It made no sense to Northern. It was absolute lunacy!
If he had a way to go out of the rift all while he was in it, he would have grabbed onto that way and stepped out of that place with immediate effect.
There was a thin line between cowardice and common sense, but it didn’t matter in the face of survival.
He needed to live, maybe to come back and fight another day, maybe to get stronger another way.
As cowardly as running away sounded, Northern believed it was common sense and reasonable.
Confronting something when your doom was certain sounded even more cowardly, plus stupid.
If she had an airship, not only could she avoid whatever horrors might be in the sea, she didn’t need to go to Luinngard. It’ll be a safe ride back home.
‘So why? Why is she not using it and why is she willing to give it up for me?’
Northern narrowed his eyes in suspicion, then scoffed.
“Alright, so you want me to believe you have an airship, which, by the way, would make your journey back to the Central Plain a cakewalk. Not only are you not using it to go back, but you also want to leave it for me?”
Raven shook her head, hair swaying gently along.
“No, you are wrong.”
“Then?” Northern tilted his head. “Would you care to explain?”
“I don’t have the ship yet.”
A frown creased upon Northern’s brows, eyes crinkling beneath them.
“I don’t get it. So you were planning to bargain with a ship you don’t have yet?”
He didn’t know whether to call her stupid or insane.
‘Or she’s just plain dumb maybe.’
But Northern knew there was nothing dumb about the girl standing before him.
‘How old could she even be, 16?’ He wondered, however, discarded the thought a second later. ‘What’s the use of such useless thoughts?’
Raven started:
“The ship, I could get it anytime I want, but I decided not to in order to keep it a secret.”
“Of course, you have to, knowing there is a way home will tear up the order in the little kingdom you guys have managed to build for yourselves.”
Northern’s brow suddenly flinched, then he focused his gaze more on Raven.
“Accompany you to where?”
Raven did not hesitate, she spoke as though she was expecting Northern to ask all the while. freёweɓnovel.com
“There exists a cohort put together by the prince of Lotheliwan. They tried challenging the rift, and I think they forgot something.”
Her explanation only made Northern’s curiosity grow worse. Maybe that was what she was trying to do.
Northern stared at her, his eyes were peeled dull and tired.
‘Definitely, she wouldn’t want to reveal all her information, but the fact here is that there is an airship. It changes everything so far. I could go back home.’
The thought of home filled Northern’s mind with delight and expectations.
At the same time, it was scary because he felt like he was having a wild dream, one that was bound to go up in flames.
He clenched his fist tightly behind his back, staring at the ground for a couple of seconds before bringing his eyes back to Raven.
“So this airship is supposed to be where?”
“The location where we are headed,” she responded firmly.
The deal was so enticing; he would really be able to return home. He didn’t care about anything; these guys were a lost cause anyway.
He knew better than anyone the trouble that might be lurking in other rifts. And if Koll’s other alter is waiting for them there, they were headed for damnation, and no amount of talk was going to save them from it.
Besides,
‘This might be my only chance to be close enough with that girl. I believe her name was Terence.’
This was the only chance he’d get. Terence and Raven.
He wasn’t sure what made Raven so exceptional from the rest, that even an ordinary man would recognize how exceptional she was from the rest of the party leaders.
‘I’d love to have her ability too.’
So this could, in the end, work out to benefit him.
‘But I can’t just agree like that. I have to extort them!’
Northern folded his arms and remained pensive for a couple of seconds before opening his mouth.
“Alright, but I have a condition.”
Raven raised a brow, “What condition could that be? I already gave you the best deal.”
“Yeah, sure you did. I know that too, but think about it,” Northern started explaining with hand gestures. “What if it all goes wrong? What then do I have to gain from this expenditure of yours?”
“It can’t fail,” she initiated with a deep frown. “If it had any chances of failure, then I wouldn’t have asked you.”
Northern grinned at the corner of his lips.
“Oh? Contrary to that, I thought you were asking me to increase your chances of success?”
He added with a tone laced with taunt.
“Or are you onto some nonsense like trying to test me through this?”
Raven kept her silence throughout and stared at him, unflinching. Her crimson gaze at some point almost wiped the smugly expression off Northern’s face.
Instead, his brows furrowed, and he made clear to her:
“If I catch a whimsy wink of anything like trickery, death will be a better option than the hell that I will show you.”
Raven, at that point, allowed a small but confident smile.
“Of course, you have nothing to worry about. I’m as open with you as I need to be.”
Northern’s expression froze, his blue eyes piercing into hers. Then he threw his face away and let out a ‘tch’ of frustration.
‘That smile on her face is so annoying! I can’t help but feel like I’m playing myself into her hands.’
Raven’s voice caused his focus to trail back to her face once again.
“So, what is your condition?”
Northern let out a sigh.
‘Never have I been so stressed from just a few minutes of talking to someone.’
His conversation with Raven was almost like walking on eggshells.
At some point, he felt like he was being tested by the things she said, and strangely, he found himself wanting to pass that test.
Other times, he felt like the words that came out of his mouth were being evaluated and judged.
It made goosebumps run helter-skelter his skin.
The fact that it felt like he wanted to enter her good book, impress her in some way, was a very, very uncomfortable feeling.
‘She’s someone I should run away from.’
Northern was silent even after she had spoken. He just stared at her dubiously, his eyes glowing faintly.
‘It’s fine. It’s just going to be this one time. I’ll add two more talents to my repertoire, and if things go well, I’ll have a certain way back home, and this, it will be a bonus also.’
“I want all the soul cores we receive during this expenditure.”