Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer
Chapter 116: Queen Of Spiders (3)

Chapter 116: Queen Of Spiders (3)

The rest of the journey to the cave was pretty uneventful. Taheton seemed to have learned his lesson and kept to himself, but Adrian often saw him staring in his direction or gossiping with Sula.

At first, Adrian was worried that the two would be cooking up some scheme. But so far, they hadn’t done anything to raise his suspicion.

The heroes mostly kept to themselves. However, Adrian couldn’t ignore a peculiar change in Vincent’s demeanour. Since the confrontation with the girls, Vincent’s glares had become more frequent and intense, as if he was cursing him inside his head.

How did he know? That’s what Vincent used to do before when he was jealous.

’Jealous of what though?’ Adrian pondered.

The thought of Vincent being jealous came naturally to him. However, he couldn’t remember why he felt that way. After all, if anyone should have been jealous, it would have been Adrian, as Vincent was living the best of his life—apart from their little jungle safari, that is.

Still, the thought of Vincent’s jealousy made Adrian feel a mix of emotions, including confusion and a hint of satisfaction, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was something more to it.

But Vincent wasn’t the only one behaving oddly. Clara was doing the same. For a moment, the thought of them seeing him crossed his mind, but Adrian quickly shook it off.

’I looked around before undoing my transformation, but nobody was there. They couldn’t know about me... unless Amelia or Sophia spilled the beans.’

With that thought, Adrian weighed his options. He had known Amelia for a long time, and for her, honour meant more than her life. She had sworn she wouldn’t tell anyone about him, so it was unlikely she would be the one to tell the others about him.

That left Sophia. But for some reason, Adrian felt like he could trust her. He didn’t know why. She was a stranger to him, yet she felt closer to him than even Amelia. However, if it was neither of them, then who else could it be?

’Nah, I’m just overthinking things as usual,’ Adrian shook his head.

"Is everything good?" Amelia asked him.

The two were riding on Fenris since the wagon had been destroyed. Adrian had opted for Amelia as his partner because she knew about his little secret; that way, the two could talk more about what was happening.

Adrian had already informed her about the heroes being kept as slaves of the tribe and that he suspected they would soon meet the same fate.

He expected Amelia to make a scene and attack Taheton and Sula, but she remained surprisingly calm.

Then she told him she had felt something was off about the tribe after overhearing the few Nexarians there. They kept talking about slaves and how much they missed the ’festivities’.

"I decided to snoop around, which wasn’t difficult, and that’s when I found out about the slave barns," Amelia whispered into Adrian’s ears. "I planned on breaking away from the group and rushing back to the Church to ask for help. But I realised they must have been involved in this mess, and I couldn’t trust anyone."

"Who else knows about this?" Adrian asked.

"Sophia. No one else."

"Good. Let’s keep it that way," Adrian replied. "We will free the others, but first, I need you to promise me something and convey the same to Sophia."

Amelia stared at Adrian’s back before nodding, "What do you need?"

"Promise me no matter what happens from here on out, you’ll trust me and do what I say."

"Of course, I’ll help-"

"Take the oath, and I’ll do the same," Adrian said, cutting her off.

Amelia let out a sigh, feeling lost. Adrian had always been trustworthy, so the idea of doubting him felt strange. But taking an oath was no small matter.

But Adrian had never acted so distrustful towards anyone before, which made her conclude that someone close to them might have been involved in his ’death’. It seemed like the only explanation for his newfound distrust in them.

’If it’ll make him trust me, then I guess there’s no harm in it...’ Amelia sighed before placing her hand on Adrian and whispered.

"I, Amelia Silverleaf, daughter of Goddess Elenion, solemnly swear upon the sacred bond of nature and elven honour to uphold the virtues of our ancient kin to put my faith and belief in you..."

Adrian, despite not being an elf, repeated the oath verbatim. It made Amelia chuckle a bit. He had always been like this, caring about others and their life while trying his best to make them feel important.

It was one of the many who realised why Amelia fell for him, and he was sure many others felt the same. Sophia was a lucky girl, but thinking about her made Amelia snap back to reality.

The two lovers had been separated through a series of misfortunes, and it wasn’t the time for Amelia to pounce on the situation... not after what she heard from Sophia last night.

"Now that it’s taken care of, it’s time I tell you about it," Adrian mumbled. "The tribe, they are most likely to enslave you all today after the ’expedition’."

"I figured as much," Amelia replied, getting serious. "What are our odds of winning?"

"Honestly, I’d say our chances are slim, maybe 10% or less," Adrian admitted. "The tribe has done this many times before. They’ve probably got tricks up their sleeves to tip the scales even if we faced them headfirst."

Amelia nodded. She was thinking the same thing. They were already in too deep. Besides, as talented of a warrior Vincent was, he was no leader. That was the primary reason he wasn’t even considered a candidate to be the next monarch of Alfvania, even though he thought otherwise.

"So what do we do now?"

"I guess you’ll have to trust me," Adrian chuckled as they finally spotted the cave ahead.