Evolving Classes In The Apocalypse-Chapter 15: Sabotage

I stared into his face and gave a polite smile as I responded to him:

"I used to work as a miner for a long time. I stopped for a while because a family member of mine died. It’s possible that you would find my face familiar, back then I was much more in shape."

He stared at me for a few seconds and shrugged, "Hm, well then.. Welcome back and make sure to do what you’re told."

He didn’t pay attention to Ysor and simply walked away. As I watched him go, a huge weight lifted off my chest immediately, but I made sure not to express it in the usual manner. I just held Ysor’s hand and faced my front.

She squeezed back. She also understood the weight that had hung in the moment.

’No... not as much as I do.’

That was right, I had somewhat forgotten that Ysor had no idea I had killed someone. I still didn’t know what her reaction would be to such a thing. I could easily guess that she would support me nonetheless, but what bothered me was that I wasn’t sure I could always be right, especially when these were things that had never happened before.

It wasn’t like I had ever killed someone.

"Don’t worry," she whispered to me, "I think you handled it well. You gave him an answer to fill in the blank in his head. As long as the idea is vague, he won’t think about it."

I nodded. Of course, what she explained was what I had hoped to achieve by telling that lie.

It finally reached our turn. Ysor entered first and I followed. We both settled into the aged seats of the vehicle, facing the others that had entered before us. The man I was sitting across from looked to be in his forties. He had lean muscles that seemed to have been built from decades of intense and cheap labour, the kind that ate away at a body even as it strengthened it.

Many of the people here had been miners for twenty, thirty years of their life. The certain thing was that everyone here was an Awakened Mundane like me. It was, after all, the new base of humanity.

The man sitting across from Ysor looked slightly younger and he leaned back with a hollow gaze, staring at the sky. It was probably endearing of me to say, but he looked very hungry.

We waited as the second transport was being loaded. After a long while, morning light flooded the atmosphere and everywhere was viciously bright, while the fog coated the entirety of the mountain where Area C was located, drenching it so much that from our position all that could be seen of the higher altitude was a thick wall of white.

’So this is how morning looks from the outer ring...’

Our surroundings were also coming to life. The fewer people that had no choice but to stay in the outer ring were waking up and opening their windows. The Secretariat doors had been opened by the clerk who arrived while the second transport was being loaded.

Soon, more workers would arrive. And my fear was whether they carried news of the Enforcers in the Inner Ring looking for me.

So I was making a silent and desperate prayer, even though I had taught myself to believe gods don’t exist. I knew my mother used to be an avid believer of them, almost as though she had witnessed them before. Perhaps some of that belief had survived in me after all, buried deeper than I cared to admit, surfacing only when everything else failed.

Quite soon, the filling was done. There were more people who weren’t able to get in because both transports were full. A man stepped from the armored beast tank and walked closer to address them.

When I saw the man, my eyes twitched and a small frown creased my brows. I tried to hide it. In fact, I believe I did perfectly well, only for me to hear Ysor’s voice.

"What’s wrong?"

"Huh?" I belatedly tore my gaze from the man and looked at her and almost stuttered, "What’s wrong? Oh, nothing is wrong I assure you."

"You do that thing where you repeat my question when you’re trying to not tell me about something. So spill, Axel." She whispered.

I sighed. ’Lying to her will be difficult...’

"I’ll inform you, just not here."

I glanced back at the man who had just finished addressing the crowd. His black cropped hair was unmistakable. Just yesterday, he had been with Vorn.

’Ah, it’s no surprise I see him sometimes. He comes here from the Crucible of Giants.’

He was someone I had always seen with Vorn anytime Vorn came to pick me from the academy or drop me off. A fixture of those routines, someone I had never spoken to but whose face was filed away all the same.

And he was here. I confirmed that he was truly the one as he turned to walk back into the armored beast tank. He used his eyes to briefly take in the transport and the people there, and I quickly turned away from him, facing front.

For once, I wished I didn’t have such a vibrant hair color. It certainly would have been easy to blend in. But blending was very difficult because red hair was not attributed to a lot of people.

If there were more people from the Middle Ring among these miners, my cover certainly would have been blown, and Ysor’s too. Her platinum white hair drew less attention than my crimson. The color of rich blood did something to people’s memory.

I wasn’t sure what was going on behind me, whether I had been recognized and I was in soup, or I had been saved and I was too scared to find out. At all costs I needed to reach another dimension where I could find a place to evolve to a new rank.

For a moment, I remembered.

’I will soon become a Novice. An Awakened Novice.’

It was joyous to think about, and while I was consumed in that thought, the engines of the transport revved to life, growling like enslaved beasts. The tank in front reversed and turned in the wide space between the cathedral and the walls, and led the way out of the gate.

And the other two transports followed.

*** 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Archer entered the armored vehicle and settled into the driver’s seat. Next to him was a man with half-lidded eyes that looked perpetually tired of everything around him.

He placed his hands on the wheel controls of the transport and paused for a moment, looking towards the man sitting next to him. Behind the vehicle was a closed space for other Enforcers with their armaments.

"Gal, have you ever seen a man with red hair?"

Gal was leaning leisurely but turned his face to his mate and thought about the question.

"Asides from the traitor’s son, no, I haven’t."

Archer started the engine of the tank, causing the massive thing to growl so intimidatingly that all its insides were vibrating.

"Right. Speaking of which, I heard he was a disappointment yesterday. Poor boy, the government had poured so much resources into him, even asking a Master to be his private tutor, only for him to awaken as a Mundane. If he had awakened a Master Class, it would have been much better."

Gal shrugged, "I’m sure even like this, he still has his uses."

Archer glanced at him, "You snake, what are you thinking in that head of yours."

Gal smiled, "I’m just saying there are people who will pay to humiliate him after all that his father did to the higher ups. They will want to pay back the favor." He grinned, "I’m always thinking about profit."

Archer looked at Gal with a restrained smile, "Uh, well, it’s not like you can take him away from a Master. Vorn will tear you apart with his hands."

Archer laughed after speaking, but it was almost too much work to hide how uncomfortable he felt. He was well aware how creepy and twisted Gal could be.

’I really deserve a better life than this. I should apply for a transfer when we get back to the Crucible.’

Now, they were outside the gate and a vast rocky terrain was sweeping past them slowly.

Then their radio suddenly rang:

"Mayday Mayday, there’s been a murder case in the Rubravis Estate, any available Enforcer report. Axel Rubravis is missing, report."

Both of them stared wide-eyed as they heard this. Meanwhile Gal let out a creepy smile.

"Oh well, now will you look at that?"