They entered the gate and proceeded through the decayed bush… in silence.
But this time, the silence was very devastating.
Because obviously there was tension between Raven and Northern, and none of them was saying anything about it.
Terence seemed to be the only one suffering as a result of the tension. She wanted to just scream several times, but she just looked at both of them and smiled.
She could easily tell that this was probably something they needed to sort out themselves.
Whatever would flow out of it needed to flow out, for both their sakes and most especially for Raven.
Because deep down… Terence felt she was also stupid and needed to grow up.
But Raven was tremendously egotistic; the crazy part was she didn’t even see herself as such.
The things she did, her crazy way of handling people sometimes seemed like control, but she didn’t see it as that.
To her, she was just genuinely helping them to see their potential.
Everyone had misunderstood her in the beginning, but now, everyone had come to respect her.
Because her true intent was only what mattered in the end.
Still, Terence felt it was time for Raven to start being more conscious about her character.
She knew nothing at all! Nothing!
And sometimes, she too could be naive. All she needed to get played was someone way smarter and stronger than her.
Terence was sure Raven would get played without even realizing it.
She was a genius through and through, but she was a clueless one.
Finally, after millennia of silence, Northern spoke.
“I thought that we should have started seeing people by now.”
“No, we can’t. This place is a backdoor for a reason.”
“Why? Why aren’t there people?”
Raven pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Her tone annoyed Northern, but he put up with it and glanced back.
“The woods… that makes a lot of sense.”
Saying that suddenly made him realize something yet again!
“Wait, Raven…”
Raven looked away quickly, like a dog that had been caught guilty.
Northern scowled at her.
“You knew! You knew about the woods! You knew what it was going to do, and you knew that you were going to be heavily affected by it!!”
Raven turned to him slowly and sighed, her face, of course, was still blank, devoid of any reasonable emotion. As if nothing mattered to her.
“There was no other way,” she said.
“No other way? Why the hell would you jeopardize yourself like that?!”
Raven’s eyes became dour, she looked down briefly and looked at Northern, flames of conviction igniting deep within her eyes.
They were frightening.
“I didn’t expect that my deepest secret was going to be that… it wasn’t really a secret… I was just skeptical of you finding out since that would ruin a lot of things in my plan. But since when do you care about what I do to get to my goal? Whether I put myself at jeopardy or not is not your business.”
Northern stepped closer and stopped barely two feet away from her, glaring into her eyes.
“Look, lady, I don’t care what you do to yourself. But you are not the only one on this journey. You are not the only person whose life is at jeopardy, so stop haggling our lives with death!” He yelled, almost groaning.
His brows were tightly furrowed, and eyes gleaming.
Northern was really angry.
“What if I didn’t have resistance to mind attacks?! What if I couldn’t see in the darkness any more than an ordinary person should? What if it was all of that? What would you have done?!!”
He panted with his chest rising and falling.
Northern, at this point, stuttered as his voice angrily rang.
“H-how? J-just how? How can you trust someone you don’t even know enough to bargain your life on them? It makes no freaking sense!!!”
Northern shouted, throwing his hands.
He was right. It made absolutely no sense!
Raven completely trusted him, like she was so sure that he’d overcome those things.
Was it because she knew something about him?
Even if she knew his talents and that he could do it, it still made no sense that she would place her entire life and plans in his hands.
Just like that!
Without even discussing it with him.
Northern grabbed his head, thinking about it was almost harrowing.
“Crap, it’s barely even been a day since we started this journey, and I feel like it’s been a year already!”
If all this could happen just in one day, what awaited him in the future?
Northern was sure he would be mentally dead before he came.
Because none of this girl’s actions and thought patterns made any sense.
It didn’t make any sense at all!
“Crap… crap!”
“Northern…” Raven tried to call softly…
…But Northern was still in his head.
“Crap, crap, crap, crap.”
“Northern…”
“What?!” He screamed back to reality.
“What is it?!”
Raven swallowed her spit.
“You’re shouting, we are very close to the back of the stronghold, and Helena’s abode is located there… if you keep shouting like that, it will only be a matter of time before she catches onto us, and our plan goes up in flames.”
She sternly made her point… even glaring at Northern.
After hearing her, Northern recomposed himself and sighed deeply.
“I apologize for my behavior just now… I’m sorry, but I have one more question. Now that you mention it… remember you said we are here to do two things…”
“Yes. Northern… yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, the person I owe a death grudge to is Afkon, and I will kill him before leaving this place.”
Northern’s mouth fell.
This time, even Terence turned her head to look at Raven with a stunned surprise.
“No… Light, you don’t mean that. Afkon?”
She looked at the Oracle.
“Yes, I do, Terence.” Then she turned her eyes to Northern, they were burning with a ferocious amount of conviction.
One could tell by the look in her eyes that nothing on this Tra-el could make her think otherwise.
She opened her mouth, looking right into Northern’s face as she spoke.
“Do you know… that Afkon and Helena are what’s left of the first generation of students that was sent here ten years ago.”
Northern’s brows furrowed.
“What?”