wanted her to let something happen. The wording itself suggested that it was something bad, and she was just supposed to let it go. But before she could question the voice and its intentions any further, her mind was no longer hers.
She no longer felt that anything was off, so even if the voice returned and told her to ignore something, she didn’t question it. She didn't even know what it was that she was supposed to ignore.
As her hand began to glide over the edges of the chair to feel the smoothness, she paused. She began to feel like she was forgetting something, she just didn’t know what.
“Did I forget something?” she asked herself with doubt filling her every word.
But then the voice returned to her once more.
“Ignore… Let it happen... It’s for the best...”
Just like that, her doubts were calmed. She continued with her assessment of the chairs as she waited for her dinner to be ready.
The smell of whatever it was they were making finally reached her. For some reason, she couldn’t make sense of the smell.
“Whatever,” she told herself, dismissing the oddity.
Normally, even if Lydia didn’t have the best sense of smell, or at least good enough to be able to distinguish the dish being made through scent alone, she would still be able to guess something about it.
That, however, would not happen today, not right now. Her mind was far too foggy to be able to distinguish scents, and it was far too foggy to know that something was wrong.
“—dia!”
Lydia heard something in the distance. She turned to see if she could find who was making the sound, but there was nothing, there was nobody.
“—dia!!”
Once more, this time closer. She turned, and again, nothing really appeared to be out of the ordinary, so she continued with her task.
“Lydia!!!”
She shook her head in an instinctual attempt to clear it. She tried to whip her head toward the source of the sound but failed and continued analyzing the chair.
Suddenly she felt pressure on both of her shoulders and began to shake violently. She tried to push back against the natural response that was reacting toward being shaken, but it was too much.
Lydia opened her eyes, blinking repeatedly, feeling like she had just been dreaming. Every single part of her felt groggy. She kept blinking, trying to get a clearer image of what was going on in front of her.
When she finally spoke, she only uttered a single word. “What?” was all she could say, still being too far gone to actually form a coherent thought.
“Lydia,” Connor said, slapping her awake. “Lydia, something’s wrong.”
Lydia backed away from Connor, not due to external influences, she just didn’t want to be slapped again. Grabbing his hand, she firmly kept it away. She was slowly coming to when suddenly, the voice returned.
“Ignore… Nothing is wrong... Let it happen... It’s for the best...”
But just as the voice returned, it was immediately crushed by the words of the next person who spoke.
“Lydia, go and gather all of them. Now,” Stella said in a tone that left little room for argument or questioning.
Just as Stella finished speaking, the otherworldly voice was not only cut off, but its effects were also crushed, immediately freeing Lydia from all the grogginess that had taken over her body.
Lydia once more began to blink repeatedly, this time not in an attempt to free herself of the grogginess but in an attempt to see Stella clearly.
At this very moment, Stella exuded a presence similar to the one Eric had during his short speech. It wasn’t as intense, but every single one of her words was enough to crush any confusion.
Connor, who was used to working with dangerous and imposing people, was also surprised when Stella arrived and spoke. It wasn’t like when he was receiving orders, no, her tone had a more regal sense to it.
“Get moving. Now,” Stella ordered. She then turned around, trying to look as calm as possible.
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Everyone else at Solace had failed to notice that anything was going on. But to be fair, not even the ones that knew that something was wrong knew exactly what was wrong.
The oddest thing that the people had noticed was Lydia taking an unusual interest in the chairs that had been changed today. To the point where her food had long since gone cold.
Hilda just looked at Lydia with amusement, not entirely sure if this was normal behavior or not. But she had other things to do, so her interest in Lydia didn’t last long, and she returned to her cooking.
It was the same everywhere else. At most, they only saw some people running past them in a hurry, not even being able to see who they were.
But those in charge very much preferred this to the alternative. which was nothing but panic. Said panic would just make it much harder for her and the others to search for Eric and get those that she knew were related to what was going on.
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Stella walked toward her office once more, trying to hide the fact that she was basically ripping her lower lip clean off as she bit it deeply. She tried her best to stick to her office, not out of fear but for the sake of efficiency. If any of the others returned with news, they would immediately know where to find her.
She sat on the edge of her desk and dug her nails into her chair’s armrest. A few of her nails actually managed to dig into the wood, while the rest just broke off.
Her deep feeling of unease refused to settle ever since Anna ran out of her office. The feeling had been growing since much earlier. She tried her best to ignore it at the funeral, she had things to do so it wasn’t hard. Then came the dungeon upgrade, it easily drowned it out. But now, nothing worked.
“Eric is leaving… I know it,” she muttered, her voice resigned and dejected.
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“Yes, I do know you,” Eric said, grabbing his head. He tried to remember the name of the person before him but was having difficulty. “Hey, you know I know it, right?” he asked. “Remember, I told you your name before you said it.”
Eric paused, the moon becoming brighter and brighter in the sky. Neither he nor the person in front of him moved or reacted in any way as the night grew.
Eric snapped his fingers. “You used to work here or something,” Eric said and glanced at the person’s book. “Library?” he asked, already knowing the answer. Not that he actually expected the person before him to answer.
“No, I remember her,” Eric said, remembering the older woman who was at the library desk. She had long gray hair and wore glasses, though she did not look to be at an age to have gray hair, it also didn’t appear to be a hair tint. That was the reason he remembered her so well.
A saber appeared on the person’s hand. Nothing had been there, but now there was. A simple saber, adorned with gold on its hilt and a simple golden chain connecting it to a bracelet on the person's wrist.
Eric had already guessed that the person before him had access to some of the best items. Whatever they used on the madman had been more than enough to ignore the difference in level. So, it wasn’t surprising that they already had a storage ring and a sword that looked much better than anything he currently had.
“Ah! Fuck it,” Eric said, excited. “Let’s just get this over with, then,” he added as a spear appeared on his right hand.