Adara watched his motions intently. He was staring down at the cold food on the table. She knew he was angry, though she had enough mind to see the signs that he was not angry at her and Cale or she would've started wishing she had her sword with her.
She knew the anger was thoroughly directed at the Secret Organisation, knew he was thinking of all the things they had done in his head to sharpen his rage until it became a sharp enough blade to stab them with. She knew this because she too was thinking about it. She didn't know for how long Cale's plan to avoid them would work, so she had a backup just in case.
Cale picked up a cold but still delicious slice of bread, and ripped off a piece to eat. He handed the bread to her and she took a bite from it as well. "We plan on telling you two things."
They had already discussed what to do when Choi Han would connect the dots and realised there was no way two children of two Counts under no faction would have such detailed information. She hadn't been particularly comfortable with the plan at first, and Cale worried about her for that, but she knew she would do it anyway. It was better to be meticulous than sloppy. And she would never forgive herself for being sloppy because she wasn't comfortable.
"But not everything?" Choi Han asked after a moment of consideration.
"Not everything," she confirmed.
Choi Han was staring at them, but Adara and Cale ignored his gaze and got up from their seat. They pushed the chair back but no noise was made. Cale made a motion for Choi Han to follow suit. "Stand up."
"Are we going somewhere?" he asked, standing up and walking closer to them.
Adara, on instinct from all those years ago, checked her watch. She knew it would only be welcoming visitors once the sun set, she also knew that it would shine brighter as the night got darker. She turned to Choi Han, her hair twisting in the air to follow her moment, her arms wide open, a vicious smile on her face. "Why, the brightest building on the darkest night of course. The Temple of Death." She made a half-assed bow, most Nobles would've punished their servants if they saw them bow like that, a hand on her heart as she looked up at Choi Han.
Choi Han flinched at her words and she felt her smile widen.
Her eyes sharpened as she stared up at Choi Han, thinking about things she has known for a while. Many Nobles visited the Temple of Death, even if they were not all believers, they still visited. It is because of Priest Aron, the Deaf Priest, she thought. Deaf Priests only resided in the Temples of the God of Death, they could be found in no other place on the Continent. The importance of this Deaf Priest was because they could not hear what is said in the room hosting the Vow of Death, therefore the people saying the Vow could rest assured that the Deaf Priest could not tell further.
Adara and Cale walked to the door, stopping with their hands on the handles. They turned around to look at Choi Han who had not moved from where they previously were. They started to smile. "We plan on telling you two truths." Their voices harmonised together in an unnerving way, it made Choi Han flinch as he looked up at them. He saw that they were smiling, widely, the same smile they always had on. "With our lives on the line."
Choi Han's pupils shook as he stared at them. But they kept their smiles on as they turned to open the door. "Follow us."
Choi Han slowly moved closer to them. His eyes weren't shaking anymore but his face was still stiff.
They were slowly pushing the door open as they continued talking. "We will tell you the truth with our lives on the line," they repeated, confirming it for Choi Han, not for themselves.
The doors opened and they walked through. Choi Han followed after a moment of considered hesitation.
Nobody thought it was odd that they were going out, maybe a bit surprised about how sullen Choi Han seemed. Ron was nowhere to be seen, however, and that put Adara a bit on edge especially since nobody else knew where he was. But she ignored it, Ron would disappear without a trace or a word normally, but it was not like he was going away with Choi Han.
"Young Master and Mistress, where are you two going?" Hans asked them.
"Don't worry about it," Cale ordered.
Hans nodded earnestly. "Yes, sir. Ma'am," he added with a nod to her. "But since this is your first day in the Capital, can you please return without breaking any alcohol bottles tonight?"
Adara gave him a deadpan expression, almost asking why he would think his advice would help the situation.
While Cale frowned. "Are you really going to keep getting out of line like this?"
Hans smiled at them. "Not at all, please be safe, Young Master and Mistress."
Adara sighed.
When they got on the carriage, Cale seemed very deep in thought about what to do with Hans stepping out of line. Adara wanted to laugh at him, but the aura Choi Han gave off wasn't exactly inviting a laugh.
The carriage stopped and they arrived at the Temple. Adara didn't want to look out of the window to see it.
"Let's get off," Cale offered when he saw her staring at the closed curtain.
"Yes," she agreed.
Choi Han had been quiet since they announced where they were going. His eyes were not cloudy, but he was staring at the floor with a complicated expression. Adara guessed he was thinking hard, though she could not hear his thoughts. Her hearing wasn't that good.
