Veilbreaker! Oops I Bleed Again
Chapter 34: The Mastermind

Chapter 34: The Mastermind

The sun shines softly through the tent, filling the space with warm light.

A small blue bird suddenly flies in through the open flap. It lands on a beam above, pausing to look around at the people.

Inside, Draven and the others were gathered for a meeting.

Draven turned to Mother Venice.

"So... are we really in the Riftwater?"

Riftwater is the third layer of the forest.

It’s an unknown place where high-ranking monsters and beasts are staying.

Only a few safe zones can be found.

Mother Venice nodded.

"Yes."

"Is this the place you mentioned?" he asked. "Who the hell are all these new people?"

Felix spoke up.

"You were out for ten days, Draven."

Draven turned to him, waiting.

"A lot happened while you were unconscious."

"After the fight... we found one of them still alive."

Draven listened closely as Felix recounted the events.

—

Gil found a Mad Clan member, still breathing but badly injured.

Blood pooled beneath him, his body was barely able to move.

Before Gil could even speak, Hans sprinted forward.

His eyes were wild with desperation as he grabbed the wounded man by the collar and shouted in his face.

"Where did you take my family?!"

The Mad Clan member smirked.

Even in agony, he had the audacity to smile.

"Why should I tell you... Verdant?"

"TWANG!"

Gil fired his bow at his knee.

The Mad Clan member screamed in pain.

Hans flinched.

But Gil didn’t even blink.

The arrow of his bow was already aimed for another shot.

His voice was calm, unwavering.

"Answer him."

The Mad Clan member gritted his teeth, shaking from the pain.

But Gil didn’t lower his weapon.

He pulls the string, ready to fire again.

"OK! OK!" the man gasped. "They’re six miles from the west from here!"

Gil lowered his bow.

That was all they needed.

They immediately left and went to the place that he said.

When they arrived, the safe zone was small, but it was guarded.

Three Mad Clan members stood watch, keeping an eye on the captured villagers.

They quickly hid behind a small tree.

Without hesitation, Gil raised his bow.

His first shot took down one instantly, a clean hit to the head.

The other two were confused about where the arrow came from and started to run.

"TWANG! TWANG!"

Perfect shots.

Both fell before they even made it to ten steps.

Hans rushed forward, his eyes scanning the prisoners.

Then he saw them.

His wife.

His son.

Both were alive.

Hans dropped to his knees, pulling them into his arms, holding them tightly as his body shook.

They were safe, and forty others from his village.

The villagers resumed their journey, with them, through the vast forest, while Draven was still asleep.

After everything they had been through, their group had grown stronger.

The fear that once clung to them like a shadow had faded, replaced with something different.

Confidence.

The beasts they encountered during their journey were no longer as threatening.

The Beast that was Rank B and below?

To them, they are just manageable obstacles.

It’s because of Naisha.

She handled them effortlessly.

With her new abilities and Enhanced Physical Agility, she moved with precision, speed, and power.

---

After the flashback, Gil requested, "Draven, we want to ask you something."

"What is it?"

Gil’s gaze shifted toward a figure sitting quietly near the edge of the camp.

Deka.

"Can he stay with us?"

Some of the villagers are still afraid of them.

Even after almost a thousand years, and also in their lifetime, they have always been seen as nothing more than slaves by other I.D.s.

Their fear remains deeply ingrained.

This is especially true for Hans’ group, as they suffered extreme cruelty at their hands after the raid.

Draven’s eyes followed Gil’s, landing on Deka.

"What’s wrong with him?"

He leaned forward slightly.

"Is it because he’s a different I.D.?"

No one answered immediately.

"If people are saying shit like that, let them be the first to die next time."

The bluntness of his words made a few people flinch.

But no one argued.

Because they knew he was right.

"Honestly, we’d all be dead already if Deka hadn’t used his barrier."

He remembered it vividly.

The Indomitable Wall.

The beam that would have wiped them out.

Deka had been the difference between survival and total annihilation.

Draven’s gaze flicked to Hans.

"Sorry. I know I don’t understand the hardships you’ve experienced until now. But for me, the past is the past. Whatever Deka did before or the fear instilled by other I.D.s needs to be left behind. You can’t live in it. If you want to change the future of the Verdant from being slaves, you need to accept the changes happening in the present. Just like this..."

He paused as he realized how serious he was being.

"What the heck did I just say?"

He cleared his throat.

"Anyway, that’s just my opinion. We’re fighting for the freedom of the Verdants. And like I said, I’ll do everything to win this."

He looked at each person in the meeting, one by one.

They were all listening to him.

"I agree with him," Mother Naisha said.

One by one, the others began to agree with Draven.

Mother Venice looked at Hans.

"Are you going to join us?"

"I want to fight too."

As the meeting settled, Draven leaned back, silent.

He was smiling, but his mind was elsewhere.

—-

From the very start, he had felt something off with the four.

Deka, Hans, Gebo and the other one.

Something about them didn’t sit right.

A group of four people was found unconscious in the middle of a dangerous forest.

At first glance, they seemed like just another set of survivors.

But the details didn’t add up.

Their wounds?

Shallow.

Not life-threatening.

Just deep enough to make them look injured.

Unconscious?

Convenient.

Too convenient.

And the most obvious red flag?

No Etherealblooms.

Anyone who had spent time in the wild knew how important those flowers were.

They were the only thing that kept the beasts away.

Yet those four had been lying out in the open, with nothing protecting them.

Who the hell sleeps unguarded in the middle of a forest like that?

Obviously, they intended to do it so that the Verdants would pass by them.

Did they collapse in hydration?

No!

Their lips weren’t pale.

Also, as Draven observed their faces, he noticed their eyelids moving.

What caught his attention, however, was that someone was watching them from the woods.

It was as if he was trying to see if the four had successfully joined the villagers and spy on who was involved and why Gorvex was defeated.

They weren’t just lucky survivors.

They wanted to be found.

That is the reason why he immediately asked for their I.D. status.

But he failed to catch them because two of them were real Verdants.

So Draven kept watching them constantly, still in doubt.

He never went hunting with Naisha so that he could observe them.

His suspicion continued to grow.

It was Gebo.

The way he talked to the other three.

He’s always sharp, always commanding, like a master scolding his servants.

And what stood out the most?

They never argued back.

Not once.

That wasn’t how normal survivors acted.

Too controlled.

Too unnatural.

They weren’t equals.

Draven filed that thought away, waiting for the right moment.

Then came Gil’s fight with the Basilisk.

And during that fight, Draven had noticed something.

Deka.

When Gil saved him from getting hit, Deka had done something unexpected.

He had apologized.

It wasn’t out of obligation.

It wasn’t forced.

It was genuine.

Draven knew that kind of reaction.

Deka wasn’t completely bound to Gebo.

He had his own mind.

His own thoughts.

And that meant Draven could pull him away.

He just needed a push.

So, he made his move.

Intentionally, he had nudged Gil toward Deka so they could get closer and that he would side with the villagers instead of the Mad Clan.

"Go talk to him."

Gil had frowned, confused.

"What? Why?"

Draven just smirked.

"I heard that he’s crying out of guilt and even tried to bash his head against a rock because of what happened to you."

So when the moment Draven saw Deka’s ability, he knew he had hit the jackpot.

Deka’s a Barrier user.

He could be useful in protecting the villagers.

And he did protect them just as he expected.