Chapter 63: Hypocritical Ryan.
The Eternal Love Lilies didn’t require much work after that.
Ryan carefully separated several of the frozen flowers from the enormous slab of ice while Seris searched around the medical tents for anything that could hold them together. In the end, she settled for a clean strip of white cloth torn from an old bandage, tying the stems together into a simple bouquet.
It wasn’t particularly elegant.
Most of the flowers were different sizes, a few leaned awkwardly to one side, and the knot looked like it had been tied by someone with absolutely no artistic talent.
Ryan and Seris stared at it for a long moment.
"...It looks terrible!".
Damien glanced at the bouquet before shrugging.
"It looks great to me."
Seris puffed out her cheeks.
"They absolutely do not... here, let’s just use a single Eternal Love Lily".
...
Not long afterwards, the three separated.
Seris went around camp to find Jessie while Damien and Ryan quietly made their way beyond the outer perimeter.
Only a short distance away lay an open stretch of untouched snow overlooking the frozen wasteland. The wind was calmer here than usual, carrying only a faint chill across the endless white landscape. It was quiet enough that the distant sounds of the camp became little more than muffled echoes.
Damien rested both hands on the armrests of his wheelchair.
"This should do."
Ryan didn’t answer. He simply stood there holding the Lily with both hands. Every few seconds, he unconsciously adjusted the flowers, straightened his cloth, then adjusted them again.
Damien watched everything without saying a word.
A few minutes later, two figures emerged from the camp.
Seris walked in front with the same cheerful smile she always wore, while Jessie followed a few steps behind, clearly confused about why she had been brought all the way outside the camp.
The moment Ryan saw her.
His entire body stiffened. His fingers tightened around the flower so hard that Damien genuinely worried he might accidentally crush it.
Jessie eventually came to a stop a few metres away.
Ryan forced his legs to move, before he was finally able to walk up to her.
"...Ryan?" She said softly.
Ryan swallowed.
"I..."
His voice immediately caught in his throat. He took another slow breath before forcing himself to continue.
"Jessie, would you... Would you be my girlfriend?"
His fist tightened uncontrollably under the silence.
Jessie’s eyes slowly widened.
She lowered her gaze to the Eternal Love flower before looking back at Ryan.
Her lips parted slightly.
"Ryan... I’m sorry, but I never liked you that way".
Ryan felt his body go cold, his face remained frozen in a hypnotic smile.
Seris was right next to Damien, she had her mouth covered in shock. Damien on the other hand, quietly leaned back in his wheelchair.
"As expected, now let’s see what kind of man you really are".
Ryan’s head fell, Damien couldn’t see, but based on how the air trembled in his surroundings, he knew he was about to expose Ryan’s hypocritical self.
"Why, why didn’t you just tell me?". Ryan said softly.
Jessie took a heavy step back, her back covered in sweat.
"I... I wasn’t sure how you would react, you’re a powerful Awakened, a member of the round table. I was afraid of you. At first I thought you just wanted to sleep with me, but then you never initiated anything other than awkward conversations that didn’t really make much sense".
Ryan’s teeth clenched, and a fist tightened till the point that Damien could see space shuddering around them.
"Dormant ability, blackout. It’s a space related ability even more powerful than Ethan or Claire’s, the information going around camp is too simple to be the extent of his power... I genuinely hope you will give me a display".
A single tear drop fell from Ryan’s eyes.
"You think I would hurt you, why would you think that? I have never done anything to hurt anyone, I have only used my power to protect the camp... I’m not like the others". He almost screams.
Jessie fell over on her butt, her legs trembling uncontrollably.
"Ryan... please stop it".
He didn’t, Ryan’s mind was occupied by rage and conflicting emotions, the snow in the surroundings steadily shifted away, as if an unseen force was pushing them.
"Why did you always sit with me, whenever the others bullied me for not being able to speak up, why were you there with me, all those days, why did you have to pretend. It’s not fair".
Jessie didn’t want to answer, but with the space around her twisting uncontrollably, she was too afraid that Ryan was going to kill her.
"I didn’t really have much of a choice, it wasn’t like I could push you away, you can snap me in two in less than a second, and no one will question you, you’re powerful, and I’m not, do you think it’s fair to me, or any other low level awakened, the members of the round table do whatever they want, and if someone speaks up, they die, I’m weak, so I did what was expected of me, I kept quiet".
Ryan lifted his head, his face covered in tears.
"You". He spat.
Damien was beyond excited.
"Yes, her. Now show me your true self, kill her and prove to me that you are just like the rest of us".
Damien never believed in love in the first place, why would he ever want to help someone find it, he knew from the beginning that Jessie didn’t have any romantic feelings for Ryan. Just like the other low level awakened, she was simply terrified of this human nuke that kept following her around.
So Damien decided to use her as an escape goat, he wanted to see Ryan’s true self, and the only way to do that is to push him to the brink, he wanted to see how he does when he’s about to lose all semblance of cognitive reasoning, he feels betrayed, toyed with and treated for a fool, and most importantly. He feels enraged.