L.I.E. (Learn, Improve, Educate)

Chapter 13 - Our aim

"And that's all" Simon said after he finished showing their place around. Lael nodded and tried to make a smile. He was shown their weapons, traps, plans and also their own food recipes, which made Lael a bit uneasy as Simon explained him that those were especially for poisoning someone. Lael hoped he wouldn't be poisoned in the process, even though they said he didn't had any reason to be poisoned yet. Aiken also found out that he would be sleeping in an old mattress that belonged to one of them that night, but after it he would have to take turns with one of them to stay vigilant during the night.

"Do you have questions?" Simon tilted his head, walking off from Lael's new home. Lael followed him around. He gulped. He had so many questions that he wouldn't know where he should start. Aiken saw Nale cleaning his riffle while Edath was throwing knifes at targets. Apparently, she was still clumsy at that, failing the target multiple times. Fortunately, the target wasn't near any of them.

"Why do you guys trust me so much while you still barely know me?' Lael asked. Simon looked at him and made a half-smile. Lael couldn't be sure if he was truly smiling or not, as his burnt part of the face wouldn't move much. He wondered what happened to cause that part of his face to be burnt, not affecting his neck nor the rest of his visible body.

Simon walked towards Nale and patted him in the head, tousling his hair. Nale looked up and frowned but shrugged it off and continued to do what he was doing.

"Edath told us that you were trustworthy, so it's fine" he simply replied.

"Just because of that?" Lael found himself asking. You trust me just because someone simply said so... that's a little bit naïve, don't you think he thought. Simon chuckled.

"Yep, just because of that. You see..." Simon put his arm around Lael's shoulder and made he look to where Edath was still trying to hit the targets. "Even though she looks like a silly girl, she's not dumb at all. She has been studying people before I even met her, and I met her when she was around six years old. It might sounds insane but she has a really high emotional intelligence. She understands what I'm feeling, what you're feeling and so on. She has a great control over her emotions as well. Well, except for the anger, she clearly has anger issues." Simon chuckled. "But because of all of that, Edath can understand when there's lack of emotion or when there are subtle changes on people's behavior."

"Adding to that, she also has learnt micro expressions. So in the end, she can easily understand when someone is lying, even if you're a good liar. If you were one, she'd already notice and would be harder for you to join us freely like this" Simon put his hands on his waist and smiled towards Edath, who managed to hit the center of the target and was celebrating by laying on the floor with a completely exhausted look.

"Why did you decide to drift away from the rest? I mean..." Lael looked to them and calculated his words "It seems like you're actually running from them -"

"We're retreating for now" Simon interrupted while sitting on an improvised bench and looked to the stirred soil. Aiken followed his eyes to the soil.

"Oh... there were actually more of you..." Lael concluded. Simon looked at him surprised. Lael made a sympathetic smile before explaining himself. "I'm a detective, I formulate theories fast" he shrugged. Simon nodded and made a sad half-smile.

"Good job, detective. Yes, that's true..."

"We were ten." Edath suddenly popped up, cleaning the sweat from her forehead with her forearm. "Four nights ago, I, Nale and the remaining people except Simon, who can't follow us in these missions, went out there to watch closely the events that were going on." She sighed and looked away "There was someone who knew our identity and they set up a trap in order to kill us." She grabbed one of her braids and played with it, while continuing to speak "They shot three of us just like that. I told everyone to retreat but two of them tried to fight back. They ended up dead. Firo, Nale and I managed to run away but Firo was badly injured and ended up dying two nights ago." Edath clenched his fist and her jaw. She was consumed by guilt and disappointment. "After all, I was their leader and I've failed to protect them." She concluded.