Cale had told her about his personality. He was a good person, but not gullible. He would believe people because he was wishing only to see them in good light but that had a limit. He was not naive or dumb. He was very smart. As seen today, he made the connections almost immediately.
If we give an excuse that won't make sense in the long run, he will doubt us in the future.
Choi Han lived in solitude for decades, he was lonely, but it taught him how to survive on his own and how to stubbornly live despite the chances. Choi Han might look at them favourably for now but around the time he is fighting the Whales he is someone who wishes to be the Leader. He is someone who wants to make his personal view of justice a reality. Adara would not look so favourable upon that fact was Choi Han's view of justice not the way justice should be.
She got out of the carriage and looked at the Temple. It is not late enough, it should be shining brighter, she thought.
"It is so white," Cale muttered.
The Temple was tall and decorated in a minimalist way. It had not a speck of dirt to be seen on its pristine surface. Staring up at it, the chill of Death embracing her fully, her hate dissipated and it turned to what it really was. Longing. "The Believers of the God of Death consider white to be the colour of Death," she said, hiding her sun pendant under her shirt. Even the chill is no longer cold. "They clean everything over and over again, every single day, to make sure there isn't a bit of dust to disrupt the look of their heavenly Temple. Some of the Apprentice Priests are tasked with cleaning it, though they usually have a special group of people who clean. It's never the Priests who clean, though." They want to show that they have nothing to fear about the night with their actions since their God will protect them. It is why they open the Temple to both believers and non-believers once the sun sets.
"Apparently the Priests are all sleeping if you come during the day," Cale said, reciting something he read in Birth of a Hero.
"Not all of them," she corrected. "Only the old ones sleep during the day and the Deaf Priest because he is valued greatly by the Temple. They just tell the public they're sleeping so they don't try to enter during the day."
Cale was a bit surprised hearing she knew so much about the Temple. He knew she had a love/hate relationship with the God of Death and in association with the Temple, but he didn't know just how much she knew about it.
They walked to the Temple Entrance, but before they reached it, one of the Guards perked up from his position. Cale saw the change in his stance and was eyeing him. But he wasn't staring at Cale. He was looking at Adara. He was a bit older than them, he looked in his late twenties, maybe early thirties.
Adara caught sight of him almost immediately, a small smile escaped her. She gave him a small nod and he smiled in return.
Once they reached the Temple Entrance, the two Priests greeted them enthusiastically. "May you be blessed with a peaceful rest!" Their eyes were shaped into pretty crescents but their eyes were fixated on Adara intensely. They shared one look with each other and nodded slightly.
Cale noticed it immediately. It seems the Servants of the God of Death can tell she was healed by him, he speculated. Cage knew something was off with her though she wasn't sure. These Priests are probably more experienced.
The Priests of the God of Death were extremely bubbly, Adara knew. While non-believers considered death to be the end, the Church of the God of Death believed otherwise. They thought it was a peaceful rest. It was their philosophy to enjoy life before they reached the peaceful rest because it would be a shame to not enjoy life before joining the greater majority.
Cale slowly approached the Priests. "Priest-nim," he greeted.
The Priest inspected Cale and Choi Han with a curious expression. He had been waiting for the day Adara would visit, but he hadn't expected she would come with someone. Let alone two people. The red-haired man looked like he was an extremely wealthy Noble or a wealthy Merchant based on his outfit. Though the fact he came with Adara meant he was most likely a Noble. The person behind them looked like a beggar though the sword on his waist looked high-quality and made him look strong.
But despite that, the Priest smiled at them. "What can I do for you?"
"Is there an open Room of Death?" Cale asked.
The two Priests' expressions stiffened almost immediately. They looked between Cale and Choi Han, peeking slightly at Adara, before hesitantly asking, "Whose death will you be putting on the line?" the Priest peeked at Choi Han when he said that.
Choi Han looked like a beggar, he was a bit too skinny for his age and his clothes looked like he had been rolling on a mountain for a while. He looked like the type to be easily scammed. The beautiful red-haired man in comparison had an extremely healthy look and seemed to be grown up well. The Priest had a slightly bitter feeling about it. How could Adara get in contact with someone like this? Is she a scammer too? But his thoughts were cut off as he saw the smile coming on both the red-headed man's and Adara's faces. Oh, they have the same smile. That's probably not a good thing.
Adara and Cale raised their hands. "Ours," they said in unnerving harmony.
The Priest blinked. "Huh?"
They smiled once more. "We will be putting our lives on the line."
