Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 151 - Loyalty

Previously:

The Tainted sets his eyes on Nelaira. Nelaira is unable to escape but Aurel comes to her rescue. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen circumstance, Aurel ends up getting hit by the creature and rendered unconscious. Laica loses her bearing and intensifies her magic, attracting the creature's attention onto herself. Luki starts treating Aurel, but the creature's stomp causes an earthquake and the two of them fall into the nearby pit. Laica rushes towards the pit to help them.

Nelaira attracts the creature's attention by erupting her mana and the team manages to kill the Tainted. At its death bed the Tainted starts twitching and erupts in its last attack shooting out countless air blades. Laica blocks in front of Luki and Aurel to protect them and ends up dying as a result. Unable to block all of the blades, one manages to pass through and damage Luki's boots, making him and Aurel fall back down into the pit. Nelaira wants to rush into the pit to save the two but is stopped by Lorafiel, her corporal.

Nelaira decides to descend into the pit alone and gives Lorafiel her luggage and her Beacon. However, she doesn't give them the diary they found in the village ruins. Lorafiel sends the other two to restrain and search her for the diary.

* * *

Lorafiel gave her a meaningful look. "You really shouldn't have continued to translate that diary."

Nelaira's heart trembled.

He knew.

Episode 151 – Loyalty

He must have woken in the middle of the night and noticed she was reading that little diary.

Did he notice changes in her behavior? When did he become suspicious?

Did he translate the diary in secret too, while she had been sleeping?

Did he realize the great secret that diary held and wanted to silence her?

"Are you mad?" Nelaira's voice quivered with disbelief. "So what if I read that diary? So did you! Do you intend to dispose of yourself as well?"

Lorafiel's eyebrow rose in amusement. "How could the two of us be the same?"

Nelaira let out a livid chuckle: "We are on the same team. We are both working for the Arites. But you are right. We are not the same. You are a hypocrite and I am not."

"Yes. We are not the same." Lorafiel nonchalantly admitted. "The difference between us is that I am very loyal..." His calm look turned cold. "And you are not."

"What gives you the right to question my loyalty to the Purge?" Nelaira opened her mouth to protest vehemently. "You think you can proclaim me as disloyal just because I have swerved in the Purge for a shorter time than you? My age might be lower, but my loyalty is no less than yours!"

"That..." Lorafiel drawled, "...would have been so much more convincing if the source of all this fiasco wasn't your disloyalty in the first place."

Nelaira stomped her feet, trembling with rage, doing her utmost to restrain her urge to strangle the man where he stood.

No matter how she wanted to tear him apart with her bare hands, with the current state of her body she could barely stand, let alone satisfy her primal aggression.

But that was alright. She didn't need to use her fists. She still had her magic.

She just needed time.

Nelaira opened her mouth to spit out: "You are overstepping your authority! It is not your place to pass judgment on my misdeeds! If our superiors have an issue with my actions they can distribute appropriate punishment when we return."