Chapter 678: Bulshitting
Elion let out a wry laugh and stepped forward, placing himself between his cohort and the eyeless man.
"You see, we’ve had a change of heart," he said. "So... is there any chance you’d be willing to just let us be on our way?"
There was a hopeful note in his voice, even though he already knew what the answer would be.
The man tilted his head to the side. "Hmm... you want to leave? Yeah, sure, you’re free to go."
Elion’s brows rose, having not expected such an answer, but the man was not done. He suddenly smiled. "After meeting the master, of course. She’s taken an interest in you, so you don’t get to refuse."
Elion clicked his tongue in annoyance. He was hopeful for a moment there. "I thought so..."
"Seeing as you tried to escape just now, you must have discovered something that you didn’t like," the man said. "Tell me, what is it about our humble town that you didn’t like? That way, we can improve it for our next visitors." A malevolent smile spread across his face as he waited for an answer.
Elion stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Honestly, it’s hard to pick. The thing is, I hate everything about this place. I don’t know how these people even cope with this place, with no sun, terrible air; it’s nothing but a cage, really. A sorry excuse for a town, honestly."
A deadpan look appeared on the eyeless man’s face. He seemed quite stunned, though a wicked grin soon made its way onto his lips. "Heeeehhhh... a bold one, aren’t you?"
Elion shrugged. "I’m just an honest soul, and I don’t want to be eaten just yet. I still very much want to keep my life."
Had the man possessed eyes, they would have narrowed; as it was, his brows creased visibly. "Just how much do you know? Did you really wander in here by accident?"
Elion shrugged again. "Who knows? What I will tell you is that we have someone very powerful waiting outside. I reckon if we don’t make it out by tomorrow, they’ll absolutely bring this place down and reduce it to rubble like the ruins above us..."
Elion was bullshitting, of course, but if that was what it took for them to make it out of here, then that was exactly what he would do.
"Is that so?" the man asked, earning a nod from Elion. "Well, since you seem to know more than I thought you did, you should know how powerful this person would need to be to even stand on equal ground with the master."
Elion scoffed. "Of course. We actually have two saints with us. I didn’t want to reveal our trump cards like this, but you’ve given me no choice," he said, a light smile appearing on his face.
The man’s brows furrowed even further. "How did you find out about this place?" he asked.
Elion’s smile deepened, though inwardly, he might as well have been smirking. ’He took the bait!’
"It’s simple, really. Some of our people were sent to this place, but they never came back. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?" he said, still smiling lightly.
Elion’s reasoning was simple.
The body they had found the little girl feasting on couldn’t have belonged to one of the people who lived here, meaning it had been another outsider like them.
His clothes, though terribly faded and almost nonexistent, had been vastly different from what the people here wore.
In fact, they had been much closer to what the people back home wore, meaning this person had been one of those who had entered the legacy world from outside. But he couldn’t have been alone... What had happened to his companions?
Elion knew he could be wrong, and his heart was beating wildly in his chest. If his assumption turned out to be mistaken, his bluff would be exposed.
"So those were your people?" the man asked, his expression becoming increasingly thoughtful.
’Victory!’ Elion thought inwardly.
He resisted the urge to let his relief show. Instead, he maintained that faint, composed smile, watching the man’s face as though the answer had merely confirmed something he already knew.
"Then you understand why we would prefer to leave," he said. "We’ve found more than enough to report."
The man remained silent for a moment, his empty sockets turned toward Elion with an attentiveness that made his skin prickle.
Behind him, the others had become very still.
They knew perfectly well that there were no saints waiting outside, but thankfully, none of them seemed inclined to betray his lie through anything more conspicuous than their silence.
"You have an interesting way of conducting an investigation," the man eventually remarked. "You arrive with a banished child, ask to meet the master, and then attempt to disappear before your request can be granted."
Elion shrugged lightly. "Would you have welcomed us so warmly if we had arrived demanding answers?"
The man’s mouth twitched, though whether in amusement or displeasure was difficult to tell.
Elion took the opportunity to continue before another question could force him to elaborate on a story he had barely begun constructing.
"We wanted to find out what happened to our people. That didn’t necessarily mean we wanted to start a fight. Until recently, I was still hoping there might be a perfectly reasonable explanation for their disappearance."
"And now?"
"Now I would rather discuss the matter somewhere with a little more sunlight."
A soft laugh slipped from the man’s lips. It travelled strangely through the deserted passage, echoing beneath the stone arches long after it should have faded.
Elion kept his expression unperturbed, though the sound did little to soothe the unease in his heart.
’Come on. You don’t have to believe every word. Just believe enough to let us through.’
The man slowly folded his arms across his bare chest. In the pallid light spilling from the growths overhead, the black markings on his skin seemed even darker.
"Two saints," he murmured. "And yet they sent you here without accompanying you?"
Elion had been expecting that question, though having an answer prepared did not make it any easier to deliver.
"They sent us to investigate the ruins," he replied. "We were expecting a tomb, perhaps a trial ground. Finding an entire settlement concealed beneath it was quite a surprise."
That much, at least, was true.