The Priest frowned. I do not care for the red one. But Adara? Will our Lord really put her to rest after what happened 8 years ago? I hope she says the truth. But, no, I needn't worry, she would not be doing this if she hadn't already chosen every single word to say so she would not need to see our Lord one last time.
Choi Han put one hand on Cale's shoulder and the other on Adara's. "Cale-nim, Adara-nim."
"What?" they asked.
She turned her head slightly and saw Choi Han's stiff and anxious expression inches away from hers. "I will believe you even if you don't do this," he said, his voice with the notion of begging in it.
They started smiling again, though Choi Han would describe it as more of a smirk. "I don't think you will."
They were doing this because they were not going to tell him everything. It already changed the story severely because Cale told a simple side character who didn't even appear in the first 5 books, so telling the main character would change the plot too much. They were planning on telling him the basic minimum so that he would not ask Beacrox to torture the information out of him. And they were at the Temple so he would know they were telling him the truth even if it wasn't the full truth.
I wonder where I would be at this point in the original story. Her eyes started going blank and her hand feeling cold at her side. While Choi Han is riding on whales to fight against mermaids, where am I? Am I in my office with Sadie babbling about the love lives of one of her co-workers? Or am I peacefully resting, without even a body to be recognised by?
Cale bumped his shoulder with hers, noticing her blank state. She blinked and nodded in appreciation to Cale.
Ah, the Priest thought, watching the interaction. It seems she still zones off like that. I'm glad she has someone to bring her out of it.
Adara remembered something then. Oh yeah, Choi Han rides on Whales in the future. Choi Han met the Whale Tribe at the beginning of Volume 5, and according to what she's read and what she's heard from Cale, they were quite scary.
They are the deadliest predators nowadays and the strongest of the Beast People. They are so strong, in fact, that a casual punch could easily decapitate a human. They are also the easiest on the eyes. They had different colours, but they looked extremely beautiful in every single one of them. They are stubborn and arrogant, however, they won't even be humble before a dragon. Their temper is ruthless, blowing up with the slightest provocation though they knew how to keep it in sometimes.
A whale once sank one of our boats, she thought, remembering the reports she had gotten and the paperwork she had to fill in since she had taken both Administration and Poison under her wing. It was filled with disguised mercenaries. I doubt it was a normal whale.
Adara turned to the Priest. Bede, she remembered his name was. Of course, she remembered Bede. "Priest-nim, the room?"
He nodded, making eye contact with her. "Yes, we have one. I will prepare it for you right away. Please follow me to the basement."
"Thank you," she said.
But Priest Bede smiled. "You do not need to thank us, we are merely doing our duty." But he turned around and started walking to the basement regardless.
Cale and Adara were following behind at a leisurely pace, while Choi Han followed them with an iffy expression. After a few twists and turns, long hallways and ominous doors, each one in the exact place Adara remembered, they finally reached the long corridor that beheld numerous doors on one side of the wall. Priest Bede opened one of the doors, revealing a twisting staircase that lead down to the basement.
"Death awaits you at the bottom," Priest Bede said, as was tradition.
Adara smiled at him, her grin wide and sly as was her nature. "I'm sure it does, let's go."
Priest Bede watched as the two Nobles walked down the stairs without any hesitation. He knew Adara was like that, always, poking fun at their idioms that tried to make everything as ominous as possible and complaining about the multiple stairs, but having not seen Adara in a while, he forgot what her presence was like and before he had time to get used to it again, it was doubled with someone as carefree as her.
'Death is guaranteed to visit you at some point, you cannot avoid it', she always found that one unnecessarily grim. She also found all the people asking for a Room unnecessarily grim. The fact that the Officials of the Temple of the God of Death brought the end to the lives of those who go against their vow made the people encountering such a close brush with Death humble and serious. In contrast, Adara and the red-haired man were relaxed and confident. I thought it then and I still think it. She truly is unique. And so is the red one. No wonder they're friends. He could come up with that conclusion on his own. He followed after the trio.
Once they reached the bottom, Priest Bede opened the door, looking behind him at the three who would be encountering death tonight. "Please wait a moment, I will get it ready." The door closed behind him.
Cale looked at Choi Han. "If you really don't think we need to do this, we will let you know one of the truths in advance. What do you think?
Choi Han immediately responded. "Yes, please tell me. I trust you."
"Is that so," Adara murmured, looking briefly at Cale.
They turned towards Choi Han fully. "The first of the two truths," they started, their voices even more unnerving with the cold of the basement. "We do not know the Secret Organisation's identity nor their goal."
~~~