Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer
Chapter 82: [Weekly Bonus - 2/3] Deception (2)

Chapter 82: [Weekly Bonus Chapter 2/3] Deception (2)

"Evidence?" Silka burst out laughing. "Even after everything that happened, you still want evidence? That boy is the reason why we’re in this mess!"

The crowd murmured; some agreed with her, while the others were either undecided or simply didn’t care about the drama since the Shaman had already cleared Adrian from any charges against him.

But Silka’s supporters went into action, subtly influencing opinions in her favour. Of course, they didn’t do it blatantly, and their voices were mere whispers to change their opinion. Backed by her supporters, Silka grew bolder with each passing moment.

"An outsider shows up, and instead of checking into him, our leader is so eager for attention that she turns the man into her pet!" Silka shouted, making sure everyone heard her.

"Fine, that’s fine with me," she went on. "But if he’s a pet, then it’s the master’s job to control the darn creature! Yet the Matriarch let him run wild, and that led to the deaths of many people!"

The tribals slowly nodded. Silka spoke the truth with such vigour that everyone who heard her couldn’t help but agree.

Silka continued, stating Adrian’s actions wrecked most of the settlement, exposing them to an outsider attack. If their defences were intact, they could have avoided it.

But Adrian destroyed everything, turning a fight they could have won with ease into a disaster that claimed more lives than necessary as the outsiders attacked mercilessly, not sparing even the children.

While whether or not Adrian had conspired with the outsiders remained uncertain, there was no denying that he was just as guilty as the Nexarians who attacked them.

If it hadn’t been for his rampage, the outsiders would have never dared to even lift a finger against them, let alone act so ruthlessly. Silka completed her speech by saying that Adrian had only been there for a few days and had already caused more damage to the tribe than anyone had ever done.

Adrian didn’t even have to use [Analysis] to know what was happening inside everyone’s head. They were slurping every word that came out of Silka’s mouth since most of what she said was true.

In Adrian’s eyes, people like Silka were always dangerous and troublesome to deal with. Silka was a great conversationalist and well-versed in the art of manipulation.

She knew how to rile up the crowd, and now, everyone was against Adrian. Even if he tried to speak up, the tribals would tear into him. But that didn’t mean Adrian wasn’t going to fight back and accept defeat so easily.

"Sure, I did help the Outsiders," Adrian suddenly spoke, catching everyone off guard. "Then would you mind explaining how I did it?"

"What do you mean?" Silka replied with a question of her own, and this time, Adrian knew he had caught her in her own trap.

"You seem confident that I contacted the outsiders and gave them all the information I had, but how could I do that when I haven’t been allowed freely outside till this morning?"

Silence followed his question, and with that, one word echoed in Adrian’s mind: Checkmate.

It was true that ever since being captured after the incident, Adrian had never left the prisoner’s tent where the council, on Silka’s insistence, assigned a few guards to keep an eye on him even after he was acquitted of his crimes.

Silka probably wanted to make his life a bit difficult by doing so, but instead, she had unwillingly given him a few alibis to count on.

Besides, since she was the one who had selected the guards, Silka couldn’t even question their integrity, as it would only lead to more eyebrows being raised against her.

"B-But someone had to have helped them!" Silka hastily changed the topic before things could get out of hand. "And I refuse to believe someone from our clan could do such a thing!"

Upon hearing her words, Akila and A’Mila exchanged a knowing look. They were the only ones aware of the frequent betrayals among their tribespeople. As far as they were concerned, several individuals seemed suspicious and could have pulled a stunt like this.

Still, their suspicion weighed heavily on their mother. She had betrayed them in the past and had visited the settlement just a day before.

She might have saved Adrian by pretending to help A’Mila, but there’s a chance she was there to check out the state of the tribe’s defences and then inform the outsiders about it, leading to an attack on the tribe.

A’Mila felt awful that she even had to think about her mother in such a manner. But their mother had already shown them her true colours once, and nothing was stopping her from doing it again.

"I think I might have a clue as to who it was," Adrian spoke again before retrieving a scroll from Malachi’s remains. "I don’t understand what it says, but it seems to be some kind of a map."

"Give it to me," A’Mila said, and Adrian handed her the scroll.

It didn’t take long for her to recognise the language on the scroll and the material used to make the scroll.

It was crafted from the bark of the Silios tree found in a distant part of the forest, far away from where the Banurs resided. Fortunately, A’Mila knew exactly who lived in the region.

"Tulkas..." A’Mila hissed angrily before throwing away the map.

Akila, who had been relaxing and surrounded by beautiful ladies, immediately shot up. "Tulkas?"

Adrian had no idea about Tulka or who they were, but he could sense that the tribe disliked them. When A’Mila brought up Tulka, everyone’s focus turned to her, and Adrian could tell that the tribe was furious more than ever before.

A’Mila stood up without saying anything and walked away. The council went after her, but Akila stayed behind. He told those who could help to continue fixing the settlement, and this time, they were to start from the defences.

Adrian joined the group and was about to leave when A’Mila yelled for him, "You’re coming with us."