Chapter 172: Questions
Chapter 170
".... We need to talk!"
Felix remained standing there with a stunned expression on his face as Ray approached him with those blunt words.
Before he could even process the sudden demand, the boy was already walking away while gesturing firmly for him to follow along.
With no hesitation, Felix followed suit, his curiosity piqued by Ray’s uncharacteristic intensity.
Trisha stared at the two boys walking away with a calm, stoic look on her features.
However, inwardly, she wasn’t quite that composed.
’Who exactly is that boy? And why has the werewolf been sticking to him so persistently for a while now?’ the thought had surged into her mind too rapidly for her to exert control over her own musings.
Quickly, she blinked, refocusing her wandering attention once again.
’I couldn’t even care less,’ she thought with a mental shrug, and she also made her way toward the exit to leave the hall.
***
Meanwhile, the boys found themselves deep within the quiet sanctuary of the library.
Carrying various books as a front to avoid suspicion, they picked an empty table in a secluded corner.
After making sure that the table’s noise cancellation feature was activated, they finally faced each other.
Felix had been remarkably quiet during the entire walk as Ray led him here.
Inwardly, however, his mind spun with dozens of possibilities, wondering what the boy could possibly want to speak with him about so urgently.
Dropping the book aside, Ray heaved a heavy sigh and turned to face the young werewolf sitting before him.
"I have some questions that have been bothering me for a while now, and I find myself in need of some clarifications."
Felix leaned in, shoving his own book aside to give Ray his full attention.
A brow was lifted confusedly as he waited.
"Shoot. If it’s something I can answer, I will certainly try my best to clear up any confusion you might have."
Ray sighed while rubbing his temples, the weight of the secret pressing on him.
’How do I even begin to ask this?’
A few seconds passed with the boy lost in deep thought before he cleared his throat and finally looked up, his gaze meeting Felix’s.
"Uh... so, since you are a peak Omega, which means you are a direct descendant of one of those Beta families you speak of, you should likely know a large number of werewolves in your world, right?"
Felix lifted a brow, wondering where this specific line of questioning was heading.
"Yes?"
Clearing his throat again, Ray shifted uncomfortably in his seat and finally asked the question:
"Do you happen to know any werewolf by the name of, Bruce?"
***
In his mind space, Bruce had already shifted forward curiously, waiting with bated breath to hear the answer that would be given.
Meanwhile, Felix raised an eyebrow for a moment, then rubbed his temples in deep thought as if meticulously sorting through his internal records before answering.
"Uh... I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but the werewolves aren’t as barbaric as you might think. We are like the humans too... just a little different and considerably more powerful."
Ray frowned, his impatience growing.
"Your point exactly?"
"My point is that there are likely tons of werewolves with similar names. Without a specific last name to narrow it down, I don’t think I’ll be able to answer your question with any accuracy."
Ray blinked, the simplicity of the error hitting him.
’Of course. I have been a fool.’
He felt like facepalming himself right then and there, but he shelved the impulse and decided to communicate with Bruce internally.
’Well? Anything? A surname, maybe?’
The werewolf was silent for several seconds.
Then, a sharp, painful yelp was heard echoing through the mind space before the werewolf let out a defeated sigh.
"Unfortunately, I can’t recall a thing."
Ray just shook his head slightly and then looked back at Felix, who was still staring at him, waiting for him to continue.
"Sorry, I don’t actually know their last name."
"Ah!" Felix exhaled with a silent, amused chuckle.
"Who is this person anyway? Is there another werewolf in this world that you have met apart from me?"
Ray quickly shook his head to dismiss the idea.
"No. I just heard the name in passing—probably it surfaced from my deepest, oldest memories."
Felix rubbed his temples, considering the possibility.
"It could have been your parents. Maybe you heard the name when you were just a child and it registered deep in your subconscious. That would be a plausible explanation, especially if one of your parents were werewolves though..."
The werewolf rambled on for a second, then, after a short pause, he added:
"... Or perhaps your grandparents."
Ray calmly absorbed everything the werewolf had been saying, but as the words entered one ear, they exited the other almost immediately.
As far as he could recall, neither of his parents were werewolves.
If they had been, they surely wouldn’t have perished in this damned war against the Aberrants.
First his father, and then his mother, had died in the most gruesome way imaginable.
Had they been werewolves, they would have regenerated and lived on.
Regarding his grandparents, Ray was entirely in the dark because he had never actually seen them.
According to his mother, both his paternal and maternal grandparents were long dead.
The primary reason he didn’t give Felix’s words a second thought was that he already knew the truth.
... The reality was that he obtained this power from a strange system, which in turn was granted to him by a mysterious rock creature fusing into his body.
Furthermore, he wasn’t a pure werewolf.
He was a Tribrid—a cross between three distinct bloodlines and races—meaning the normal rules of any single race didn’t apply to him at all.
"Any more questions?" Felix asked, raising a curious brow.
Ray hesitated for a few seconds, debating whether he should even voice his next inquiry.
Finally, he decided to ask.
"... Have you ever heard of a great war that might have occurred? Something involving a powerful foe vanquishing dozens of races and shaking entire realms?"
Felix’s brows furrowed as he stared at Ray for several seconds, his expression shifting to one of sheer bewilderment.
"Huh? A great war? A powerful foe vanquishing races?" He repeated the words as if they sounded utterly absurd to him.
"... I don’t think the werewolves have ever experienced anything like that. For as long as I can recall, we have been a peaceful race without any external interference, except for a few minor internal skirmishes."
He paused for a moment, giving the matter some deep thought.
"Besides, if you want to know about something so ancient, I’m definitely not the right person to ask.
I’m still young—terribly so compared to the normal standard—and I wasn’t exactly the best scholar back at home. I didn’t bother learning much of our history," Felix confessed, scratching his hair with a nervous chuckle.
Noticing that he was ruining his carefully maintained style, he stopped abruptly and used his hands to comb his hair back into a neat pile.
"I see..." Ray exhaled, the sound thick with exhaustion.
’Well, I guess I was right about you both. Those images were probably just altered memories, so rest easy, folks.’
Neither member of the duo replied, leaving his mind space eerily silent.
"But why are you asking, though? These questions are quite peculiar, if you ask me," Felix noted, a confused expression clouding his face.
Ray shook his head, grabbed the book he had taken from the shelf, and began to move toward the exit.
"It’s nothing. Forget about it and let’s go prepare for the expedition coming up soon."
Felix remained seated, watching Ray’s vanishing back with a blank look on his face.
’Er... should I have told him about the rumor I heard regarding the Bloody War?’