Over the next few days, Greg collected jars. He only took ones that weren't destroyed, able to carry liquids. Obviously, there wasn't that many of them, but there was enough.
At night, he filled those jars with his blood, cutting his chest to hide the scars. Plus, he packed stuff that he would need, like food, water, and clothing. His stock would last for maybe a week, which would be enough time to get to another town.
Finally, the day before Dio's deadline, Greg was ready; he would go at night.
Still, he had to make appearances.
The first room he chose to visit was Leia's, who he had barely talked to. He knocked, waiting for her to respond. After a minute or two, he knocked again, though no answer came. So, he opened the door. There was nobody in there. Moving onto the second door, which was Lily's, he found that it, too, was empty. The final door belonged to Janus. Feeling himself on edge, he knocked on the door, waiting.
"Come in," a voice softly called, so Greg did. Inside, he found all three of them, dosing off in the middle of the room. Sitting on Janus' bed was Dio, who had his hands interlocked. "You're leaving today, right?" he asked, his voice just loud enough for him to hear.
"Yes," Greg responded, a bit louder than he wanted to. "Tonight."
Dio shook his head. "No, go right now. There won't be much traffic, and these three won't be awake for a while. But tell me this: What are you going to do?"
Smiling, Greg responded, "Why, Greg's gonna die. Oh, but not very soon, if I can help it."
Dio looked up, one brow raised higher than the other. Greg offered no further information. Both smiled, their lips forcibly moving upwards. "Goodbye, son."
"Bye, father."
With those words, Greg left, shutting the door behind him. He went back to his room, taking his already prepacked bag, and headed out to the forest.
The forest was predictably empty, which worked in his favour. The first thing he did was take the jars of blood out of his bag, taking the lid off them. Then, he splashed it over a wide area, making it appear as though he was ripped to shreds, then had his parts moved to several places. To further this idea, he ripped clothes he took from his bag, making sure to soak them in a little blood. Finally, he took some food from his pack, ripping it into chunks to spread over the area. Whatever Monsters lived here would come and eat the food.
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Now, if anyone were nearby... "AAAAAGH!!" he yelled, louder than he'd ever yelled before. He ran away, going just far enough off-track to not be visible while still seeing the road, away from Turo.
Task accomplished! Achieved via Deceit! Calculating Reward...
Pick one of the below Items!
Just like that, a long list appeared, containing the names of items he had seen in the game.
Illusion Magic Book (A), Ring Of Change (S), Deceitful Shoes (A), Deceitful Earrings (B), Hidden Sword (B), Liar's Tongue (Evo),...
Out of all of the ones he saw, it boiled down to Illusion Magic Book (A), Ring Of Change (S), or Liar's Tongue (Evo).
The Illusion Magic Book (A) would allow him to cast Illusion Magic, which distorts another's perception of the world. If he had magic.
Ring of Change (S) allows one to change their own appearance at will, even shrinking to the form of an ant if they wanted. However, after changing, if the ring was removed for any reason, they would remain that shape.
Finally, Liar's Tongue (Evo) was an evolutionary object, undefined by rank alone. It would start off weak, maybe strong enough to convince a baby to do something, then get stronger once certain conditions were met.
"Yeah, it's gotta be that," he said, making his choice. Obviously, he picked Liar's Tongue.
The next day, in the Church of Gourdia, Goddess of Truth & Order, Dio stood in a confessional booth, crying.
"I miss my son," he said, voice shaking.
"We understand that, Dio Baker," a priest replied from a closed off section. "But we need to know if he seemed different. For any reason."
"Of course he was different! Thinking of running away, only to be..." The next words stuck in his throat, unable to come out.
The priest sighed, sounding annoyed. "Thank you for your time, Brother. Our Goddess has deemed your words the Truth, and so, we give your business our blessing."
Rubbing away his tears, Dio stood from his kneeling position, saying, "Thank you."
He left, composing himself faster than he should've, whispering, "I hope they never meet."
Moving over to where his children sat, he heard Janus complaining. "This is a waste of time," he exclaimed. "We should be training, right now!"
"It's nice that you don't want this to repeat," Dio stated, placing a hand on Janus' shoulder, "but you do need rest. And please show respect to Gourdia for allowing us to live."
Lily, too, stood up, pointing angrily. Quickly, Leia stood, covering Lily's mouth, but she wasn't fast enough. "You can't just say that like he wasn't your son!"
"You really think I don't care?" he shouted. Everyone around quietened, staring in shock. Ashamed, Dio said, "We are not doing this here. Come along."
With all their heads hung low, they left the Church, arriving at the Bakery.
Once they were all in, Dio shut the door. "None of you will have any thoughts that this was your fault. Because it wasn't. It was as avoidable as being sick. All of you are talented, so prepare to make something like this never happen again. You hear me?" The three nodded.
Dio pushed past them, heading into the furnace room.
"I wonder how they're taking it," Greg muttered, lounging around while eating some bread that he made and brought with him. It was some pretty good bread. Such a shame he'll never go back to baking bread again.